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Originally Posted by Wulfmann
As to Jutland German ships also took turret hits and even had magazine fires that certainly destroyed British ships.
The big difference was German powder was in brass cases no silk bags so there was extra time to fight the blaze or flood the magazine and save the ship.
The German learned the lessons of Doggerbank the Brits did not!
Wulfmann
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I've heard people quote this often too, but I think most imagine the charge bags lying around in a sort of heap. They were actually stored until needed inside brass-lined metal drums known in Britain as "charge bins" - they still have similar things for the 105 Light Gun - when they would be removed and placed on the ammunition hoist/elevator which would then ascend to the gunhouse. The problem was that the Rosyth battlecruisers removed the lids from the bins thereby negating their protective value. The whole catalogue of safety blunders was recorded by one Royal Marine Warrant Officer Grant. Besides, battlecruisers should never have been used in fleet engagements.
As for the Iowas, they're magnificent ships, but utterly superfluous and in fact a drain on a naval budget that could have better spent the money on the real American area of expertise - carriers. A number of the WWI-vintage US dreadnoughts were horrible coal-fired relics that were painfully slow, had poor acceleration and suffered from vibration problems. Even so, the refits made good use of them, and all performed bombardment duties admirably. Despite the constant lauding, the Iowas had totally unillustrious battle careers, unless you count America's regular post-'45 pygmy-bashing adventures
. Even then, a monitor could have done those jobs just as well...the Royal Navy kept the 15"-gunned HMS
Lord Roberts until 1965.
Apparently, you can still see wee reminders of
Warspite down at Prussia Cove. Nothing big - rivets, fittings, the odd bit of 1/2 inch plate, that sort of thing. All the good stuff (armour plate especially) went long ago. Somewhere in that part of the world there are much bigger bits of
Torrey Canyon too.