Gneisenau x Gneisenau citadel

[saagri]

Yesterday I got a weird citadel. Fired at a fellow Gneisenau at 2.7km and scored a citadel. After finding the replay I took some screenshots.

 

 

 

 

The shot appeared to have just barely arced over and penetrated the starboard deck. Go turret #3.

[MajorRenegade]

it look like the Ap shell hit the wooden deck of the ship and then straight into the ammo bay at that angle, therefore causing a citadel. Just way I see in the screenshot

[TenguBlade]

German deck armor is always bad.  Looks like you hit the deck abreast of Caesar turret and the blast radius of the AP shell encompassed the turret's magazine hence why the game counted it as a citadel.  Either that or some desync means it actually penetrated Caesar's barbette but doesn't appear as such.

[saagri]

German deck armor is always bad.  Looks like you hit the deck abreast of Caesar turret and the blast radius of the AP shell encompassed the turret's magazine hence why the game counted it as a citadel.  Either that or some desync means it actually penetrated Caesar's barbette but doesn't appear as such.

 

The enemy ship was turning hard to starboard at the time, maybe the angle change helped?

[TheOssifrage]

I have heard the deck armour is pretty weak, so I guess it's possible... but I have also heard that German BBs are difficult to citadel at close range, comparing to other nation BBs.

[Stratego89]

I have heard the deck armour is pretty weak, so I guess it's possible... but I have also heard that German BBs are difficult to citadel at close range, comparing to other nation BBs.

 

Pretty sure that's specifically referring to the armor on the side of the ship. The deck armor on all german ships is very weak (germans love their convertibles). Even then, penetrating a deck from that distance is pretty rare, considering the angle.

[TheOssifrage]

 

Pretty sure that's specifically referring to the armor on the side of the ship. The deck armor on all german ships is very weak (germans love their convertibles). Even then, penetrating a deck from that distance is pretty rare, considering the angle.

 

That was a weird phenomenon in the photo. Other than desync, I suppose we have to chalk it up to RNGesus.

[RadDisconnect]

German battleships are known for weak deck armor and weak traverse bulkheads, which is probably what your shell was hitting.

[Stratego89]

 

That was a weird phenomenon in the photo. Other than desync, I suppose we have to chalk it up to RNGesus.

 

Yep. OP must be sacrificing his goats regularly at the altar.

[AmurTiger]

Depending on how detailed the internal armor layout is you could be hitting the back of the B turret barbette.

 

Beyond the weakness of German deck armor there was also the issue of it being very deep in the ship so you could plunge through the unarmored upper decks a bit and hit the backside of a barbette.

[GSPatton_]

way to beach yourself

[alphonse2501]

Can someone drawing lines to make this clear? This is what I though:

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/mh9Dft5.png

 

[BobTDwarf]

I have heard the deck armour is pretty weak, so I guess it's possible... but I have also heard that German BBs are difficult to citadel at close range, comparing to other nation BBs.

 

95 MM  3.74 inches... yeah at that range you should punch right on thru that like butter

 

[Carl]

 Depending on how detailed the internal armor layout is you could be hitting the back of the B turret barbette.

 

At that angle it probably wouldn't matter. Based on the new armour viewer the barbettes are not part of the citadel, they're part of the turrets.And the armoured deck extends cross the bottom of them so it couldn;t go in there and then slip under the armoured deck that way.

 

Also it's not just 95mm. There's the 50mm top deck too. And it's actually the best BB armour in her tier deck wise, (oddly with the benefit of the armour viewer it turns out the Bismark/Tirpitz is the same, the NC is just painfully bad, (47mm top deck, with a 45mm armoured deck over the magazines, but only 19mm everywhere else). Not the only cases either. the T9 is comfortably weaker than the other two, but not by much next to the Iowa, (it's actually plum best over the magazines), and the T10 is better than the montana, though still behind the Yamato. The Yamato bulkhead ends design is really funky, and is probably why it's bow is so dammed impenetrable in practise.

 

EDIT: Iowa, not Izumo.

[Aloeus]

At that range there is no way it is a deck pen. deck pen only becomes a factor when dealing with extremely thin decks or very long (20+km) ranges. Anything else is autobounce, including even 25mm plates to a 280mm gun. 

 

My bet is a desync shot that hit the rear barbette at and odd angle and ricocheted into the deck armor at a good enough angle to pen it.  It might also have hit a very odd angle between the bulkhead and the turtleback.

 

 And it's actually the best BB armour in her tier deck wise, (oddly with the benefit of the armour viewer it turns out the Bismark/Tirpitz is the same, the NC is just painfully bad, (47mm top deck, with a 45mm armoured deck over the magazines, but only 19mm everywhere else). 

Fairly certain the NC's actual armored deck is hidden underneath the top deck armor.