Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "The Drydock - Episode 055" video.

  1. A proviso for the Littorio being able to hit a target at extreme ranges is that this was only true for fair weather daylight engagements. The Italians had developed a very effective radar called the Gufo as early as 1937. It was actually ready for introduction by 1940, but budget cuts and a general lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Italian high command for radar stalled introduction until 1942, after heavy Italian losses . By the time the Gufo was introduced to enough Italian warships to be useful, the armistice intervened. It's probable that more ships equipped with the Gufo would have stiffened the Regia Marina's resolve to engage in night battles rather than retiring before dark.
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  2. The Atlanta class only made sense until the Cleveland class started to be turned out like pancakes at a church breakfast. The Clevelands carried as many 5"/38 guns as an Atlanta (once they lost their wing turrets), carried twelve 6" guns that were much more effective as a surface weapon, and was able to carry a better light AA battery and a full range of directors before the the Clevelands also ran up against the same stability issues as the Atlantas. The designers of the Atlanta class were operating in an environment a full two years before the Clevelands, and that two year period from peacetime to total war, was somewhat like the progress made in maybe ten years of normal peacetime designs. No one in mid-1941 could foresee that the USN would be turning out light cruisers at a rate that was equal to destroyers in many navies. It's a mistake to evaluate the Atlanta class in isolation in the 1943 and on period. They were a reasonable design in 1940.
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