It's 100 years since the largest naval battle of WW1, the Battle of Jutland, and the thread title is taken from words attributed to Vice Admiral David Beatty after yet another British battlecruiser exploded after a single hit from a German shell. BBC ran a documentary last night claiming that, contrary to the belief that British ship design was inherently inferior to German, it was in fact the British practice of storing vast quantities of cordite in the vicinity of their ships' cannons, coupled with disregard of safety protocols that were meant to ensure all ship compartments were locked so as to prevent fire spreading, that lead to the British battlecruisers Indefatigable, Queen Mary and Invincible sinking within seconds of being hit. I'm not sure I believe that entirely - their rapid sinking surely still has much to do with the fact that their non-existent deck armour meant plunging shells could easily penetrate and then detonate in the magazine, blowing the ship in half as per what happened to Hood in the Battle of the Denmark Strait 25 years later.
EDIT: I stand corrected. From the Wiki:
Anyone else interested in the history of this battle?
EDIT: I stand corrected. From the Wiki:
Whether or not thin deck armour was a potential weakness of British ships, the battle provided no evidence that it was the case. At least amongst the surviving ships, no enemy shell was found to have penetrated deck armour anywhere.
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