Each game battleship carries twenty-seven 6-inch guns in nine triple turrets. The firing-arc review estimates fifteen guns astern, eighteen across much of each flank, and roughly nine to twelve toward the bow depending on bearing. That coverage underlies the confidence that a destroyer would face heavy fire before getting close. The sustained broadside is compared to having an Atlanta-like cruiser on either side, imagined here with 6-inch guns. At up to ten rounds per minute per gun, eighteen guns could send about 180 shells toward a target each minute. The 6-inch fire may also help establish the range for the 16.5-inch battery, although that is a tentative reading of the game. A later comparison observes that this secondary battery exceeds the armament of a Town-class cruiser. The ships are described as self-escorting against light attack, and their 85,000-ton displacement is used to explain the available ammunition capacity. A later caution still calls for cruiser escorts, so the confidence in the battery does not remove the need for a screen.
Chapter · 1:14:29-1:26:10
Secondary batteries turn battleships into anti-destroyer screens
The battle demonstrates how extensive 6-inch batteries can protect capital ships from destroyers while adding an exceptional weight of fire against larger targets.