|
Post by quincannon on Feb 14, 2017 16:17:46 GMT
Well I think some were as well, but in the main I believe the RN had some very nice looking ships.
An example of what I do not consider very attractive are the pre-war RN carriers up to, but not including Ark Royal. It is very hard to make a ship appear attractive when they have been converted from other purpose designs, like Eagle. I think the only ones that did that successfully were our Lexington and Saratoga which were created from battle cruiser designs. Akagi and Kaga look like floating junk piles, both having been converted, one from a battle cruiser and the other from a battleship.
The RN destroyers are as good looing as any ship you will ever see. My favorite is the M Class, of which HMS Musketeer is my all time favorite RN ship.
German destroyers of the Type 36 and Type 36A classes, better known as the Narviks are very nice designs, and it is too bad their engineering reliability did not match the design. We got hold of Z-39 after the war and tested her as DD939 (no name), tested her, and found her to be a clunker. Over-engineered and prone to break down. Found the same to be true with Prinz Eugen.
For pure beauty, just about everything the Italians built are hard to beat.
Two of the things I do not like at all about WWII ships is camouflage that takes away the beauty of the ships lines (which camouflage is supposed to do) and the littering of a very nice design with all of that anti-air automatic weaponry (which was necessary for the ships survival). That is probably why I am drawn to peacetime configurations for most of the models I build.
The problem with ship design is that they are always compromise solutions of some sort.
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Feb 14, 2017 16:32:13 GMT
Yes the Italians built some nice vessels, what do you think of the Japanese warships, the Musashi was just as streamlined as the Italian battleships.
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Feb 14, 2017 16:52:08 GMT
Not crazy about either Musashi or her sister.
I hope you did not mistake Iowa for Musashi?
|
|
dave
Brigadier General
Posts: 1,679
|
Post by dave on Feb 14, 2017 19:10:02 GMT
Ian The Italian battleships were all pre WW II design and commission and only 3 were considered "modern ships", Littorio, Veneto and Roma.
I have listed a web site below which compares the WW II battleships of several countries which I found to be very interesting. Regards Dave www.combinedfleet.com/baddest.htm
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Feb 14, 2017 19:48:40 GMT
I think that I have conned Chuck, check out this link; linkHere is the Iowa and Musashi;
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Feb 14, 2017 19:50:53 GMT
Dave, the Iowa wins hands down in that link.
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Feb 14, 2017 19:58:50 GMT
I think Hitler wanted Mussolini to control the med, as the German navy was not large enough to cover both the Atlantic and the med, but like everything else El Duce said, he couldn't keep his promise, and after Taranto the Regia Marina was reluctant to risk their best ships protecting the Mare Nostrum for the Germans.
The Italians entered the war with some woeful equipment, Rommel's comments on Italian armour was, it was only good enough for chasing natives around Africa.
Worse still was that the Italian army sent fight in Operation Barbarossa was only equipped with L6/40 light tanks armed only with a 20mm cannon, imagine that facing a T-34.
|
|
dave
Brigadier General
Posts: 1,679
|
Post by dave on Feb 14, 2017 20:54:24 GMT
Ian I must admit that the USS North Carolina (BB 55) and the USS Washington (BB 56) were better looking vessels though inferior to the Iowa's.
I believe that as Hitler was not a sailor or brilliant strategist that his knowledge and use of naval power was poor to nonexistent. He never appreciated the U Boats and was only interested in the Bismarck and her sister Tirpitz simply for the propaganda value. The war to him was on the ground and he never learned to use either the navy or airforce thank goodness. Regards Dave
|
|
|
Post by dgfred on Feb 14, 2017 21:01:27 GMT
I have walked the North Carolina 3 or 4 times. Nice ship.
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Feb 14, 2017 21:44:14 GMT
Nobody cons Chuckie when I see a great big 61 on the bow of an Iowa Class BB as in that picture Ian.
I agree with Dave. I like the NC and WA much better than the Iowas or South Dakotas.
|
|
dave
Brigadier General
Posts: 1,679
|
Post by dave on Feb 14, 2017 21:57:29 GMT
I have not been on the North Carolina but have visited the Texas, New Jersey and Alabama. The Bama is just not a pretty ship being so stubby looking. Regards Dave
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Feb 15, 2017 10:44:16 GMT
Well I must admit that a large 61 is a dead give away, if it was Japanese it should have been 六十一, but what an error on the part of the author of that site, if I showed a picture of a Sherman tank on a web page about a T-34 on my site, then I would be laughed out of town and never again taken seriously by the tank fraternity.
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Feb 15, 2017 15:47:05 GMT
Ian: That picture of Iowa was taken in June 1957 in Hampton Roads, where the James River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, between Norfolk on the south side and Hampton and Newport News on the north side. It was during the International Naval Review celebrating the 350th Anniversary of the landing at Jamestown.
You an see that the ship is dressed overall, that a lot of the WWII auto anti-air weapons have been landed, the cats are long gone, and the stern aircraft handling crane is in the folded down position. It appears that the ship's company is preparing to man the rails for the review by Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower.
That review was a very big deal, and there has not been one that large since. Lots of RN ships were there plus ships from every major naval nation. I seem to remember that even the Ruskies sent one of the gun cruisers.
|
|
|
Post by yanmacca on Feb 15, 2017 15:51:12 GMT
Chuck, that whole event was filmed; link
|
|
|
Post by quincannon on Feb 15, 2017 16:10:38 GMT
I guess I was mistaken on the Queen and Eisenhower. I know they both participated in some Jamestown events together, but the thing I most vividly remember is the Queen visiting a Safeway Grocery store in DC during that period. There was a big spread on her visit to the store in the Washington Post.
Glad the film featured Canberra. She was the only U S cruiser ever named for a foreign city and honors HMAS Canberra lost off of Guadalcanal. Her original name was to be Pittsburg, but that was changed before she was launched. I look forward to a model coming out this year of Baltimore, which I will build as Canberra in her original rig as an all-gun cruiser. The model will be about 2 feet long. Of course that is after I finish my current "to do" list of Bon Homme Richard, Calhoun, North Carolina, and Massachusetts.
|
|