How did the Kriegsmarine measure speed at sea?

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johncedwards
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How did the Kriegsmarine measure speed at sea?

#1

Post by johncedwards » 17 Feb 2014, 12:15

I would like to know how the Kriegsmarine measured speed at sea. Did it use the knot (one sea mile per hour)? Or did it use some metric measurement (Kilometres per hour?) Any comment would be appreciated.

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vladalex
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Re: How did the Kriegsmarine measure speed at sea?

#2

Post by vladalex » 17 Feb 2014, 16:54

Knot.
Regards,
VladAlex.


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mescal
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Re: How did the Kriegsmarine measure speed at sea?

#3

Post by mescal » 17 Feb 2014, 18:45

Actually, as far as I know, all navies use(d ) the nautical mile as unit of distance (and therefore the knot as unit of speed), regardless of the use of the SI units in their country.

Note however that, for the kriegsmarine (and for example for France), the distance unit switched back to the metric system when it came to gunnery (range measurement).
(but the Royal Navy used Imperial measurement, which are not related to the nautical mile either...)
Olivier

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vladalex
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Re: How did the Kriegsmarine measure speed at sea?

#4

Post by vladalex » 17 Feb 2014, 20:16

Thank you Mescal for confirmation.
Between SI units system and navies in general, nothing in common between.
SI system appeared rellatively late, aprox, in the years of '68, and the world of navy was not influenced by this .
Till 1968 the old metric systems was in number of two : CGS (cm, gram , second) and MKS (meter, Kilogram, Second) or MKSA system that received and the unit for intensity of the electricity = Ampere.
The SI is the generalisation of the MKSA.
Excuse for the off-topic.
Regards,
VladAlex.

johncedwards
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Re: How did the Kriegsmarine measure speed at sea?

#5

Post by johncedwards » 18 Feb 2014, 12:56

Many thanks for answering this question, which I failed otherwise to solve, despite some considerable time looking.

Knots for speed, metres for range. Thanks again.

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LWD
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Re: How did the Kriegsmarine measure speed at sea?

#6

Post by LWD » 18 Feb 2014, 15:39

I think over on kbismarck they went into the details of how they actually measured speed especially during trials if you want more info on that aspect of it.

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