REAL BATTLE RESULTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1722, 12 April 1913, Page 14

REAL BATTLE RESULTS.

THE TERRIBLE 12-INCH GUN. twelve-inch guns, mounted , on • H,M.S. New Zealand are of a Inter, pattern, and consequently more destructive ' than tho Japanese ll!-inch guns which wrought such destruction at the battlo of Tsu-shima. What tho New Zealand's artillery would be capablo of doing under actual battlo conditions can only bo conjectured, since tests made in peace timo only furnish a rough approximation to war, where tho target is always moving very fast and tho sea may or may not bo exceedingly rough, as it was when tho battle of Tsu-shima opened. Exactly what happened to tho various Russian battleships which wero jsiirik by " gun firo is not definitely known, except in tho case of the battleship .Ostiabia. . The belt on this 6hip was nine inches >, thick' amidships, but she possessed tho somewhat undcsirablo feature of a centreline bulkhead between her boiler rooms. Early in the battlo tho ship received ' two serious wounds in tho region of tho . water-line and forward towards the bows,' apparently from largo armour-piercing projectiles. Tho first projoctilo entered, the orlop deck near tho bow, and caused the flooding of several compartments. On the orlop deck the .water reached the third bulkhead from the bow, and, ill tho hold, it reached to the 6-inch ammunition room and the dynamo room. It is possible that this extensivo flooding was due to' imperfect attention to tho water-tight • doors. The brings to mind that' of H.M.S. Victoria, for, as in that ship, tho water in tho Ostiabia reached tho. compartments under tho turret. Another projectile entered on the port ; side into tho tenth coal bunker. Hereby a boiler, room was flooded out, and, in such case, tho centre-line bulkhead would contribute much to tho heeling effect .