Most distinguished battleship?

[Dreadnought]

Just when I thought Jutland was "the" battle you throw a curve and I now have to google another event ( how do you spell it again K - something

*They are one in the same battles however the German people didnt call it Jutland although it took place around the Jutland peninsula.

Kattegat is a sea in the northern part of Europe between the Danish peninsula Jutland, the Danish island Zealand, and the western coast of Sweden.

To the north-west is Skagerrak. Kattegat is connected to the Baltic Sea through the Danish Straits and Belts.;)

[Tarek Morgen]

In German the Battle is know after the Skagerrak, not the Kattegat. Though I was always a bit surprised by the naming. Jutland would have been much easier to the German tounge then Skagerrak

[Prof]

I'll be happy with the Warspite as the most distinguished battleship. However, Jutland was the location of the most distinguished (or at least the funniest, in terms of dry British understatement) naval flag officer's comment ever.

After a couple of his battle cruisers blew up during early exchange of fire with the 5 German battle cruisers present, Vice-Admiral Beatty turned to his flag captain & remarked, "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today." The guy seems to have been something of a screw-up, but I think that's 'way cool.

Prof

[Archdude]

Warspite

As proud a Yank as I am, I must give the credit where it is most due. My vote is for HMS Warspite.

Same for me!

[Archdude]

She really is something, it's hard to believe that she's survived all these years (same as HMS Warrior)...




Best Regards

I understand the British MOD is looking to finf her a new home, like at Portsmouth, next to HMS Victory.

[TopHatter]

After a couple of his battle cruisers blew up during early exchange of fire with the 5 German battle cruisers present, Vice-Admiral Beatty turned to his flag captain & remarked, "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today." The guy seems to have been something of a screw-up, but I think that's 'way cool.

Agreed.

And his very next words were a command to turn toward the enemy.

At least he didn't lack for Nelsonian aggressiveness.

[USSWisconsin]

The Goeben didn't do anything?

But she didn't *do* anything. Plus not many people have ever even heard of her compared to the number that have heard of Hood, Warspite, PoW, Bismark et al.

The Goeben embarassed the British and French Mediterranean fleets by getting past them, delayed Italy's entry into WWI due to incidents involved in that chase, and helped bring Turkey into WWI on the side of the Germans. Her combat record was not as distinguished as the Warspite, but what she did was very significant. The Dardenallels campaign that resulted, cost many lives, and the closed passage to the Black Sea contributed significantly to the end of Imperial Russia. The ships mentioned, with the exception oif Warspite all served briefly in WWII alone, and, IMO, all but Warspite had less substantially shorter and less significant careers than Goeben.

SMS Goeben - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[USSWisconsin]

An excellent account of Goeben's impact on world politics early in WWI can be found in Chapter 2 of Robert Massie's "Castles of Steel". The Goeben did see considerable combat, though most of it was in a little documented area of WWI, the Black Sea - she once engaged five russian battleships by herself and survived, after seriously damaging two of them, and also sunk a substantial number of ships. The British were compelled to keep strong surface forces in the eastern Mediterranean throughout WWI due to the threat she posed. She also had the longest service career of any unmodified dreadnought warship. And unlike Hood, POW, and Bismark - she wasn't sunk in her first year or so of active combat service.

[USSWisconsin]

The most effective warship in history?
The SMS Goeben (1912), which operated together with her escorting cruiser the SMS Breslau under the Turkish flag, was perhaps the most destructive of all the modern battleships. While she was actually considered a battlecruiser by the Kaiserliche Marine, the Turks who acquired her in 1914 classified her as a battleship and renamed her Yavuz. The Germans built their battlecruisers with battleship class armor and lighter guns, rather than light armor and heavy guns like the British units (so these “battlecruisers” more aptly fit the description of fast battleship). This ship served in the Turkish navy until 1973, as the flagship until 1950, the longest operational period for any modern battleship in history. The Goeben and Breslau were stationed in the Mediterranean at the start of the war, and the entire British Mediterranean fleet was tasked with their destruction, in a remarkable episode of miscommunication and incompetence by the local fleet commander Admiral A B Milne, they were allowed to escape to Turkey. The French fleet also failed to play any part in the pursuit, and its
commander, Admiral A de Lapeyrere was also replaced. Due to poor diplomacy on the part of the British, the Turks were denied the British built battleships (Sultan Osman -Agincourt and Reshadieh-Erin) which they had paid for and arrived to collect. The British seized the ships (and their crews, which they interned) by force without negotiations or compensation (future compensation was promised). This was a major insult to Turkey, additionally Turkey's old enemy the Russians was now allied with Britain. When the Germans offered the two ships as a gift, Turkey accepted ships and soon
joined Germany in the war. The following Gallipoli and Dardanelles campaigns cost Britain and France many ships and many thousands of lives, that may have been spared had Turkey remained neutral. It is likely that a more diplomatic handling of the situation leading up to this could have averted this situation and left Turkey as a non-combatant, or even possibly an ally. It is likely that the two battleships in Turkish hands would have been less of a threat than the Goeben and Breslau turned out to be, particularly considering the experienced crews that came with the German ships. The two British
built battleships would not have been very effective in Turkish service without British assistance to provide ammunition and mechanical support. The German ships were fully supported, and represented the finest of the German navy. The closing of the straits of Dardanelles prevented the Russians from receiving much needed supplies throughout the war, and the attempts to open them diverted much needed men and material from the European campaigns. In contrast the addition of the two confiscated
Turkish battleships to the Royal Navy had little effect on the outcome of the war.
While the individual accounts of the Goeben and Breslau are not extraordinary with regard to the damage they inflicted, though they did acquit themselves very well and inflict considerable damage. And like the Bismark some 28 years later, they tied up much of the Royal Navy during their pursuit, but unlike the Bismark, they were not caught, which in itself created a fervor in the British Admiralty which had lasting ramifications and greatly upset the career of many key figures, including Winston Churchill. Due to the larger situation surrounding them, their impact on the war was unprecedented.
The courts martial of Admiral Troubridge, who was blamed for the escape of the two ships, contributed to Cradock's suicidal attack on Von Spee's cruisers in the Battle of the Coronel, since he was not about to allow himself to be accused of letting them get away as Troubridge had been with Goeben and Breslau.

“they brought more slaughter, more misery and ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship”
Winston Churchill

[Dreadnought]

And just think the Turks kept her in service as Yavuz till long after WWII. The Krauts knew how to build ships in those days. There was a good picture of Yavuz wearing her "dazzle" camo and USS Iowa together at a naval review shortly after WWII.:)