"Bismarck" 2cm gun on Anton turret?

[aurelien wolff]

why was it removed ? and why was it there too?

[Tony D.]

Subjected to blast from Turret Bruno. Gunnery trials quickly showed that the 2cm gun could not withstand the pressures from the 38cm guns being fired directly overhead.

If you look at an overhead view of Bismarck/Tirpitz, you can quickly see that the 10,5 cm AAA guns can only partially fire directly ahead or astern. Placing small 2cm guns on the forward or rear turrets were intended to help to cover these blind areas. If you look at photos of German large ships later in the war, you'll see things like quad 2cm guns (Vierling) mounted on the bows and 4cm Bofors guns atop Turret Bruno. Again, this was to fill in the firing arcs that could not be covered by the larger AAA guns.

[samlarson]

Subjected to blast from Turret Bruno. Gunnery trials quickly showed that the 2cm gun could not withstand the pressures from the 38cm guns being fired directly overhead.

If you look at an overhead view of Bismarck/Tirpitz, you can quickly see that the 10,5 cm AAA guns can only partially fire directly ahead or astern. Placing small 2cm guns on the forward or rear turrets were intended to help to cover these blind areas. If you look at photos of German large ships later in the war, you'll see things like quad 2cm guns (Vierling) mounted on the bows and 4cm Bofors guns atop Turret Bruno. Again, this was to fill in the firing arcs that could not be covered by the larger AAA guns.

There also some cases when after firing the main gun smoke and soundwave make it impossible to effectively operate it