High angle fire from conventional, low angle gunnery ships

AirTech wrote:The Japanese went as far as to design and use the 16" main turret guns on their battle ships for anti aircraft use.

The RN was doing that too. The difference was that the Japanese produced actual anti-aircraft shells (which apparently didn't do wonders for the rifling when they where used), whereas the RN stuck to firing conventional high explosive shells into the sea in front of incoming torpedo bombers - any torpedo bomber that flies into the splashes created by a 14-16" salvo probably isn't coming out of the other side!

PalmerSperry wrote:

AirTech wrote:The Japanese went as far as to design and use the 16" main turret guns on their battle ships for anti aircraft use.

The RN was doing that too. The difference was that the Japanese produced actual anti-aircraft shells (which apparently didn't do wonders for the rifling when they where used), whereas the RN stuck to firing conventional high explosive shells into the sea in front of incoming torpedo bombers - any torpedo bomber that flies into the splashes created by a 14-16" salvo probably isn't coming out of the other side!

IIRC some 15" Shrapnel shells were made for the Gallipoli campaign for use by HMS Queen Elizabeth but were unused there and put into store at Alexandria when QE was removed form the operation because of Turkish mines.
It is reported that in WW2 they were loaded onto HMS Warspite and used against Regia Aeronautica formations during the Malta convoy operations

Weird Harold wrote:

JeffEngel wrote:So I'm wondering about makeshift arrangements for some sort of - relatively light - indirect fire capability on those conventional ships. But I have no idea how crazy these ideas are, or and only a little how necessary.

Here are three:

Four: (Infantry) mortars fired from the main deck. Range limited, but more capable of plunging fire than any other type of weapon.

Mortars have a much faster rate off fire as well. Smaller warhead than conventional shipboard cannon, though. Having been at sea, I can only imagine what the effect of even the smallest roll would be on the range accuracy of the mortars, but volume of fire takes on a quality of its own beyond a certain point. If the azimuth is good, then you'll be dropping mortar shells along that line from short to long with some in the "sweet spot." In the same way that modern field forces have mortars of multiple calibers, perhaps it's time for Charis to develop a heavier "mule-borne" mortar system?

During the Korean War, the Missouri was deliberately beached to put her at an angle that gave more range to her guns.

Clearly, of course, not a tactic for frequent use.