Comments by "HaJo Os." (@hajoos.8360) on "The 18.1 inch Naval Gun - Origins and Development" video.

  1. Gun size is not so important as many people think. The Germans could build 80 cm guns, but they used only 15 inch for their BBs. And Bismarck's shells were 10% shorter & lighter than those of Hood. So Hood would have been sunk with an 11-inch gun, too. Much more important were those suicidal hulls of the Yamatos, with the same long straight mid-aft-section like the fast US BBs, to create space for the monstrous propulsions, a total, a complete failure. British & German engineers would never had constructed such a shit.
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  2.  @jackwardley3626  The 80 cm at Sevastopol needed a crew of more than 2.000 men. Maybe the Germans could knock out several deep digged bunkers, but the battery is very vulnerable. A ship is always more practicable for big guns than a land battery. Already the effort for German 11 inch guns on land was enormous. Coastal batteries are an exception, they work like ship-guns. Your mentioned performance about the superiority of big guns, is only on paper valid, not in the reality. There is a docu by Drach about ship's artillery on paper. When USS Washington ambushed Kirishima and hit Kirishima on point blank range several times with full 16-inch broadsides the performance was in the real result very poor. In 1941 British gunnery with rangefinders was poor. But in 1943 DoY's gunnery with more developed radar was superb. DoY hit Scharnhorst around 13 times & the decisive hit was slightly above the main belt into the propulsion room, which reduced Scharnhorst's speed significantly. It did not matter DoY made this hit with 14 -, 11- or 16 inch guns. The hit itselfes was decisive. Bigger guns need more storage for shells & charges. As Drach mentioned the Yamatos had only 900, a 100 as per gun in such a big ship. Watch Drach's docu about Seydlitz (11 inch guns) at the Jutland Clash, how much shells & charges remained after an entire battle. The Yamatos & the modern US battleships had really bad constructed hulls. They had never any chance in a real battle between battleships/battlecruisers, like Jutland or the Doggerbank. Both types, the Yamatos & the Iowas, would have been sunk immediatly.
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