Renown Class Battlecruiser (1916)
Fire Control
Rangefinders
Directors
Both ships were completed with directors for main batteries installed, but the secondary batteries were delayed until each ship was in service for a month (see ship pages for details).[1]
Main Battery
These ships were fitted with 2 cam-type tripod-mounted directors, one in an armoured tower and one in a light aloft tower.[2] There were no directing guns.[3]
The guns could be divided into a forward ('A' & 'B') and aft ('Y') groups. Inferring from other ships with 2 directors,[4] a C.O.S. in the T.S. permitted these control options:
- All guns on aloft director
- All guns on armoured director
- Forward group on aloft director, aft group on armoured director
It is likely that each gun had a local C.O.S. with 3 positions:[Inference]
- Gunlayer's Firing (aux and main circuits connected to local triggers)
- Director 1 (local main to director main, local aux to director aux)
- Director 2 (local main to director aux, local aux to director main)
Secondary Battery
The 4-in guns were supported by a pair of pedestal-mounted directors with double cam grooves and two rollers, one forward (on foremast below the spotting top) and one aft (on mainmast).[5] This placement helped support that subset of the guns capable of firing to either side.
Torpedo Control
Transmitting Stations
Dreyer Table
The ships each had a Mark IV* Dreyer Table,[6] and 3 (?) Dreyer Turret Control Tables.[7]
Fire Control Instruments
See Also
Footnotes
- ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, pp. 9-11, 16.
- ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. p. 142.
- ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. p. 88.
- ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. p. 88-9.
- ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. p. 143
- ↑ Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
- ↑ Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
Bibliography
- Template:BibUKFireControlInHMShips1919
- Admiralty, Gunnery Branch (1914). Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914. G. 01627/14. C.B. 1030. Copy 1235 at The National Archives. ADM 186/191.
- Template:BibUKDirectorFiringHandbook1917
- Template:BibUKDreyerTableHandbook1918
