Broadside weight

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The broadside weight is the sum of the weight of all shells that a single warship with all its guns can fire as a broadside to port or starboard in a single salvo .

By comparing the broadside weights of entire fleets, it was hoped that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a simple solution for assessing the combat strength of a formation of warships would be found.

Formulas that were supposed to predict the outcome of sea battles with the help of the broadside weight turned out to be worthless - a ship equipped with two hundred and fifty 5 cm guns would be as powerful as a ship with five 20 cm guns, both would mean a broadside weight of roughly 500 kg (provided one speaks of comparable types of grenade, e.g. HE shells). But since the range of a 20 cm cannon, for example, is many times greater than that of a 5 cm cannon, the ship equipped with 5 cm cannons would, despite the numbers, be in a duel with the one with 20 cm - Guns equipped ship with no chance. In addition, these formulas only insufficiently consider or ignore factors such as the rate of fire of the guns, their precision, the penetration power of the ammunition used, the fire control and other factors of the ship such as armor protection and the quality of the crew and material.

The principle of broadside weight as a measure of combat strength was already considered out of date at the beginning of the First World War . This was particularly evident in battles between German and British ships, as the heavier British 30.5 cm, 34.3 cm, or even 38 cm projectiles often penetrated the German armor when hit, but usually no longer in a condition capable of detonation, the lighter German 28 cm and 30.5 cm grenades due to their better construction, however, regularly, with often fatal consequences for the ship hit. A certain justification for determining the value only existed in connection with the planning and construction of ships, for example if the maximum structural loads on a ship's hull when firing all weapons were to be calculated.

Evidence and references

literature

Calculation examples for fleets:

  • Robert Seager: Alfred Thayer Mahan. The man and his letters. US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1977, ISBN 0-87021-359-8 (English).

Calculation examples for individual ships: