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Query; The Young court martial and Hemphill

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Re: Query; The Young court martial and Hemphill
Post by Fox2!   » Mon May 24, 2021 10:51 pm

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saber964 wrote:
Fox2! wrote:Attritional warfare is all well and good until you find yourself the one being attrited. Like charging across No-Mans Land in the face of Maxim and Lewis machine guns, no nation can afford to build and man units whose sole purpose is to be destroyed for some incremental gain. Yes, destroyers are expendable to protect a capital ship, but (almost) no one made a habit of charging a battleship with destroyers Yes, Taffy 3, and the Polish destroyer (ORP Piorun) that charged Bismarck, while signaling "I am a Pole", but they are notable because that are exceptions.



Tatty 3 was a sacrifice to buy time for the escort carriers to escape. After the carriers launched anything with wings and loaded with what was available. They turned to head for rain squall to hide.


Which is why destroyer vs BB death rides are so memorable. A normal cruiser/destroyer torpedo attack is a high speed dash in, unleash torpedoes at some range, then a high speed dash out. Not continuing the advance until even the 20 and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns are in use. The CVEs, IIRC, were trying to protect not only themselves, but the transport force off of the invasion beaches, which would have been the real prize.
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Re: Query; The Young court martial and Hemphill
Post by phillies   » Tue May 25, 2021 12:30 am

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Readers will find of interest Roscoe (Destroyer Actions in World War 2) and his account of our Navy engaging the Japanese Battleship Hiei. One DD, iirc the Cassin, got close enough to engage the bridge with 0.50 fire, while being close enough that the BB could not lower its guns enough to engage our ship.

The next day the Hiei went to the bottom. There is some question as to why.
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Re: Query; The Young court martial and Hemphill
Post by saber964   » Fri May 28, 2021 12:49 am

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phillies wrote:Readers will find of interest Roscoe (Destroyer Actions in World War 2) and his account of our Navy engaging the Japanese Battleship Hiei. One DD, iirc the Cassin, got close enough to engage the bridge with 0.50 fire, while being close enough that the BB could not lower its guns enough to engage our ship.

The next day the Hiei went to the bottom. There is some question as to why.

Hiei had its steering gear wrecked during its duel with USS San Francisco. Hiei and San Francisco exchanged fire extremely close range (2500yds). It was close enough that San Francisco's guns could punch Hiei armor. After the battle Hiei was drifting North of Guadalcanal trying to steer with its engines and not succeeding. The battleship came under sustained air attack from Henderson Field throughout the day. The air attacks hampered salvage efforts. The Japanese gave up shortly after dark and scuttled the ship.
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