Historical DD's and torpedos - was Re: [OFFICIAL] Missile Ideas

On Wed, 2 Apr 1997, Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:

> On Tue, 1 Apr 1997, Phillip E. Pournelle wrote:
> 
> >   Historically, Destoyers were created to prevent smaller torpedo
boats to
> >  engage capital ships and sink them.  
> 
> While that is true, the the danger of surface torpedo attack was
grossly 
> overestimated in the early dreadnought years. I haven't found a SINGLE

> record of a DD or smaller ships sinking a capital ship.
>
That's because they were terrified of torpedo attacks, and took a lot of
precautions to avoid them.  The threat was real....  I think however
that
a far more likely reason that the DD was so popular is subs, which tend
not to crop up in many FT games ....
> 
> Their real function was that of deterrant: "If you close, you'll get
us 
> and what we're guarding, but we'll torpedo you while you're at it."
>
True - but I don't think they were that pessamistic.  A good spread of
torps would sink a BB or at least slow her to a point that the DD's and
acompanying ships could escape.

			----------------------------

For an example as to how real the threat of torpedos was look at
something
like the Graf Spee and the battle of the River plate.  Graff Spee was
easily winning the battle vs Exeter (8" cruiser) Ajax and Achillies (6"
cruisers), thanks to her experianced gunnary crews and superior armament
(6x11", 8x6")  However having crippled Exeter, her only real threat,
Graff
Spee fled battle due to the risk of a torpedo run from Ajax and
Achillies,
who's main armament was useless against the pocket battle ships
armour.....

One questions here, what would people classify a pocket battleship as
???
BC or CA or something else ???