soc.history.war.world-war-ii

SNIP:
> Well it would be if it was true. You seem to be confusing 20mm hits
> with 5.9 ones. Kormoran IIRC could bring five 5.9 in arc. As they were
> hand operated rate of fire was about two rounds a minute. Do the maths
> yourself.
> Ken Young

>>
>>Two rounds a minute is awfully slow for a 5.9 The Germans went for the 5.9 because that is the largest practicable manually loaded size. The 100# projectile and powder charge are loaded separately, as was our own Navy's 5"38. (Probably everybody in this thread have seen how fast the 5" turret guns fired against incoming Kamikazes on the WW2 film clips (3 to 4 secs between roundst))
I should think something like 4 or 5 rounds a minute is attainable by
a trained and husky crew even though the 5.9 projectile is about 50%
heavier than the USN 5" (55#)..
AFIK the German raiders had one gun forward, one aft, both in
deckhouses, and two on each beam, behind dropping 'bulwarks'.That
gives 4 guns available for broadside fire.
So, gentlemen, what tactics would you employ to check out a suspicious
vessel? I think that was the problem; the vessel was not treated as a
suspecte/potential enemy.
Walt BJ