Tides of War

can that be done in a real battle?

Actually several 5 inch gun were capible of loading AAA Shells for the purpose of shooting down aircraft.

It can be done with 5" shells in real life, but I would say its more luck than skill.

Quantity doesn't hurt either! Fill the sky with enough shells and something is bound to hit something!

all guns up to medium calibre were/are capable of an aa role

though the practice of teaching aa drills on the vickers 4.5" mk 8 was discontinued in the 90's in the royal navy, the mk 8 was an efficient aa weapon and in fact was responsible for shooting down an exocet missile during the falklands war

There's a photo of the USS Wahington firing on aircraft with 5" , which I found on it's site , lot of god historic photos too . Google !

( A North Carolina class for those who like to know ..)

It is certainly possible in the game - I've never done it, but...

I have tryed to shoot a aircarft down with 5'' shells. You need to time it right and have a little luck. It is hard to do and I don't think anyone has ever done that.

Quantity doesn't hurt either!  Fill the sky with enough shells and something is bound to hit something! 

The problem with doing that is it takes a long time for the 5'' gun to reload so you would only get 5 maybe less in before the plane is shot down by a AA gun or another ship.

I don't think anyone has ever done that.

AHM... COUGH AHM... COUGH COUGH...

This link (same as the one above) was also posted before you said that... (scroll down a wee bit)