Doggerbank incident
Discussion
Those slack gung-ho A10 pilots have got nothing on these sharp cards......
I know it's Wikipedia, but I cant stop laughing......
"After negotiating a non-existent minefield, the Russian fleet sailed into the North Sea. The disaster of 21 October began in the evening, when the captain of the supply ship Kamchatka, which was last in the Russian line, took a passing Swedish ship for a Japanese torpedo boat and radioed that he was being attacked. Later that night, during fog, the officers on duty sighted the British trawlers, interpreted their signals incorrectly and classified them as Japanese torpedo boats in spite of them being more than 32,000 km from Japan. The Russian warships then trained their searchlights on the trawlers and opened fire. The British trawler Crane was sunk, and its captain and first mate were killed. Four other trawlers were damaged, and six other fishermen were wounded, one of whom died a few months later. As the trawlers had their nets down, they were unable to flee and, in the general chaos, Russian ships shot at each other: the cruisers Aurora and Dmitrii Donskoi were taken for Japanese warships and bombarded by seven battleships sailing in formation, damaging both ships and killing at least one Russian sailor and severely wounding another, and fatally wounding a naval chaplain. During the pandemonium, several Russian ships signalled torpedoes had hit them, and on board the battleship Borodino, rumours spread that the ship was being boarded by the Japanese, with some crews donning life vests and lying prone on the deck and others drawing cutlasses to repel a boarding. More serious losses to both sides were only avoided by the extremely low quality of Russian gunnery, with the battleship Oryol reportedly firing more than 500 shells without hitting anything. The firing lasted for twenty minutes before the British fishermen observed a blue light being signalled on one of the warships; this was the order to cease firing."
Link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_Bank_incident
Interesting discussion on Alternatehistory.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthr...
I know it's Wikipedia, but I cant stop laughing......
"After negotiating a non-existent minefield, the Russian fleet sailed into the North Sea. The disaster of 21 October began in the evening, when the captain of the supply ship Kamchatka, which was last in the Russian line, took a passing Swedish ship for a Japanese torpedo boat and radioed that he was being attacked. Later that night, during fog, the officers on duty sighted the British trawlers, interpreted their signals incorrectly and classified them as Japanese torpedo boats in spite of them being more than 32,000 km from Japan. The Russian warships then trained their searchlights on the trawlers and opened fire. The British trawler Crane was sunk, and its captain and first mate were killed. Four other trawlers were damaged, and six other fishermen were wounded, one of whom died a few months later. As the trawlers had their nets down, they were unable to flee and, in the general chaos, Russian ships shot at each other: the cruisers Aurora and Dmitrii Donskoi were taken for Japanese warships and bombarded by seven battleships sailing in formation, damaging both ships and killing at least one Russian sailor and severely wounding another, and fatally wounding a naval chaplain. During the pandemonium, several Russian ships signalled torpedoes had hit them, and on board the battleship Borodino, rumours spread that the ship was being boarded by the Japanese, with some crews donning life vests and lying prone on the deck and others drawing cutlasses to repel a boarding. More serious losses to both sides were only avoided by the extremely low quality of Russian gunnery, with the battleship Oryol reportedly firing more than 500 shells without hitting anything. The firing lasted for twenty minutes before the British fishermen observed a blue light being signalled on one of the warships; this was the order to cease firing."
Link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_Bank_incident
Interesting discussion on Alternatehistory.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthr...
It's certainly true; the Russian navy was on its way to Tsushima. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
Curious as it now seems, in those days Russia was allied with France and us with the Japanese - the latter accounting for the ensuing rout.
ETA: 'the battleship Oryol reportedly firing more than 500 shells without hitting anything. The firing lasted for twenty minutes before...'
That's one shell every 2.4 seconds - not bad!
Curious as it now seems, in those days Russia was allied with France and us with the Japanese - the latter accounting for the ensuing rout.
ETA: 'the battleship Oryol reportedly firing more than 500 shells without hitting anything. The firing lasted for twenty minutes before...'
That's one shell every 2.4 seconds - not bad!
Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 9th May 09:47
Simpo Two said:
......'the battleship Oryol reportedly firing more than 500 shells without hitting anything. The firing lasted for twenty minutes before...'
That's one shell every 2.4 seconds - not bad!......
Depends how you look at it.That's one shell every 2.4 seconds - not bad!......
With 58 guns that's only about 8 shells from each in 20 mins.
Steve
Steve_D said:
Depends how you look at it. With 58 guns that's only about 8 shells from each in 20 mins.
Wiki lists the Oryol's aramament thus:2 × 2 - 12 in (305 mm) guns
6 × 2 - 6 inches (152 mm) guns
20 × 1 - 75 mm (3 in) guns
20 × 1 - 47 mm (1.9 in) guns
To me the word 'shell' implies the 6" and 12" inch guns, ie eight in total. I suspect the '500 shells' is written trying to look impressive when 'rounds' might have been more accurate.
If you read 'The fleet that had to die' by Richard Hough you'll see a full account of the incident and why it happened. 'That Japan had built up what amounted to a suicide detachment in northern Europe was common knowledge in Russia...'
And of Barking Creek: http://www.northwealdairfieldhistory.org/content/b...
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