ebooks Diana (Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World) by Fay Glinister in History

Description

This new book reviews critically recent studies of fire control; and describes the essentials of naval gunnery in the dreadnought era. With a foreword by Professor Andrew Lambert; it shows how; in 1913; the Admiralty rejected Arthur Pollen's Argo system for the Dreyer fire control tables. Many naval historians now believe that; consequently; British dreadnoughts were fitted with a system that; despite being partly plagiarised from Pollen's; was inferior: and that the Dreyer Tables were a contributory cause in the sinking of Indefatigable and Queen Mary at Jutland. This book provides new and revisionist accounts of the Dreyer/Pollen controversy; and of gunnery at Jutland. In fire control; as with other technologies; the Royal Navy had been open; though not uncritically; to innovations. The Dreyer Tables were better suited to action conditions (particularly those at Jutland). Beatty's losses were the result mainly of deficient tactics and training: and his battlecruisers would have been even more disadvantaged had they been equipped by Argo. It follows the development of the Pollen and Dreyer systems; refutes the charges of plagiarism and explains Argo's rejection. It outlines the German fire control system: and uses contemporary sources in a critical reassessment of Beatty's tactics throughout the Battle of Jutland.