WesWorld

HI,
I recently tried to find written sources on blast interference. How to explain it easily to someone not aware of it? What ships suffered from it historically (e.g. italian light cruisers)? What was done to fix it?

On a quick check I could not find anything about it in Whitleys cruiser book. Also Richard Worth in his Fleets of WW2 book does not mention spell dispersion in relation to blast interference, though he mentions some other problems with the guns and their accuracy. Then I tried to check out NavWeaps because I seem to remember there was an article on it there, but couldn't find it either.

I _know_ it has been a problem, not only to the Italians but also to early American dreadnoughts with their three guns in one cradle, and to Russion cruisers, but it annoys me I cannot find a reference on short notice. Haven't finished to check Friedmanns US BB book yet... Or am I wrong and day dreaming?

Can you help me please? Are you aware of sources to deal with this issue?

Like you, I know I have read the same somwhere but can't remember where. Whitley mentions the 152.4mm 1926 in the twin turrets on the Da Barbianos were too close and had a single cradle. He mentions no remedies but the Cadornas had a larger turret so I presume that was their solution, the widen the space between the barrels. For those ships with the older turrets I guess nothing was done or perhaps staggered firing of the barrels. I believe the early US 8in classes had the same problem, can't remember where I read that.

Maybe check Stafano's site? Usually good for Italian references.

I've read somewhere that delay fuses were also used to delay the firing of center guns in triple turrets that suffered from blast interference, I don't recall the source however.

The us standards had terrible issues with triples having insane dispersion. They put delay coils in the firing circuit for the center guns of each turret in order to alleviate the problem. We are talking about a quarter second, but enough to allow the blast from the outer fund to dissipate sufficiently.

I remember this too - but can you give a source?

I've seen it sourced multiple times on NavWeaps when you look at the 14in US guns mounted on the Standard class BBs. Looks like the delay coils only delayed .060 seconds on the center gun of the Triple Mounts. I did see it noted that the 3 gun mounts of the later BBs did not have that severe of an interference problem due to the guns being spaced wider on their separate sleeves.