soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Louis C wrote:
> a425couple wrote:
>
>> One interesting area I have seen little general public
>> knowledge about is the use of BB main guns (15" & 18")
>> for AA fire through use of cannister/beehive rounds.
>
> Generally speaking, it was a poor idea for the reasons outlined by
> Keith Willshaw.
>
> In one of his memoirs, Free French pilot Pierre Clostermann says that
> he was onboard French battleship Richelieu in what must have been 1944-
> ish, and said ship was being used in the distant escort role for a
> Murmansk convoy. Clostermann himself was an air liaison officer or
> some such thing, as a break after his operational tour I suppose.
>
> Anyway, his account goes roughly like this. After days of having
> absolutely no duties to perform, he is summoned to the bridge. The
> officers show him an aircraft orbiting the squadron and ask him to
> identify him. After identifying it as a Ju 88 and confirming that,
> yes, he is quite sure that the plane is German, he saw the BB's main
> guns being trained toward the aircraft, then a deafening crash and
> cloud of smoke as a volley was fired. When the smoke cleared, the
> plane had gone away, either destroyed or scared away.
>
> I haven't done the beginning of a double check on this testimony,
> which may well be in the "war stories" category. Specifically, I don't
> know if Richelieu was supposed to have an AA capability for its main
> guns, I don't know if the episode described actually happened, etc.
> This is just a "for what it's worth" data point.
>
>
> LC
>
Richelieu's main 15 in guns had an elevation of 35 degrees which enabled
a range of 50,000 yards. I could find nothing stating they had any
special AA shells for them. However a 15 in shell whizzing by your
aircraft might induce you to withdraw!

Dean