Should the Graf Spee have gone down swinging?

German Kriegsmarine 1935-1945.
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Andy H
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Post by Andy H »

Tiornu wrote:And that photo gallery on Soviet cruisers--simply brilliant, don't you think?
Yes, that Richard Worth chap must have a decent background in historical naval matters :wink: :wink:

Regards

PS: Enrico's & Vincent's article on the pursuit of Italian Naval Aviation development is excellent.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

And so as I patrol in the valley of the shadow of the tricolour I must fear evil, For I am but mortal and mortals can only die
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CaptainSensible
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Re: Should the Graf Spee have gone down swinging?

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Troy Tempest wrote:Even if there really was a far more powerful RN force awaiting the Graf Spee, like the captain thought, surely it would have been better to sail out and go down fighting, rather than being scuttled, and burning for three days in front of the whole world? Shouldn't the captain have called for a volunteer crew and gone out? If he had done so, he would have discovered that there was only the same cruisers that he had battled before - no battleships or carriers. He could have made ammends for his foolishness in closing to the RN cruisers, allowing them to shell and damage him. With his superior 11" guns, he could have blown those cruisers to bits, and stayed out of their range. A complete waste of a great ship, and so early on in the war. All he did was to give the RN and England a great victory and morale boost. It's just as well he shot himself, at least he got that right.

Troy
This reads like an advocation of suicide...
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Epaminondas
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Post by Epaminondas »

I think you underestimate the differences between a merchant hull and a warship hull.

The ability to take damage is radically different between the two.

A merchant hull raider is much less valuable then a warship hull.

Engines are another consideration- warships generally sacrifice efficiency for speed. Merchants sacrifice speed for economy.

Purpose built warships have significantly higher speed (and fuel comsumption) then merchants.

Speaking of which, where are you going to get the fuel for the increase level of activity? Probably the single biggest reason (even more then allied air) that the German surface fleet wasn't very active after 41 was lack of fuel.

The Italians were screaming for more fuel- they had barely enough to protect convoys to North Africa, much less do more.
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