Talk:Zara/@comment-25863825-20170228114132/@comment-24093250-20170301120342

@Dogwalker

Precisely. The longer the distance, the more exasperated the dispersion patterns are going to be. Firing at such distances pretty much guaranteed a very low hit ratio.

I'd agree that those two hits on Berwick wouldn't be luck if they were caused from the same ship; but they weren't. The second hit even came from the older guns of the Trento-class cruisers, which were reportedly even worse in this aspect; but a bit of luck went their way on that day.

Besides, in several engagements of the Mediterranean campaign the British light cruisers showed a tendency of blasting away until their ammo ran out. When in 1940 the destroyer Espero was sunk, the British captains were criticized because they wasted lots of ammo just for that, which was scarce in those days.