I just finished reading your post, jerseydevil.What an interesting story!
Quote from: Wilfried on February 09, 2014, 01:42:07 AMI just finished reading your post, jerseydevil.What an interesting story! Yes it is! It's interesting to note that though the British, Germans, French, and Japanese all built battlecruisers, the United States did not. The US Navy concentrated on making its battleships faster. The Iowa-class ships of WWII were far faster than any battlecruiser ever built while still carrying over a foot of armor and nine of the most powerful guns ever put to sea.
Nice post Wilfried. Some members might remember a post by Grumpy last year about this ship and the Scarborough raid in 1914. This was my great-grandfather's ship, and his Barry's grandfather was wounded during the raid.....As to your other post about battlecruisers vs. battleships - The main difference between a battleship (BB in US Navy hull designators) and a battlecruiser (BC) was that the BB traded engines for gunpower and armor protection. Dreadnought's main armor belt was over 12" in places. Invincible's main armor was no more than 8", and then over a very limited area. As engine technology improved, the massive areas required for engines became smaller and smaller, allowing for more compact and less heavy machinery. By 1915 in fact, the British launched the Queen Elizabeth - class BB's. These were full out battleships, with eight 15-inch guns, 13" armor belts, and a speed of 25 knots. This was the way of the future, the fast battleship. The US Navy intended their BB's to have to fight a fleet action against the Japanese after a long Pacific crossing without major shipyard support. A lightly-armored capital ship didn't fit into this equation. The US supported its battle line with traditional cruisers, which were not intended to take on larger ships with massive firepower. In fact, the only US BC's ever started became aircraft carriers very quickly after launching, USS Saratoga and USS Lexington. By 1941, the Japanese had rebuilt their Kongo-class BC's as fast BB's to a point, though their armor was still on the thin side. Hiei was wrecked by US cruisers at night during the battles around Guadalcanal, and had to be scuttled. Kirishima stood no chance against a real, fully armored fast BB the next night when she encountered USS Washington and USS South Dakota. South Dakota took several hits from Kirishima, and was not in any danger of sinking. Kirishima took several 16-inch hits at close range from Washington and quickly had to be abandoned. In these conditions, the BC's advantage of speed to keep away from the heavier ship was no advantage, and the thinner armor was a severe liability. The Iowa's could catch many destroyers if needed, forget other BB's and enemy BC's!
The United States was the last country to build and commission battle cruisers. Little known but beautiful ships...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_class
T-34First deployed in 1940, the T-34 was a Soviet medium tank which had a profound and permanent effect on the fields of tank tactics and design.It has often been described as the most effective, efficient, and influential design of World War II.At its introduction, the T-34 possessed the best balance of firepower, mobility, protection, and ruggedness of any tank, ...
Quote from: Wilfried on February 10, 2014, 06:56:50 PMT-34First deployed in 1940, the T-34 was a Soviet medium tank which had a profound and permanent effect on the fields of tank tactics and design.It has often been described as the most effective, efficient, and influential design of World War II.At its introduction, the T-34 possessed the best balance of firepower, mobility, protection, and ruggedness of any tank, ...First off, this text is 1:1 from en.wikipedia.org, I do not want to critizise any of the posters here, with so many interesting and informative posts here.But concerning the T-34: This is the worst description of the T-34 I have ever read and the Talk-Page seems to reflect this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:T-34 While the T-34 is one of the most important developments of wwii, this is foremost due to it's great number and working design. I would not recommend this wikipedia article!
The T-34/76 was ahead of its time in 39 to 41,combining Christie type suspension for fast,comfortable ride, a 76mm turret mounted gun when most army's only used 75mm howitzers in support tanks, and leading the way in the use of sloped armour.Lessons of the T-34 were learnt by the Germans,in the Panther,except for the Germans understanding the need for fast simple production. A reverse engineered T-34 was built by M.A.N, and was seriously considered as a long term replacement for the Panther and Tiger.When the T-34 started meeting even competition,it possessed the ability to evolve,into later up armoured 76B and C,and ultimately the T34/85. One of the key strengths of the T-34 was it was easy to produce in great numbers,and the basic nature of Soviet forces meant there would always be superior numbers!If you want a really controversial opinion,the influential design of WW2 was the British A41 heavy cruiser,also known as the Centurion...it in effect kicked off the race we now know as the Main Battle Tank!
They came up with better names for every thing back in the day invincible class, dreadnought, battle cruiser.....we need some bad ass names in the future too.......we have my little pony's though..... Eh
Quote from: SublimetalMsG on February 13, 2014, 01:08:34 PMThey came up with better names for every thing back in the day invincible class, dreadnought, battle cruiser.....we need some bad ass names in the future too.......we have my little pony's though..... EhWhat's wrong with the Brony-class MBT, where everypony soldier is the best protected pony in Ponyville?
Well not really history, but very interesting! JR(Image removed from quote.)
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