Battle of Narvik

People in a hurry can do things you wouldn't believe, trust me. But whatever.

 

Never underestimate the human ability to screw up. Admitedly if true that was a major one.

 

We have no evidence that such a thing happened. People cannot make a 6in shell fit the equipment designed to take 8in shells, regardless of their hurry.

 

I think we need a clarification...

Were the wrong size shells delivered to the ship by mistake, and they had no choice but to sail with them due to the time deadline, or were the wrong shells stowed aboard by accident when the correct ones were available?

 

Neither. According to the ship's War Diary, written by the First Officer, the main battery didn't open fire in the fjord because it could not identify a target. The smaller weapons did open fire and struck some houses, the shoreline, etc. The ship certainly had 8in shells on board as she performed a rudimentary practice shoot two days before her loss.

 

What made attacking shore batteries so much fun before precision weapons was the fact that damn near only way you could knock them out was if you hit the guns themselves, whereas with a ship the guns can be silenced by hits to multiple locations.

Can anyone think out any other warships lost to shore guns?

 

Wake Island saw some very effective gunnery by the shore batteries. I forget the names of the victims.
There were probably a couple ships that ran aground and were subsequently dismantled by artillery.
I don't know anything about the Dardanelles, but I assume some ships were hit by shore batteries.
Can we include Port Arthur? That's a rather different issue.

 

Several Federal warships were sunk by Confederate shore artillery during the American Civil War. And an American destroyer was wrecked by Japanese shore batteries at Iwo Jima, IIRC.