Deck guns
 

what were the largest deckguns used historically, and did they ever mount 2 of them?:rock: i think it'd be possible within realistic limits on lets say a XI or XXI and it would make surface defence alot easier:hmm:


what say you?!:D

I am not a friend of adding deckguns where they did not belong too (XXI) but i would like to use deckguns against aircraft like they did in WWII.:up:
Kind regards

At the end of WW2 it was clear that deck guns weren't for submarines.. Stealth and torpedoes is what you need. Thus no guns

Well I guess deck guns were no good for what submarines had become... Generally WW2 subs can be seen as temporarily submersible weapons platforms. Deck guns were fine when the target didn't fire back, they were removed because they were becoming useless due to the increasing threat.

Besides, deck gunning is fun :yep:

The largest deck gun used by a German U-boat was the 10.5cm SK ("schiffskanone") C/32. A Type IX U-boat carried one of these until the Germans started removing their U-boat deck guns later in the war.

I'm not sure adding deck guns to the late-model U-boats is realistic, since German tactical doctrine was that guns would be used only against unarmed targets, and by the time the Type XXI showed up almost every merchant ship had a deck gun of some kind. The 1943 edition of the Handbuch für U-boot-Kommandanten ("U-boat commander's handbook") was pretty clear in that regard:

"The submarine as a gunnery vessel is in itself properly a contradiction in terms. Being incapable of offering powerful resistance, and because of its low and unstable gunnery and controlling platforms, which are directly exposed to the action of the sea, it cannot be said to be built for artillery combat. In the use of gunnery, the submarine proper is fundamentally inferior to any surface vessel of war, because every gunnery duel means that for the submarine, unlike its advesary on the surface, everything is at stake, since a hit on the body of the submarine may render it incapable of diving, and thus lead to its total loss.

"A gunnery duel between the submarine proper, i.e., the torpedo-carrying submarine as a weapon of attack, and surface vessels of war, is therefore impracticable."

Once a U-boat was caught on the surface, manning the deck gun was tantamount to suicide, since it was standard operating procedure for warships to target their automatic antiaircraft cannon (20mm, 37mm, 40mm, etc.) to blast anyone who got anywhere near the deck gun or who looked like they might be manning the U-boat's antiaircraft guns. For example, a number of crewmen from U-515 were literally blown to bits when they mistakenly ran towards the deck gun, rather than towards the stern, when abandoning ship.

Pablo

A deck gun on a XXI :o

AFAIK the largest DG installed on any sub during WWII were the two 203mm whoppers aboard the French Submarine Surcouf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_submarine_Surcouf

The Japanese I-400 only had a single 140mm DG:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400_class_submarine

Nothing like this size was ever installed on a U-boat. The largest gun produced for the German Navy in WWII were the 8×380 mm/L48.5 SK-C/34 installed on Bismarck. You could do what CCIP did with a Catalina a couple of years ago and install a BB turret on the front of your boat if you want to get involved in surface engagements. :D
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8798/2fark141yr.jpg

i think the uboat is a decent gun platform considering its speed and manouverablility... the armour is just a downside... ive taken out a flower corvette on the surface when i was out of torps. i took heavy damage yes.. but hes at the bottom of the drink... im not... also consider i took damage from earlier in the patrol, and that im grossly outclassed for a surface engagement, you can say im either lucky, or awesome at out manouvering a corvette. the key to survival is moving to the rear and around, never showing your broadside for too long. if i had 2 deckguns on my XI i could certainly fair very well in self-defence of course... :arrgh!:

food for thought i guess... anyone want to give me 2 deckguns for the hell of it.. please do. id appreciate it. as im sure number of XI kaleuns would.


if theres one thing in the atlantic i hate more than hunter classes... its that f**cking BB-armed catalina.

worse than the ME-109 with the 120mm cannon

Every once in a while for fun I do enjoy sneaking up behind a forward armed merchant and 88'ing some tonnage. Having said that I would be willing to sacrifice the deck gun 'if' that would better the sub's underwater speed. Ok, after '41. If I remember correctly the affect is not modeled into the game, sub kinda looks cool without it though.

That's because it's a game, and you can't really die.

I seem to be repeating Nicholas Monsarrat's story a lot these days: A u-boat surfaced behind his corvette; before they could get the deck gun unlimbered and ready to fire (they do have to take that tampon out and get the shells ready) the corvette's 40mm AA gun had killed everyone on the u-boat's deck.

I'd say you're awesome at playing a game.

Thanks Sailor Steve... I hadn't run across that account before.

Hmm.:hmm:

We will recheck the armament and location/angle restrictions on the Flower Class in In GWX.

(Also the max range of same.)

It is possible that these elements remain the same from stock SH3 for the Flower Corvette and are now in GWX. It may have a blind spot that needs sorting.

Another project for 2.1? Or are we looking at 2.2? :rock:

She was much bigger than a postage stamp mind ;)

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7...ouf1000km2.jpg

From the historical perspective, it’s interesting to note how different the Late War German situation in the Atlantic was from the U.S. situation in the Pacific!

The Germans were busy removing deck guns, because they accurately perceived that ANY sort of surfaced encounter was suicidal.

The U.S., on the other hand, was busy upgrading deck gun installations at the same point in time. (The dual installations of the 5”/25 rapid fire gun comes to mind.) The idea being that deck guns were a more efficient way of dealing with all the little “Sea Trucks” and Sampans.

This is apparently what happens when a navy wins a “tonnage war”, rather than “almost” winning it: …..Most of the Escorts are dead, and targets that are really worth a torpedo become scarce! (I guess having air superiority doesn’t hurt either!)

actually my crew was doing this, i think it was a glitch though