Can somebody explain what "flash" is?

[DeepSix]

Well, actually, I know that flash is a specific type of fire, but I was wondering if somebody out there who's familiar with surface ship gunnery could break it down for me and explain to me in layman's terms how the phenomenon works?

Thanks in advance!

[lesrae]

Not quite sure what you mean mate, what's the context? The only flash fire I know of is the liquid/gas/dust type, not any sort of artillery/gunnery fire.

[DeepSix]

Sure; I should have been more clear. The context in which I'm reading about it is Jutland. I'm reading Keegan's Price of Admiralty and he assumes a certain knowledge of terminology on the part of the reader. Part of his contention is that the British ships were more susceptible to flash. For example:

...British crews, in their determination to achieve the highest possible rates of fire in gunnery competitions, had removed anti-flash devices from the magazine trunks without realising that cordite flash in the turret labyrinth was the gravest danger to which battle exposed dreadnoughts.

He also mentions that victims of the flash that occurred on H.M.S. Lion were not burned. Clearly a battleship turret/magazine complex would be extremely vulnerable to fire, and if the protective doors to the magazines are open or missing, fire can reach the magazine and obliterate the ship; what I'm curious to know is how flash is different from a "normal" fire. Is it more lethal, perhaps, because it occurrs in a sealed environment? What are the things that trigger it? How does a battleship's turret help it spread? That sort of thing.

[Oberon]

I would have thought that a flash fire is a fire that suddenly occurs within a concealed environment...like perhaps a galley fire, or fire caused by an exploding shell within the turret. I think the whole 'flash' part of it refers to the speed in which it appears and gathers strength, like flash floods.

[DeepSix]

Originally Posted by Oberon

I would have thought that a flash fire is a fire that suddenly occurs within a concealed environment...like perhaps a galley fire, or fire caused by an exploding shell within the turret. I think the whole 'flash' part of it refers to the speed in which it appears and gathers strength, like flash floods.

Thanks, Oberon, that's what I suspect; I'm hoping that somebody can either confirm or correct it and perhaps tell me some more details about it.

[Subnuts]

According to Castles of Steel, British warships during WWI had the anti-flash scuttles removed from their ammunition hoists to speed up the reloading of the big guns. Unfortunately, this meant that if an armor-piercing shell penetrated a turret, the heat flash from the exploding shell might start a fire in the powder magazine with predictable results.

[TteFAboB]

Here it is:



Of course victims aren't burned, it is completely harmless, though it could lead to temporary blindness.

The trigger is the desire for information, curiosity. A photographer will ask to take pictures of a ship's turret, and if he reaches the magazine, he might accidentaly ignite the gun powder when discarding the flash bulb (I suppose we're talking about the old-school flash, which generated dangerous sparks and heat), and the photographer's clothes will start burning on fire, then all the photographer has to do is run in panic through-out the turret and the rest of the ship and there you have it.