For Phylo!!!! BATTLECRUISERS!!!
Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:19 pm
Say Phylo, recall when I closed my Battlecruiser Thread because I had posted one before? Well, a new look at them, especially for you!
First issue! Most modern shipologists (I just made that term up for this thread!) regard the Derfflinger class as the ultimate WWI class of WWI battlecruisers. Personally, I don't agree, as S.M.S. Seydlitz seems to me to be just as survivable a design. What are your thoughts?
Secondly, remember the small affair of S.M.S. Goeben making its way to Turkey and the reluctance of four British armored cruisers to fight them? I remember that the British Admiral in charge of those four cruisers was court-martialed, but acquitted. What would you have done in his circumstance, considering that Goeben was only escorted by Breslau, a light cruiser?
Third--and here comes the fun stuff--supposing that Imperial Germany didn't muster its Battlecruiser force into one squadron! Supposing that each Battlecruiser, with a fast consort, were sent out to raid the sea lanes--would this have caused a fatal weakening of the Grand Fleet, as it deployed Battlecruisers and Battleships away from it to fight the raiders?
Would this have given the High Seas Fleet a better chance at a decisive engagement? Remember too, please, the disruption that the Bismarck sortie in WWII caused to the Royal Navy and the number of ships deployed to sink her! I assume that the British wouldn't have sent a single ship out alone after a German Battlecruiser, or, if they did, they might well have lost that ship....
So, what do you think?
P.S., despite its title, this Thread is hardly meant for Phylo alone, but for all Feldgrauians who like "What If?" theories! So, enjoy, my many friends!!!
Bestens,
~D, Kapitan Zur See
First issue! Most modern shipologists (I just made that term up for this thread!) regard the Derfflinger class as the ultimate WWI class of WWI battlecruisers. Personally, I don't agree, as S.M.S. Seydlitz seems to me to be just as survivable a design. What are your thoughts?
Secondly, remember the small affair of S.M.S. Goeben making its way to Turkey and the reluctance of four British armored cruisers to fight them? I remember that the British Admiral in charge of those four cruisers was court-martialed, but acquitted. What would you have done in his circumstance, considering that Goeben was only escorted by Breslau, a light cruiser?
Third--and here comes the fun stuff--supposing that Imperial Germany didn't muster its Battlecruiser force into one squadron! Supposing that each Battlecruiser, with a fast consort, were sent out to raid the sea lanes--would this have caused a fatal weakening of the Grand Fleet, as it deployed Battlecruisers and Battleships away from it to fight the raiders?
Would this have given the High Seas Fleet a better chance at a decisive engagement? Remember too, please, the disruption that the Bismarck sortie in WWII caused to the Royal Navy and the number of ships deployed to sink her! I assume that the British wouldn't have sent a single ship out alone after a German Battlecruiser, or, if they did, they might well have lost that ship....
So, what do you think?
P.S., despite its title, this Thread is hardly meant for Phylo alone, but for all Feldgrauians who like "What If?" theories! So, enjoy, my many friends!!!
Bestens,
~D, Kapitan Zur See