British Fire Control Systems at Jutland

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British Fire Control Systems at Jutland

The Battle of Jutland continues to be an interesting and controversial topic, in part because of technical arguments surrounding British gunnery and the effectiveness of its fire control.

To understand (too strong a word... "to take an informed position on?") the gunnery results of Jutland, one has to consider many factors. This article is going to address just one of these factors: the equipment each British ship carried into battle.

Caveats and Sources

Airtight and detailed documentation of this stuff is thin. While there is good documentation overall, much is dated significantly distant from the battle, and this introduces the possibility that upgrades or alterations occurred between the battle and the document's creation (regardless of which came first). Of course, the creators of most such documents were human, and some would even confess as much when pressed.

This page will have fuzzy edges and may contain errors. However, it should be substantially correct in aggregate form.

The Run to the South

Column headings:

RF9
number of 9-ft RFs
RF15
number of 15-ft RFs
FCT
type of Dreyer Fire Control Table


Ship FCT Dir FTP RF9 RF15
Lion III yes yes
Princess Royal III yes yes
Queen Mary II yes yes
Tiger V yes yes
New Zealand none? yes yes
Indefatigable none?? yes yes
Barham IV* yes yes
Valiant IV* yes yes
Warspite IV* yes yes
Malaya IV* yes yes

Dreyer Tables and their Use

Nearly all, but not all capital ships carried a Dreyer table.

On 24 September, Jellicoe asked his commanders to furnish more detail on their fire control during the battle, specifically asking that the paper range plots from the Dreyer tables be included with this report. Such material would comprise the most informative trove of forensic data by which we could evaluate British equipment and their use of it. However,

All ships did not furnish plots, transmission station records or other notes : reasons are explained in some of the following letters.[1]

[TO BE CONTINUED - TONE]


See Also

Footnotes

  1. Battle of Jutland Official Despatches. Appendix I.

Bibliography