On 21/06/2014 02:37, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) wrote:

> As I recall 'director control and automated firing' were a new
> 'secret weapon' that only the RN had.

The USN was developing it too.

> It was so new that I don't believe that the RN BC's that fought
> against the german ships at the Falklands had had it installed yet.

They may not have, but most did by Jutland.

> I read an article once that compared the RN firing procedures to the
> german ones in WWI & it seemed surprising to me that the germans were
> generally more accurate, altho the article did state that the
> 'old-fashioned' method they used *did* allow for a somewhat tighter
> 'pattern' of shell-fall.

The Germans used a more accurate type of rangefinder (though it was one
that was less suited to extreme ranges), and emphasised accuracy over
other less easily measured metrics. However, they also only designed to
fight in the North Sea, which made things much easier - they could
assume a relatively limited visibility range (and pray things didn't go
down on an unusually clear day), a certain frequency of swell, and so
on. The RN had to be able to fight anywhere in the world, so they had to
allow for a much wider range of ranges, weather conditions, and
temperatures.