Cpt_Frank wrote:Basically it’s the four never built Montana class battleships in there full 1945 radar fit appears in front of the British Grand fleet sailing on its way to fight Jutland. They fight.
Now it quickly got pointed out that all things being equal, the Montana don’t have enough ammunition for the job. So it got changed to four Montana's with unlimited ammunition and barrel life and crews who don’t need sleep vs. the Grand Fleet.
Pretty stupid. Though it's a fact british battleships at that time blew up when one of their magazines was hit and the unstable cordite ignited the shells.
Battlecruisers actually, and in all cases it was really chance hits, other battlecruisers and the QE fast battleships took twice the damage of any ship that blew up and did not suffer any magazine explosions.
Any battleship of the time, and any other time, would almost certainly explode from a direct magazine hit. The problem with British ships was poor flash protection, that allowed hits on the turrets and barbettes to reach the magazines, with proper flash doors the unstable cordite would be a non-factor.
German ships mind you, also had poor flash protection before the Dogger bank, and even there better charges were still quite venerable to explosions, witness Pommeran, what saved them was better flooding arrangements.
Shells are not really a factor in magazine explosions, by the time the blast gets enough power to set them off, the ships sides are already being blown out and the turret above is going into LEO. The charges have far more explosive force.
As for the scenario, people soon realized that since the Montana can outrun 75% of the destroyers and near every cruiser in the battle, with unlimited ammo they don’t stand much of a chance. As a result the most recent thread had the Montana's appearing only 8000 yards for the Grand fleet Van. Anyway the flame wars tend to be over other topics that aren't really directly related, or if some one claims the HSF would do better.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956