Naval History Forums

Unlikely that Bismarck would be firing its main armament at POW whilst manoeuvring to avoid torpedoes.

Failure to properly co-operate and fight a joint war and instead fighting two separate wars in my view was the single biggest blunder the Axis powers made in WW2.

Ships such as Yamato would have been of far more use in the Atlantic than they were in the Pacific.

My understanding was that the VC was awarded when the evidence in German records and accounts of the action became available after Germany capitulated.

The only instance I am aware of a VC being awarded by specific recommendation by KM officers occurred after the raid on St Nazaire.

Dave Saxton wrote:.... by using the techniques used by American and particularly German shipyards.

With the concept of these ships the Japanese also missed a trick in not being party to the German naval Z Plan - not that the Fuhrer would allow such co-operation.....

The turrets and barbettes of Inflexible were known to be very vulnerable to flash. This is a key point. Knowing the opposition has only cruiser size guns instead of battlecruiser guns the Inflexible is likely to try to maximise its rate of fire by keeping the flash doors open. This will be particul...

I was thinking of the 1914 Inflexible (ie. Falklands battle) versus Prinz Eugen 1941 (ie. Denmark Strait battle). Thinking about it as this is entirely hypothetical you could look at it from two distinct scenario's - firstly as above and secondly with later versions of both ships, say 1918 and 1944 ...

, unless PE gets to within 12in gun range and then bad things happen to PE as her armour will not stop even a WW1 12in RN AP or Common shell. In 1914 it did take quite a lot of time and hits to sink the 'twins' though I suspect, from their name 'armoured cruiser' they were better armoured than the ...

I'd see Inflexible getting peppered with shell hits, disabled, silenced and sunk by torpedoes. Essentially Prinz Eugen was Dogger Bank Blucher on steroids! Quite possibly. Given the events at Jutland could the Prinz have the weight of shell impact to cause a major detonation within the shell handli...

There is however a difference between a WW1 battleship and battlecruiser - namely the amount of armoured protection and the heavier 15 inch guns compared with 12 inch.
Lutjens was sticking strictly to fleet orders, this scenario was intended to be free from such impediment.

This section of the forum has been quiet for a while so how about considering a confrontation between a WW1 battlecruiser and a WW2 heavy cruiser?

Shades of the Falklands 1914 battle here?

Would the result be the same - or would the more modern ship win through?

@ RF, now you are taking it personally vs me and accusing me to personally had intentions to denigrate those Officers just because maybe I do not like them ? I am not taking it personally. I have no personal stake in this. I have an open view on the actions of Tovey and Wake-Walker, I do not judge ...

@ RF, I evaluated those Officers conduct only to sustain the evidence I was demonstrating. What exactly is this supposed to mean? You have avoided answering my question directly - namely your motivation in denigrating an officer who is dead and therefore unable to bring you to account by defamation...

@ RF, I thank you for your fairness on recognizing the above being all clear facts. I agree, we are all human and we can all make failures in many ways and situations. Then why is it that you feel it necessary to question this officers courage and integrity? In recognising that we are all fallible ...

Hello everybody, Now a question to .....you : do you agree those are facts ? Yes - without any interpretation placed on them with regards to motivation and intent. You have to accept that people are human and can change their minds into how they see things and understand them, particulary when it c...

Should I read an opinion and be told that I and every one else must now realise it is a fact without making a small attempt to suggest that although it may be a valid opinion, it is not a fact? This is a very common tactic used in political argument to close down any genuine debate and to shut peop...