My 1st Tease

PepsiCan

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I know we're not there yet, however I would like to ask my question before I forget.

The RN had a mixture of oil burning and coal burning BBs when the war started. Will there be a difference in the amount of smoke coming from the stacks for these two types?
 

Bullethead

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The RN had a mixture of oil burning and coal burning BBs when the war started. Will there be a difference in the amount of smoke coming from the stacks for these two types?
Take a good look at the screenshot Jim just put up :). But to keep this thread on topic, keep discussion of the graphics stuff over there, please.
 

HMSWarspite

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I gotta disagree with that. German propellant could be set alight and would make a big fire, but it did not do so nearly as rapidly or with such explosive release of gas pressure as Brit propellant. This gas pressure is what tore the Brit ships apart, where a German ship with the same amount of propellant burning would just have a fire, due to an absence of such high pressure.

When Seydlitz had her big fire at Dogger Bank, propellant in the actual magazines was on fire. Nobody was afraid of that blowing up the ship, but were somewhat worried that the heat might eventually cook off shells stowed above. However, the Germans were able to put the fire out before this happened. And some of this was in the actual magazine, mind you. The fire caused no structural damage beyond ruining the temper of the heated metal.

This Seydlitz fire involved like 10 times the amount of propellant that Lion had eventually erupt in the ruins of Q turret. But that small amount of powder blew the roof off the turret above and stove in the magazine bulkheads below, no doubt ruining their flash integrity. Very likely, flash would have gotten into the magazine and blown Beatty to bits had the magazines not already been fully flooded by then.

This difference in propellant volatility continued into WW2, despite both sides reformulating their propellant by then. Hood blew up just like the Jutland BCs. Barham blew up while rolling over, which also seems to have happened to Queen Mary at Jutland. OTOH, Gneisenau took a bomb in the forward magazine and all that did was make a big fire.

Thus, even though the Brits had superior flash protection, they also had much greater need of it. And it looks like if flash found any gap in the defenses, the ship was still going to blow up, even in WW2. That doesn't seem to have been a German problem in either war.

Sorry, I didn't explain fully. I meant magazine explosions due to turret hits. If RN flash protection had got to the point where trunks were flash tight, none should occur (all the later ones cited were not turret hits). German bruning cordite was lucky not to set of a magazine on a couple of occasions. It matters not a jot that Ge cordite burns slowly if you ignite a magazine full. They just never did...(quite)
 

FuurinKazan

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I've got a question related to this:
Any news about various shell types being 'retrofitted' into DGRJW? Are shimose rounds on the horizon?
 

Invincible

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Post #24 and #27, Bullethead. Good details on magazine fires/explosions and what caused them. Comparisons of British and German ships. #27 has a summary I haven't seen before on witnessed hits that resulted in ship loss for the RN. It distinguishes between ship loss by magazine explosions for turret hits and non-turret hits.
 
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