Pistolero
Well-Known Member
I'll look into that HE-ICM, never heard of it. Sounds pretty effective.
Even WW2 5" guns were pretty serious, although more limited in range. They knew it and
would charge in at high speed to get within range, and frequently to get literally "under"
the larger caliber cruiser and BB guns, which were not able to depress low enough angle
to hit them at very short ranges. A 5" shell, even WW2 types, could really shred ordinary
superstructures and pretty much any of the radar, radio antennas, optics and such equipment
as was topside, and critical to fight the ships. So, 20 or 30 5" hits on a cruiser could make her
pretty combat ineffective with no rangefinders or primary optics systems, and damaged
comms capability. No way to sink a cruiser or BB with 5", but they could be turned into
a fiery junkyard above the main deck.
From after action reports, apparently all six Japanese cruisers were seriously damaged above
decks from 5" fire, 50 cal strafing and some non-armor piercing ground attack aerial bombs. Add
in one cruiser stern blown off by a torpedo, and it is easier to see why Kurita thought he
was engaging bigger ships. He must have been getting a constant flow of serious damage
reports from his cruisers, and he was seeing a LOT of aircraft....which he was unaware had
no access to torpedoes or armor piercing bombs, so dramatically reduced in their
ability to sink his capital ships. The issue is that the escort carriers' assigned mission was
to support the troops ashore, so they were loaded out with ground attack bombs for their
aircraft, extremely limited numbers of torpedoes and armor piercing bombs. Plus once the escort
carriers started running for their lives, turning into the wind for launching and recovering
aircraft became somewhere between limited and impossible, so their aircraft went
ashore on the Philippines for fuel and bombs, but the shore field was extremely muddy and
had very limited bomb and fuel supplies and no ship attack munitions. The new runway
was built to support the troops who had landed.
Even WW2 5" guns were pretty serious, although more limited in range. They knew it and
would charge in at high speed to get within range, and frequently to get literally "under"
the larger caliber cruiser and BB guns, which were not able to depress low enough angle
to hit them at very short ranges. A 5" shell, even WW2 types, could really shred ordinary
superstructures and pretty much any of the radar, radio antennas, optics and such equipment
as was topside, and critical to fight the ships. So, 20 or 30 5" hits on a cruiser could make her
pretty combat ineffective with no rangefinders or primary optics systems, and damaged
comms capability. No way to sink a cruiser or BB with 5", but they could be turned into
a fiery junkyard above the main deck.
From after action reports, apparently all six Japanese cruisers were seriously damaged above
decks from 5" fire, 50 cal strafing and some non-armor piercing ground attack aerial bombs. Add
in one cruiser stern blown off by a torpedo, and it is easier to see why Kurita thought he
was engaging bigger ships. He must have been getting a constant flow of serious damage
reports from his cruisers, and he was seeing a LOT of aircraft....which he was unaware had
no access to torpedoes or armor piercing bombs, so dramatically reduced in their
ability to sink his capital ships. The issue is that the escort carriers' assigned mission was
to support the troops ashore, so they were loaded out with ground attack bombs for their
aircraft, extremely limited numbers of torpedoes and armor piercing bombs. Plus once the escort
carriers started running for their lives, turning into the wind for launching and recovering
aircraft became somewhere between limited and impossible, so their aircraft went
ashore on the Philippines for fuel and bombs, but the shore field was extremely muddy and
had very limited bomb and fuel supplies and no ship attack munitions. The new runway
was built to support the troops who had landed.
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