From Newsgroup: rec.aviation.military
"Peter Stickney" wrote in message news:114pg55$13vhd$
1@dont-email.me...
On Sun, 2 Aug 2026 14:34:32 -0400, Jim Wilkins wrote:
...A similar predictor system with radar range
measurement controlled warship surface and AA guns, giving us remarkable accuracy compared to others and the unique ability to stay on target
while turning to avoid enemy fire. ...
With the Electro-Mechanical analog gunnery Computers, such as the TDC,
with good observation you could fine down the targets parameters -
Bearing, Course, Speed, and the rates that they were changing, until it
was tracking the target's position.
US Navy Surface Ships took it to another dimension. The Optical Director would, once a target was designated and followed manually for a short
period would automatically track the target, with the human operators
adjusting for errors (Rate-Aided Tracking). Later Gunnery Radars would Auto-Track as well. Azimuth, Range and Elevation Data were continually
sent to the Gunnery Computer, which in concert with the Gyrocompass and
Stable Vertical, would, with Own Ship data and Environmental inputs,
calculate the Firing Solution and, through Remote Power Control, train and elevate the guns automatically. If the systems were maintained, accuracy
was phenominal - at the Battle of Surigao Straight, USS West Virginia, a
Pearl Harbor survivor that had her Fire Control systems upgraded to the
latest standard as part of her Repair and Restoration, achieved first
round hits on the IJN Yamashiro - at night.
It wasn't just the quality of the components. No other combatant had such complete system integration, with the elimination of most human errors and communication delays.
Agathe Whithead, his first wife, and mother of the children, was the Granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, the inventor of the first successful self-propelled torpedoes.
Peter Stickney
---------------------------------
Britain wasn't interested so Whitehead sold his torpedo idea to a power that was, Austria-Hungary who would unknowingly become Britain's enemy. At that time Austria held substantial territory bordering the Mediterranean,
obtained by repelling the Turkish invasion. The peace settlement gave the
von Trapps Italian citizenship. Instead of fleeing over a mountain to the border they simply took a train to Italy.
The USS Iowa's computerized 5" AA scored a first round hit on an approaching plane that left only its engine coming toward them.
USS Washington scored early and well against IJN Kirishima, better than
their night observation initially reported.
https://www.navweaps.com/index_lundgren/Kirishima_Damage_Analysis.pdf
"The 20 major caliber and 17 secondary caliber hits is far more consistent with what may be
expected by the number of major caliber shells and secondary shells fired at their respected ranges. In
addition all the hits that struck the ship below the waterline would have
been observed by Washington as
a miss due to the shell throwing up a splash."
The Bismarck scored zero against the approaching British warships at similar range in daylight.
The Japanese gunnery system worked very well as long as both ships were sailing in straight lines, as required by the partly manual fire control systems of all but the USN. It had significant voice communications delays which we exploited by changing course after each salvo arrived.
Off Samar Yamato straddled a US carrier with a line of shells at very long range which is perfect aiming, but the range dispersion between shells was many times a ship length. One exploded underwater close enough to dent the hull and shake loose a black cloud of boiler soot, which the Japanese took
as evidence of a hit.
US destroyers with the computer which allowed them to fire accurately while avoiding return fire helped hold off Japanese battleships including Yamato
and heavy cruisers long and well enough that the Japanese mistook them for cruisers. The Japanese admiral was distracted from attacking the Leyte invasion fleet by the mis-identified small escort carrier support element until he realized they weren't the main force, then he claimed he broke off
to look for it, minus almost all of his originally 10 heavy cruisers and Yamato's sister Musashi sunk or crippled. Japanese Army aviation had
declined to help him search or defend.
Halsey's action may have been based on harsh criticism for not pursuing and destroying the Japanese carriers after the Marianas victory. He didn't
repeat that mistake, instead made a different one. We were lucky that
Japanese confusion and command level rivalry cancelled it out. They fought very well and might possibly have defeated the invasion, that's a hard call with many variables such as night or day. The Japanese battleships couldn't shoot accurately while turning to dodge the daytime aerial torpedoes and
bombs that sank Musashi. In a night battle both sides had advantages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangekeeper
The "Stable Vertical" gyroscope actually fired the guns based on ship roll angle, the operator merely gave it permission. When the USS New Jersey was recommissioned in the 80's an analysis indicated that a digital computer
would do no better so the mechanical computer stayed, the error sources were elsewhere like hydraulic servo loop stability in the gun mounts.
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