Battleship Vs Battleship • Battleline Hit Percentage and Doctrine: How Low is Too Low to Even Bother?

Hi all:

This question is a complement to the thread on Radar ranging and maximum gun caliber.   I thought I would have a better chance of getting a clear answer if I broke this into it's own thread.  

As you all know, expected "hit percentages" for even outstanding battleship v. battleship battleline v. battleline confrontations were quite low.   As i understand it, a hit percentage of 5% would be considered outstanding, with most real-world results hovering in the 1 -2 % range (please correct me if I am wrong here). 

So my question is this -- at what "hit percentage" do you just stop shooting?   I find it interesting that nations were perfectly willing to go all in on battles with 1-3% chances of hitting their enemies and am thinking of this question in terms of increasing range.   So suppose that if you had (for example) a 20" gun which would give you a .5% chance of hitting at 40k yards vs. a 16" gun which could not reach that far.   

How much more would the 20" gun be worth?   As a practical matter I would think almost nothing --  but battleship gunnery was a weird business.   

statistics: Posted by Whwalls — 8:14 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 2 — Views 103

---