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Originally Posted by Cohaagen
Quote:
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Originally Posted by K-9
2nd Battle of Jutland WWI. The Germans, though vastly outnumbered and outgunned, managed to out manuver the British battle fleet, scoring some very serious hits. The Brits had not armored the decks of thier BB's and as a result suffered a couple of very serious hits. The Germans however would never sortie thier fleet again for the entire war and thier ships would later be scuttled in Scapa Flow after the war.
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The problem with British ships was not armour (I can assure you that they did have horizontal armour plate) but the shell handling of the Rosyth battlecruiser squadron who, being forward-based, disregarded safety procedures which were enforced on the main battle fleet, leading directly to the catastrophic explosions at Jutland. HMS Lion, not much better armoured than the earlier BCs, stood up to a huge pounding and was back in service relatively quickly. |
Excellent summary, to which I would just like to add a little. According to John Campbell's
Jutland: An Analysis Of The Fighting, the main reason for the disregard in safety procedure was the fact that the squadron was the one which chased down the German squadron at Dogger Bank the previous year. They noted that the Germans were firing faster, and decided that they could do the same if they pinned the anti-flash doors between turret and magazine open. There is no evidence that it helped, but
Indefatigable,
Invincible and
Queen Mary were all observed to take turret hits shortly before exploding. HMS
Lion also took a major turret hit, and is presumed to have been save solely due to the quick action of major Francis Harvey, who, despite his ultimately fatal wounds, managed to close the magazine doors and flood the turret.