Re: 18.1" Anti-Aircraft Guns!!!

The book is "Leyte Gulf" By Donald Macintyre and it's Book no.11 from
Ballantines
Illustarted History of WW2.

You are misinterpreting how the shells work. They are not behive or
cannister
rounds. They are Flak shells fuzed to burst at maximum range. Radar
picks up a
big gaggle in bound and these things fire in their path ala first line
of
defense. Once the planes are at mid range the 5" take over then the
bofors and 20
mike mike at close range. They never had that great a success.

Remember you fire at something ten miles away slant range and you could
loft the
shell pretty high, besides most Japanese air attacks did not take place
at high
altitudes.

ScottSaylo@aol.com wrote:

> Please give me the info. I should think that 16" guns (which was
maximum size
> of American BB's) would have traversed too slowly and have
insufficient
> azimuth elevation to be useful for anti-air fire against anything but
torpedo
> attacks. But I am willing to find out differently.