HOW "DREADNOUGHTS" WILL FIGHT IN BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 104, 29 May 1909, Page 3

HOW "DREADNOUGHTS" WILL FIGHT IN BATTLE.

Huiv our great Dreadnoughts should go into battle is all set down in black and white—in a little typewritten ollicial devilment that is kept under look and key on board every ship. .Much of it. naturally, is strictly confidential, and ■with that, of course, we have nothing tn do here. All of it. hcjwcvcr, is not necessarily so-and thai is our prese.it storv.

In the Royal Navy every cap' lin, on commissioning his ship, is furnished : with tile above document, ci>- taining gunnery memoranda, laying i.nvn iu general" tonus the- ranges at w..oh file j should be opened in action in .'aivii'g 1 circumstances. The battle will ■•■; begun ■ j at the farthest range at which it is possible to see tli e effects of the shot oy | the heavy annor-picrcing, long-range guns mounted in the turrets—th e 12iu ! 50-ton guns, of which immense weapons, 50ft in length, each, of our Dreadnoughts carries ten. The parts of the enemy's ship at which each gun should aim, as the. opposing ships get by degrees closer and the enemy becomes more and move clearly visible, are in turn indicated. The market, or "targets'," to be aimed at are named, and it is suggested how they should be changed in each ease as the range becomes closer. WHEN TO FIRE THE BIG GUNS. This is how, for instance, the Dreadnought and Bellerophon, our two newest "capita! ships" of the reorganised "Home Fleet," would begin in battle. First of all the big 12in guns would open a long-range fire, with the aid of tlie range-finders in the tops, at the outset taking the hull of the enemy's ship generally as their target. The opening shots would go off when the enemy were from live to six miles off—from 8000 yds to 10,000 yds. To get an idea of wiiat that means, imagine at anchor one of our Dreadnoughts near the Tower, or below London Bridge, letting fly shells, each weighing rather less than half s ton, at an enemy as far off as Earl's Court or Shepherd's Bush, or in the Thames above Putney Bridge. The shells would come hurtling down, at a stwp angle of descent, on to the deck of the ship aimed at. smashing through and carrying widespread havoc into the interior of the hull, with their bursting charges of shattering lyddite. AIMING OF SEAMEN GUX3TERS. The guns can carry three times that range easily, and the range-finder would place the. shots. As to the capabilities of our seamen gunners' in the matter of aiming, two years ago the men of .the battleship Commonwealth, one of the Channel Fleet s hip 3 recently under Lord Charles Ilcresford, at target-practice at 8000 yds (nearly five, miles), dropped shell after shell exactly on to the target, and the shots all fell within a space the size of a lawn-tennis court. In that case the canvas target was set up to represent the hull of an ordinary battleship, a rectangle of some 400 ft "long, an average ship's length, by about 30ft, the height of an ordinary ship out of the water. There is not much to be seen of a ship, it may be imagined, at that range. Even at a distance as near as only 2000yds-a mile and a-quarter-a shin of the size of one of our first-class battleships would look no bisger than a wax match does, held un horizontally, about a foot off iu front of the eye. * As the combatants got nearer, the 12in guns should aim next, it is suggested, nt certain of the more prominent and readily-distinguished features of the hostile ships, fcueh as the turrets or barbettes and the eonning-tower. Getting nearer still, they should transfer their aim and "get on" certain other parts, such as' the bases of the funnels and or the masts. Getting closer still, Hie turret guns should concentrate their fire on the armored water-line of the enemy. ■U RUOOvds one set of objects is aimed at. at GOOOyds another, at 4000 yds another, and so on, until the enemy's ship conies within 3000 yds, the limit when toriiedoes come into action and other conditions' have to be allowed for. In (he .final stages, when between 4000 yds and 2000 yds, the firing shuld he'at whatever parts of an enemy's ship seem best nl the moment. Tt may be noted that inside the conning-towor on board every battleship, by means of a simple arrangement of stripes in red, blue, and yellow painted round the upper part of thc_ wall to show' the various ares of training of all the guns, a captain can tell by a glance at any time which and how many of them will bear on the enemy at any given point. GUNS OX THE BATTLESHIPS. This is what a Dreadnought gun is like and what it can do. The ten heavy guns mounted on board the Dreadnought and Bellerophon and their class 'two of- which, the Temeraire arid Superb, are to join the Home Fleet this summer), are each 12in calibre turret guns, weighing 50 tons each, mounted in pairs in two barbettes or turrts. heavily armored with plates of 12in Krupp steel. Each gun costs to make -t 10.000. It fires shells weighing 8501b. , or |!,i,cwt, and tlie "e*rtridge" ortrin" charge of "modified" or "liD." cordite", as it is called, weighs bv its'elt 2ewt—the exact weight of a sack of coals as delivered at one's house from the street coai-t-arts. Two aimed shots a minute are possible from each gun ill battle, costing the taxpayer £BO a shot, including cartridge and projectile. Each Dreadnought, further, carries in her magazines eighty rounds per gun. The "muzzle velocity" of the gun—the speed, that is. at which the shot travels as it flashes forth on its errand of de-struction-is 2520 ft, or nearly half a mile in a second. The force with which the „hnt starts off is enough to send it clean through „ s l a b of wro „gl lt j ron set up immediately in front, or the muzzle of the gun. 3ft 3in thick. When fired with a full "battering" charge the force set up—the "mural,.' energy" of the gun as it is called; one gun Ov itself. that is—is- sufficient, to heave bodily up Ift „ W eighi oi 37.000 tons equivalent to that of both the Dp.idnought „n,l tlie Bellerophon toother At two miles off—the distance, as the (■ran- 'lies, from the Houses of Parliament to the.Tower-n shot from one or the Dreadnought's 12in guns would e 0 , through I2in of Krupp steel, or 2i/,ft of wrought iron, as easily as a stone'from a catapult, goes through a glass window. TIRING FROM RICHMOND HILL TO WINDSOR CASTLE. To giv e some idea of the range of thaw guns, mounted on one of the Dover torts, they could easily drop : shells on the deck of a Channel packet , in th,. act of leaving Calais harbor. Im- l agine one of them mounted iu front of : the Royal Exchange to lire with full i marges in any direction. Its shells i would burst over Slough i„ one direc- I ;;»'>»■" oyer Gravesend in the other. "crUord St. Albans. Chertscy, Seven- I oaks would all 1* «-itliin range. Firm" a Horn Richmond Hill. Windsor Ca«tle I would be in danger. |

They are "wire guns" as (he term iw.-, constructed ,;, vadi ca-,e bv windin? cull on coil of st«d ribbon or "tunc- '/.'» «'Jo and Oi.i thick) round and romd the central sU , ( ,, lubc or , b r.d» exactly as t |,e string i s W omid round on tin, handle of « "cricket tat There arc fourteen layers „t the innzzie and seventy-five at the breech end. The !&°f >"" is , tllc " ™ l ™<l kv outer jaiKets, or cylinders of r*-icl TV vvards_ nf 208,130 yd. of wire-a 'lengl'i, « 11. souk. 13% to,w. nu K ht s 12m g Uns; and it take* from U 1,-c to four weeks to wind on the wir . The nfling of the barrel comprise, forty-eight grooves, varying in lep*h \Zk "V, 1 th ,' mn^e *«>•»»■* «* en t W ' ° tk '. n ™'dnougl,tgun3. ran fi ' •, e ": l ' l °- VS in Us ""nufactarc. urn ,r,; J O ,""V "' v<lrious opacities, upwards of live hundred men lenb.gpn. and 21 knots'speed a« the cbaactenstics of the Dreadnought 18 knots was the standard tvpe in a,l lTnn iW, , tn n tn hrst Dreadnought, Thin i„ biffin., Crnr°i " lM * •'•q-adri"'"? flee of * hou,d °»t™»trf, a DREADN-OWffITS AXD PRE-DREAD- • NOreiTT.« J his is what would batmen if tl.ev ""J* Beth W °"'' l *5 £ ahead formation, as it i, J|l«-d The formation now universal ™"p cd a pcui g fleet. Naming i„ line, Hie ships ,„ ~.u . h flp „ t ki ,^. nw ca(]| , \moin .rejAsja, Jn , >,,,,„, •'„.- l " ,! r 1^"' ,JB -i' !|) *"• ■"MIL 'S n' f 7 V,1,S betwwn "'dividual vo<mti, ?„ *7" ««""Ii fleets. i„ tlie w carr i,, P t , f ? ,r each . vnn'."„ " 't' 7 ' S,,ns - tlln wllo| e »'»« '" , ' , « nU'ir Jlcet. consisting „-, e i7,| lt each monnti?,/onr -2>n pins the , roc wo „,,j (iA .j ( , )|(| m lensrlh or over three miles. The "'•ct of Dreadnnbirhttf would win, 21 knota to ,18 knots, have sufficient ndvan . tnsfe in speed for its admiral to-main- j ti.n from the outset his four vessels ■breast jl the first four of the e„e mv C me. There would be „o escape for them, and it would mean that « t e „. I jrioj s oj pasoddo nq p|no. u dim? unS

gun ship, with the inevitable result (if th t . gunners were all equally matched) that the lending four pre-Dreadnoughts would be silenced. Oil that the four Dreadnoughts would only have__to slacken speed and drop, back, taking win remaining ships of the enemy in turn, and overpowering them similarly under superior gun-lire. At the opening of such an engagement the fifth and sixth j ill line of the four-gun ships would probably be able to open a diagonal lire upon tlie rearmost of the te-.i-gun ships; but the range would be so great that it could hardly prove effectual. Victory in future sea warfare will lie unquestionably with the licet which is able to concentrate the largest number of heavy guns within the shortest line of battle. Hence the ralson d'etre of the fast and big ship; and, also, there is the certainty that the navies of the world have been forced into a contest in size the outcome 01 which none can foretell.— Tit Bits.