Naval History Forums

Long time, no quiz - So what ship have I presented this time..?

Looks like a Queen Elizabeth Class to me.

I'll cast a broader net than Karl: at first blush, it looks like a RN ship w/15" guns.

Close?

I think it's probably a QE or an R class, but I have no idea beyond that. I'm generally way out of my depth with this sort of thing.

Steve is quite right, it looks like a R or QE class, both of them had the two twins at the bow. Well, also some of the Japanese but the turrets are british.

The abscence of certain features in this photo have me suggesting the photo most likely was captured in 1935 - while in the Mediterranean ...

Can't say what ship it is, but if it is the Queen Elizabeth then the photo must have been taken before her major refit. Early 30's maybe?

I am going to say the HMS Barham

I wonder if whatever ship it is, ever shot it out with this one?

A sneaky but clever question, yellowtail ...

The answer (given that my identification of your ship be correct) is no, my ship never engaged yours

Well, then - that eliminates Queen Elizabeth, along with Revenge and Royal Oak... .

I presume your quarterdeck photos was captured aboard the SMS Von der Tann

Terje Langoy wrote:I presume your quarterdeck photos was captured aboard the SMS Von der Tann

They are. Pretty good ones, aren't they?

Rather than just taking a wild guess, I can eliminate the ship being one of the "R"-class right away, due to the narrow forecastle deck--not a feature of the R's. Of the five Queen Elizabeths, both the name-ship and HMS Valiant underwent reconstructions which eliminated their truncated foredecks. This narrows it to HMS Barham, Warspite, and Malaya.

But I am confused about the reply to the Von der Tann post.

Dan

yellowtail3 wrote:

Terje Langoy wrote:I presume your quarterdeck photos was captured aboard the SMS Von der Tann

They are. Pretty good ones, aren't they?

Indeed they are ... if you should have more close-up shots of German battlecruisers of the World War One era a post or two would be nice. And if I may forward a special wish some photos of the Iron Dog would be extremely nice.

However, a bug is hummin over here upon reading your previous post - the elimination of the Queen Elizabeth and the two R-class battleships. I´m afraid my quiz will see closure faster than planned since some questions rise from the posting of yours. But first the revelation.

The mystery ship is ... hopefully ... the Queen Elizabeth.

Karl achieved a respectable straddle with his first post - Queen Elizabeth class - and from here it would be a tough quest to separate the individual ships of the class based on forecastle appearance only. Our esteemed forum moderator was however spot-on with his post... I wrote that the photo possibly could be dated 1935 and then I mentioned abscence of details as a hint to the estimate of year. These details were a) the flying-off platform at turret B and b) lack of modernization to the turret; increased barrel elevation. The Queen Elizabeth had the platform removed in 1934 and her turrets were modernized during the refit from 1937 to 1941.

Kyler mentioned H.M.S. Barham and this is not a bad candidate with regards to time and place. It could just as well been her. To single out the Queen Elizabeth I can only rely on the note on the back of this photo. The two ships mentioned plus the Valiant were all present in the Mediterranean during 1935 thus Kyler could actually be right - if the person to add the note on this photo is wrong ...

Back to you, Yellowtail. I must admit that upon seeing the photos of the Von der Tann I immediately suspected the cue in play here was Jutland. As known four of five Queen Elizabeth´s participated in that battle - the exception being the Queen Elizabeth, being refitted at the time. You asked if the quiz ship had ever “shot it out” with the Von der Tann whereupon I said no, believing that the quiz would be cracked wide open. But then you eliminate her ... along with the only two Royal Sovereign ships to participate in the Jutland battle - H.M.S. Revenge and Royal Oak.

On edit: an interesting post, RNfanDan. This photo is listed as Queen Elizabeth but as I pointed out above it could also be the Barham. These foredeck alterations were presumably part of the early refit (post-Jutland) with regards to increased magazine armor and the Barham was indeed present in the Mediterranean in August 1935. Perhaps Kyler´s post is the winner ..?

This is all very interesting but it would be nice if a photo comparison could be done so as to see the slight differences of their forecastles. Ach, if I only had Campbell´s book here ..!