Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Colin Bishop]

The Yamato and Musashi were enormous ships though and could absorb a lot of damage due to their sheer size. Plus the US Navy aerial torpedoes had a warhead only half the size of the surface ship and submarine weapons. The warhead weighed less than an 11 inch shell. So maybe not all that surprising really.

Colin

[Bowwave]

Hi Colin Just as a matter of interest  the  torpedo  attack on the two giants  used  the Mk 13 22.4inch  airborne torpedo which had a explosive charge  600lbs of torpex  with a range 6300 yds.  In comparison   Mk14 the USNs standard  submarine launched  torpedo had an explosive charge of 643 Ibs of Torpex and a  range of 9000yds .   By contrast  the IJN standard air launched torpedo of 1941  was the 17.7inch  Type 91 and used  on the Pearl Harbour raid and  in the sinking of both the  Repulse and Prince of Wales. This torpedo  was considerably  less powerful than the USN  Mk 13 air launched torpedo of the time  with a  332 lb explosive charge and a range of 2220 yds  .  Out of the   49  IJN  Type 91s   torpedo's launched   against both HMS Prince Of Wales and Repulse only eight hits where  recorded 4 on Repulse and 4 on Pof W . Repulse having  not been modified with better anti torpedo protection suffered more directly from the Type 91 torpedo than the Prince of Wales.
Dave Wooley

[Colin Bishop]

Hi Dave,

Yes, you are of course right re the US surface/submarine torpedoes. I misread the warhead weight!

With their great beam, the Japanese ships were more able to absorb torpedo damage and I would imagine that the same would have applied to a lesser extent to the Bismarck class.

Our KGVs were relatively narrow beamed to fit our dry docks and this made them more vulnerable to torpedo damage although the defences were still pretty effective. I did see a report that what finally did for the PoW was a bomb on the hangar deck which blew out the sides in the big compartment below allowing water to flood across the width of the ship which was enough to affect the remaining stability to the extent that she capsized. PoW was very unlucky in that the hit on her shafts resulted in such extensive initial flooding and loss of power to the after end of the ship which made her a sitting target.

As you say, Repulse was never intended to absorb such major damage and her Captain was wise to order abandon ship when he did which saved a lot of lives.

Colin

[ballastanksian]

The footage of Barham exploding always gets me, probably because we see so many of her crew on the hull as the magazines go off 

I cannot believe that kids are not at least a little bit impressed with large scale models of capital ships, even if they think they are all the Titanic or Bismark. If the museum curators really tried they could combine the two by havinf viewer or computer controlled spots highlighting different parts of the ship and explaining things, perhaps with video screens next to the case showing the real ship and other elements.

[Colin Bishop]

Excellent idea re the spotlights, no more complicated than the 2D interactive effects that the curators favour these days. 'This is the main armament, this is the bridge, here is the aircraft on the catapult, these are the anti aircraft guns' etc. etc.

('And this figure is the previous curator who loved interactive displays hanging from the yardarm!')

Colin

[ballastanksian]

Models of him are available in the shop.

[Peter Fitness]

I was interested to read the above comments on the perceived deterioration of the quality of exhibits in some British museums, particularly as regards ship models. I suppose it's a sign of the times, but very sad nonetheless. Interactive displays seem to be all the rage nowadays, and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra is no exception, although I have to say that the ones I have seen are very good. It's possible to stand on the actual bridge of a former RAN ship, where the windows are TV screens, and watch a naval battle. It's also possible to stand in a Lancaster bomber where the floor and cockpit windows are also TV screens, and experience a bombing raid over Germany during WW2, complete with sound and vibration, with video of an actual raid.


Ballina, a coastal resort town near us, has a wonderful maritime museum which includes 50 or more excellent warship models, most of which are the work of the late Doug Stewart. Doug was a marvellous model maker from Brisbane who had accumulated a large number of models, but was running out of storage space. He offered them to the Brisbane Maritime Museum but they declined due to the lack of available space, so his daughter, who lives in Ballina, suggested he contact the Ballina Museum. They accepted his offer with alacrity, his only condition being that each model be enclosed in a proper display case. This was agreed to, and now Ballina has an excellent collection of beautifully made models on permanent display. These, together with many other objects concerning Australian maritime history, much of it related to the local area, form an extremely interesting display, well worth a visit. It's good to see that not all museums are relegating models to storage sheds.


Peter.

[Jerry C]

I have to agree Peter. I visited the war memorial this time in Canberra and was very impressed. The RAAF museum in Townsville is very good too.
Jerry.