I opened this to start a discussion. Y'know, though, it'll taking people about three days to post a responce. Eh, Whatever, I'll go ahead anyway.

Regarding the german Battleship Bismarck, when some people say that it is over rated, they do have a point. Regardless, the reason why the Bismarck was a famed warship was because of the fact that the either the Bismarck and her escort cruiser, the Prinz Eugen, sank the good ol' pride of the British navy, the HMS Hood. Oh, no, Hood definately wasn't the best ship in the navy; Far from it. The Hood was a battlecruiser that had been constructed shortly after The Battle of Jutland, a battle that was decidedly a draw.

Hood was one of the longest ships in the British Navy, and was very well regarded by the public in general. The reason WHY Hood was sunk so violently was because

A): She was a very over-worked ship. Hood originally was supposed to be refit in 1940, but with the outbreak of WWII, she never was refit. Instead, Hood spent most of 1939-40 on patrol and escorting marchant vessel from U-Boat attack.

B): She had very thin deck armour. VERY thin deck armour, and at the range that Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, this was quite exposed, and allowed the Bismarck to hit the ammo magazine.

C): The Hood charged in and only had two Gun batteries able to fire on the german ships; Bismarck could IIRC deliver a full broadside.

Hood was hit in the ammo magazine at a range of 11-12.5 miles, from Bismarck's 15inch battery. This igonited a fire that could be easily seen from far off. Hood eventually was blown in half, and out of a crew of over 1400 sailours, only three survived.

With the loss of the pride of the Royal Navy, The British nearly went apeshit over the Hood's loss. this all happened on the 24th of May, 1941. Two days later, Swordfish torpedo bombers, off the Carrier Ark Royal, found the Bismarck, as she had one of her fuel tanks punctured during the fight with Price Of Wales and Hood. As such, the Swordfish
found the Battleship by an oil-slick. The bombers managed to knock-out the rudder. Prince of Wales, and several escorting warships ganged-up on Bismarck, and damaged her to the point of the ship was seeming going to sink. As such, PoW and escorts withdrew. The remaining personnel on the Bismarck scutted the ship, to ensure that she was not going to be captured.

So, there's the sorid, abridged history of Bismarck's popularity, and why it eventually became so.

Next up: Yamato and Iowa. Which was better, in an actuall scrape?

In warfare, the idea is a powerful as the weapon itself. Bismark represented the idea of the threat to Britain's line of supply--the very thing that kept them in the war and without which they would not stand a chance. Churchill himself admitted that he was terrified of the U-Boat menace, which were exactly the same idea. But unlike the U-Boats, Bismark was a much more visible representation of this. The Royal Navy put an ungodly amount of resources into hunting down Bismark--one ship--even while the U-Boats roamed the Atlantic at will. Thus Bismark had to be sunk not simply for what it was, but for what it could be and what it represented.

Aside from the battle with the Hood, I think it's final showdown with the Royal Navy is what has made it so famous. The crew on Bismark knew they didn't have a chance. The were outnumbered, outgunned and couldn't even maneuver, and still they chose to fight a battle they could not possible win. That is how legends are made.

Yep, Bismarck did pretty well for itself given that it was technologically obsolete and seriously flawed from the very beginning. Apart from that one lucky shot, it never really had a chance; it was a surface raider against carriers and proper ships of the line. Its designers never intended for it to seriously take on the latter and failed to adequately prepare it for attacks by the former.

Tirpitz, on the other hand, ended up being a total waste of resources.

As for Yamato-tachi versus Iowa-tachi, the theoretical outcome depends on a lot of variables: air support, destroyer support, weather conditions, who shoots first and so on. The Yamato and Musashi had bigger guns, but the Iowa and its ilk could fire a heavier payload in one go. In addition, the American battleships outnumbered their Japanese opposites by two to one and had a pronounced speed advantage.

BobBQ wrote:Yep, Bismarck did pretty well for itself given that it was technologically obsolete and seriously flawed from the very beginning. Apart from that one lucky shot, it never really had a chance; it was a surface raider against carriers and proper ships of the line. Its designers never intended for it to seriously take on the latter and failed to adequately prepare it for attacks by the former.

Obsolete compared to what? Most Royal Navy ships were far older and much more obsolescent than Bismark. In fact, Pearl Harbor later that year marked the end of the battleship, and Musashi getting owned by aircraft planes only confirmed this. But just like the Bismark scored a lucky hit on Hood, so did Ark Royal's Swordfish planes score a lucky hit on Bismark's rudder. The resulting engagement can hardly be called a battle; Bismark was doing 7 knots (it's top speed was around 29) and it could not steer while the British circled around her and pumped her full of holes.

Not really pertaining to the topic at hand, but why is Tyrant banned, now? *shrugs*

Trigger's Elysium wrote:Not really pertaining to the topic at hand, but why is Tyrant banned, now? *shrugs*

Uh, yeah. That doesn't make any sense.

Same reason he was banned the first time, I guess. *shrugs*

I've got nothing against Exec myself, but he does have a tendency to start up flame wars.

I mean, yeah, we all know he's Executor with a funny hat, but we didn't seem to have a problem with his being here the first week or so he was hanging around...

Was he banned for just posting way too often? Otherwise his behavior was a lot better this time around. He certainly didn't deserve to get banned this time.

Again, he was already banned once. Simply coming back under a different user name doesn't negate that, good behavior or not.

For the record, 20XD6_Tyrant was Executor.

Executor was banned because he repeatedly got damn close to the line, and I got a considerable amount of complaints about his conduct. He also spammed a bit.

I temp-banned him, and I told him that he would be allowed to return, after having some time away. But instead of waiting a bit longer, he created a new account and is now banned again, and IP banned at that. Yes, his conduct was much better this time around, but that doesn't change the fact that he violated the terms of his ban.

Let this be a lesson kids. I have your IP addresses, and I know who you are. Don't think you can pull a fast one on board admin, you'll get caught eventually.

Shat, what a weasel. Trying to go behind the admins'/mods' back and pull a fast one like that...

Perhaps he thought that making the new account in a little while (he waited a little while) WAS the terms of his ban? =/

Trigger's Elysium wrote:Perhaps he thought that making the new account in a little while (he waited a little while) WAS the terms of his ban? =/

Nope, I specifically told him not to create a new account, I told him that we would tell him when he could return.

The Eva Monkey wrote:I have your IP addresses, and I know who you are. Don't think you can pull a fast one on board admin, you'll get caught eventually.

I'm both thoroughly creeped out and oddly aroused by this statement. :shock: :P

Big Brother is watching you.

Eva Yojimbo wrote:

The Eva Monkey wrote:I have your IP addresses, and I know who you are. Don't think you can pull a fast one on board admin, you'll get caught eventually.

I'm both thoroughly creeped out and oddly aroused by this statement. :shock: :P

I think you may need a shrink there...

Over a day has passed and I'm still lol'ing at that avatar they gave him. The look on that Orangutan's face is classic!

he actually thanked(sarcasticly) me for his first ban. when i saw that this thread stated how he was banned i almost thought i would be mentioned at some point.