Hood vs. Scharnhorst

Juha said:

Hello Timshatz
it always good to be sceptical and ask sources. Now I have made a typo and remembered wrongly. The source is Garzke's and Dulin's Battleships. Axis and neutral Battleships in WWII. DoY fired 52 salvos of which 31 straddled and it got at least 13 hits. And the main armament of DoY was 10 14in guns.

Juha

ADDITION: In their Battleships. Allied Battleships in WWII Garzke and Dulin give the number of hits as "at least ten"

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No worries Juha. Still pretty good shooting. 31 straddles with 13 hits sounds low. Probably more hits. I guess there weren't enough survivors to tell.

I was reading the analysis of the action btween the Kirishima and the Washington. The USN only claimed 9 hits because they were counting splashes. They figured if there was a splash, there wasn't a hit, and vice versa. It turned out in the author's investigation that the angle of the rounds was so flat that half the rounds that hit the Kirishima actually splashed first and then penetrated. So the total was closer to 20 hits.

As the DoY was firing at a greater distance, plunging fire might be less viable to this point. But it is something to keep in mind when considering hit/miss in such a situation. IMHO.

Scharnhorst was a very powerful ship designed if I remember correctly as a raider. She was given speed to try to elude the RN Capital ships and engagew with Cruisers and convoy close escorts. I do believe that orders were given to KM Captains to avoid engagements with HM Capital ships - as the KM had fewer large assets than the RN. Even though the RN were severely stretched - trying to cover all the possible routes that the KM could use to attack the convoys.
HMS Hood was an old design that had recognised flaws - mainly the poor deck armour. Her speed was good in nearly all conditions - an advantage over Scharnhorst. This would in most situations in the battle give Hood the option to close or to stand off.
I believe that the 15 inch sheels of the Hood would do significant damage to the Scharnhorst - at ant range. But the Scharnhorst I believe would need to close the range to Hood to do serious damage. Evidence for this is the survival of both 6inch and 8 inch RN cruisers after 11 inch hits. So assuming that Hoods armour was at least on par with a light cruiser, HOOD WINS!
If Hood ahd had a refit - and Scharnhorst had also had a refit it would have been a closer run engagement.
Also - it needs to be remebered that the RN had had over 200 years building up a reputation - that they were not willing to lose easily. The actions of HM destroyers and light cruisers epitomises this. Also whilst getting hammered from the air in the Med - Cunningham continued to send cruisers and destroyers to evacuate troops - despite no air cover and previous heavy losses.
This is not down playing the courage and skill of the men in the KM - they were skilled and brave - but also fighting under strict orders to save their ships !

Any engagement of HOOD versus SCHARNHORST, or even versus SCHARNHORST GNEISENAU would certainly end in both german ships trying to disengage at utmost speed rather than trying to engage the HOOD.

HOOD is a great ship. One on one, it enjois very strong advantages altough some may also imagine situations when HOOD is at disadvantage. Don´t make the mistake to judge HOOD by it´s rapid demise at DS!