Naval History Forums

WW2: Design-wise: Deustchland class...Small, thinly armoured and speed was not the greatest. On the plus side she had excellent range and her guns were adaquet. At least she has a minimum of 6 guns. FWIW, I don't believe it's really fair to include the Panzerschiffe here. There was only so much Ger...

WWI: HMS Furious, if you want to consider her a battlecruiser. I'd consider her more of an oddball as completed, with a solitary 18" gun, light armor, and a flight deck. WWII: I'd vote for the Alaska's (technically "large cruisers"). While far from being abysmal ships, they didn't rep...

To add a bit to my post above and really cap off the inefficiency of the design, one needs look no further than the previously posted cost comparison between Blucher and VDT. For less than 30% additional cost, Germany was able to build a larger, significantly better armed and protected warship that ...

With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, one could say SMS Blucher wasn't a particularly great design for various reasons. The failure to predict HMS Invincible's armament was obviously a serious problem. However, looking at the ship's basic design, the thing that sticks out most is the hexagonal turret...

Getting back to the OP, for battlecruisers that saw real service in WWI, I generally favor the Derfflinger. Her main armament of 8x12" guns was nothing to sneeze at, and her overall durability was well proven at Jutland (and lead to the nickname Iron Dog). For WWII, things are a bit less clear ...

However what is important are range and endurance, which the panzerschiffe certainly had, better than the Aob's. No doubt, and that's the one point I had in mind when I said "akin to". Of course as you say, a Q-ship could be an even better alternative. However, if the Allies figured that ...

How good would you rate the Deustchland class among the worlds cruisers, consdering age, role, statistics ect. Would you rate them; good, average or down right Courageous class BC bad XD They were interesting ships, but in retrospect they weren't what Germany needed to prosecute a successful raidin...

I see the roles of the Atlanta and Dido/Belladonna classes as being long range ocean escorts/scouts for fast carrier battle groups in heavy sea. Historically this was the role of the Destroyers but they were sooo short range/speed and didn't have the sea keeping to keep station with bigger warships...