Deck Gun Reload Times

[Stew U-582]

I know there has been great debate over deck gun reloading times but
I have finally located unedited footage of consecutive rounds fired from
a U Boats deck gun. A 3 part series made by the BBC titled "The Battle of
The Atlantic" clearly shows , though be it only 2 rounds , continous film
footage of the deck gun in action. The time between rounds is approx 6
seconds and are the two final shots followed by the targets bow rising
and ship sinking. The whole sequence actually shows three rounds being
fired but there is an obvious edit between the first single shot and the
two consecutive rounds. For those interested the footage is located in
part two of the series about 14min 30sec. I could upload the footage
as its only a few seconds but am unsure of copyright laws. Maybe
someone could advise on this.

[Sailor Steve]

Uploading the whole video would probably violate copywrite laws. I'm not sure about a few seconds either.

Unfortunately the firing of two rounds in rapid succession neither proves nor disproves anything. It also raises the question of conditions. Is the sea calm? What is the distance to the target? The presence of a film crew indicates that the firing may have been done for publicity purposes.

The original slowing of firing rates was done by Beery for his Real U-Boat mod, arguably the very first supermod for SH3. His justification was what he described as a careful study of overall combat firing rates for submarines throughout the war. As I've pointed out several times now the guns could certainly be loaded and fired that rapidly. On this there is no question, so nothing needs to be "proven". The problem is that firing rates go down when ready-use ammo is exhausted and new rounds must be passed up from the magazine, when the loading crew tires and when the weather worsens. No version of the game takes any of this into account. If you set it fast your crew is firing a round every five seconds in the worst possible conditions. If you set it slow your crew is only firing one round a minute in dead calm seas.

I personally opt for a mid-range between very good and very bad, with my 8.8cm firing rate set for 12 seconds and the 10.5cm set to 15 seconds. Four-to-five rounds a minute is not bad, but seems like an eternity when I'm actually waiting for them to load.

[Stew U-582]

I prity much agree with what your saying but I thought it was worth
bringing attention to the footage. I actually work as an Audio Visual
production engineer and im 90% sure a few seconds doesnt breach
copyright as it isnt being used for comercial purposes. My main concern
was subsim policy. I could edit out the footage and post it if anyone
would like to see it.

[Sailor Steve]

I would love to see it. I'm very much into all kinds of history, and actual footage of anything is cool.

[Weissman]

Personally, I always hated Beery's mod to slow down the 88 as I KNEW the things could fire quite rapidly, so I am more than happy to see the faster rate available in SH5 and I PRAY that no-one slows it down again - that gun is just so useful!
Kim

[Stew U-582]

Give me a day or two to get it done and ill post a short video
extract of the footage ive been talking about.

[Sailor Steve]

I KNEW the things could fire quite rapidly,
In test conditions, yes. You seem to have missed everything that's been said about actual combat conditions, which slowed down firing rates considerably.

[Stew U-582]

here is a link to the footage.
let me know if it doesnt work

http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z263/stew582/?action=view&current=deckgun.mp4

the footage came from BBC Battle of the atlantic a 3 part docco
well worth checking out. I believe its available via torrrent and
can post a link if allowed.