Naval History Forums

This is an objective issue, not to mention our favorite vessel but to think about which one was more successfull or wasn´t. Doing so having in mind that the warships accomplished the tasks they were design/built/operated for. Or don´t. I´m going to mention some of them (but not all and not in any s...

Did you ignore my post about trying to free the rudder, the vibration in the rudder room caused by reversing screws, etc? And the fact that they DID try to steer with the screws and gave up in favor of a more stable heading to provide a stable gun platform and enable further attempts to disengage t...

This subject is often discussed in military and naval circles. Can somebody enumerate Bismarck construction flaws and their possible impact on the ship's final demise? In the final analysis there is no such thing as the perfect or unsinkable ship. Neither can you legislate for Sods Law. I think the...

The rudder design was also a problem long before it got hit by a torpedo. It jammed once before and had virtually no manual override. The push button steering was not all that good without an effective override. Sort of like the Airbus. I believe that a temprory rudder jam occured on Bismarck in th...

Picture this - US battleship Texas is in Japanese controlled waters in early 1942, with either Halsey/Nimitz on board. Texas is alone, its steering smashed and with the prevailing sea conditions can only head towards Japan at slow speed. The US admiral knows that Yamato and Musashi are closing in to...

Karl Heidenreich wrote:About this thread: one thing is Schanhorst, a superb vessel but with only 11" guns or Tirpitz, with her 15" guns and being bigger then the DoY would had a much different foe. Maybe thing could turn around.

Could well do, if Tirpitz gunnery was accurate.

It may be of use to point out here, that Kennedy initially believed he was encountering Admiral Scheer , not S&G. Even when the second twin came into view, there was confusion and apparently, no immediate realization that it was S&G. Rawalpindi's enemy contact report bears this out. In any ...

the US technical mission to Japan stated IIRC that if 4 torpedoes had hit Musashi on one side and none on the other, she most likely would have sunk. The reason she stayed afloat so long was the incredibly even distribution of hits, making counterflooding pretty much unnecessary. Yes you're right, ...

Unfortunately Lutzow was responsible with Adm Hipper of the worst attack to a convoy ( Op. Regenbogen against JW51 ) that costed KM warships to be dismantled, Adm Raeder dismissal, ... all done by Hitler with the help of Adm Donitz, .... than Scharnhorst disaster :( and,.. Tirpitz abandoned to her ...

How many ships did the ship sunk? As far as I know only 2: Stonegate (5044 BRT) (10/09/39) Lorentz W. Hansen (1918 BRT) (10/14/39) plus the capture of the City of Flint (4963 BRT) (10/09/39). 11925 BRT, including 2 NEUTRAL ships :oops:, not very good... Add to the tally approx. 700 Soviet tanks dst...

Of course, with the exception of the Graf Spee, the other heavy units of the Kriegsmarine did no better (like the ones on WWI - laying in harbour, one battle, laying in harbour - no strategic victory) Panzerschiff Admiral Scheer did quite well on her commerce raiding cruises - I'd have to look up t...

it was possible to point the ship in roughly the right direction on one order for a brief moment Heading the right direction for a brief moment does not compensate for heading the wrong direction all the other moments. Complete the quotation and cut out the wrong moments. I'm not saying it would ha...

Better yet, how could four ships manage to come from four different bearings if they hadn´t speed advantage? Yamato would only concentrate her fire on those located ahead, which wouldn´t be able to close, and the 1 kt speed advantage over the Germans would gather the four of them on her wake. I sai...

In theory, the H-Class despicted in the fictional comparison photo above was a 130,000 ton behemoth (almost twice of an Yamato and more than twice an Iowa) with so much armour the Allies woud need to throw an atomic bomb from a B-29 to do any harm to her. A bomb like the one thrown to Tirpitz would...

Tiornu, would the fact that the Germans have nine guns against Ajaxs' eight be a significant factor?