"THE battleship ?" Topic

1) Iowa Class
2) HMS Agincourt
3) BSG 75 Galactica

KMS Bismark!

In May of 1941 the war had just begun
The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns
The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea
On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees

4) HIJMS Yamato
5)DKM Bismarck
6) Littorio

HMS Vanguard … the last and the best.

HMS Dreadnought – first of the breed.

Iowa class

IJMS Yamato!

If I go away to sea,
I shall return a corpse awash.
If duty calls me to the mountain,
The verdant sward shall be my pall.
Thus for the sake of the Emperor
I shall not die peacefully at home.

Another translation:

Across the sea – corpses in the water!
Across the mountains – corpses on the hills!
Die for the Emperor.
Never come home.

Arizona

Iowa class for me

Either that or HMS Dreadnaught

It's the USS Washington for me.

Yeah, there are cooler, better known, and more powerful battle wagons to choose from but she was a real scrapper! She was one of the very few Allied battleships to go toe-to-toe with an Axis battleship and really clean its clock in an one-on-one fight! And she did it in a night battle where the Japanese navy really dominated with their excellent training and Long Lance torpedoes. Because of her stand during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal the US was able to hold on to Henderson Field and win the campaign. It was a truly inspiring and decisive action… plus she's named after one of my very favorite presidents.

So it's the USS Washington all the way!! 8D

She was one of the very few Allied battleships to go toe-to-toe with an Axis battleship and really clean its clock in an one-on-one fight!

I wish I could find the site again, but it escapes me. There is an analysis out there that says the conventionally accepted 9 hits out of 81 16" rounds fired by the Washington is in error – it was more like 20 hits – based on interviews and research with actual Kirishima survivors.

Vanguard for me also.

Here we go…. I am more awake now.

PDF link

BTW, I think it was Tango1 who first posted this a year or so ago.

Warspite

Easy- Warspite.

From Wikipedia:

Battle honours:

(First World War)

Jutland 1916;

(Second World War)

Atlantic 1939;
Narvik 1940,Norway 1940;
Calabria 1940, Mediterranean 1940-41-43,;
Malta Convoys 1941, Matapan 1941, Crete 1941:
Sicily 1943, Salerno 1943:
English Channel 1944, Normandy 1944, Walcheren 1944, Biscay 1944.

Took a licking but kept on ticking!

Hoser

USS Texas.

USS Oregon, Indiana Class pre-dreadnought. She sailed all the way from the West Coast to Cuba in time to fight in the Spanish-American war, despite her low freeboard and no Panama Canal. A great ship which also served in WWII as an amunition ship, and then was stupidly lost in a storm.

Warspite – no debate.

I believe the only vessel ever to give the order -

"100 rounds 15", rapid fire !"

Took her place in the line at Jutland and went on to shoot the bejasus out of the Germans at Narvik and in Normandy.

Credited with achieving one of the longest range gunnery hits from a moving ship to a moving target in history when she hit Giulio Cesare at a range of approximately 26,000 yards.

She also survived a major hit by a Fritz-X guided bomb.

She also met 'honourable' end, sunk while under tow to the scrapyard.

Warspite.

The best-looking re-fit of any battleship in history.

Definitely one of the best names for a warship.

USS Nevada. Survived 3 atomic bombs, and was only scrapped due to radioactive contamination, not because of physical damage.

HMS Warspite

During the battle of Jutland her steering jammed and she took the full force of the German battleships.

"Her steering jammed while attempting to avoid her sister-ship Valiant. Warspite's captain decided to maintain course, in effect circling, rather than come to a halt and reverse. This decision exposed Warspite. The manoeuvres made Warspite a tempting target and inadvertently diverted attention from the badly-damaged cruiser, Warrior. This gained her the admiration of Warrior's crew, who believed Warspite's movement had been intentional."

"The crew regained control of Warspite after two full circles. Their efforts to end the circular motion had the consequence of placing her on a course towards the German fleet. The rangefinders and the transmission station were non-functional and only "A" turret could fire, albeit under local control with 12 salvos falling short of their target. Sub Lieutenant Herbert Annesley Packer was promoted and mentioned in dispatches for his command of "A" turret. Due to her condition, Warspite was ordered to halt and make necessary repairs. Warspite would be plagued with steering irregularities for the rest of her service life."

"During the battle, Warspite had 14 killed and 16 wounded; among the latter warrant officer Walter Yeo, who became one of the first men to receive facial reconstruction via plastic surgery."

I believe she still holds the record for hitting a moving target at long range.

Warspite. Fought at Jutland, ran into the fjord at Narvik to destroy the German destroyer force, fought off Crete, slaughtered the Italian cruisers at Matapan, pipped an Italian battlewagon at Calabria, shot in the amphibious landings at Salerno, Normandy and Walcheren, took a guided missile hit and carried on. No other battleship of any nation has a combat record half as impressive; but the clincher has to be the way she slipped her tow and ran aground on the way to the breaker's -- on St George's Day.

Also, she has far the best battleship-inspired poems, written by Lt-Cdr R A B Mitchell RN who served in her, to wit "Radar", "Crete", "Goodbye Mr. Woodpecker" and:

THE SUBJECT

You say you have no subject
And your brushes all have dried;
But come to Marazion
At the ebbing of the tide.
And look you out to seaward,
Where my Lady battle scarred
Hugs the rock that is more welcome
Than the shameful breakers yard.

Paint her there upon the sunset
In her glory and despair,
With the diadem of victory
Still in flower in her hair.
Let her whisper as she settles
Of her blooding long ago,
In the mist than mingles Jutland
With the might of Scapa Flow.

Let her tell you, too, of Narvik
With its snowy hills, and then
Of Matapan, Salerno
And the shoals of Walcheren;
And finally of Malta,
When along the purple street
Came in trail the Roman Navy
To surrender at her feet.

Of all these honours conscious,
How could she bear to be
Delivered to the spoiler
Or severed from the sea ?
So hasten then and paint her
In the last flush of her pride
On the rocks of Marazion,
At the ebbing of the tide.

Slava.

Bravo John, I'd not seen that before

Brought a tear to my eye that did.

I'm inspired. Warspite.

USS New Jersey

WW II – 9 battle stars
Korea – 4 battle stars
Vietnam – 3 battle stars
Lebanon – 1 campaign star
Persian Gulf – 2 campaign stars

link

Rick

Another vote for HMS Warspite. If ever a ship deserved to be preserved as a memorial to the men fought in her and all the rest of the Navy it was her. A gallant old lady to the end.

I like the modern, Kirov class vessels.

Very nice looking, and packing a powerful punch.

Warspite. No other battleship has a history like hers.

Another vote for the Old Lady – Warspite just has to be the pick, for performance, longevity, and sheer history. It's a terrible shame that post-war Britain was too broke to preserve at least one battleship for posterity, and Warspite would certainly have been my pick for that one….

I read somewhere that Admiral Cunningham and other senior navy personel called for Warspite to be preserved but as Dom said Britain was too broke to do so. I didn't know that she slipped her tow on St George's day. Very fitting.

She gets my vote too.

Arizona

HMS Agincourt. Not because she's a good design, but because
you get 14 chances to roll a hit.

Michael (real men need only 9" of belt armor)

USS New Jersey or any of the Iowa class. Beautiful ships.

1)Kongo Class – Versatile first line ships from 1912 to 1945.
2}Warspite – for it's record
3)Washington – 13 Battle stars and a shoot out with Kirishima

In no particular order.
Battlestar Pegasus from nuBSG.
SDF-1 Macross.
The Yamato from the anime.

Among pre-dreadnoughts it's Mikasa as Admiral Togo's flagship at Tsushima. Bravely fought, impeccably led and crewed.

Jaureguiberry for sheer eccentricity of design:

The two sister ships Ting Yuen and Chen Yuen, German-built ironclads that served as the center of the Imperial Chinese Navy during the Sino-Japanese War 1894-95. Bravely fought by their ill-trained and ill-led crews, they were formidable opponents for the upstart Imperial Japanese armoured cruisers:

Among the dreadnoughts, the Warspite for her impressive history.

Washington for her ferocity in successfully dueling with the Kirishima in a night action.

Richelieu in her '43 refit. Crossing that particular French gal's T would *not* necessarily be a bright idea…

Among sci-fi battlewagons the EDF flagship Andromeda is a personal favorite indeed:

Leland R. Erickson

Wait, we're allowing scifi?

DP9's Ypres class:

The USS New Jersey, When I was in Lebanon I NEVER meet anyone who had not had known someone killed by it's shells, late 83/early 84, called in strikes from the MOD and Ambassador's old residence. Sounds like a bus or train engine going over head.

VR
James Mattes

The only two I've been on: USS New Jersey and USS Missouri.

Brunhilde.

Doug

PS Okay, I'm torn 'twixt Warspite, NJ, and Washington.

Coolest, most respected battleship is clearly the Warspite. However if you are asking the best battleship at the time in service, then the Iowa class is clearly the winner. Longer service record than the Warspite too.

And another vote for Warspite….

While I must still vote for the Iowas, I'll gladly admit that poem brought tears to my eyes.

I suppose it all depends what you regard as the most important factor in weighing the value of the ship. Raw firepower ? Longevity ? Visual appeal ? Most fitting demise ?

On many of these scales the New Jersey wins, but as beautiful as she is, she spent her life as an escort and shore bombardment ship. She never faced an enemy battlefleet, she never withstood attacks by everything from destroyers to other battleships and guided missiles, nor did she oversee the surrender of one enemy fleet and escort another into captivity.

For her longevity, multi-role capability and superb lines, the NJ is a worthy No 2 on the list, but the award for being the best at doing what battleships were designed and created for, it has to be the Warspite.

Another vote for Warspite. Imagine being in the Zara or Fiume and seeing her come out of the dark with Barham and Valiant at 2,000 yards.

USS New Jersey. I might be biased though since I drive past it daily!

Has to be the Battlestar Pegasus, original series. That's the One True Battleship. The USS Oklahoma sure didn't engage and destroy two cylon basestars, nor did the HMS Prince of Wales!

Actually Prince Of Wales did – why do you think she wasn't quite 100% when she met the Bismarck…? [I'll see your silliness, and raise….]

H.M.S. Agincourt

Not a ship to be torpedoed in, and probably not a ship to go through a knock-down-drag out gun duel in, but just the ship you want for the long years of peace between wars and after wars to tool around the world and show the flag in diplomatic missions. Bristling with guns, beautiful lines, and those huge, huge decks with which to put on dances and charity events, to invite tourists on board, and show the ship and the flag. In war, keep her in home port as a headquarters ship or a command post, in peace, run her around the globe to win and impress hearts and minds.

Load her up with brass, paint her white, shine up the teakwood decks till they sparkle, and send her out to do diplomacy. Make sure you have an orchestra in addition to the ships band, a theatrical company and a huge catering staff.

Besides, how can you not like a ship that was Brazilian, then Turkish, then British.

Iowa class, Warspite, Washington.