Hello all.
Hello all.
Im Justin, im an apprentice mechanic in Grande Prairie, a smaller city in Alberta Canada. i've long been an admirer of ww2 warships, paticularly battleships, and as a kid i long had a fascination with both the Bismark and Titanic, the former from first watching the old black and white movie Sink the Bismark!. anyway, i will be posting, quite a few topics here that got my interest.
-
Karl Heidenreich
- Senior Member
- Posts: 4808
- Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 3:19 pm
- Location: San José, Costa Rica
Re: Hello all.
Welcome to the forum Justin.
But don't forget that the little ships, such as the cruisers and destroyers, can be as important as the big battlewagons. Operation Rheinubung would have turned out very differently had Prinz Eugen not been in company with Bismarck......
But don't forget that the little ships, such as the cruisers and destroyers, can be as important as the big battlewagons. Operation Rheinubung would have turned out very differently had Prinz Eugen not been in company with Bismarck......
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
Re: Hello all.
I'm not sure I'd call the Eugen a little ship but concur with the sentement.
Welcome aboard, feel free to jump in to the conversations or ask questions.
Welcome aboard, feel free to jump in to the conversations or ask questions.
Re: Hello all.
lwd,
What I was alluding to was the Eugen influencing the DS battle - if Bismarck was alone Hood would have fired on the right ship and if, as likely, Bismarck was hit early on by Hood, things could have turned out very different.
What I was alluding to was the Eugen influencing the DS battle - if Bismarck was alone Hood would have fired on the right ship and if, as likely, Bismarck was hit early on by Hood, things could have turned out very different.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
Re: Hello all.
Oh no question that cruisers played important parts in WWII indeed a case can be made for them being more important than BBs. It's just that I don't consider cruisers to be small. Indeed look how often they were confused with BBs and vice versa. Indeed Denmark straights sis a prime example.
Re: Hello all.
This is a matter of scale really isn't it - a cruiser looks small in comparison to a Bismarck or Yamato, but very big to a destroyer, just as a destroyer is very big to a corvette or armed trawler.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
Re: Hello all.
When I was in cub scouts we went to Bremerton and saw the Missouri. Right next to her was a Baltimore class CA. It didn't look that much smaller. Consider at Denmark Strait Hood mistook Eugen for Bismark. Then consider that the first US center line single caliber main gun BB South Carolina weighed in at 16,000 tons while the Wyoming class that was still in commission during WWII weighed in at ~27,000 tons. A Baltimore class CA displaced almost 14,000 tons and an Alaska class large cruiser displaced ~30,000 tons.
Re: Hello all.
And of course at DS the Bismarck and Prinz Eugens lookouts reported Hood and POW as cruisers, not fulling realising the true identity until they opened fire. But I think the overall angle you are looking at the target ships will be relevant to some extent.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
Re: Hello all.
No arguement there.
Was just thinking about this and realized most of at least the more famous miss ids from the Pacific involved identifying smaller ships with larger one where most of those in the Atlantic were the reverese.
The incidents I'm thinking of:
Pacific - numerous cruisers ID as BB by aircraft, the Taffy ships were all id as at least one class larger.
Atlantic - Harwoods cruisers initially id'd as one class lower and Denmark strait as mentioned.
Probably a lot more and either way but ....
Was just thinking about this and realized most of at least the more famous miss ids from the Pacific involved identifying smaller ships with larger one where most of those in the Atlantic were the reverese.
The incidents I'm thinking of:
Pacific - numerous cruisers ID as BB by aircraft, the Taffy ships were all id as at least one class larger.
Atlantic - Harwoods cruisers initially id'd as one class lower and Denmark strait as mentioned.
Probably a lot more and either way but ....
Re: Hello all.
The Italians made a lot of misidentifications, particulary their submarines. I believe that on one occassion a tribal class destroyer was misidentified as HMS Warspite....
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
Re: Hello all.
To continue our off topic discussion on cruisers Note that Tiornu has a new book out on them.
Re: Hello all.
I ordered it. :)