Originally posted by Gun Grape
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*Hit perhaps but no notable damage and reports also state the three British ships were not carrying radar at all. If they were not carring radar then they wouldnt have even knew the two were there until they were within sight or smoke which in either case meant it was too late, The German ships no doubt had radar, if they had radar then they also had FC radar and obviously pretty descent radar at that to be firing at some of the ranges they were (shorter then their longest hit).
As far as Mass goes, I dont know but I will try and look at a descent source, I have a few. If you can recall the attacks the Brits made upon them at Mers-el-Kebir, the admiral actually waited past the time he was told since nobody really wanted to attack them in the first place but would have rather had their co-operation instead of the uncertainty of being used by the Germans against them. The very same for the British attacks at Taranto.
IMO, naval gunfire coupled to advanced fire control systems arent about luck at all. I think you will find there are enough examples from WWII forward from several different countries gun fire control systems that would support that view. Particularly a main battery against 5-6 inch destroyer guns that cant shoot that far nor see that far.
And Leyte wasnt about the range of their FC (the cruisers with 6-8 inch guns opened fire before the BB's did). Why fire on them from such far range and take a chance given the conditions they had at the time. All conditions were perfect according to most books except for the amount of AP ammo they had aboard.
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