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  • What if...?

    It was said that battleships were so expensive, so complex, and so prestigious, that navies wouldn't commit them to battle lightly. They were surrounded by escorts of all types, costing even more money and tying up even more assets that could have been committed elsewhere.

    What if Imperial Germany invested in a doctrine that featured squadrons of cruisers as the centerpiece of its fleet rather than getting into a battleship building contest with the UK just before WWI?

    Each heavy cruiser could be accompanied by 2 light cruisers and a few destroyers, prowling the oceans, looking for vulnerable British merchant ships to kill. The Royal navy would have to send cruisers of its own to hunt down German cruisers. Since Germany did not invest in battleships, that would have negated the Royal Navy's greatest strengths. Germans could out-build the British in cruisers and achieve a numerical, or even a qualitative advantage. If battleships show up, turn and run.

    Would something like this work? Could this have happened?
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

  • #2
    A good question considering the fact that the British built many cruisers as well did the USN. If they were lacking I dont see any reason why the US would not give them to the Brits under lend lease much like the DD's and other craft. Or perhaps the Brits could have heavily invested in subs like Germany did when they realized they couldn't win the surface battle against the RN. Two world wars started by Germany both having major Naval confrontation and both times they lost due to not only superior numbers in shipping and radar but also natural resources and materials needed to build those ships.

    If they (Germany) didnt build battleships but yet cruisers, the simpliest strategy to defeat them would be kill their bases of logistics and repair, and immediately hunt down their refueling tankers. Battleships even refueled cruisers in those days (Bismark and Prince Eugan) for instance. Without them, their tankers would be spread to thin and their operations at sea very limited outside of sub warfare since Germany was known to build gas guzzlers as far as the BB's and CA's were concerned.

    *Interesting question to ponder though.:)
    Last edited by Dreadnought; 13 Jan 10,, 20:05.
    Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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    • #3
      Destroyers can't prowl the oceans. The big German wartime destroyers ranged to 2500nm at 20 knots.
      The big problem for the Germans will be logistics. Where do all these ships get their fuel?
      The German abandonment of battleships allows the British to concentrate on cruiser construction. It's possible this will save everybody some money and give the Germans a fleet that can actually accomplish something before getting wiped out.
      By around 1905, the British had built two and a half times as many cruisers as the Germans. There is less chance of the Germans outbuilding the British in cruisers than in battleships.

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      • #4
        a problem that I can see with this.. sure you have a bunch of say 8" gun heavy cruisers, with some tin cans as escorts that your going to use to take out convoys.. the solution.. the battle cruiser.. as fast as the heavy cruiser, able to take the punishment of an 8" gun (but not a battleship's guns) and have a couple of those escort your convoys..

        just have say a 25 ship convoy with 2 or 3 BC's as escorts.. here comes an enemy wolf pack of cruisers.. there go the CA's to the bottom and the convoy steams safely across the ocean..

        this is copied from wickipedia...

        The use of battlecruisers as commerce raiders was curtailed following an attack by the Admiral Scheer on a convoy guarded by the HMS Jervis Bay, an armed merchant cruiser. It persuaded the British Admiralty that convoys had to be guarded by battleships or battlecruisers. The older R-class battleships and the un-upgraded Queen Elizabeths (Malaya and Barham) were used for this task, for which they were quite adequate despite their age, and subsequently the smaller German ships were forced away from their quarry
        Last edited by dundonrl; 15 Jan 10,, 16:54.

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        • #5
          I was hoping to avoid the topic of dreadnoughts because I'm lazy and it opens up an entirely new line of inquiry. At that time, "heavy cruisers" referred to any large cruiser, and these could mount guns of 7.6in or more, anything up to 12in. Battlecruisers would be considered heavy cruisers. If Germany built only battlecruisers rather than dreadnought battleships, it might dictate a greater emphasis on battlecruisers in the RN. Fisher already wanted to end battleship construction and build a fleetful of battlecruisers, so maybe that would happen.

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          • #6
            This sounds like an interesting idea, and it probably would work quite well if they stuck with it. I wonder if cruisers wouldn't end up getting bigger and stronger until they were smaller battleships/battlecruisers -- sort of like the USN Alaska class. How much less does a large cruiser cost? Is heavy armor the major cost difference?
            sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
            If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

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