Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1916-07-30

Dogger Bank, for instance. the I.ioh
was put out OF action by a shot that
disa blCd her engines. Thick armor
would have excluded this shot. and
though the ship was not lost, she WITS
useless for the purposes Of tine battle %
we have Just ordered eight 10.
inch guns for our two newest battle
ships" | said. They viii be larger
than any you are using. so far as the
public knows. DO you think tnc
change We made from twelve 14-inch
guns to eight l6's was wise ?"
Il think the change a mistake" salo
Mr.. Iollcn. The principle on which
yCu prefer a big gun to "A small one
IS that .he bigger the gan, the easier
ii is to nit with it as the range in
creases That is the advantage Of the
his gun, The disadvautac is that the
larger the gun the fewer guns yoL
can carry And the number os guns
in a broa iside is in itself a factor in
hitting because hitting depends upon
the corrections you can make by OBJ
serving where your shots pitch IN the
water. The more shots you fire in a
salvo, the more splashos you mako
and the easier il is 10 identify and
correct the range
Can Make Guns Too Large.
"SiXteen-inch guns, with the tur-
rets, ammunition and mountngs.
would, roughly speaking, weigh trom
II quarter to a fifth more than lJ-ilch
guns. In other words, for the same
displacement and cXpen litGre You
could take 10 l5-inch guns into ac-
ton where you could only take eight
l6-inch, and your Pennsylv9nIl, on
the same principle, will carry . four
teens where our ships carry 10 M
ICONS I will N TplAkl-
cal when / say that we are right III
putting 10 l5-inCh guns on QUE ships
instead of II fourtcens, but that you
are wrong in carrying out the same
principle by using eight SlNt'cns. l
am quite satisfied that the advance
from II to 15-inch calber is worth
the sacrifice of two guns, because not
only is the l5-inch shell more power
full, but the difference in hitting capa-
city at high ranges up to / 1000 yards
is considerable and material. Vhcu-
retically the 16-inch gun will give
better results at high ranges and
lengthen the range, but in practice
think it will be found that 1000
yards is about the extreme possible
range, because 1t is impossible To see
much further than that. Some shoot
ing took place at 10, 900 yards at "ut-
land, but | doubt whether any NIT:
were registered. Jutand was Il good
test of ranges, for visibility was very
good for some part of the time,
though not. unfortunately, when the
critical period arrived. Since, then,
the l6-inch gun will not make it. pos
sible to shoot farther, the increased
destructive power of the shell must
be weighed in the balance against the
loss of the two guns that the snip
could carry if she mounted fifteens.
Did the gunnery at Jutland come
up to expectations?" / asked.
Poor Shooting at Jutland.
"At the battle of Jutland,' Mr..
Pollen said, "gunnery realized one
two hundred and -fiftieth part of its
possibilities. / mean by this that had
naval gunnery been able to overcome
the difficulties set up by the prob
lem of finding the range and keeping
II. and seeing in bad light, each gun
could have made 249 more hits than
it actually did. | do not mean that
the guns realized one two-hundred-
and -fiftieth Of the standard of battle
practice, because that standard is
little better than one-fiftieth of what
guns ought to do. The standard
am taking is that of stationary guns
shooting at a stationary mark at a
fixed range The only difference be-
tween that and any other condition is
the introduction of movement, which
gives uncertainty Of range. If you
add to that the uncertainty of vision
which you get in mist and bad light
you have the master difficulties of
gunnery.
THE best example of good shoot
ing in naval annals is the destruction
Of the Koenigsberg by the British
monitor Severn last summer, and 1t
is that incident / have chosen for my
standard The shooting at Jutland
was one two hundred ed-and-fiftieth as
good. The Koenigsberg was moored
in one of the upper reaches of the
Rufigi river in German East Africa,
and the Severn with her sister mon
itor, the Mersey, forced her way up
one Of the lower reaches. The ships
could not see each other because be-
tween them were six miles of solid
a unique naval battle.
But the Severn had a rough idea OF
the range, and an aeroplane flew
over the Koenigsberg and corrected
the fire OF the monitor until the cor
rect range was found. The gun
LAYERS in the monitor aimed at some
fixed object like the end OF branch
Of tree, and the sights were low
cred or elevated anu more OF less ue-
Election put on according as the aero
plane saw the shots pitching. Using
these means, they found the range
in five or six minutes And once
they had found it, each Of the
Severn's six-inch guns made hit
once every seventy-two seconds.
One Hit in as Minutes.
AT the Falkland Islands, where
the mean range was very slightly
greater, the twelve inch guns OF Ad-
miral Sturdee's squadron only sue
ceeded in hitting once every seventy
five minutes. Had the thirty-two fif-
guns, the twenty-four thir-
teen and "a -half-inch guns, and the
twenty four twelve-inch guns in the
ships of Sir David Beatty's squadron
that were not sunk in the battle OF
Jutland shot as well as Sir Doveton
5turdee's ships did at the Falklands,
they would have made hits enough to
have sunk ten or twelve German
ships 1t would seem then as If in
the battle OF Jutland naval gunnery
had been of quarter the efficiency
that it reached at the Falkland Is
ands. At the Falklands, it reached
Of the efficiency at the
Rufigi, and so I reach the calcula-
hon that startled you. that at Jut-
and the guns made one hit and 249
misses when under ideal conditions
hey would have registered ESQ hits
Co.uo Gnuv..- Cu,,a..;,.r;tr