The discussion and photo of O'Brien's damage has reminded me of one of the most frightening photos I've seen of a direct hit. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h95000/h95562.jpg This is the cruiser Savannah being hit by a German guided bomb, the same sort of weapon that sank Roma and crippled Warspite. The bomb went straight through a turret and didn't explode until it had reached the ammo spaces. Look at the photo closely and you will see the explosion venting simultaneously from the top of the turret and from underneath the hull--through the entire depth of the ship. How did she survive? It's amazing.
Bloody hell. How on earth did she survive? PT boat would have got a shock! Was just reading about the action and noted her sister ship, Philadelphia, took a Fritz close aboard immediately prior to Savannah being hit. Well built ships it would seem.
The only ship of the class to be lost was Helena, hit by three Long Lance torpedoes. One knocked off her bow, and the other pair struck very close together in her machinery spaces. In fact, the damage diagram shows the second hit entering the hull and detonating against a boiler! I have to assume that was someone's guesswork.
Not very closely, though obviously the subject is of interest. My reason is this: I have found that matters of this sort generate a lot of smoke, and preliminary statements turn out to have only limited accuracy. I am waiting until the findings have been digested and subject to come critical review. I'll give you an example to explain my conservative (cynical?) approach. When the HMS Hood wreck was discovered, there was a rush to report that the ship had experienced TWO magazine explosions, the primary one aft and a smaller event forward. This of course was total rubbish. The bow was indeed separated from the midships hull section, but the break was forward of the magazines and separated from them by an armored bulkhead. As it turns out, the break was caused not by explosion but by IMplosion. This finding was actually predicted by the expedition's naval architect expert before the expedition ever set out, but the glee over a new "discovery" completely eclipsed the expert's assessment. Even today, lots of folks are certain that Hood suffered two magazine explosions. So I am content to wait until the information is good, even if it is a little old.
Fair enough. We've got a good forum sub-section completely dedicated to the Sydney. Thought it might be of interest if you haven't already found it. We've attempted to provide all sides so educated conclusions/comments can be made.
Ask and ye shall receive! http://www.dcfp.navy.mil/mc/museum/War_Damage/44.pdf The only bad thing about this report is that the 37 photos that are referenced in the report are not included. However, a number of them are technical in nature, and the commentary is excellent.
Glad I was not below after that hit. The German guided bombs were responsible for some hospital ship bombings as well IIRC.
Looks like everything made it. I still don't know why I couldn't send them all as one file. I was nowhere near the max for a pdf file.
