Post by nimrod on Apr 13, 2021 10:22:07 GMT -6
One reason why people often find secondaries running out of ammo is by 1940 they need to have ammunition for both HAA and surface warfare
problem is unlike real life where ammunition load was between 300 - 500 rounds per barrel (5"/38) in game we have 150-250 and this often means that most of the ammo is used vs surface targets and when aircraft come you have no HAA because its out of ammo
For example DD 445 carried 525 rounds per gun in the magazines and 50 in the ready rack which is a staggering 575 rounds per gun on a destroyer her total ammo load being 2875 rounds
Granted she also had a much higher rate of fire and was able to empty this ammunition capacity in less than 40 to 60 minutes where as in game firing 2875 rounds from 5 guns would take between 500 minutes to 400 minutes with a 4 inch gun depending on crew skill time taken would probably be 25 to 50% higher with a 5 inch gun
I've always wanted a box to click in the ship designer to double or triple the ammo load-out for the secondary / tertiary battery. Specifically to address the lower than historical ammo storage for AAA CL and DD designs.
On your initial note, I've thought that the numerous examples of shells cooking off in gun barrels aboard DDs and CLs was ample evidence of very high rates of fire within a short duration.
I get where the game developer is coming from. In the army, artillery pieces are normally quoted with sustained and maximum / emergency rates of fire - ready rounds, ammo cook-off, crew exhaustion, etc. come into play. With ships my understanding is that when firing over open sights they would generally far exceeding the sustained rates of fire for the guns, they weren't waiting for the pitch and roll of the ship to provide optimum firing solutions... They were just trying to get as many rounds out as possible; to the point of having to cool the guns down and or have a cook-off which can easily destroy the gun / turret.
The US 5" 38 caliber guns are sometimes quoted as having maximum rates of fire of 12-20+ rounds per minute. www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_5-38_mk12.php "gunnery officer on Delhi reported that during gunnery trials in February and March 1942 that these guns were able to fire 25 rounds per minute with the ready-use ammunition stored in the handling rooms and 15 rounds per minute with the normal supply from the magazines."
Again backing up the higher amounts of ammo - "As the war went on, ammunition stowage on new designs was increased where possible. Some examples: Late war Fletcher (DD-445) class carried 525 rounds per gun in magazines plus 50 ready rounds per gun. Late war A.M. Sumner (DD-692) class carried 422 rounds per gun in magazines plus 50 ready rounds per gun. The A.M. Sumner class also carried 292 illumination rounds per ship in magazines plus 48 ready illumination rounds per ship. However, the stowage for pre-war destroyers could not be so greatly increased. For example, the Farragut class destroyer USS Aylwin (DD-355) had about 250 rounds per gun in magazines plus 50 ready rounds per gun in 1944. The rebuilt USS Selfridge (DD-357), which had traded her eight SP guns for five DP guns after receiving torpedo damage in 1943, carried about 260 rounds per gun in magazines and 43 ready rounds per gun plus a total of 85 illumination rounds in 1944. This large increase in ammunition weight resulted in destroyers losing two to four knots in maximum speed from the design specifications. By 1945, the new battleships in their magazines carried 500 rounds per gun, primarily AA Common and AA VT, plus 40 special types per gun. In addition, they had 55 ready rounds per gun. Ready rounds for all ships were stored in handling rooms usually located directly below each mount."
I think extending the auto-loader code to manually fired guns with a few caveats might make sense - something like - under 1000 yards pre-1920 and within 2000 yards post-1920 ships may double the standard rate of fire when the target is bracketed for upto 3 minutes. After 3 minutes rate of fire is normal / restricted until the ship doesn't fire for 10 minutes upon which time the elevated rate of fire may be resumed.
When my DD is 100 yards from a CV, I should would like them to just unload everything they got and take the risk of a detonation.