From: Don Palmrose <dpe@inel.gov>
Subject: Re: Jutland
Organization: INEL EG&G Idaho
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 14:40:32 GMT


From Don Palmrose <dpe@inel.gov>

In article <BxtKIu.221@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us writes:
> 
> 
> From mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us
> 
> In article <BxM62I.580@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, phs172m@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au (Stephen Harker) writes:
> > From phs172m@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au (Stephen Harker)
> 
> > s...  The British ships all had, and used, director firing, the
> > Germans did use a better gunnery technique of ladder firing which found the
> > range very quickly.  ...
> 
> Or these techniques?
> -- 
>  (This man's opinions are his own.)
>  From mole-end				Mark Terribile
> 
>  mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us, Somewhere in Matawan, NJ
> 
>

Ladder firing, if my memory is correct, is when the three (or two) gun
barrels are elevated at different degrees.  A gun fire control director will 
give the initial range and elevation orders, but several of the guns have
their firing angles increased and decreased.  The guns are fired and the shot
locations are spotted.  With three or four main gun mounts with 2 or
3 barrels each, one could set up six to twelve differnt angle shots at once.
Hopefully, each additional salvo will reduce the overall angle differences.  

Note this implies that the enemy ship had been bracked i.e. a shot short, a 
near miss or hit, and another on the far side of the ship.  Then the 
difference between each barrel would be slightly off the angle that "found 
the target".  This way if the enemy ship is moving to get out of being hit, 
one of the off-angled barrels will begin to score hits, the firing ship would
notice and make the necessary adjustments.  It would also show any 
inaccuracies in the firing ship's range and elevation calculations.

Using a director firing method means computing an angle and distance to fire,
shoot the guns, see where they land, and then correct from those shots to
bring the next rounds on target.  But here one is trying to be very precise by
noticing how far off the solution is and using that as a correction value for
the follow-on salvoes.  One also uses the range finder in order to determine
how far to adjust the next shots.  

Thus there is a tendency to take a longer time to ensure the distance spotted 
are correct and to "feed" this info into your fire control solution.  While 
the ladder method relies only on calculating the current range and elevation 
letting the spread of the salvo to make up for any calculational errors.

Don Palmrose
"I'd rather not serve on a ship designed to sink...."





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