What If These Two Warships Met In Combat
- Thread starter Driftless
- Start date
I should have been more clear. The phrase Tribal can be a bit ambiguous when talking about commonwealth destroyers
Driftless
Donor
The Dogger Bank Incident goes hot. Many variables could come out of that, but have a more-or-less one on one fight between the Russian Peresvet and the HMS Canopus.
They're roughly the same vintage, but two different design theories (along with different tactical and personnel philosophies)
They're roughly the same vintage, but two different design theories (along with different tactical and personnel philosophies)
Except for both ships being in the Far East at the time, that's an interesting match-up. I think both on paper and in reality the odds favour the RN; the state of training of the Russian fleet was appalling, they'd be heavily overloaded with coal and other supplies, and the Canopus-class mount more and heavier guns - also, crucially, their main battery actually works. Both are lightly-armoured by the standards of the day and (on paper) relatively fast. Oslyaba's main advantage is possessing primitive central rangefinding and fire control, not that it did them any good at Tsushima (in fact it was a disadvantage because it was knocked out early on and the crews had not trained in firing under purely local control). It'll probably take them a good long time to hit and hurt one another so barring the same level of bad luck and judgement as Tsushima, the loser should have a sporting chance to get away.
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The Alaskas should tear the Panzerschiffen apart one on one due the the number and power of the Alaska's guns [1], but maybe 2 Panzerschiffen would be able to damage Alaska enough to claim a draw.
As a test of leadership, all three Panzerschiffen would be interesting. The Alaska should have range, hitting power, radar on its side, but if any one of the three Panzerschiffen start getting hits in early, it could be very nasty for Alaska.
[1] they were designed to counter the Panzerschiffen, so they should win one on one.
Panzerschiffes vs Alaska, the panzerschiffes would be dead meat. The Alaska has the firepower and associated fire control to overwhelm the germans, while having the speed to either run or chase. The Dunkerque is another game entirely. It's a proper battleship: while it does have the smallest main caliber of the 1930s crop, the Alaska's armour was, afaik, too light for this fight, being only partially capable vs 12" fire. The Dunkerque's "all forward" layout means it can fire everything while chasing, whereas the Alaska has to turn broadside. Speed advantage being marginal, the Alaska's main advantage is in fire control; not only it has a radar-based system, the Dunkerque's one was unreliable.
... you really want to put a slow pre dreadnought, armed with only 2 12" low caliber guns, vs a (for it's time) fast battleship with 10 x 12" 45 cal, using a central fire control?...
My advise, tell the crew of the Potemkin to surrnder asap...
