Military History | How To Make War | Wars Around the World Rules of Use How to Behave on an Internet Forum
Surface Forces Discussion Board
   Return to Topic Page
Subject: Top Ten Warships of All Time- Miltary Channel
buzzard    5/30/2006 10:54:25 AM
OK, yesterday I caught part of this show on the Military Channel. It had, IMO a rather odd set of picks for the top ships in history. I really don't quite get how they made their evaluations. 1 Iowa Class battleships 2 Nimitz Carriers 3 Aegis Cruisers 4 Queen Elizabeth Battleships 5 Fletcher Destroyers 6 North Caroina Class 7 Essex Class carriers 8 Bismark 9 Graf Spee 10 Hood (!?!) Now I'm not sure of the order (precisely, though I know 1-4 are correct), and maybe they limited things to the 20th century (which seems like the only way this list could be excusable). I have to ask, what the hell were they thinking? The Hood did not even vaguely deserve to be on the list other than due to noteriety. The Bismark and Graf Spee were pretty much meaningless in effect. Why are there no submarines even on the list? So, given this rather strange list we are presented with, what would your choices be. For the sake of argument, let's limit things to 20th century. Since I chose this forum choice, why don't we stick to surface ships at that. buzzard
 
Quote    Reply

Show Only Poster Name and Title     Newest to Oldest
Pages: PREV  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10   NEXT
Herald12345       5/7/2008 11:08:31 PM

 

Herald, you had to go for the ladle right off the bat!  Did it ever occur to you that perhaps the cooks were in fact belly-button fighting?   That would make for one awkward Navel battled but I suppose it would satisfy ljr-s odd rationale. 



Yes it occurred to me that they would unbutton their gunports, as they went to battle stations, and that they would slug it out belly to belly a la Nelson, in a true navel battle: but I thought that was pushing the PUNishment a little to far. When I ladle out the potage des écrous, I just want to spoon out the right proportion of the ridiculous......

Herald
 
Quote    Reply

PowerPointRanger    Standard   5/8/2008 10:11:42 PM

I think in order for us to objectively list the best warships of all times, we have set our standards.  What exactly are we looking at?  The gross number of enemy ships sunk?  Tonnage of enemy ships sunk? Biggest?  Most firepower?  Most armor?  Most built?  The sexiest looking warship?

I'm open to a discussion of which would be the best standard for judgement.

Certainly there are ships out there that would make most of the lists.  I know the Iowa, Nimits, Fletcher, and Essex would make most lists.

My personal pick would be the Yorktown (CV-5) class.  While there were only three ships in this class, they each distinguished themselves in their own way.  Two were sunk (the Yorktown CV-5, and the Hornet CV-8), but both took an impressive pounding and still refused to go down, even after they were abandoned.  The last survivor, the Enterprise (CV-6) finished WW II with more battle stars (17) than any other ship (the next nearest ship had 12) including most of the pivot battles of the war (such as Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Philippine Sea, & Iwo Jima).

 

Critics of the class say it lacked armor (like its successor, the Essex class, or its British counter-parts).  I do not consider this a defect so much as a deliberate trade-off.  Designers sacrificed deck armor in order to make the ships faster (thus more elusive) and carry more aircraft.  The wooden flight deck also allowed for quick repair of battle damage.  As I mentioned above, each ship took an enourmous beating in battle and kept going, which is proof that the lack of armor did not diminish their survivability.

 As for their striking power, of the 13 Japanese carriers sunk by carriers during WW II, the Yorktown class was in on 9 (including the elite 6 of the Pearl Harbor strike force). Especially impressive considering how many more Essex class carriers were out there.

 This ship gets my vote.

 
 
Quote    Reply

Herald12345    Mission effectiveness.   5/9/2008 8:08:53 PM


I think in order for us to objectively list the best warships of all times, we have set our standards.  What exactly are we looking at?  The gross number of enemy ships sunk?  Tonnage of enemy ships sunk? Biggest?  Most firepower?  Most armor?  Most built?  The sexiest looking warship?


I'm open to a discussion of which would be the best standard for judgement.


Certainly there are ships out there that would make most of the lists.  I know the Iowa, Nimits, Fletcher, and Essex would make most lists.


My personal pick would be the Yorktown (CV-5) class.  While there were only three ships in this class, they each distinguished themselves in their own way.  Two were sunk (the Yorktown CV-5, and the Hornet CV-8), but both took an impressive pounding and still refused to go down, even after they were abandoned.  The last survivor, the Enterprise (CV-6) finished WW II with more battle stars (17) than any other ship (the next nearest ship had 12) including most of the pivot battles of the war (such as Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Philippine Sea, & Iwo Jima).


 


Critics of the class say it lacked armor (like its successor, the Essex class, or its British counter-parts).  I do not consider this a defect so much as a deliberate trade-off.  Designers sacrificed deck armor in order to make the ships faster (thus more elusive) and carry more aircraft.  The wooden flight deck also allowed for quick repair of battle damage.  As I mentioned above, each ship took an enourmous beating in battle and kept going, which is proof that the lack of armor did not diminish their survivability.


 As for their striking power, of the 13 Japanese carriers sunk by carriers during WW II, the Yorktown class was in on 9 (including the elite 6 of the Pearl Harbor strike force). Especially impressive considering how many more Essex class carriers were out there.


 This ship gets my vote.



 


Examples include the Leanders as I mentioned, the Type VII U-boats, the Yorktowns, the Clevelands, the Liberties, the Flowers, the Gatos, the LSTs. 

Did they function as intended and were they most effective of type for the mission intended?

That would be my criteria.   

Herald
 
Quote    Reply

Claret       5/21/2008 9:36:19 PM
1) HMS Warspite - WWI to WWII not out.
2) USS Enterprise - Participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other US ship
3) HMS Exter, Ajax and Achilles - classic squadron action, out gunned but not out thought (thanks to the FO in Montevideo)
4) Admiral Graf Spee - (see above) every true classic fight has a great protaganist, Hanns Langsdorff's was one of the last true gentlemen.
5) USS Nimitz - The very definition of modern navel power.
6) Auroa - October Revolution 1917
7) HMS Hermes - 1953 ~ 1985, Falklands 1982 , still serving as INS Viraat until at least 2012.
8) HMS Acasta - Her dogged defence (along with HMS Ardent) of the carrier HMS Glorious against Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. (this engagement is still under the MoD's 100 year rule) ?!
9) USS Hornet - The Doolittle raid alone scores this carrier a place.
10) Tirpitz - How a ship that never made an offensive sea run managed to tie so much time, planning and various crack pot schemes is frankly amazing !
 
Quote    Reply

kensohaski       5/22/2008 9:57:38 AM

My bad, I was uninformed about the later British battleships of the war. I know that going in the best they had were 14 inch guns owing to cost considerations. Not to excuse my ignorance, but wasn't upgunning battleships during WW II rather like closing the barn door once the horse was gone? By that point everyone had a pretty good picture that Carriers were the dominant naval arm. I probably wouldn't list any battleship as greatly significant during WW II.

So ignore my ignorance on that. I'd still like to see any rational case for the Hood being a #1 warship by any practical measure.

buzzard


My reasons would be simple.  She carried the political message of HMG around the world.  She was the icon of British power.  Unfortunately she missed her refit...  Or she would be sitting next to the HMS Victorious... (that is the ship is it not?).
 
Quote    Reply

kensohaski       5/22/2008 10:00:15 AM
Jeep carriers, DE's, Liberty Ships, ect should have been given a slot.  These underated and unglamorous ships did a lot of the dirty work.  Remember Taffy 3?
 
Quote    Reply

Wicked Chinchilla       5/22/2008 10:30:57 AM
One type of ship that has yet to be named but should be up there are the many variants of dedicated landing craft.  The strongest fleet in the world with no capability of putting boots on the beach is an expensive buoy...
 
Just ask the Japanese how much it sucked to be limited by that factor.
 
Quote    Reply

Jimbos       3/17/2009 3:23:12 PM
  do think that there are quite a few that missed the question........ or it was not stated correctly !
  Does say 10 warships .... maybe the first of a class are important, as it does identify the purpose of the ship,
what it is to do out there, on the seas.  The Hood was the first of a Battleship class. The South dakota was a
class of Battle ship, as was the North Carolina and IOWA class battle ship. The Essex class carrier came into being as there were too darn many different carrier configurations ...so build them all the same. They did this with Destroyers, the Fletchers
are all the same, as were the Sumner class destroyer, which improved upon Fletcher, as did the Gearing when the Sumner
was updated ( more fuel ). Then in 1956 The Forrest Sherman class destroyer was launched,  then Sprunace class destroyer was update, which was updated with Burke class.
  Class is type of ship, carrier, tanker, submarine, etc.  
  
 
Quote    Reply

JTR~~    RE:top ten warships of all time   3/1/2010 3:24:07 PM
thats an easy one, but one some people seem to be getting confused with. for a start the iowa class battleship although very good and with an excellent servie history doesnt really stand out as great, whereas the infamous HMS Victory does. the same with USS Consitution, it may be important for americans, but what impact did it really make?
my top ten is based simply on global impact. i will explain my reasons at the end.
1.HMS Victory
2.HMS Warrior
3.La gloire
4.HMS Engadine
5. USS monitor
6.HMS Dreadnought
7.Bismark
8.HMS Hood
9.Nimitz class carriers
10.Viking long ship
 
reasons
HMS victory helped to secure the very future of the modern world, helped to define modern day europe, secured complete british naval dominance which helped to establish an empire and has become a national icon. how?. the battle of trafalgar was one of the most important naval engagments in the world, and if the british had lost it would have left them open to invasion against the vast armies of emporer Napoleon, and therefore there would have been no Waterloo etc.
 
HMS Warrior secured naval dominance with only a reputation, something that no other ship has ever done. it was completely revolutionary and helped pave the way for future battleships.
 
La gloire was the very first ironclad which was a big leap forward in naval technology
 
HMS Engadine, the very first true aircraft carrier in service in 1910, helped pave the wat for modern designs, completely revolutionary.
 
USS monitor, helped to secure the reupation of ironclad technology and played a pivitol role in the battles that it took part in
 
HMS Dreacnought, the very first battleship, and helped pave the way for many other great ships, and naval engagments such a Jutland.
 
Bismark, the most adavanced warship of its day, far superior to any contemporary, changed the way modern battleships were designed, and had a reuptation as big as its guns
 
HMS Hood, one of the most famous ships in the Royal navy, coincidentally sunk by the Bismark and Prince Eugen. was the last of the old battleships, with its dimise came the end of an era, but for its age was considered as the most advanced ship of its time (in the 1920/30s). notable heroism was displayed upon its sinking as even when the ship was sinking at 90 degrees going in backwards the frontal turret deffiantly fired a last salvo at the Bismark as it slipped beneath the waves, only 3 men survived.
 
Nimitz class carriers, a modern supercarrier with immense power prjection capabilities
 
Viking Long Shipe, the first ships to reach Asia, America and Africa, they could conquer oceans, something that many civilisations would struggle to do for another 200-400 years, they were truly pioneering.
 
anyway they are just my views, and really the crew makes the ship, the machine is only half of the story.
 
Quote    Reply

JTR~~    RE:top ten warships of all time   3/1/2010 3:26:46 PM
or i forgot of course
the german U- boats have to make it on to the list, they were amazing, allies almost lost WW2 because of those little menaces.
 
Quote    Reply
PREV  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10   NEXT



 Latest
 News 		  Most
 Read 		  Most
 Commented		  Hot
 Topics