HMS Vanguard vs Battleship Bismark: a fair fight?

Here's a good one hms Vanguard vs the battleship Bismark. Hms Hood did'nt have the armour belt or deck armour
but hms vanguard does, so lets sit back and watch these two giants go at it in this hypothetical fight, Enjoy!

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Hms
• vangaurd
• Battleship
• Bismark
• Kriegsmarine

[EddieHfromBottom]

The Royal Navy had a vast superiority in numbers of Ships, Submarines (yet its true...) and supply lines. The Kreigsmarine may have inflicted losses on the RN, but it could better absorb such losses. Bismarck, whilst a fine ship, would have been better for Dual Purpose secondary batteries and triple 16 inch turrets. They wasted a lot of mass in split AA and secondary batteries. She was sunk because the RN was able to keep bringing fire-power and more and more ships to bear.

[MrHistorian123]

@1STACCS

As a 61 year old professor at York University, I find it amusing being referred to as "kid".

Please could you describe a German heavy bomber as good as the Lancaster or a German aircraft to match the Mosquito in any of its roles? Or a German cruiser with the same capabilities as the Edinburgh class?

German army weapons were invariably better than their British equivalents, I accept. But the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine had equipment that was often very inferior to the RAF or RN.

[1STACCS]

@MrHistorian123 Germany's weapons were far better period. Don't bullshit me, kid. If Hitler hadn't become mentally ill and had not attacked Russia, and If the USA had stayed out of Europe, the Brits would be all dead. Germany would have used England for a nice airbase.

[MrHistorian123]

@TheRealRedAce

Every word you say is correct. Nice to see informed comment for once.

[MrHistorian123]

@1STACCS "The Germans always had better weapons than the Brits".

Tanks? Yes! Subs? Yes! Fighters? Definitely in some cases, not in others. Bombers? At the start of the war though not at the end. Ships? God no!! Only the Hipper class cruisers were vastly superior to their RN equivalent and the Scharnhorsts were fine battlecruisers though they needed 15 inch guns. The rest were distinctly inferior.

[MrHistorian123]

@virusguy5611

But there's no point just being afloat if all your guns have been knocked out, your crew are largely dead and you're blazing from end to end. Plus nothing works because the ship's designers put all the vital electrical systems above the (wonderful) armour belt so shells could sever them.

[MrHistorian123]

@ShrikeArghast "Vanguard's 15" guns were old and thus weren't quite up to mondern standards".

The BL 15 inch 42 calibre was arguably the best heavy gun ever built, despite dating from 1915. Although it didn't have the longest range or the heaviest shell, it had the ability to fire extremely tightly grouped salvoes, so that it could hit a ship quickly and repeatedly.

Vanguard was often described as "the battleship armed with her grandmother's teeth" but her guns were modernised.

[MrHistorian123]

@Nacho2002b

It was The Prince of Wales (not KGV) that Bismarck fought in the Denmark Strait, and POW was simply not ready for combat. Secondly POW joined action with Bismarck twice more after that, which shows that the damage she suffered was not that serious. She also hit Bismarck 3 times herself despite the efficency of her main battery being only around 50%.

Vanguard was a huge improvement on the KGV class as the BL 15 inch gun was superb; Bismarck would have stood no chance at all.

[woofdogmeow]

i hate this game system it never gives the ships there true capabilities. HMS VANGUARD has a radar controlled fire control system giving her much more accuracy than DKM BISMARCK could ever hope for. Bismarck had a primitive ranging radar that usually crapped out after a few shots due to vibration from her own guns. Also the secodary battery on Vanguard is Radar controlled with a much higher rate of fire than Bismarcks guns. Some day somebody will program these sims correctly.

[skemjames]

the hood would have been able to take on the bismark if it got its refits, but never the less bismark was a beautiful ship, pity it was german and not british.