Naval History Forums

Well the Nelsons predated the Richelieu and Vittorio classes by quite some time, so neither of those 15-inch gunned battleship classes figured into the British planning of possible enemies. Neither did the German Baden Class which had been surrendered at the end of WW1, so that essentially left onl...

You say Rodney was designed to fight Colorado and Nagato class ships - BOTH had 16" guns so the RN did anticipate fighting ships with similar weapons!!! Well... everybody wanted to have the most powerfull battleship isn't it... ? Yes they did, but they also must have anticipated taking punishm...

. At cruising speed she will leave very little wake and will be 50 times harder to spot. Imagine trying to spot Bismarck here without her wake;

Was she not leaving a trail of oil behind her and if so how easy would that be to spot from an aircraft ?

I suppose it comes down to fire and range control, Littorio had 9x15" and as you say supposedly the most powerful of WW2. Although Bismarck may have the heavier armour if Littorio has decent rangefinders that are at least the equivelant to Bismarck and gets on target quickly I would probably pu...

Paul, In theory, a 50.000 ton battlecruiser with 12" belt, 2+3+2" of armored decks and 8x15" guns should have put a good fight against a 50.000 tons battleship, with 12.6" belt, 2+4" of armored decks and 8x15" guns. but in practice, it didn't... I don't think Hood weig...

What Krauthammer is really pointing to, using Syria as an example, is the extremely poor leadership on matters of state which have lead us to these no win situations. Earlier this week it was down right embarrassing to have an American president give such a sophmoric speach in Berlin Germany. Unila...

Paul, In theory, a 50.000 ton battlecruiser with 12" belt, 2+3+2" of armored decks and 8x15" guns should have put a good fight against a 50.000 tons battleship, with 12.6" belt, 2+4" of armored decks and 8x15" guns. but in practice, it didn't... I don't think Hood weig...

Gentlemen, We are almost at the point where we go back to another thread in which a fully operational KGv meets Bismarck one on one - the arguments were inconclusive in that as well! It would appear that despite all the posts Alecsandros will not accept that Rodneys armour and armament was not as we...

Rates of fire of guns, accuracy of the main battery , tactical competence on the part of those in command, and training of damage-control crews, to name just a few additional items, can easily be of much more importance in determining final outcomes. Francis Hi Francis, The underlined factors that ...

If, as Dave Sexton suggests, Rodneys protection was 20-27000yards then she would be within her protection zone and would be very capable of hitting Bismarck at that range also. ... The protective scheme built in the 20s couldn't anticipate the advances in artillery a decade later. Bismarck's artill...

RF wrote:Actually I don't think that North Korea poses any significant threat to Japan or even South Korea, let alone the US or Britain.

Hoardes of goose-stepping soldiers in Pyongyang doesn't frighten me. No, it reminds me of Monty Pythons Ministry of Silly Walks.

Nicely put!

Gentlemen, I'm sorry to go back to the boxing comparisons again, but even if Scharnhorsts rate of fire was a fast as claimed it is still like a middleweight fighting a heavyweight, yes more blows will be landed against the heavier opponant, but the really telling blows will be landed by that opponan...

The russians, chinese and iranians support Assad. Ause the waQ supports the rebels. They all hate the US and we need to get involved in this crap because? If afghanistan & iraq were worng, how the hell is this conflict right? Topping it off, barry wants to bring syrian refugees to this country....

I don't think the turrets were destroyed, but taken out due to shock and probably damage to the electrical / hydraulical systems... Only Anton was hit and this was probably the barbet rather than the turret. If Scharnhorst had a significant upper belt like Bismarck and Tirpitz then the shell would ...

At the given ranges, Rodney's protection is not proof against 38cm gunfire, and various trajectories can be drawn to the shell rooms/powder magazines, especialy as German shells showed remakably well underwater performance [though not in a fit-to-burst state] and Rodney's main belt was 3.6m high (c...