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What if - Naval showdown in the English Channel

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  • Originally posted by redco View Post
    They weren't travelling through the Channel, they were close to the shore providing supporting fire to the landings.
    That is actually a key point Redco. it is one thing to hit a ship that is either heading toward your battery or lingering off shore. It is quite another to hit one underway in the channel. Further, there is no guarantee that the target will be on the French side (though some would have been). Add to that the danger of hitting a friendly target and you don't exactly have a decisive element here for the germans. I believe that at one point a British pre-WW1 monitor with a top speed of around 8 knots actually sailed along the French coast bombarding coastal guns & other facilties. it returned home unmolested (sorry, don't have details, had to return the book).
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    Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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    • Originally posted by Bigfella View Post
      I believe that at one point a British pre-WW1 monitor with a top speed of around 8 knots actually sailed along the French coast bombarding coastal guns & other facilties. it returned home unmolested (sorry, don't have details, had to return the book).
      You've got a good memory, Bigfella!

      At the height of the BoB, HMS Erebus bombarded Calais with her two 15-inch guns, but the German battery of four 11-inch guns at Gris Nez failed to hit her.

      Insultingly, during one night in October, the battleship Revenge crossed the Channel and bombarded Cherbourg dockyard and its assembled invasion shipping with one hundred and twenty 15-inch shells.

      In half an hour of retaliatory fire on it and its seven destroyer escorts, the shore batteries had no success.

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      • Originally posted by clackers View Post
        You've got a good memory, Bigfella!

        At the height of the BoB, HMS Erebus bombarded Calais with her two 15-inch guns, but the German battery of four 11-inch guns at Gris Nez failed to hit her.

        Insultingly, during one night in October, the battleship Revenge crossed the Channel and bombarded Cherbourg dockyard and its assembled invasion shipping with one hundred and twenty 15-inch shells.

        In half an hour of retaliatory fire on it and its seven destroyer escorts, the shore batteries had no success.
        Thanks mate. Hardly encouraging for anyone hoping such guns might play a significant role in covering Sealion.
        sigpic

        Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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        • The Monitors would have been a very diffacult target to hit IMO. Extremely low draft (some deck edges on some literaly awash when at sea) almost no profile superstructure (nowhere near a destroyers size or escorts) to hit from line of sight fire and some mounted some very big guns.
          You would have stood a better chance hitting it with airplanes.
          Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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          • Originally posted by redco View Post
            They weren't travelling through the Channel, they were close to the shore providing supporting fire to the landings.
            True. But thats what they were designed to do. Not intercept ships passing through the channel.

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            • Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post
              True. But thats what they were designed to do. Not intercept ships passing through the channel.
              GS,

              The context is the German guns on French shores supporting Op SEALION.

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              • Oops, I guess I need to read more than one page back before I comment.

                In the words of my favorite commentator

                "Never mind"
                Attached Files

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                • Is liking the Gunnys new Avatar. Would that be "Duke"?
                  Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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                  • "Hail to the King baby"

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                    • It is known, that Raeder expected the Kriegsmarine to show how the Kriegsmarine could die valiantly, in combat, once Great Britain entered the war.

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