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Yes, but one imagines that there must have been more to it than bunging a tail on the back and undoing the string over the target. There must have been technical issues as well as doctrinal and turf wars inside the navy and between the matelots and the bomber mafia.Isn't that essentially what the Japanese did?
It is the wrong question.What if, years before, they decided that the easiest way to deliver a 15" shell and hit a moving battleship at extreme ranges beyond gun technology was to dive bomb it from an aeroplane
Isn't that essentially what the Japanese did?
I have looked at this--the bombs would be considerably slower than shells. However, the shells won't plunge at more than a 45 degree angle, and usually much less. By contrast, the bombs hit at close enough to 90 degrees that it doesn't matter.I don't know that much about the technical issues, but I highly doubt they would pick up the speed to match the speed of plunging fire shot from the warships, and armor penetration would likely suffer as a result.
Characteristic | Type 99 (Model 1939) No 80 Mark 5 | Type 2 (Model 1942) No 80 Mark 5 Model 1 |
---|---|---|
Total Weight | 1,757 lbs. (796.8 kg) | 1,788 lbs. (811.2 kg) |
Bursting Charge | 49.4 lbs. (22.4 kg) TNA | 78.7 lbs. (35.7 kg) TNA |
Length oa | 92.6 in (235.1 cm) | 91.7 in (233.0 cm) |
Diameter | 16.1 in (40.9 cm) | 15.9 in (40.4 cm) |
Nose thickness | 19.17 in (48.7 cm) | 11.97 in (30.4 cm) |
That statement is not entirely true.It is the wrong question.
The 15in shell (AP) and the Japanese 16in shell were designed to go through the side armor at an angle of around 10-30 degrees.
The deck armor is much thinner than the side armor. On the other hand, unless you drop from around 5,000-10,000ft your bomb won't gain enough speed to punch through.
The men in this photo are significantly shorter than the 6 foot tall nominal person in the photograph. Based on Japanese heights at the time, they're likely around 5.5 feet tall, maybe a little less.And here is a photo showing (on the left) the shell it was manufactured from. In the remanufacturing process some 200+kg of material was removed to shape front & rear ends. Note the height when compared with the diagram at the top of this post. The shell on the left is minus its ballistic and AP caps. The shell on the right is the fully assembled article waiting to be fired. The shell in the middle is a 36cm shell.
Good book, very informative.Skua! The Royal Navy's Dive Bomber by Peter C. Smith provides the essential background for this discussion. Amazon product ASIN 1844154556
It's essential because there are no other deep sources available. However, it's flawed, with some serious editing errors and some leaps in logic that push through the authors assumptions instead of what's documented. There's also some material that just isn't clear, and some that's contradictory.Good book, very informative.