Pick the ship

[Axe99]

Italian Littorio class Battleship ? (almost said Yamato, but that would probably be too easy)

The Vittorio Veneto it is indeed . I quite like the look of the class, but it's just a tad distinctive to provide a 'full ship' shot, so had to go looking for something a bit more obscure. Nice work .

My source says 46,220 yards for Littorio but there are possibilities of conversion errors. The turret shape and life rafts on top of the turrets does look like Littorio.

Aye, sorry, I'm taking my data from Conways, which had the maximum range of 46,800 for an 885kg AP shell, fired at 2800fs at an angle of 35 degrees. Source could be wrong (there are a few errors in Conways, although they get a lot of stuff right, and comfortably right enough for what I'm looking for), or some other confusion - is there a standard for calculating maximum ranges, like always using the heaviest shell fired or something like that, or could it potentially vary?

Here's what I expect will be a fairly easy one, although it had some close cousins (that's the clue ) so there's some possibility for confusion .

 

[Wyrm]

I was very close to saying Cleveland, but THAT is the USS Wichita

Very similar, but the single-barrel secondary battery gives it away

 

[Director]

USS Wichita, circa May 1, 1940.

Wichita showed the flexibility of American warship design - they took a Brooklyn class light cruiser design and modified it into a heavy cruiser. Note the single 5" guns - a dead giveaway that this is a prewar design. On commissioning they could only put 2 of the 5" mounts on... once the treaty tonnage limits expired they put on the rest. A valuable predecessor to the wartime Baltimore class.

Interesting note and something I'd never heard of: Wichita was present at the 'Battle of the Pips' off Kiska. Apparently two battleships plus cruisers and escorts expended a thousand rounds of ammo fighting off... birds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Pips

I took my information on Littorio from Wikipedia ('cause I was lazy) and who knows which figure is right. Given the notoriously high dispersion pattern from the Italian 15" gun, shells could have been over or under by quite a lot. And the weight (and type) of shell matters, as do atmospheric conditions and so forth. Either will do as a ballpark figure.

 

[Wyrm]

Interesting note and something I'd never hear of: Wichita was present at the 'Battle of the Pips' off Kiska. Apparently two battleships plus cruisers and escorts expended a thousand rounds of ammo fighting off... birds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Pips

Cause no REAL man goes duck-hunting with a mere shotgun

 

[Axe99]

I was very close to saying Cleveland, but THAT is the USS Wichita

Very similar, but the single-barrel secondary battery gives it away

I was hoping you'd be around to get this one .

USS Wichita, circa May 1, 1940.

Wichita showed the flexibility of American warship design - they took a Brooklyn class light cruiser design and modified it into a heavy cruiser. Note the single 5" guns - a dead giveaway that this is a prewar design. On commissioning they could only put 2 of the 5" mounts on... once the treaty tonnage limits expired they put on the rest. A valuable predecessor to the wartime Baltimore class.

Interesting note and something I'd never hear of: Wichita was present at the 'Battle of the Pips' off Kiska. Apparently two battleships plus cruisers and escorts expended a thousand rounds of ammo fighting off... birds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Pips

I took my information on Littorio from Wikipedia ('cause I was lazy) and who knows which figure is right. Given the notoriously high dispersion pattern from the Italian 15" gun, shells could have been over or under by quite a lot. And the weight (and type) of shell matters, as do atmospheric conditions and so forth. Either will do as a ballpark figure.

Haha - OK, from here on in I expect an estimated date for every shot . Very impressive stuff .

That Battle of the Pips is a hilarious story. You can't really blame them - I'd feel far worse if it was me in charge, I hadn't ordered given the order to fire and a bunch of Japanese aircraft hammered me (although in that weather I'd have to wonder how they'd found us....). I bet those seabirds got something of a shock!

Something a bit more difficult for overnight, the clue is that the design for this submarine was drawn up in the Netherlands....

 

[wisekill1]

I was hoping you'd be around to get this one .



Haha - OK, from here on in I expect an estimated date for every shot . Very impressive stuff .

That Battle of the Pips is a hilarious story. You can't really blame them - I'd feel far worse if it was me in charge, I hadn't ordered given the order to fire and a bunch of Japanese aircraft hammered me (although in that weather I'd have to wonder how they'd found us....). I bet those seabirds got something of a shock!

Something a bit more difficult for overnight, the clue is that the design for this submarine was drawn up in the Netherlands....

View attachment 152074

Wow, that's a though one, I think its a soviet submarine. And the Dutch Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw apparently designed three of those. So my guess is that it is either the Voroshilovetz, Molotovetz or Kalininetz. I can't see to find more information to narrow my answer down.

 

[jcpvdberg]

Sovjet Sub C-9 Akula (Shark) 1943

Some claim this is the first Russian Submarine

Edit: I like this thread. Finally some of my picturebooks of ships pay of!

 

[Swinds]

USS Wichita, circa May 1, 1940.

Wichita showed the flexibility of American warship design - they took a Brooklyn class light cruiser design and modified it into a heavy cruiser. Note the single 5" guns - a dead giveaway that this is a prewar design. On commissioning they could only put 2 of the 5" mounts on... once the treaty tonnage limits expired they put on the rest. A valuable predecessor to the wartime Baltimore class.

Interesting note and something I'd never hear of: Wichita was present at the 'Battle of the Pips' off Kiska. Apparently two battleships plus cruisers and escorts expended a thousand rounds of ammo fighting off... birds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Pips

I took my information on Littorio from Wikipedia ('cause I was lazy) and who knows which figure is right. Given the notoriously high dispersion pattern from the Italian 15" gun, shells could have been over or under by quite a lot. And the weight (and type) of shell matters, as do atmospheric conditions and so forth. Either will do as a ballpark figure.

Thanks for that, made me lol in the office

 

[Director]

Oh, Axe - they weren't shooting at aircraft. No, no, no. They thought the birds swooping down to the water were actually the Combined Fleet come to retake the Aleutians.

Must have been some very startled birds. LOL. Radar had just proven its worth enough for them to trust it and yet they had not enough experience with it to know when to mistrust it...

I thought it might be Wichita from the 5" mounts and when I went to Wiki I found that exact photo, captioned something like, "USS Wichita from May 1, 1940". So not any cleverness on my part.

I've no idea about the submarine. I'm a surface-ship guy; all subs look alike to me. (Can I say that? Is that navalist?)

 

[Antediluvian Monster]

Aye, sorry, I'm taking my data from Conways, which had the maximum range of 46,800 for an 885kg AP shell, fired at 2800fs at an angle of 35 degrees. Source could be wrong (there are a few errors in Conways, although they get a lot of stuff right, and comfortably right enough for what I'm looking for), or some other confusion - is there a standard for calculating maximum ranges, like always using the heaviest shell fired or something like that, or could it potentially vary?

As per Bagnasco's recent Littorio bible: 42,800m for the 885kg 850mps AP shell (known as "ball" in Italian) and 44,640m for the 824kg 870mps SAP/Common shell (known as "perforating shell" in Italian). Note that the Italian battleships do not seem to have been given "true" HE shells, even the SAP can penetrate 7-8in of cemented armour and has delay fuze.

It's also noted that Italian gunnery directive allowed for opening fire at 30km in good weather, so the ranges are obviously theoretical.

 

[Wyrm]

German Type I U-boat i would assume?
Drawn by the same Dutch dummy-company that drew up most of Germany's pre-war boats.

 

[cacra]

I have always wondered, why do some submarines have a piece of artillery stuck on them? I imagine the moment a submarine gets into a firefight with a surface vessel it would be game over.

 

[GsusNSV]

I have always wondered, why do some submarines have a piece of artillery stuck on them? I imagine the moment a submarine gets into a firefight with a surface vessel it would be game over.

I think more merchant vessel were destroyed by the submarines artillerie, then torpedos. Torps were limited and to powerful for a mere cargo vessel, without protection from a DD or Frigate.

 

[Wyrm]

I have always wondered, why do some submarines have a piece of artillery stuck on them? I imagine the moment a submarine gets into a firefight with a surface vessel it would be game over.

Against an unarmed merchant a small artillery piece goes a long way. Shells are cheap, torpedos are expensive as hell (and very limited) Early in the war they followed prize rules where they were not allowed to just sink a merchant without warning and had to let crew evacuate and such.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prize_rules

Also as a fall-back last resort piece of armament for self defence. It takes a lot longer to aim and launch a torpedo than to swing around an fire a small cannon. And a cannon is far more accurate against a moving target at close range.

They did remove them later in the war when it was suicidal to surface at all in order to make the subs harder to detect.

 

[Guaro90]

if a remember correctly the type IX/C had a 105 mm cannon, not exactly a small piece of artillery

 

[Wyrm]

if a remember correctly the type IX/C had a 105 mm cannon, not exactly a small piece of artillery

The Type I also had the 105mm
But in naval terms that is tiny

 

[Guaro90]

i know is a corvette/DD like cannon, the "small" is referred to hunt down cargo ships, i think is almost overkill (joking they need a twin 12.8 cm so they can sunk escorts along with the merchant ships)

 

[Bryartuck]

The Balao and Tench classes had 5" (127mm) guns.

Edit: Most of the previous (US) classes had 3" (76mm) deck guns, but once the war started it was determined that they did not pack enough punch.

 

[Guaro90]

D:

 

[Big Nev]

You guys are just too good.

Who's this?

The clue is in the background. Where this picture was taken.