Dreadnought Day

[CountDeMoney]

Overwhelming attack from a numerically superior foe in an attack that was designed to fail?  What weapons system in the world could survive in those circumstances?

Islam.

Not a weapons system.

The Sword of the Prophet most certainly is, infidel.

IT IS WORTH EVERYTHING IT IS WORTH NOTHING

[Neil]

Overwhelming attack from a numerically superior foe in an attack that was designed to fail?  What weapons system in the world could survive in those circumstances?

Islam.

Not a weapons system.

The Sword of the Prophet most certainly is, infidel.

IT IS WORTH EVERYTHING IT IS WORTH NOTHING

Forwarded to Homeland Security.

Terror threat level:  Increased to Purple.

[CountDeMoney]

It'll get lost in the fusion center, buried under reports on bikers.

[Razgovory]

I think a better argument would be the Yamato.

Overwhelming attack from a numerically superior foe in an attack that was designed to fail?  What weapons system in the world could survive in those circumstances?

A superior one.

Stricken as unresponsive.

Tell me then, how many aircraft carriers did the planes come from that sank the Yamato?

[mongers]

I think a better argument would be the Yamato.

Sunk by air attack, in open water:
HMS Repulse, sunk by Japanese aircraft off Malaya, December 10 1941 with loss of 436 crew.

HMS Prince of Wales, sunk by Japanese aircraft off Malaya, December 10 1941 with loss of 327 crew.

Italian battleship Roma, sunk by Luftwaffe Fritz-X glider bombs on September 9, 1943 with loss of 1,353 crew.

INS Hiei, sunk by US Navy and USAF aircraft off of Guadalcanal, November 13, 1942 with loss of 188 crew.

INS Musashi, sunk by US Navy aircraft during the Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 24, 1944 with loss of over 1,000 crew.

INS Yamato, sunk by US air attacks off of Okinawa April 7, 1945 with loss of 2,475 men.

Greek battleship Kilkis, sunk by Germany Ju-87 bombers in the Salamis Channel on April 23, 1941.

Greek battleship Limnos, sunk by Germany Ju-87 bombers in the Salamis Channel on April 23, 1941.

HNLMS De Zeven Provincien was sunk by Japanese bombers off of Surabaya, February 18, 1942. Raised by the Japanese and used as a floating battery, then sunk by allied bombers in 1943.

You list is rather diminished by the last three, two pre-dreadnought and a coastal defence ship; a total of 8-12in and 2-11in guns don't quite make a whole single dreadnought.

[Malthus]

Here, have a ring bayonet.

Tut tut. A modern invention. Will never replace the good old plug bayonet!

[Zanza]

Wasn't the Bismarck also disabled by an air attack before it was scuttled? And Tirpitz and Gneisenau were also disabled by air attacks.

[Neil]

Tell me then, how many aircraft carriers did the planes come from that sank the Yamato?

Not near my books, but Wiki says 11.

[Neil]

Wasn't the Bismarck also disabled by an air attack before it was scuttled? And Tirpitz and Gneisenau were also disabled by air attacks.

Bismarck had its steering gear damaged by air attack, which allowed the RN to catch it and destroy it (along with a nagging wound delivered by the Prince of Wales).  Tirpitz and Gneisenau were bombed at anchor by the RAF.

[Threviel]

Isn't the real problem of Dreadnoughts that they became too complex and difficult to build compared to carriers and planes? They were still useful at the end of the war, but too expensive and time consuming to build.

[Razgovory]

Tell me then, how many aircraft carriers did the planes come from that sank the Yamato?

Not near my books, but Wiki says 11.

I'm seeing 8 some of which are escort carriers  Against several Japanese ships.  It doesn't seem overwhelming odds unless carriers completely outclass battleships.

[Ed Anger]

Taffy 3 laughs at your toy boats.

[Neil]

Isn't the real problem of Dreadnoughts that they became too complex and difficult to build compared to carriers and planes? They were still useful at the end of the war, but too expensive and time consuming to build.

I would say that building a fleet carrier and a dreadnought were more or less equivalent.  Obviously you could build a plane or even a whole airgroup in a fraction of the time that it took to build a dreadnought, but the big carriers took a while, and unless you were doing a bad job of it were rather complex in their arrangements.  I suppose that you didn't have to worry about thick armour plates or large, unique naval guns when building a carrier.

Building time was not the reason that carriers replaced dreadnoughts.

[Neil]

Tell me then, how many aircraft carriers did the planes come from that sank the Yamato?

Not near my books, but Wiki says 11.

I'm seeing 8 some of which are escort carriers  Against several Japanese ships.  It doesn't seem overwhelming odds unless carriers completely outclass battleships.

Yamato was effectively alone.  IJN destroyers were pretty much useless against air attack and the Agano-class light cruisers weren't much better.  Read up on the Japanese 25-mm AA mount.

Either way, 8 against 1 and a little bit is massively outnumbered.

[Neil]

Taffy 3 laughs at your toy boats.

No they don't.  Taffy 3 is scrap metal, whereas there are still dreadnoughts afloat.