WesWorld

Sinking a historical treaty-compliant heavy cruiser doesn't seem to have been very complicated: few 8" cruisers, if any, had sufficient protection against 8" shells. The standard for protection in particular has been raised for our 13,000 t cruisers; they do have sufficient protection against 8" shells at most ranges.

So does this change the way in which heavy cruisers fight? What's the best approach to sinking one of these beasties?

-Slug it out at medium to long range with a heavy cruiser of your own?

-Bring your own heavy cruiser to close range and have a knife fight?

-Set a flotilla of destroyers on it, and hope to trade one or two for some torpedo hits (ala the Japanese cruiser Haguro)?

-Use a capital ship at medium to long range? And if so, what kind of capital ship - fast battleship, battlecruiser, or "large cruiser"?

-Borrow the nearest friendly flattop?

J

I think I might try either the carrier or the BC. But it would depend on what kind of CA I am facing.

Walter

Well, if its out commerce raiding, suprisingly little will do. All you need is the prospect of inflicting enough damage to slow the raider down, and the raider likely looks for easier prey.

For convoy defense, how about an AMC to attract fire and cover the torpedo run of a couple of destroyers or torpedo-packing fast corvettes?

As for killing them, bringing up capital ships is problematic, since many of our CAs make 30+ knots, whereas few BBs or BCs do.

Other CAs likely will produce mutual destruction. Several of us have very lethal designs on paper or under construction, and if equal meets equal, the winner will be quite a mess.

CVs are excellent. They have far more search capability than the raider, so pre-RADAR, the raider may well not know she has been detected until the airstrike arrives.

Easy answer:

I would place some subs around their bases and use my CLs (cheap, and I have many of them) to lure them out for playing....

Would be similar to Hoomans, useing several smaller ships to bring her down. A cruiser armed with 12x8" is stronger than one with 8 but two 8x8 cruisers will be quite a match for that same cruiser. Not only do they up the number of guns but also pose a 2 on 1 threat, if you consintrate on one the other will nail you, if you split your guns your rate of hits will go down.

That plan would work, but you might find yourself in the same situation as the single CA we started with but now with two CAs. You will get into trouble if an enemy carrier is around.

Quoted

As for killing them, bringing up capital ships is problematic, since many of our CAs make 30+ knots, whereas few BBs or BCs do.

Hmmm... Reminds me of the movie 'Battle of River Plate', the conversation between Captain Dove and Captain Langsdorff.

Walter

Whatever you do ddon't fight a 13,000t AC with CLs. On 13,000t you can have armour that is immune to 6" shells.
I would destroy the enemy cruiser with either airpower or my own ACs.

Well, you'll never know. If you're in luck, you might get a 'Graff Spee' scenario.

Walter

Graf Spee made 28.5 kts on trials. The King George V class BBs did 29 on trials. So the German "pocket battleships" couldn't outrun a late 1930s BB, let alone HMS Refit and Repair. On the other hand, the Russian Sviatoslav Class, for example, can clearly outrun a KGV, and will maintain the distance against the Renown class. Our CAs are clearly harder to catch than a pocket battleship.