For all you Dreadnought fans I've uploaded a few pics to my gallery from the battle. Imagine it, a couple score battleships and Battlecruisers, dozens of armored and light cruisers, hundreds of destroyers, even a seaplane carrier, all sailing in close proximity.

http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php?cat=14649

What a sight it must have been.

Yes Sir!
What a sight it would have been!!!
Ron

It would have been a sight.

But still no WW1 Ship kits so we can not recreate this clash of titans in plastic.

Ciao
Luciano

The ICM Konig and Grosser Kurfurst are still available - they were at Jutland. Mike Taylor just did a beautiful Grosser Kurfurst as of Jutland and posted pictures on this site. Granted, that's only two ships...

It was one of the last great clashes between batleships. There was only two in World War 2 the Bsmarck and the one in the South Phillipine sea that had our old battleships and Japanese facing off

Actually Steve there are more clashes between BB in the war. A fellow on another board I hang out at, http://www.historic-battles.com/ForumSoftware/index.php wrote this very good list.



1. North Sea (April 9, 1940). The undergunned German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst engaged the old British battlecruiser Renown in an indecisive action off southern Norway.

2. Mers El Kébir (July 3, 1940). The old British battleships Resolution and Valiant, with the battlecruiser Hood and some other ships, attacked the French fleet near Oran, Algeria, destroying the old battleship Bretagne, severely damaging her sister Provence, and less seriously damaging the new battleship Dunkerque, whle the latter's sister Strasbourg managed to escape unscathed.

3. Calabria (July 9, 1940). An Italian squadron including the reconstructed old battleships Giulo Cesare and Conte di Cavour was intercepted by a British squadron including the older battleships Warspite, Royal Sovereign and Malaya, resulting in an indecisive but often intense action lasting about 50 minutes.

4. Denmark Strait (May 24, 1941). In a brief morning enounter in the Denmark Strait (between Iceland and Greenland), the new German battleship Bismarck took several hits while sinking the British battlecruiser Hood and damaging the very new (still had shipyard workers aboard) battleship Prince of Wales. Later that afternoon Bismarck and Prince of Wales briefly clashed again, without ill effects to either.

5. North Altantic (May 27, 1941). After a wide-ranging chase across the Atlantic, Bismarck, slowed by several aerial-torpedo hits, was pounded to pieces by the new British battleship King George V and the older Rodney, reducing the German ship to a burning wreck which was finished off by several torpedoes.

6. Casablanca (November 8, 1942). The new USS Massachusetts exchanged several hundred rounds of heavy shells with the partially completed French Jean Bart, which was tied up to a dock. Jean Bart, which had only half her main guns mounted, was heavily damaged.

7. The Second (Naval) Battle of Guadalcanal (November 14-15, 1942). In a wild action which began shortly before midnight, a Japanese squadron including the battlecruiser Kirishima engaged the new Washington and South Dakota. The latter suffered considerable damage, while Washington pounded Kirishima so badly (nine 16" hits in the first few minutes) that she had to be scuttled the next day.

8. North Cape (December 26, 1943). Off the northernmost point of Europe, a British squadron including the new battleship Duke of York encountered the German Scharnhorst, resulting in the latter's sinking after a protracted slugfest.

9. Surigao Strait (October 24-25, 1944). The old U.S. battleships Mississippi, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, California and Pennsylvania (all but the first veterans of Pearl Harbor), supported by numerous smaller warships, ambushed a Japanese force including the old battleships Fuso and Yamashiro, which were annihilated in an action so one-sided that Pennsylvania never got to fire. This was the last time battleships ever fired on each other.

I thought this was pretty well thought out list. He only included battleship to battleship actions, so he didn't include Narvik, where HMS Waspite destroyed the German destroyer force in Norway, Matapan, where Warspite and other BBs sank three Italian heavy cruisers, 1st Naval Battle of Guadalcanal where a US cruiser destroyer force crippled the Hiei enough so she was sunk the next day.

Thanks for the update Roger. I was thinking only of moving multiple ship vs ship which is why I didn't mention pounding the French fleet. Didn't know about the Italian vs British encounter in 1940. Suriago Straits is the only large scale BB vs BB that could be mentioned in the same breath as Jutland. I've also only thought of the Scharnorst and Geisenau as BC's as they only had 12" guns, yet the Germans did classify them as BB's. I wonder what the outcome of the Bismarck fiasco would have been if one or both of them had been with her.

Blaster,
11 inch guns on Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but I agree it would have been very different if they'd been included with the Bismark. Or even if Germany had waited until Tirpitz and Graf Zeppelin were in commision. Think of it, say about mid 1943, 2x15" BB's 2x11" BB's, 1xCV, 2x11" CA's (the 2 remaining pocket battleships), around 4x8" CA's (Seydlitz commisioned), plus CL's and destroyers. If that lot had sailed what would the Home Fleet have used to stop it?
Tom

"What would the Home Fleet have used to stop it?" Same thing they used in 1941, aircraft. Having the Germans put all their eggs in one basket like that would probably have been the best thing the Royal Navy could have asked for. All told you're still talking about two 15" gun BB and two 11" gun BB. (The Germans did not consider the Twins BCs) If they were all in one place the RN could bring to bear Four 14" gun BBs, two 16" gun BBs, between eight and ten 15" BBs, one 15" BB (Hood properly should be considered a fast BB, not a BC, since she had similar protection to the Queen Elizabeth BBs), two 15" BCs, six to eight fleet carriers, I'm not sure how many escort carriers. Plus all the cruisers and destroyers. This is all based on no losses that really happened in the war but pure hypothetical.

What made the German fleet a challenge is it was spread out. The RN didn't know where it would come from and had to spread themselves thin to cover all the exits. If they had concentrated in one area the RN would have also.

I see what your saying Halfyank, but the Home Fleet was never that big. With commitments in other areas and losses up to that date (Royal Oak, Hood, Barham, POW, Repulse just off the top of my head). he same with carriers. I think it would have been a push. I agree about the aircraft though, even with Graff Zepellin the German's would have been seriously outnumbered.
Tom

Thanks for posting the pix !!!

What I found most interesting when I first saw the picture of Invincible split in half was to find out the North Sea is only 30-70 meters deep & so they would really rest on the bottom as shown.

And why submarine warfare in the North Sea is so risky .... Not much room to dive & hide ....

John