HMS Cumberland showed up after the battle, Chewie. It did not take part in it. It did, however take part in blockading the mouth of the river and preventing Graf Spree from escape.

The battleship USS Massachusetts. I am not postive as in the class but it fired the opening and closing 16in shells of WWII for United States. It also suffered no battle casaulties. The damage from when it took on two French ships stuck in a harbor during North Africa is still visible. Its a great museum now. Along with it is a submarine, a destroyer, a Soviet Covertte, a couple pt boats, and a landing craft.

Originally Posted by Charge_7

HMS Cumberland showed up after the battle, Chewie. It did not take part in it. It did, however take part in blockading the mouth of the river and preventing Graf Spree from escape.

wasn't mentioned on any of the pages i looked at sorry

I think the Yamato and her sister ship deserve mention based on the fact that it took a large number of torpedos and bombs to sink them. The heaviest and heaviest armed battleships ever produced.

Yep from a technical/size point of view I would go with the Yamoto and Musashi, from an achievements point of view I would go with the HMS Victory or the Golden Hind.

Although not as great in size or firepower, the greatest among all ships is generally Kreigsmarine. Because of the great and innovative achievement in submarine technology and tactics, it is consider one of the most versatile and deadliest ships fielded both in the Pacific and the Atlantic.

Originally Posted by Charge_7

I don't appreciate comments like that. If I wanted to have typed up a huge list of ships I certainly could have. I listed the ones I felt most important as others are doing as well. Bismarck does deserve mention and I was leaving it for others. I also did say I wanted you to expound upon the ships' merits which you didn't do so if anyone is "slow" then you need not look far. Hereafter if you have ships to mention please refrain from personal attacks and include your reason why the ship deserves mention. Don't just throw a name out there.

And this one is for the rest of you; just a reminder that battleships alone are not the only ships open to this discussion - all surface ships are. So you could just as easily mention a ship like USS Roberts a destroyer escort that charged Japanese cruisers in an effort to save the jeep carriers off the Leyte beach invasion.

Oh, and Chewie, it was only three British cruisers at the Battle of the River Platte not four. One heavy and two light. You're quite correct though, it was an awesome feat of arms.

im sorry if it came out the wrong way. it just seemed to me that the Bismarck would have been an obvious choice and it wasnt mentioned. by no way did i mean to say that anyone in this forum is retarted. so if anyone else was offended, im truly sorry.

Because of the great and innovative achievement in submarine technology and tactics, it is consider one of the most versatile and deadliest ships fielded both in the Pacific and the Atlantic.

Cabal, at the beginning of this thread I asked for no submarines in the list. I said if there was enough interest, I'd have a seperate thread for subs. Surface warfare is so dissimilar from subs that they really don't belong together IMO and it's my thread.


No problem, behemoth79. Always good to read back your posts to yourself. Can't tell you how many times I've edited or deleted text after doing so.

and technically a submarine is a boat...not a ship

The Greatest ship would be The USS. Constitution