" Wow aussehen zu diesem Ausrutscher ! Muss eine Iowa-Klasse sein ... in diese Richtung zu schießen" (Wow look at that blip! Must be an Iowa class Battleship...shoot in that direction!!!!)
...said no Kreigsmarine officer ever.
Posted on 07/29/2016 7:43:59 AM PDT by C19fan
Despite the vast scope of the Second World War, the navies of the United States and Nazi Germany fought few, if any, direct surface engagements. By the time of America’s entry into the war the Royal Navy had already sunk or neutralized the lion’s share of Hitler’s Kriegsmarine, with only Hitler’s U-boats remaining a substantial German threat.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Yes...and they had lots of beer on board, but doesn't mean the sailors were drunk.
Bismark's radar was nearly laughable. I think they were called FUMOs or something. Max range was under their max gun range and couldn't pick up multiple targets. In fact, if waves got over 15-20 feet, radar was useless. She could hardly detect more than one target at the same time, let alone track it; and bearings were not very accurate; range finding was better done from the command deck. The Germans, did however, have superior optics and triple and quadruple sighting systems to make up for the A-scope (very poor)radar.
Poorly. The Graf Spee and her sisters were commerce raiders. They weren't designed to fight other battleships. As history showed they didn't fare well against cruisers.
Wasn’t the Spee sunk by an Uruguayan fishing vessel? ;-)
" Wow aussehen zu diesem Ausrutscher ! Muss eine Iowa-Klasse sein ... in diese Richtung zu schießen" (Wow look at that blip! Must be an Iowa class Battleship...shoot in that direction!!!!)
...said no Kreigsmarine officer ever.
26" of Yamato armor at point blank range
The problem for Germany in WW2 was that they were bottlenecked geographically (North Sea) and could never operate as a fleet. Thus they could break free single units like the Graf Spee and the Bismarck but only as surface raiders and convoy disruptors.
The Royal Navy, on the other hand did have smaller vessels (Cruisers) that could ‘mob’ these larger, more powerful and faster German ships. This is why, after 1942-3, these ships were only good as potential convoy attackers like the Tripitz, but ended as bomb magnets.
As for action one-on-one against the Iowa class? Any fight can be won by the proverbial ‘golden beebee’ but the way to bet would be on any of the Iowa-class. They were a generation later and that much better!
Just for funsies, look at the USofA’s UNBUILT Iowa class successors, the Montana class battleships! Designed to take on the IJN (Japan) Yamato class, it would have been 9 18.1” guns (Yamato) vs 12 16” guns for the Montana class.
That class was cancelled in 1942 due to limited resources and as the USN saw how well the Carrier air war was going. In retrospect, many of the IJN senior officers would have rather done the same in regards to the Yamato and Musashi (1937-8), especially after seeing what their own air force did to the Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales & HMS Repulse (1941)!
Now Iowa vs Yamato? One on One, without air power? That might have been interesting.
Wow...I’ve never seen that photo. Where is it? Where did they get the armor? Did they pull it up off of the ocean floor where Yamato rest in pieces?
1800 lb Bismarck round vs 2700 lb Iowa round
Where is this on display ?
bfl
Forgot to ping you to 55.
It’s at the Washington Navy Yard. It was a plate of armor steel found in Japan after the war. It was tested against a US 16” gun at close range. (I just don’t know the distance)
We lost a lot of good men out there.
Washington Navy Yard
Super Yamato’s yes were bigger than the Montanas. But they were no more than concepts.
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