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From: silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
Message-ID: <1991Mar27.051545.23217@amd.com>
Date: 27 Mar 91 05:15:45 GMT
References: <1991Mar23.061805.5362@amd.com> <1991Mar25.064942.29515@amd.com> <1991Mar26.031710.2797@amd.com>
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From: silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman)

	[I had to trim the quote on this one too! :-( --CDR]

henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>However, the statistical sample here is very small, and it is difficult
>to decide how much of this was the result of battlecruisers being used
>improperly, notably Beatty at Jutland leading his battlecruiser force
>into a pitched battle with comparable or superior vessels

A major factor in the loss of the British BCs at Jutland was there extremely
poor protection against magazine fire.  The doors to the magazines were
left open during firing, thus an explosion in either the turret of barbette
could travel down the ammunition hoist and cause the magazine to detonate.
(I think that the German powder either was less prone to being set off
by accident, or they stored it better.)  The Germans kept the doors closed,
having learned their lesson when they nearly lost a BC at dogger bank to
a magazine explosion.  I think that they could also flood the magazines
in less time than the British.  Note that the British almost lost another
of Beatties ships, it was saved only by flooding the magazine in the nick
of time.  I'm not sure where Invincible was hit, but both of Beatties ships
were sunk due to turret/barbette hits.  Note that the Germans did suffer
severe damage as well, Vann der Tann lost all of her guns (mostly due to
non-penetrating hits), Seydlitz took on so much water that she ran
agground in her home port, and Lutzow had to be scuttled after the battle.

ami silberman - janitor of lunacy