I definitely saw this but can't remember many details. Help me.

[esoteric]

Someone at work was talking about ships and it reminded me of 2 or 3 ships built in WW2 that had guns so large that 1 ship capsized when the guns were turned broadside and the other 1 or 2 were sunk in battle when flanked, unable to turn there guns for risk of sinking they were a sitting duck. They also had bad balance due to the guns they had trouble turning.

I remember those details but I don't remember what country built them or the ship names. I remember a year and half ago binge watching this series on Youtube called Sword to Secrecy: Secrets of War, narrated by Charlton Heston, it's a great series btw, and I'm 99% sure this is where I got the info from. There are 60 episodes at an hour each though and I can't find a clue to which episode it was from.

Otherwise I've Googled and came up empty. Japans Mushashi and Yamato are recorded as the biggest battleships and sporting the biggest guns and it's 2 ships, it seems to fit but it doesn't quite match on their defeats.

So I'm wondering if anyone here knows anything.. it's a long shot I know.

 

[Dis86]

Sounds completely made up to me!

 

[esoteric]

Oh I forgot to mention that at the time I saw/heard it I told my brother about it. I've asked him and he remembers me telling him about it and that's it.

 

[Brizzles]

Sounds like fitting planes with such big guns that they couldn't take off.

 

[Dis86]

Sounds like fitting planes with such big guns that they couldn't take off.

And soldiers with guns that fire backwards.

 

[adolf hamster]

i think you mean the monitor class ships

basically before the days when air bombardment was a thing they had ships with massive guns to attack coastal locations.

although most of those the guns were so large they were fixed, you aimed them by turning the ship

 

[Jean-F]

And soldiers with guns that fire backwards.

I can remember going to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth Road, London with my old dad in the sixties, and seeing a gun that allegedly "could shoot round corners", I just googled it, and apparently it was a German idea which failed.
It was an attachment called a Krummlauf, (curved barrel), designed for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle.

 

[robfosters]

The Mary Rose sank because of too many heavy guns.

 

[Meridian]

i think you mean the monitor class ships

This, but everything else in the OP was a myth, made up by people looking at pictures and not knowing anything about the ships concerned. They were actually fairly seaworthy, albeit REALLY slow (about 8 knots max) and were perfectly capable of firing their main gun at any angle.

But...

Said firing did often result in damage to the ship, particularly at certain angles. But that was true of some battleships as well.

 

[WangerMan]

HMS Royal George (1756)

 

[hughtrimble]

I can remember going to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth Road, London with my old dad in the sixties, and seeing a gun that allegedly "could shoot round corners", I just googled it, and apparently it was a German idea which failed.
It was an attachment called a Krummlauf, (curved barrel), designed for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle.

Worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSsFiS2Voxg

 

[adolf hamster]

I can remember going to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth Road, London with my old dad in the sixties, and seeing a gun that allegedly "could shoot round corners", I just googled it, and apparently it was a German idea which failed.
It was an attachment called a Krummlauf, (curved barrel), designed for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle.

it didn't really fail, it was just designed for a niche role (mainly allowing tank crews to prevent people climbing on the tank)

edit, hughtrimble beat me to it, with the right link and all

 

[kindai]

Completely made up indeed, even the stories of ships being thrown back 6 ft in the water are wrong, the worst that used to happen is the recoil and reset mechanisms used to create shockwaves that as they passed through the ship could do quite impressive damage.

 

[hornetstinger]

It's also true that they fired guns backwards to make the ship go faster forward.

 

[Doogles]

I can remember going to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth Road, London with my old dad in the sixties, and seeing a gun that allegedly "could shoot round corners", I just googled it, and apparently it was a German idea which failed.
It was an attachment called a Krummlauf, (curved barrel), designed for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle.

Didn't exactly fail it was a decent idea but the problem was that the barrel would wear out way to fast and was to heavy and complicated for wide usage.

It's also true that they fired guns backwards to make the ship go faster forward.

On War Thunder I fire all my ammo when landing to kill speed faster

 

[Whitewater]

Could be the Tegetthoff Class battleship, WWI though. A random website suggests it was prone to tipping over if turned too sharply.

 

[hughtrimble]

edit, hughtrimble beat me to it, with the right link and all

Forgotten Weapons is an absolute gem of a channel isn't it!

 

[adolf hamster]

Forgotten Weapons is an absolute gem of a channel isn't it!

the only youtube channel that i have genuinely watched every single video he's made

i'm glad it's taking off, his newer stuff with him being able to travel more is getting really interesting, like the sa80 development series.

 

[Rroff]

Should be on this list if it was a battleship and sunk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_battleships

 

[Holst1981]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victoria_(1887)

Its true according to Wikipedia.

Combination of incompetence and big guns sinks ship.

Amazing level of incompetence in many of these naval stories.