Naval History Forums

One advantage of being an anachronism is that there aren't any weapons designed to defeat protection like that, except of course for torpedoes and they would still be effective. One of the major advantages of nuclear power is it doesn't require any air intakes or exhaust uptakes, so no stacks and no...

If you are talking about the Iowa as she was in 1945 vs Bismarck still afloat by then, (or Tirpitz), then Iowa has a big advantage because of much more powerful guns and the ability to realistically hit Bismarck at 35kyds and continue to determine the range because of superior speed. A gunnery offic...

I don't think there is a lot to choose between a hit from PoW or Hood, unless it's on a turret face or barbette at a range where 15" will penetrate and 14" won't. Remember that the hit on the lifeboat wasn't inconsequential either. It damaged Bismarck's catapault so they couldn't launch th...

The guns on top of Gibratar could sink any surface ship entering the Mediterranean. The axis would not need to use much resources to control or defend it. English resupply of Egypt around the tip of Africa would have been vunerable and impractical. Wouldn't Gibraltar be very hard to take? It might ...

Togo may have been a great admiral, but he had a fleet whose individual ships were so much superior to his enemy that all he really had to do was to get them in range and keep them there until the inevitable happened. I’ve been to see the Mikasa – very nice museum with a nice diorama of the battle. ...

I would vote for Nelson, because he didn’t just win one battle but a whole series of different scenarios during which he demonstrated his excellence.

Karl, I think all we have said is that there are many tradeoffs in designing a warship, and we probably don’t know which is superior. My own bias is in favor of the newer American ships for the following reasons: 1. The rudders were further apart, making it less likely that both would be crippled at...

I would now compare the Machinery Rooms volumes of Hood and Bismarck: Bismarck: ..............Aft ER...........Fw. ER Height:......8.8 m...........8.8 m Lenght:..14.02 m.......14.02 m Widht:....13.75 m........11.27m Volume:.1696 m3.......1391 m3 Total volume: 1696 + (1391*2)= 4478 m3 Hood: ...........

I was going to ask why a tanker would have one screw while an aircraft carrier of the same displacement would have 4, but I think I can guess.

The merchant is designed for minimum operational cost. The military vessel is designed with redundancy in mind, so it can keep operating after being damaged.

LOL, no way I'm going to argue with someone who knows more about the subject than I do by a wide margin! Besides, what you say makes sense to me! I served on submarines and I knew the 7-bladed screw was designed with reduction of cavitation a high priority, accepting whatever loss of efficiency that...

I agree. A hit on a rudder in particular is very hard to deal with, and also pretty unusual. It depends to a certain extent on whether you have nearby ships which can assist you. Even then, if a rudder is jammed by serious battle damage it would be hard to even tow it.

There is another aspect to this. First, the German arrangement placed the center engine room further forward than the wing engine rooms. This meant that the outboard shafts were relatively short, which is a good thing from a damage control standpoint. The problem with only 3 engine rooms is that you...

4 shafts at the same rpm doesn't necessarily produce less thrust than 3 shafts. It depends on the size of the blades and their pitch. For example, US submarines, which have one shaft, at one time used 5 bladed screws. When they switched to 7 bladed screws with less pitch they cavitated less, but dev...

I think it was generally agreed that torpedoes were too dangerous to mount on a battleship. Except for Lutjens, of course. I think all other navies got rid of them where they existed. The German case was somewhat unique since their battleships had a commerce raiding function. Originally it was belie...

IIRC the North Carolina class were originally designed with 12 14" guns, but they developed a 16" gun alternative in case someone chose to abandon the relevant treaty. The "escalator" clause was invoked in time to change the weapons. They weren't adequately protected against thei...