hypotetical senario

lets say we have the rodney against bismarck
what are the main differences, advantajes and disadvantajes and who can win and why
any taker?
perhaps tiornu can shed some light on this matter

 

If Rodney has the crew that was aboard during the historical Bismarck battle, then Bismarck would likely win. Rodney had been the source of ongoing personnel scavenging, so she had a thrown-together sort of crew that had been intended to bring the ship to America for refit, not to fight a battle. It took somewhere around 17 salvos for her to score a straddle on Bismarck. On the other hand, what was Bismarck doing all that time?
Under more equal conditions, Bismarck is still the larger, newer ship, so by all rights she ought to be superior. It's hard to find much advantage, though. Rondey's main guns were likely to stay in the fight much longer. Her hull was subject to a lot of flooding to non-penetrating hits, so if she doesn't score decisively early on, she could be in trouble. If Bismarck got it trouble, she'd be better suited to flight.

 

do you think that the different speeds, 29 vs 23, can affect the outcome?

 

Not to any appreciable extent. Speed can help you escape, but that's about it.

 

based on your earlier post, it seems like bismark has the edge over the Rodney.

 

Couldn't three forward turrets give Rodney an edge in some way?

 

An edge in the Ugly contest, yes, but that's about it.

 

and quadrupole guns.

 

Considering that Bismarck was much newer ship (15 years) and displacing around 20-25% more than Rodney, latter manages itself quite well...

 

Given the trouble Rodney had with her triple mounts, the thought of quads is a scary one. But much of the trouble was caused by weight-saving efforts, so maybe the quads would have been inherently weight-saving enough that no skimping would have been needed--thus obviating the problem.

 

Without the bloody torpedo hit, which jammed Bismarck's rudder and steering gear, she would have reached Brest of course. Nevertheless would she be able to engage and survive her historical last battle against KGV and Rod. Another question would be the course of the Bismarck, why did Lütjens not return to Norway instead of the longer way to france ?

 

Bis vs. KGV and Rodney: That is 1 vs 2 situation so all odds are against the sole fighter. But then again, so was at Denmark Strait...
It shows that anything isn't certain in battle, just probabilities.
I'd say Bis would take the beating here and sink unless it breaks away and escapes at early parts of the battle.

 

Lütjes went to Brest because the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were already in that port plus, Prinz Eugen would also go to Brest after here convoy hunting.
If Lütjes had succeeded then a couple months later the germans would reattack on the Atlantic with a battleship, two battlecruisers and a heavy cruiser.

 

Then all that happens is the RN bags the lot in one go, rather than spending the whole war waiting around for them to show up.

They might well cause havoc with a convoy or two, and could give RN units a nasty knock or three, but numbers are not exactly in their favour. Neither is air cover.

 

If RN can force contact with their main battleline yes, but frankly that's a bt ify. Bismarck, the twins and PZ have no incentive to try to duke it out with the whole RN but they'll butcher any convoy they come across.

 

Did any battleship ever engage a convoy in the Atlantic at all?

 

Admiral Scheer attacked Convoy HX-84 28/10/1940. The AMC HMS Jervis Bay mounted a brave but hopeless defense, however she did buy enough time for most of the convoy to escape.

The twins backed off from an encounter with HMS Ramilies when she was escorting Convoy HX-106.

Those are the only cases I can think of.

 

But if a German force of that strength is out there, I think that the RN might just start looking quite hard for them. Think of the effort that was expended on the Bismark, just one ship...

 

What type of ship was HMS Ramilies?

 

Battleship. R-class.