Re: [FT] Battlecruisers vs. battleships

Hi folks, 

Eric Foley wrote:
> That may be true... except for the fact that the three battlecruisers
that
> were sunk at Jutland were destroyed in pretty much exactly the same
way:
> weak armor that got hit in the wrong place, causing a catastrophic
magazine
> explosion.

I've been trying to stay out of this discussion, but, I need to correct
something.

The problems that the British battlecrusiers suffered were due to design

flaws, allowing fire to reach their internal magazines from their 
ammunition handling rooms. It's also important to note that the British 
BCs at Jutland were engaged with their German counterparts, and not with

the main German battleline.  When Scheer appeared with the rest of the 
High Seas Fleet during this part of the battle, Beatty turned away 
and ran for it, thus allowing Jellico to engage while Scheer and 
Hipper were distracted with Beatty.  (I think only Invincible was lost
to Scheer, and that was because she was scouting for the 
British Grand Fleet.)

It's also important to note that German battlecruisers were also heavily
engaged, and they only lost one (Lutzow), after getting a pretty heavy
pounding from both Beatty's BCs, and the Grand Fleet.  (Relatively 
speaking.)  German BCs proved that a BC, properly designed, could 
take a substantial pounding and still remain operational.  Not as much
as a dreadnaught, but, definitely more damage than the badly designed
British BCs could handle.
 
A lot of what has been said in this thread was true -- BCs looked
like battleships, and were treated like battleships at times, 
and paid the price for it.  (If you want to draw an analogy, 
look at the history of the US Tank Destroyer battalions in WWII.)  
But they weren't completely absued, and they still served a required 
purpose well (e.g. Battle of the Falklands, various other convoy 
patrols) until (as somebody else noted) the coming of the aircraft 
carrier and the fast battleship.  

I'll stop babbling now.  (8-)

JGH

-- 
*** Jerry Han - jhan@warpfish.com - http://www.warpfish.com/jhan ***
"Life is waiting for you, so messed up, but we're alive
    Life is waiting for you, it's all messed up, but we'll survive."