Ships And Tanks Galore

Just a little blog of mine where I reblog stuff, post historical things (usually about WWII tanks and ships), and occasionally shitpost. Have fun (if at all possible)!

[zerokiller1628]

"Under clear skies and with temperatures in the 60s, at 1:15 p.m. on April 14 Laffey left Kerama Retto for Picket Station No. 1, where she would relieve the destroyer minelayer, USS J. William Ditter (DM-31). The USS Purdy, damaged by a kamikaze on April 12 while on Picket Station No. 1, had been moored next to Laffey. Shortly before Laffey left harbor, a sailor from Purdy cautioned his comrades about the kamikazes they would surely encounter at the same station. 'You'll knock a lot of them down, and you'll think you're doing fine. But in the end there'll be this one bastard with your name on his ticket.'"

- Hell From the Heavens: The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack by John Wukovits

[zerokiller1628]

I see people all the time online asking things like "is the Bismarck overrated" or "why does everyone hate on the Bismarck", and as of late I've been putting a lot of thought into that. Frankly, I don't think it's quite as simple as that. I don't think the Bismarck is overrated or underrated; I think the Bismarck is drastically misunderstood.

There's a lot of conclusions that people come to nowadays with the benefit of hindsight and whatnot, and I feel like that's done a lot to hurt the representation of this kind of stuff over the years. People don't often consider things like designer's intent or the circumstances that go into making design decisions, and I feel that if people would put more thought into the why instead of the how, you could come to a much more reasonable conclusion on the overall design of the ship.

[zerokiller1628]

Once again I have forgotten that this website exists

Oops

[mariopowertennis]

Hey I don’t think I mentioned this here yet but I went to an anime convention at a tank museum this weekend and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same

[mariopowertennis]

[feazelblahg]

Holy shit.

No anime convention will ever live up to this

[bartman-og]

@puublack

[artyrambles]

On one hand I’m like “well it’s good that they get some ticket sales” on the other hand

SACRILEGE

[zerokiller1628]

The fact that I’ve been to that museum and recognize all of these places physically hurts me

[zerokiller1628]

I'm testing this aircraft. You must find your own sky.

Mihaly A. Shilage, prior to engaging the Osean Long Range Strategic Strike Group over Shilage castle

[zerokiller1628]

Ace Combat 7 spoiler below I guess

Watch out lmao

[zerokiller1628]

LONG LIVE BELKA

[zerokiller1628]

The Demon Lord of the Round Table. A warrior who soared through the Belkan War, inspiring both fear and admiration. His presence filled the skies for but a few short months before he disappeared. Apart from that, nothing is known about him. I was never able to find out what kind of a person he really was. But whenever they talked about him, they always had a slight smile on their faces. That, perhaps, may be my answer.

Brett Thompson, "Warriors and the Belkan War"

[zerokiller1628]

Merry Christmas everyone!

[zerokiller1628]

Quick, post your favorite warship for each major naval power in WWII

[zerokiller1628]

I should be banned from making posts using my computer, it just lets me get away with making them long as fuck Unless you guys don't mind the longer posts, in which case i'd be happy to do more of those :D

[zerokiller1628]

British battleship HMS Prince of Wales departs Singapore on her final voyage, December 8th, 1941. Prince of Wales sailed alongside the veteran battlecruiser HMS Repulse and four destroyers as part of Force Z, with the intention of intercepting a Japanese invasion force bound for Malaya. After failing to find the convoy, Force Z was spotted by Japanese aircraft on the 9th while returning to Singapore and was greeted by several waves of twin-engined G4M and G3M bombers the next afternoon. 

Prince of Wales was struck by one torpedo early on that caused significant damage, hitting near the base of the port propeller shaft. Though the shaft was shut down initially, it was restarted shortly after to devastating effect. The reactivated shaft ruptured the hull and allowed 2,400 tons of water to flood key sections of the ship, disabling electrical power to pumps and several of the 5.25 inch secondary guns as well as communications and lighting. The uncontrolled flooding caused an 11.5 degree list to port, preventing the remaining secondary mounts from depressing low enough to fire at their attackers. With a propeller shaft disabled and a boiler room flooded, Prince of Wales’ speed dropped to 16 knots.

A second attack roughly half an hour later struck the crippled battleship with three torpedoes on the starboard side, one of which bent the starboard propeller shaft and left her running on only one of her four propellers. Another attack twenty minutes later scored a single high altitude bomb hit, exploding among wounded gathered in the ship’s cinema and causing heavy casualties. By this point Repulse had already been sunk, and Prince of Wales was listing increasingly heavily to port. The order to abandon ship was given, and much of the crew was taken off by the destroyer HMS Express. Prince of Wales rolled over and sank at 1318 hours, December 10th, 1941. The attack had killed 327 of the ship’s crew, including Vice-Admiral Sir Tom Phillips and Captain John Leach. Prince of Wales was the only ship of her class lost during the Second World War, and the last British battleship to be sunk in combat.

(IWM ID: A-29068)

[zerokiller1628]

Plan Z was a stupid idea

You can’t change my mind

[gruene-teufel]

Raeder knew it was the only way for the Kriegsmarine to get on par with the Royal Navy. It wasn’t a stupid idea, it was just unreachable.

[zerokiller1628]

But that’s the thing, it was unreachable to the extreme. For the Kriegsmarine to manage the construction of such a sizeable force of large surface combatants within ten years was already a bit of a stretch considering Germany’s industrial output and limitations on resources available, but it’s even less realistic when you consider two other factors in particular.

First of all, the Royal Navy would not have just sat idly by the wayside and allowed the Germans to build up a navy that would rival theirs. We saw this happen before the First World War, where the German Empire was able to build up a sizeable fleet that still lagged behind the Royal Navy by a decent margin. By 1916 alone, the British had managed to commission eleven more dreadnoughts than the Germans. The British did not undergo as serious of a battleship construction program in WWII as it was not necessary; the Kriegsmarine was simply no match for them on the surface. It’s interesting to note, however, that they were a bit concerned with Japanese naval buildup, which is one of the main reasons for the ordering of the Lion class ships and the HMS Vanguard. Had the Germans undergone such a significant shipbuilding program as Plan Z, the Royal Navy certainly would have turned it into a naval arms race that they would have most definitely won. 

Second of all, Plan Z hurt the Kriegsmarine more in the long run that it could have ever hoped to help it. Plan Z continued to feed the idea in the OKM that surface ships could be used in the commerce raiding role effectively enough that resources should be set aside for them which could instead be given the Dönitz and the U-boat fleet, resulting in Dönitz not having anywhere near the number of U-boats he needed at the outbreak of the war. He had wanted a fleet of 300 submarines available as soon as possible, but due to the surface-oriented mindset of OKM, only 22 submarines were available at the outbreak of war that were capable of ocean-going operations. Had the Kriegsmarine possessed such a large number of U-boats so early in the war, one could imagine that they would be able to deal a hell of a lot more damage and potentially starve the UK out of the war before the U.S. could join in 1941.

That being said, I do find Plan Z to be rather interesting. The idea of a sort of “High Seas Fleet 2″ is definitely neat to think about, as we know that the HSF was able to have some surface successes against the Royal Navy in the First World War. Yet, that being said, the Royal Navy still ultimately prevailed thanks in part to a tremendous numerical advantage. I think it’s fair to say that, if Plan Z had been enacted as planned, we would have seen just another repeat of that situation.

[zerokiller1628]

Plan Z was a stupid idea

You can't change my mind

[zerokiller1628]

British battleship HMS Vanguard at sea as seen from the destroyer HMS Childers, May 16th, 1949. Vanguard, the last battleship constructed in the world, reflected the culmination of British wartime experience. Essentially she was a modified Lion class ship, sporting eight 15" guns as opposed to the nine 16" intended for the original design. This decision was made due to Britain’s existing stock of 15" turrets and guns, which would allow Vanguard to be completed before her unmodified cousins. Vanguard’s design was revised and modified as the war went on, causing delays in construction that resulted in her not being completed until after the war’s end in 1946.

Though she never saw combat, she served as an image of British naval pride for years as flagship of various fleets before her eventual decommissioning in 1955. Vanguard was broken up and scrapped in 1960, the last British battleship to enter the fleet and the last one to leave it.

(IWM ID: A-31507)

[zerokiller1628]

Friendly reminder that a German victory at the Battle of the Bulge would have had very little effect on the situation in Western Europe

[gruene-teufel]

Friendly reminder that a German victory at Amiens (and beyond) could have made a significant impact in the situation in Western Europe (in WWI)

[zerokiller1628]

This is a statement I can agree with

[zerokiller1628]

Friendly reminder that a German victory at the Battle of the Bulge would have had very little effect on the situation in Western Europe