"WW1 initial ranging methods by navy" Topic

The question came up with a friend of mine that we don't know the WW1 initial ranging methods for other than the British and Germans. Does anybody have info on the initial ranging methods of other navies?

I suspect the Russians had a quick method given how quickly the Russian predreadnoughts hit the SMS Goeben at Cape Sarych. Other navies' methods are a total mystery to us.

We are curious because our preferred rules, Fleet Action Imminent accounts for the differences between British and German methods up to Jutland, but we don't know what to do with the first fire from other navies.

Germans used the Ladder System while the British used the Bracketing System. A much slower method than the Ladder. Although the Ladder used more ammo. Bottom Line? The British actually adopted the Ladder technique AFTER Jutland so that's a pretty good indication of which technique was superior.

BTW, A great book is Vincent O'Hara's- To Crown the Waves: The Great Navies of the First World War.

Well the technical means were pretty much confined to stereoscopic or incidence range finding, followed by a quick bit of Trig, weren't they? Surely a limit to the number of ways you can apply the basics…

This posting on a friend's blog may be of interest, as it talks a little about how firing solutions were done at Jutland (though this posting is concerned with the British):

link

Actually, Sparker, there were many different approaches to director fire control during the period in question. Each navy had its own doctrine and equipment with different parameters. As noted, the Germans used one method (the ladder method, which became the default universal method post war) while the British (and everyone else) used a different method. This was a period of intense development in the field of fire control.

Yes I appreciate that about the approaches, thanks, but I'm specifically asking about the technical means, the actual instrumentation. Did any navy use anything other than incidence range finding (or indeed just the 'Eyeball, Mark I'?)

Nothing beyond that mentioned for actual rangefinding but they did also use plotters and analogue computers to predict the position of the taget from data collected with other instruments.

Do a Google on 'Naval Fire Control WW1' and you will have a lot of material to work on.

There's a book called The Great Gunnery Scandal that will answer some of the questions.

I suggest the book "Naval Firepower" by Norman Friedman for WWI and WWII surface gunnery details by country. Check it out on-line at Amazon, or other on-line retailer.

MH