Much is made of the weak flash protection in the British Battlecruisers' turrets (basically the same design as the battleship turrets), but the Germans had a similar turret flash issue, they just learned about it before the British learned of theirs. At First Dogger Bank Beatty's battlecrusiers sank the Armored Cruiser SMS Blucher and almost got the Battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz. A hit on the upper aft turret sent a flash fire straight down into the magazines and even into the lower rear turret, killing everyone in both and the joint magazine they shared. Normally this would have also destroyed the ship, but the fact that the Germans used sliding breech blocks instead of interrupted screw breech blocks saved them. The main cordite charge stays in the brass canister even inside the gun (think modern rifle shells) instead of with interrupted screw blocks which require the power bags to be removed from their protective canisters in the magazine and transported up to the turret "naked" as it were. Needless to say most of the canister cordite cartridges didn't explode, thus saving Seydlitz.
The Germans quickly retrofitted their ships to improve their flash protection and most were ready by the time of Skaggerak (aka Jutland). The British only realized the issue DURING Jutland, and it cost them 3 battlecruisers and their crews.
(This post was last modified: 06-22-2016 11:44 AM by 49RFootballNow.)