@@satnav9699 No , Warthunder is more sim , World of Warships is arcade for everyone , no matter if you are 15 years old girl or 65 year old men , rules are simple .
@@Staghound they choose Belfast instead. I would have liked HMS Jarvis too tbh. Nearly as many battle honours, heavily committed throughout the war, but not a single member of the crew lost to enemy action. The luckiest ship in the navy.
As an American, I strongly agree. By WWII, she was not the best battleship by a long shot (see what I did there?), but her resume beats all from that era. Wish she would have been preserved. She won't be forgotten.
@@col.hertford9855 It took many years to Britain to pay their debt (2006 I believe) Still like i said, Warspite was too expensive to repair and then do the necessary things for her preservation
"Am I biased? yes I am." 🤣 This was so fun to watch. I love hearing historians talk so passionately about there fields of study, it brings the subjects to life for me.
I love that he embraced just having a bit of a chuckle with all this, he outright SAID he wasn't being particularly serious about it. And you still got comments getting salty about it lmao
anyone that claims to be without bias is a liar. i forgive Dan for classing the Warspite by herself. she was a proud ship. she deserved a better fate than the breakers. i hope that an occasion that a ship renders herself so historically important in history that she should be deemed a museum ship is not needed in the future, the Victory, the Constitution, the Mikasa, the Avrova (LOOK HER UP she's a beautiful ship in wonderful shape) the Arizona, the Missouri, the Texas, and all the other current museum ships around the world need to be preserved to honor those that served about them, and in honoring them, we need to keep a clear mind that free people need to stay free and honor the sacrifice that those that served in our Armed Forces did so in the hope that war among our peoples would not keep happening. Pray for Peace folks!!!!!
@@ChrisCrossClashreally? HMS Cockchafer, Dainty, Spanker, Pansy, Fairy, Tickler, Delight, Unicorn, Frolic, and the entire Flower class of corvettes would beg to differ. I mean yeah Victory, Indomitable, Vengeance, Repulse, Dreadnought, and Warspite are awesome name, but the RN doesn't ALWAYS have cool ship names
"Stand aside, I'm coming through. This is Ching Lee." The North Carolina class: USS Washington, was the last battleship to sink another battleship in a one-on-one engagement. She was captained by a man whom I've recently grown to deeply admire. There’s also the USS Texas, who famously gangster-leaned itself so it could fire further inland on D-Day. I would have rather had her on the list over the USS Arizona.
@@PolymurExcel Yea and the actual SD had a big snafu with it's electrical system that was then followed by a navigation error that left them silhouetted against a burning destroyer which caused them to eat a few large caliber shells.
Uh no, I’m pretty sure this is false. The battle of Saratoga Strait in 1944 was the last battleship on battleship engagement, and that did not involve USS Washington.
@@jimmyneutron4158 the incident I’m referring to happened in the Solomon Islands two years prior and was a direct duel between the Kirashima and the Washington. I hardly think the Fuso from Sergio Straight really counts when it was getting combined fire from several other ships and was had torpedo as a killing blow.
Scharngorst was more a commerce raider and sunk more tonnage than any other ship on the list so was probably the most successful at what she was designed for
Arizona seems random to me. I get shes pretty iconic at Pearl but the Washington would have been better on this list. Shes literally the reason why the US won the final naval battle of Guadalcanal which is one of the turning points of WW2 in the Pacific.
I'd argue it's by name. Sure Iowa/Mighty Mo deserve to be on the list. As many videos and books as I've read, there seems to be not a ton of info (at least super documented in such things) about the USS Washington (sure the washington had 13 battle stars) If anything you could throw the USS New Jersey one of the most decorated Battleship in the entire fleet. The USS Texas took 4 part in 4 major Landings (and the only one to do so) (D-day,Iwo,Okinowa, and North Africa)
@@TheGLORY13 Yeah but the USS San Diego also had a shit load of battle stars too (18?) and she didn't really do anything of note other than cheerlead for Enterprise .... so ehhh on the whole battle star thing. Washington and South Dakota would have had a very bad day if not for their radar guided fire, this was the first time it had been done (In actual combat anyway.) and they didn't just score hits, they were raining shells down with a precision that is kind of scary for WW2. Washington crippled the heck out of the IJN Kirishima because Kirishima's spotlights were so focused on South Dakota they didn't even realise Washington was firing upon them until womp womp. (If I recall anyway! Something like that.) But yeah, North Carolina/South Dakota class gang huzzah!
I don't think Arizona is all that random a choice for a historian. It's a "favorites" list and everyone has their own reasons for what they like and don't like. Perhaps being a ship that can still be visited - even as a wreck - is a factor. It can be experienced whereas Washington can only be read about as it was scrapped. The USS Missouri museum is basically looking out over the USS Arizona memorial, and together they're they're symbolic of the start and end of WW2 for the US. That's gotta mean something from a historian's perspective.
@@Pure_Havoc i mean why have more US ones, they could have Italian and more British, seen as up until 1944 they had the largest navy in the world and many more battleships of note. Especially as the most successful US ship on this list sunk a trawler and a destroyer with the help of other ships.
My dad lived near where Warspite beached herself on the way to the breakers, refusing to die, and remembers older boys swimming out to her. Imagine having a battleship to play with. And Warspite at that!
Prussia cove, note accurately by st Michael’s mount in Cornwall where I lived for ten years. And yes, if the tide was out and the flats exposed you could still see some of her heel and boilers up until the late 2010s
@@Iamlurking504 Before you give us too much credit we did scrap the Enterprise and if there was going to be 1 museum ship only, that should be the one. It's combat record is remarkable, at least Star Trek got it right anyhow. It makes me sad that I can't visit that iconic ship.
Not convinced Arizona makes sense on this list. Sure, Bismarck is also famous for sinking, but at least she was part of naval battles, at sea. Arizona sunk in harbor.
@@jenclydelemosnero2529 The Arizona had a similar resume to the Warspite (being a WWI juggernaut and all), but unfortunate circumstances led to it getting knocked out of the war before it could contribute to it. I'm pretty sure he added it to contrast the Warspite
yeah, am scratching my head on that one. Bismark sunk the hood damage the prince of wales and then took on a fleet by itself and he give it a D. While Arizona has no prewar history as a battleship and was immediately sunk at the start of the war. He should had put Bismark at the same tier as Arizona.
Think the Tirpitz had a bigger impact than Bismarck on the war. She spend three years in a Norwegian fjord, but the Royal Navy spend alot of resources keeping her bottled up and trying to sink her (something she simply refused to do). Textbook 'fleet in being'.
You mean Polish battleship Gneisenau ? , because Poland own it 1945-51 , and there was plans to repair it and place in Polish navy , that did not happen because soviets have offer Poland 3 destroyers and 5 submarines instead.
@@Huzarionix What Polish? Just because the soviets saved you and then the ship ended up in Poland after the war doesn't make it Polish xd You guys were barely able to build destroyers on your own before the war. And not like the soviets had to offer anything for it as commie Poland was just a puppet state of the USSR. They could have just taken it but i guess they were feeling generous, uncharacteristic.
@@tandemcharge5114, indeed, in fact I believe it’s on record that it was Churchill specifically who was the main driver force to classify them as battlecruisers so as to save money and not build newer battleships to counteract them. Given Britain already had Hood, Renown and Repulse, calling Scharnhorst and Gneisenau battlecruisers would mean they would already have similar ships which could counter them.
Should be: To be fair Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were decent battleship ships. Gneisenau just kept having constant air raids against her and so she could never unfortunately get fully repaired. And hence scuttled when Allies approached. And Scharnhorst got completely ambushed in an unfair fight, and almost got away if it weren’t for one lucky shell hitting through a niche spot in the armour that took out one of her boiler rooms.
USS Washington... With "Chang" Lee on board... She took apart the BB Kirishima at night in tight quarters. A battle that made the Japanese realize they could not win the battle. This gave her an outsized influence on the War in the Pacific.
Poor Kirishima, she was extremely unlucky to encounter USS Washington with Chang Kee onboard. The Kongo class of battlecruisers (later classified as fast Battleship) were not designed to fight in a slugfest with other battleship ls due to its thin armour
PURELY TECHNICAL LIST: S tier: Yamato, Iowa A tier: Richelieu, Bismarck, (and I´d also add Littorio, and King George V and North Carolina and South Dakota) B tier: Scharnhorst (+ Strasbourg, Hood, Colorado and Nagato) C tier: Queen Elizabeth (+ Repulse, Kongó, Ise, Fuso, Nevada, Cavour, Andrea Doria) D tier: Arizona (+ New York, Gangut, Deutschland - the pre-dreadnought, Revenge, and all of the South American dreadnoughts)
Fuso & Ise at C is debatable, yes it got a lot of guns but they are slow, slow rate of fire and very weak AA defense, the later converted Ise is a bit better with added active offensive & defensive by her seaplane. Nagato don't belong in B, I think it's just worse version of Kongo.
Given how outdated her torpedo defences were, the poor quality of her armour and how generally technologically outdated she was, I have a hard time putting Yamato as anything other than solid C tier…
Another Bismarck fan boy here. Its not the technical aspects of the Bismarck that make him legendary. It's the sinking of the Bismarck that's the legend. My god, in one sortie, the Bismarck faced 4 battleships, 2 carriers, and an assortment of cruisers and destroyers. Its has international intrigue, Churchill, and more. It's a literal Hollywood movie. Bismarck is a legend.
@hugonubario Yes people don't realise how powerful she was the Admiral was not happy about the mission the crew needed more time esp the AA gunners they found radar control was best usa found this out in Pacific turpits was nearly ready the 2 could have went together Hood wasn't ready to fight bismark but as usual they couldn't care less their were plans to build 6 to 8 bismarks and 2 of the big H battleships bigger than her with twin funnels lovely ships lovely lines the brits were to replace there outdated fleet with lion class and the vanguard class but never happened. 🛳🛳🛳🇬🇧🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
Bismarck was a leg end until the Rodney turned up and neutralised it for the destroyers to finish it off. Sure KG5 pretty much the equivalent of the Bismarck turned up but it was the Rodney that did the damage
One detail: on the way to the scrapyard (which for me was one of the biggest sins of that time), Warspite towing ropes snapped a few times, it was like the grand old lady was fighting for her life...O7
@@Yamato-tp2kf yes it is a crime, she should rest beside HMS Victory 😢 and on the way to the scrapyard , she eventually beached , telling everyone that she will rest in the seas not a scrapyard. ❤
Rating the Bismarck as a D is criminal. The amount of effort, and resources, committed to sinking it was astonishing. Because, the British Knew they could not even allow Bismarck to exist. If Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Tirpitz were available to form a Battle Group, they would have posed a significant threat to the Royal Navy. It's greatest weakness was only the fact that it was alone.
More like its greatest weakness was its lackluster everything else. Lacked in AA for its time, lacked the speed, lack the sufficient damage control equipment, lacked the repair ports to go to, etc. Her sister was better designed
@@tandemcharge5114 Changed it's turrets to electric motors too late to run the cables under the armour belt. First big hit took out the cables. Turrets were frozen. There was also that problem with her rudders. Her only achievement was the golden bb on Hood.
@@tandemcharge5114ur a clown, she was the fastest battleship at the time and the aa was to modern that it couldnt be calibrated on the slow sword fish
TBH the Bismarck to put it bluntly was a pretty trash ship with many problems, Firstly for its intended role you were better of making two or three more Scharnhorst's since they just outright perform better at the convoy raiding role. Secondly Its fire control systems were knocked out in its own first salvo which is not exactly what you want for a battleship, Its armour protection scheme although has a reputation for being "good" in actuality it was actually pretty horrific for the time since the quality of plate used is one of the worst rated amongst all navies of the time with the Royal Navy having the best rated quality of steel used for a battleship belt. Its armour protection scheme was also heavily dated for the time as the turtle back scheme was a relic of ww1 design and was hardly used by any capital ship onwards as they progressed to the all of nothing scheme. Funny enough on paper a KGV class of battleship is also better rated when it comes to protection as well. With Bismarck having a turtleback protection scheme it also weighed more than it needed to, since the turtleback scheme was irrelevant for the era as newer technologies essentially nullified the use of one I.E torpedo bombers dive bombers newer and better shells etc. Finally the AA suite was also bad since the DP 105s which provide the most amount of coverage at range had horrific angles of fire as well as medium 37mm AA mounts were infamous for the poor ROF which is not what you want for an AA mount. As a side note her shells were of poor design as multiple instances are recorded of the shells simply not detonating which for an APCHE shell is definitely not what you want.
@@cameronkeen7551 the design feels fairly in keeping with a lot of other battleships. The 14" guns were a bit behind the times. Perhaps a good ship that didn't really stand out...?
You missed the only other S tier battleship, HMS Rodney. Sunk the Bismark. Allegedly torpedoed Bismark, and Operation Pedestal, and went to the East Indies without being sunk.
My great uncle served on the Rodney, he lived till 93 and past away a few years ago, he manned the 16” guns. His last mission of the war was being home aussie warbrides
@@hashteraksgage3281 yes and no Rodney did most of the damage and Rodney would have sunk Bismarck if it was on it's own Bismarck was destroyed stem to stern, being with a fleet is normal. Did Bismarck not sink hood because Prinz Eugen was there as well?
HMS Warspite is so Epic that when she was sold for scrap instead of allowing her self to be hauled off to the breakers yard she slipped her tugs and beached her self to avoid that ignoble fate. The Grand Old Lady her story will forevermore be the best in royal naval history. She was one of the first ships hit by a guided missile, she shrugged it off. She bombarded northern France to such an extent that she wore out her guns. She single handedly sailed into tight confines of Norwegian fjords and engaged in a knife fight with 10 German destroyers and sunk 5. Long may her memory live on.
My great uncle served on HMS Rodney and manned the 16” guns on D Day. He lived till 93 and passed some years ago. Another family member of mine was on HMS Repulse and HMS Electra, he died trying to escape a Japanese POW camp. And my great grandfather served in the First World War Navy. Great video, keep up the good work
USS North Carolina should've been on the list. She's the most decorated American battleship of WWII, she was in more action than any other US battleship in that war, and sailors of the legendary aircraft carrier USS Enterprise CV-6 referred to the NC as their best friend, as they operated together so frequently and NC provided such overwhelming AA firepower. The captain of Enterprise even had to signal to NC once "are you afire?", so fierce was NC's AA coverage. She was also the first American battleship built since I think 1922, the Colorado, the first American "fast battleship", and she was revolutionary in her design, firepower, and speed, she was the most powerful and modern ship in the world for a while. When she showed up at Pearl after the attack, sailors and civilians alike utterly REJOICED, I've seen video of her showing up in Pearl Harbor and it's very moving. What's more, she's still around, she in Wilmington, NC, and she's maybe the most well-preserved battleship in the museum ship fleet. Also I'm from NC so I'm biased
Honestly, claiming yamato cannot get A because it was sank with most hands on deck and put at B next to Arizona, who just got that high just because how it sank, i dunno man, it sounds not only biased but a little.ridiculous. I respect all the rankings, i would even accept yamato in B, but not with that reasoning, its ridiculous
The destroyer sunk Fuso and damaged Yamashiro. And anyways Washington sunk Kirishima almost single handedly, while Yamashiro was fired upon by so many ships including cruisers.
@@SennaAugustus In fact, battleships shouldn't fight destroyers, that's the work of the cruisers or other destroyers. Destroyers are a problem for the battleships, because the main guns are not appropiate for little targets, and the speed and torpedos of a destroyer can cause big troubles to a big ship.
Love these ranking videos. Had heard of most of the ships ranked but had no idea as to speed, power or history which made Dan Snow's placements that much more entertaining and interesting. Well done,
Dan's pro-Brit, anti-German bias is off the scale here. Bismarck's hit on Hood wasn't "lucky"; she straddled Hood with the 1st salvo then sank her. If Lutyens had decided to pursue the POW she might have been sunk as well. Bismarck was very well armoured, as she took a tremendous pounding from Rodney's 16" guns before probably being scuttled by her own crew. She was also fast for 1941, so she had the firepower-speed-armour balance just right. She wasn't perfect & had her flaws, but was as good a ship as any British battleship of the war. Her crew fought her courageously to the end, and the fact that she drew so much of the Royal Navy's resources meant she had a huge influence historically, despite her short service life. And the fear-factor she created was immense.
@@postie48 Yet a long-range plunging 15" hit on Hood was almost always going to penetrate Hood's weak deck armour, so after a few hits there would be a fairly high probability of hitting one of the 4 main magazines. If the POW had been hit & blown up in the same way, it would have been a much luckier hit.
@@TheNigelrojo: The weak deck armour thesis has been dismissed after looking at the actual as built designs. As a battlecruiser (an eggshell armed with hammers) HMS Hood was not designed to resist guns of the same calibre as she had. However, some people point out that HMS Hood was 'improved' during construction so her deck armour was not particularly thin. Latest analysis ( looking at the actual engagement distance) which indicates the shell was NOT plunging fire. The review of the actual damage as seen on the wreck, and the two reviews during WW2 of agree that a magazine explosion occurred. However, many experts now suggest that her magazine was penetrated by either a 'diving' shell or her thinner underwater armour was exposed when her bow wave + heeling left this exposed NOT plunging fire. I suggest you read one of the recent analysis by Drachinefel or Oceanliner Designs or the custodians of the USN New Jersey they all agree the shell was NOT plunging fire i.e. penetration through the deck.
I would personally think one should mention the channel dash from Scharnhorst, an incredible feat, and also not simply mention the hit, but actually be with Geneisenau to sink the carrier Glorious. It probably be worth mentioning Ardent and Acasta that fought valiantly to save the carrier and that later in battle of north cape, though sunk by Royal Navy, did won the respect of captain of Duke of York. Plus it's a nice looking ship!
Although it was a glorious moment for Scharnhorst, we can't really equate that to skill since the RN and RAF were absolutely atrocious on that day with almost everything they did. That dash was more down to the audacity of the leaders and crew rather than the actual ship itself.
There is a funny story onboard Warspite during Jutland where a crewman onboard witnessed a German shell penetrate the hull and smashed into the bread store on board the ship. The crewman apparently proclaimed witnessing bread flying out past him and wondering if the Germans had run out of shells and had resorted to firing braked bread at them instead. Warspite: Impenetrable to German shells. Only weakness.... German Bread. LOL
Great List. I would replace Arizona with USS Tennessee, due to her war record, refitted after Peal Harbor and was present at the last Battleship vs Battleship battle at Surigao Strait. I’d also add USS Washington as a B or C, as adm Lee’s gunslinger. And why only one British ship?
01:39 - Exceptional description Dan! 👏 Exactly what I think when I hear it! 🚢 16:25 - Yep, i knew this absolute Titan of the seas would be on the list! I have the Yamato on WOWL!
Funny how you say Bismarck took Hood by LUCK and don´t say that it was torpped in the rudder by LUCK and forced to go around and around. If not, she would have reached France easilly outspeeding the Royal Navy. What you missed to mention was that this single ship forced UK to keep a ton of ships on ScpaFlow in constant alert.
Let's get real the Bismarck had an active service life of 9 days, let's concentrate on what actually happened rather than what bubbles around in your imagination 😑
@@barbararice6650 100% agreed. Raeder was an incompetent fool. Bism should have only stayed in port. From time to time intelligence could have suggested a raid was imminent ans hence force Royal Navy to mobilize for nothing.
@@Bootstrap-qi1rw The RN identified a threat, then sent assets to deal with it. Threat eliminated. In 9 days. The Bismarck failed to achieve its objective and sank a single out dated battle cruiser.
Warspite held that world record right up until a couple years ago when declassified information revealed the longest direct hit belongs to the USS Massachusetts and the longest shot to cause damage but cannot be classified as a direct hit belongs to the USS New Jersey
@@markshakespeare5146 no it was declassified by the US and French government. The person that researched it was a naval historian named Vincent O’Hara, and has been accepted by many of the museum ships in the US including the New Jersey, and Battleship cove. Additionally in support of that the French have confirmed they found damage and shell fragments consistent with a US 16in shell penetration on the Milan (the ship that was hit). So although perhaps not the most widely recognized shot there’s significant evidence. Additionally the warspite was completed in 1915 she was a WW1 design. That means with all the advancements in battleship design in the interwar years from all nations, it didn’t make any difference at all in range and accuracy? Logically the longest ever shot would belong to a newer ship.
FWIW, Swap New Jersey for either Iowa or Missouri. Most decorated of all US Battleships. Longest active career. Probably THE most iconic battleship of all US battleships.
1. USS Missouri - for service record 2. IJN Yamato - for technical record and final action 3. HMS King George V - for service record 4. USS Nevada - for actions during Pearl Harbor 5. Bismarck - for final action Honorable mentions: USS Texas (for D-Day), IJN Musashi (for technical record) and the entire Iowa class
Bismarck is one shot and eternal glory, otherwise no particular contribution to the war. Yamato had a heroic last stand... sort of. Her AA guns were largely ineffective against USN planes. Of the 10 or so aircraft down in Ten-Go, 5-6 of them were taken down when Yamato capsized and exploded. Ok, here Leyte Gulf performance was more impressive when she actually hit Taffy 3 ships with her main battery. Musashi takes honour for heroic last stand.
If we just consider WW2 then USS Missouri doesn't deserve 1st position because of her service record. Replace her with Massachusetts as Yamato had more ship engagement in a single battle than all 4 Iowa class ships in WW2.
@@IamRyanLPs I agree on the Battleship and Carrier front. Although HMS Belfast is heavier than most heavy cruisers. It's a bit of a misnomer it just refers to the armament either being 6 inch light and 8 inch heay. But some 6 inch ships such as Belfast would have more guns than 8 inch armed vessels and due to the higher rate of fire and the armour on cruiser not having the ability to stop 6 inch fire at notmal battle ranges. Light cruisers were considered equivalent.
We have to see it in the context of the after war period. Europe was devastated and short on literally everything and of course also on raw material like steel that was now needed for very different things to rebuild the countries. Then, even after a ship is decommissioned it doesn't come for nothing. It still has to get some minimum maintenance and care. For what? The war was over, other things were much more pressing than preserving an old mountain of steel. It was very different than today when we just enter a shop and get what we want.
This video is great. Anyone can do a tier list, but this is top quality and really interesting to listen to. I would love it if you were to expand on this and maybe do to top tanks, rifles, jets etc.
I have to say, good thing for that disclaimer beforehand, since I agree with almost nothing on the list, apart from Warspite and maybe Richelieu. For example, Arizona was a glorified ferry and blew up, and that's about it for her accolades. And while Bismarck certainly does not deserve the god-tier reputation she still sometimes gets, putting here alone at the bottom is quite weird. At least she tied down quite a number of enemy forces to hunt her down and managed to sink a ship of almost equal size. Certainly did more than the huge pinata that was Yamato.
Yamato was slower than the Iowa class but had them significantly outgunned. Although it's said that american fire control was better. It would have been an interesting fight if it ever had came across an iowa class.
@@claytonberg721 It is unlikely to be interesting as Iowa does not have an Immunity zone to Yamato at any range. And we have plenty of examples of what occurs when that is the case. The list itself is very silly
@@claytonberg721 Outgunned by caliber and maybe firing range (but I don't know this exactly) but not in terms of fire control and subsequently its hit rate, especially at night or in poor weather conditions. That and the speed of the Iowa class would have enabled them to dicate the terms of engagement. Additionally the Japanese were very hesitant to deploy Yamato and Musashi to combat. They were of course very expensive so they didn't take that risk. Additionally Yamato is an ancient term for Japan, so losing her might have had a negative psychological impact. Technological progress in WW2 was insane and battle ships that were considered modern at the beginning of the war were clearly inferior to ships built by the later stages of the war.
@@Harry-tb8yo The only time an Iowa class could've met a Yamato class was off San Bernardino Strait on the afternoon of October 25th 1944, and given who was in command of the Iowas at that fight I am highly doubtful they'd be doing any "dictating the engagement" as many people like to posit for this classic matchup-Halsey would almost certainly have tried to bulldoze his way in and gotten a bloody nose as in that case he was outnumbered and incensed, at least until Ching Lee showed up and set the record straight with his Washington and the 4 SoDaks. Yamato's fire control, esp. at daytime, was nothing to scoff at (damaging near miss or hit on a carrier at 32KM) and Ching Lee himself was not fond of the idea of tangling with them at night. As it was Halsey decided to slow to 20 knots to refuel the destroyers in his formation and ended up missing Kurita by several hours.
He should make a machine gun tierlist. Man, what would I give to see him argue why bren gun is S tier while mg42 gets a B due to ammunition consumption xD
Well, i expected this to be about battleships, not about how little time the German navy could operate on the seas. If they could, apparently Bismarck would then be higher, which makes no sense i we were talking about the battleships and the not situation at the sea. So, just surprised the moving of goal posts and that doesn't require being a "wehraboo".
@alaric_ Chill bro, we all know warspite didn't do anything other than exist in the royal navy for 30 years. Litteraly every other battleship could have done the same. He should have at least taken HMS Dreadnought in her place.
I do agree about Warspite and Missouri being very special, literally iconic, as the good folk of LA might have it. As everyone who's into the navy lark knows, what the best warships have in common is... BIG GUNS! BIG GUNS! BIGGUNS, BIGGUNS, BIGGUNS, BIGGUNS! Nice one Dan and team. 🌟👍
Really miss seeing HMS Rodney on the list! She's my favourite. Aside from her varied, valuable and exhausting WWII career, she just looks awesome, like an imperial spaceship from Star Wars. And she and sister Nelson had the biggest guns of any Royal Navy battleship ever, at 16 inches. Legend :)
Don't forget the USS Washington commanded by the admiral Augustus "Ching" Lee, one of the best Admirals in the US Navy that (like the RUclipsr Fat Electrician would say: "USS Washington just bit*hslapped IJN Kirishima") destroyed Kirishima with more than 20 main 16 inch guns shots using radar guiding, which was a brand new way at the time to overcome the best night optics of the Japanese Navy
@@Yamato-tp2kf USS Washington failed to actually destroy Kirishima, a WWI Battlecruiser. She escaped the battle but would later sink several hours later due to progressive flooding from the damage. The USS South Dakota, which was not only completely useless during the battle and was nearly sunk by Kirishima, then took credit USS Washington. This would result in the two ships having a bloody feud for the rest of the war and earn South Dakota the nickname "Shitty Dick" from the Washington sailors. Admiral Lee had to personally ensure that the two ships never gave their crew leave in the same port to prevent the very violent fistfights that would occur
@@captaincoxwaggle6882 You're most probably confusing the Kirishima with the Hiei that was sunk some hours later by the TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, Kirishima sunk on the Iron bottom sound as for Hiei, hours after having been shot at point blank gun range by the USS Laffey, she was sunk when she was trying to get out of range from the US air squadrons at Anderson field
Which is somehow still less than what Bismarck did, she sat in port all war getting bombed, her attempt to intercept pq17 was a massive cost in fuel that germany couldn't afford, and she didn't even do anything, it was u-boats and the luftwaffe. The KGVs did more and aren't on the list.
Criminal withdrawing the escort of PQ17 & one of the worst disasters of the war. Admiral Pound of the RN went against all advice, intelligence & sense. He was a unwell man & died from a brain tumour. It's thought it effected his judgment & sent many ships & men to their doom . Strongest escort sent to that date & fought of all attacks with it before the shameful order. Joseph Gradwell ignored the order that made no sense & managed to bring in 3 merchant men to Russia on a armed trawler, with nothing more than a Times Atlas . Worth looking up & about the only thing that was positive for the Allies with convoy PQ17
Personally, I would switch the places of the Arizona and Bismark. The Bismark may have only been in service 10 days, but the Battle of the Denmark Straight was a clear victory over the Royal Navy. The German fleet doesnt have too many surface victories to boast of during WW2, but this was clearly a signature victory. The Arizona really never did anything in battle. It's claim to fame is it's demise.
"the Battle of the Denmark Straight was a clear victory over the Royal Navy" Was it fuck. It was a German defeat. The German objective was to break out past Home Fleet into the Atlantic and attack Allied commerce. The British objective was to stop them. Who achieved their objective? Once you understand that, you'll know who won.
@@PeoeieThe battle in the Denmark Strait was a complete victory for the Kriegsmarine. This cannot be disputed. The sinking of the Bismarck was not part of that battle.
@@tandemcharge5114 she was built during the restrictions that were placed on Germany during the interwar period where the germans were not allowed to have battleships
I believe that by WWII there officially were no more Battle Cruisers i.e. all were designated Battleships ... That said her stats and purpose clearly fall into the Battle Cruiser category. In most forums I have seen this is a common debate meaning it is not cut and dried either way.
One thing that really annoys me? That we (Britain) never kept HMS VANGUARD Britain's last battleship. So generation after generation can see what a battleship was. Yes we have HMS BELFAST but she's not a battleship.. Imagine HMS VANGUARD near or next to HMS VICTORY at Portsmouth what a day out that would have been. But she's gone so no good crying over spilt milk.
I'd have included a few 'lesser-known' battle-wagons, such as the Italian 'Littorio' or maybe a 'South Dakota' class, either above Arizona or Scharnhorst...
What did it actually do in the war to warrant it being on the list? be honest. Also it was Dan Snows list, other lists may vary. Please compare it to Warspite's war record.
In my opinion, it should've been USS NJ instead of USS Iowa for this list. NJ served longer before retirement, was in that same typhoon, and unlike Iowa was Halsey's flagship in the Third Fleet. Also the fact that it sunk an entire island
I think you made a big mistake choosing 2 Iowa class battleships. And yo missed the USS Washington, which actually engaged and sank another battleship in the 2nd Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Even though it was a Treaty battleship, the 16-in guns and radar fire control allowed Willis Lee to make mincemeat out of the Kirishima.
@@loyalrammy how? He added two which shouldn’t have been on there, their service during ww2 was laughable and they wasn’t the pinnacle of battleships. They were just glorified longer versions of the South Dakota class. They didn’t have the best armour at all, nor the biggest or best guns or crew. Also their technology still wasn’t the best. The overall best and most advanced ww2 ship was obviously the HMS Vanguard every system and design on the HMS Vanguard except the actual guns were newer and more advanced than the Iowas. Don’t forget the Vanguard was launched in 1946 do they had taken every mistake of previous battleships into account whilst also incorporating the modern technology from 1946 compared to Iowas late 1930s technology.
Willis Lee and his crew were accurate, with or without fire control radars. He relentlessly trained the Washington guys to be insanely accurate and would have done the same on any battleship. IMO.
Very nice job. Honorable mention for Derfflinger. Beautiful ship that helped to sink two British battle-cruisers at Jutland and had the best nickname “Iron Dog” given to it taking 21 high caliber hits from the British.
This is the kind of guy I wish I had as my history teacher back on high school. He is just feeling what he says, the passion in his eyes is that of a little child talking about his favorite stuff
Bismarck probably deserves to be higher, if for no other reason than surviving as long as she did under whithering fire. Hundreds of shells hitting at pt blank range, and multiple confirmed torpedo hits.
@@Peoeie Me German?! Apologize yourself please. No, just laughing about you Britts.; every opportunity is taken to drag down Bismarck's reputation. Are the Britts still upset about the good shooting of Bismarck which made the Hood explode? Still upset about Jutland?
@@Peoeie why should a current day german be mad at that? The german navy basically sent them to their death in suicide missions against an allied fleet that outnumbered them by roughly 20 to 1, so it was a foregone conclusion that they would eventually find them and sink them. I believe most of us today are just annoyed at the sheer arrogance with which brittish people talk about this now as if the Bismarck, aswell as Prinz Eugen and Scharnhorst were supposedly terrible vessels, yet historical facts and accounts from real people who were involved in the fighting say completely otherwise.
Magnificent! Bias? Don't care, it was fun! My late Father-In-Law went aboard the Missouri just after the war while serving on HMS Jamaica (one of the ships that sank the Scharnhorst), he was very impressed. Warspite was special, he told my wife about her when she was a small child.
Putting Bismarck in D is a technical insult. But what to expect from chauvinist Brit sentiments when it hummiliated the RN by sinking HMS Hood only with in a few shots and it took literally an entire fucking fleet to sink it... And this only with a prior shitload of luck with the torpedo hit at the rudder...
How many hits did Bismarck score when fighting for her life? How many of the attacking aircraft did she shoot down? How utterly flukey was the shell that sank the Hood? How easily was she incapacitated? And I don’t think you mean chauvinistic I think you mean jingoistic. Bismarck couldn’t even hit Poiron while she was signalled “I am Pole” over and over at her. Bismarck Schmismarck!
The only reason it accomplished anything was because it had a one-in-a-million stroke of luck and then it was doomed very shortly after by a literal biplane. It was a crap design with massive flaws, sending it out as the Germans did was pure idiocy, and there was nothing special whatsoever about the use of force to sink it because it had been blatantly apparent since Jutland that battleships take a stupid amount of punishment and effort to sink under normal conditions in ship to ship combat. D tier all day long.
@@connorkitchen7156 I'm not diminishing Warspite, but I am promoting the Iowa class and the USS Texas The last battleships and only super dreadnaught in existence. That counts for a lot being the last ones standing.
Great ranking I’d say but I honestly think Bismarck should have had a higher ranking her career was short but the reason for that was the absolute fear factor she gave the Royal navy, and the outcry to avenge the hood after that engagement plus having a battleship in the Atlantic sinking all the shipping merchants. They had to send any vessel that was active in the Atlantic to go after her As for Bismarcks beating she had King George V, Rodney and a few cruises pound at her until their ammo was almost completely depleted and mind you Bismarck was already limping thanks to a lucky torp jamming her rudder. and the Navy did cripple her but there’s been evidence she was in fact scuttled.
Scuttled or not it’s doesn’t matter the Entire ship was destroyed and going under. The British ships clearly aimed for the deck and bridge for revenge.
I also dont get why shes ranked so far below yamato. Yes of course, yamato was way bigger, had bigger guns and a longer Service live, but what did she accomplish? She sank a destroyer and damaged a carrier. Bismarck sunk a battlecruiser and heavily damaged a battleship. And any other battleship wouldnt have survived much longer with how many ships the brits sent after her. Not saying that Bismarck should've been S Tier, but D Tier, with seeing whats in C Tier, is just a Joke.
@@RANDP117 Well it got a lucky shot on hood and the POW had gun trouble so it had to sail away. It didn’t heavily damage POW also Britain only engaged the Bismarck with 2 battleships and 2 cruisers. Bismarck also missed every single shot. Nelson or KGV could’ve easily taken on the Bismarck alone and sunk it.
@@Peoeie Why the salvo that obliterated Hood was lucky and the torpedo on Bismarck's rudder was not?..talking abou bias....I am pretty sure that if Admiral Lutjens had not pull rank....Captain Lindemann would have gone and sink POW as well ...not that it mattered so much because that fat drunk churchil sacrificed her and Repulse in Singapore a few months later
What a bizarre list! Firstly, the title of this video is Dan Snow Ranks His Favorite Battleships of the Second World War but at around the 10:55 mark Dan states that he isn't a fan of the Scharnhorst - then why the heck is it on the list? Next, he ranks the Bismarck as D Tier. Astonishing. It sank the Hood! Admittedly it had a very short service history but look at what the Royal Navy had to throw at it to bring about it's demise. Bismarck took an incredible amount of punishment to dispatch and proved just how well built it was. Conversely, the USS Arizona sank at harbor and given the video title, achieved nothing in WWII. I realize this is Dan's personal view and not necessarily an objective list but even so he makes some odd statements. I find it hard to believe he didn't select one of the KGV's. This video cements what I have long thought - Dan knows less about naval history than he thinks he does. The History Hit team should've asked a real naval historian to compile a list.
"Bismarck took an incredible amount of punishment to dispatch" So what? She was mission killed in her first engagement and quickly disarmed in her second. Who cares that her useless, blazing hulk soaked up a few torpedoes before it finally sank? She was dead long before that. Her armour scheme was, frankly, rubbish.
Agree on Warspite, it was one hell of a ship and done its job. It's a shame that the HMS Vanguard didn't make you list due to the timing, it was completed 1 year after the war but it was the best all around Battleship ever made for me.
I have to agree the 15 inch gun at no point was ever not powerful enough in penetration and has the joint world record for the longest hit on an enemy warship in combat. In terms of it's Radar and fire control it is incomparable to any other battleship. Missouri which had the 2nd most of any other Battleship had 13 Radar and fire control units, Vanguard had 20 and they were all more advanced, just to show the gulf. It's armour belt is thicker than all but Yamato and due to the better armour plate produced by Britain it's strength wasn't even that far behind. The deck plating had taken all the lessons from the war, in terms of plunging fire, aircraft and again due to the better armour prodcued in britain meant it was stronger than any other. It was also a fast vessel, only being 1.5 knots slower than the fastest.
The best case would have been if the US could have bought the Vanguard to give it a postwar career alongside the Iowas. The UK certainly needed the $ at the time. It would have been very interesting and awesome to see a modernized Vanguard, Wisconsin, and Missouri side by side in the Persian Gulf.
@@davidmacy411 well it wasn't just cash it was because of politicans being a bit dim as well, because Vanguard was meant to be kept with HMS Royalist an anti-aircraft cruiser. But instead they Keep HMS Belfast and another town class cruiser and thought that would be equivalent enough and they could be in two places.
I was living at Hickem AFB, Hawaii when the Missouri was finally retired, and I remember watching her sail around the island on her final voyage and finally come into port in Pearl Harbor. My dad was one of the guys on the committee to convert the Mighty Mo into her place among the US Navy's museum fleet, and I had the privilege of seeing her before she was opened to the public many times. Truly an S tier battleship.
@@NielsenDK-1 Warspite, by quite a long way. sunk and was involved in sinking 8 destroyers, 3 cruisers and also damaged mutiple battleships including getting the joint longest gunnery hit on a ship during combat. It's spotter plane also dunk a U-Boat. In terms of tonnage combined it is also the highest. In terms of the highest on one vessel that is Bismarck with Hood, although within a very short time then Bismarck itself became the largest tonnage sunk by another warship when Rodney sunk her.
Apart from his notorious bias against axis ships, he says “no ship that gets a beating and sinks, deserves more than B” well then all axis ships won’t get a realistic rating cuz of the situation they were in because of the Axis powers were slowly losing the war. Not necessarily because those ships were worse.
Yeah those ratings are trash. and everyone with a functioning brain could see this before he started his rating. There simply is no way to rate them properly and fair. At least not in that conflict at sea which was not a focal point of the germans. They were outnumbered from the start and tried spamming submarines to have even a slight chance to circumvent their main disadvantage. Trying to rate warships in a conflict where one side had roughly 20 times the amount of ships than the other is pretty hilarious and shows that these guys cannot be taken serious.
This. You have to keep in mind the power balance between different navies and the role a ship was meant for. The Scharnhorst was meant to be a convoy raider that was big enough to beat any convoy protection, but fast enough to outrun the battleships. Similar to the pocket battleships but intended to be refitted with bigger guns once the Bismarck and Tirpitz were commissioned. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau performed very well in that role during the first two years of the war.
I lived in Tromsø in the north of Norway for 12 years. The sister ship to Bismarck, Tirpitz, was sunk by the allies outside of the city, at Håkøya. She did little during the Second World War, but due to the danger of her entering the Atlantic, Churchill wanted her sunk in order to free up naval resources. “Target Tirpitz” by Patrick Bishop is a fascinating read.
Bismark took a heck of a beating but she was not sunk by the Royal Navy, she was scuttled by her own crew. Could she have survived? Definitely not. Also, "lucky shot" on the Hood is nonsense, she was poorly protected, outdated (bar the radar system) and no match for Bismark.
But that doesn't mean that it wasn't a lucky shell that detonated Hood. Bismarck would have won I agree as long as her fire control didn't break like it did later on. But Luck was not on Hood's side in her last fight.
Wrong on both subjects. Classic German sympathiser response. It was sunk by the British and it was a lucky shot. End of cry harder. At this point it’s just embarrassing that you try to justify this.
Hood was not "poorly protected". The Admiral class was an improved Queen Elizabeth, the class famous for taking hits. That means that Hood was not even a battlecruiser, but a fast battleship, it's just that the term was informal, and "battlecruiser" means anything above 25 knots.
You were quick to talk about the fear factor of Warspite, but Bismarck was the most feared ship in the Atlantic and therefore the British navy sent 11 ships to destroy it, and they still could not do it. The German navy had to scuttle the ship after it took more than 1500 rounds. So be neutral and fair in your results.
If you wanna talk about fear factor imagine how bismarks crew felt when they realised what was coming for them after sinking the hood. As for the brits "not actually sinking bismark" yes ... yes they did 😂 hypothetically if I shot your car 1500 times but then you blew it up later after realising it was a write off, then im still the one that wrote your car off.
@@islander1939 You don't understand the ethics of war...the coup d'etat was honorably given by your combatands.even from antiquity.....when a Roman General was in a battle lost he asked his ordinary to hold the sword so that he could fall upon it!
"Bismarck was the most feared ship in the Atlantic" Bismarck spent her short life as prey. She was never going home, and everyone on both sides knew it. And who cares if she was scuttled or not? She was a wrecked, defeated hulk long before she went down.
@@fergusmason5426 not prey but predator.....who cares if a pack of hyenas surround a wounded lion ..he is still a lion sitting upright in the darkness even now..the Titanic of Battleships ........not scrapped like KG or Rod...or belly up submissively like royal oak....or pow or even repulse ( am not mentioning hood cause there is no carcass to be found)
What a stupid video. Ranking is all over the place. Like I don’t think he understands how these ranking lists work. Like what is the tier list ranking about? Also some of the information here is misleading, wrong and just flat out false. Like the Bismarck had a tremendous effect on the war. It changed the way Germany viewed their naval strategy. The Brits feared what Tirpitz could do so much that they did the Operation Chariot, Operation Source, etc. You had convoy escorts fleeing because of rumours the Tirpitz was coming. British admiralty literally ranked the Tirpitz being superior to the KGV class (obviously debatable if this was correct by the British admiralty). But Tirpitz was an absolutely mean foe. Also many naval historians don’t believe that the Hood succumbed to a shell going through deck armour. Warspite while a badass ship, the class still had plenty of weaknesses. Look at the torpedoing of HMS Barham. USS Arizona, what a weird ship to include, especially when you go about Bismarck having little effect on the WW2. There’s just so much more wrong here, and obviously if anything I say here is factually incorrect, please correct me. But please also correct this guy.
Very glad to see that Warspite in its rightful place. It's hard to argue with the battleship that had one of the longest range hits, yet also sailed up a Norwegian fjord to get in to a melee brawl with a group of destroyers.
It's funny how inexplicably passionate we all are about our favorite battleships considering so few have been in service since most of us were born 😂 Dan Snow, you're the man dude
WoWS PC - HISTORYHIT, WoWS Legends - TVT5FADCJ4, WoWS Blitz - JD1HISTORYHIT - Claim your bonus codes for free in-game content using the codes!
Warthunder better
@@satnav9699 if only you’ve never tried WoWS😅
@@satnav9699 No , Warthunder is more sim , World of Warships is arcade for everyone , no matter if you are 15 years old girl or 65 year old men , rules are simple .
Brit dude S HMS what a surprise .. Really, why do you make this trash ? Screams BIAS
Does the S stand for Sugoi?
Its a CRIME Warspite was scrapped and not turned into a museum ship. She was the 20th Century's HMS Victory
@@Staghound they choose Belfast instead. I would have liked HMS Jarvis too tbh. Nearly as many battle honours, heavily committed throughout the war, but not a single member of the crew lost to enemy action. The luckiest ship in the navy.
HMS Warspite was in a deteriorated state, too expensive too repair, and UK was in a huge debt
@@Contreras1991 and yet we can always find the money to fight wars. If there had been a will then it was possible
As an American, I strongly agree. By WWII, she was not the best battleship by a long shot (see what I did there?), but her resume beats all from that era. Wish she would have been preserved. She won't be forgotten.
@@col.hertford9855 It took many years to Britain to pay their debt (2006 I believe) Still like i said, Warspite was too expensive to repair and then do the necessary things for her preservation
"Am I biased? yes I am." 🤣 This was so fun to watch. I love hearing historians talk so passionately about there fields of study, it brings the subjects to life for me.
You gotta love this Brit !
One of the first lessons you get on history courses. We are all bias , but as historians we must present our bias with facts.
I love that he embraced just having a bit of a chuckle with all this, he outright SAID he wasn't being particularly serious about it. And you still got comments getting salty about it lmao
anyone that claims to be without bias is a liar. i forgive Dan for classing the Warspite by herself. she was a proud ship. she deserved a better fate than the breakers. i hope that an occasion that a ship renders herself so historically important in history that she should be deemed a museum ship is not needed in the future, the Victory, the Constitution, the Mikasa, the Avrova (LOOK HER UP she's a beautiful ship in wonderful shape) the Arizona, the Missouri, the Texas, and all the other current museum ships around the world need to be preserved to honor those that served about them, and in honoring them, we need to keep a clear mind that free people need to stay free and honor the sacrifice that those that served in our Armed Forces did so in the hope that war among our peoples would not keep happening. Pray for Peace folks!!!!!
I wanna basically learn all facts of ships, planes, tanks. I love them all
Wife: 'Why are you crying?'
Me: 'Dan Snow just put Warspite into S tier'
I love the design of Warspite, and it's one of my favorite tier 6 BB's in World of warships
@@Yamato-tp2kf Yeah, it's a solid tier 6 BB. Back when missions were tier 6 only, I wore the paint off of mine.
I assume tears of joy...? Warspite Is S tier. The greatest battleship ever.
It defiantly wins for the best sounding battleship name, the British always had great names for their ships.
@@ChrisCrossClashreally?
HMS Cockchafer, Dainty, Spanker, Pansy, Fairy, Tickler, Delight, Unicorn, Frolic, and the entire Flower class of corvettes would beg to differ. I mean yeah Victory, Indomitable, Vengeance, Repulse, Dreadnought, and Warspite are awesome name, but the RN doesn't ALWAYS have cool ship names
"Stand aside, I'm coming through. This is Ching Lee." The North Carolina class: USS Washington, was the last battleship to sink another battleship in a one-on-one engagement. She was captained by a man whom I've recently grown to deeply admire.
There’s also the USS Texas, who famously gangster-leaned itself so it could fire further inland on D-Day. I would have rather had her on the list over the USS Arizona.
Washington was North Carolina class. South Dakota's were slightly better.
@@zTheBigFishz oh, I must have assumed they were both SDs since the South Dakota was also in that battle.
@@PolymurExcel Yea and the actual SD had a big snafu with it's electrical system that was then followed by a navigation error that left them silhouetted against a burning destroyer which caused them to eat a few large caliber shells.
Uh no, I’m pretty sure this is false. The battle of Saratoga Strait in 1944 was the last battleship on battleship engagement, and that did not involve USS Washington.
@@jimmyneutron4158 the incident I’m referring to happened in the Solomon Islands two years prior and was a direct duel between the Kirashima and the Washington. I hardly think the Fuso from Sergio Straight really counts when it was getting combined fire from several other ships and was had torpedo as a killing blow.
Scharngorst was more a commerce raider and sunk more tonnage than any other ship on the list so was probably the most successful at what she was designed for
Arizona seems random to me. I get shes pretty iconic at Pearl but the Washington would have been better on this list. Shes literally the reason why the US won the final naval battle of Guadalcanal which is one of the turning points of WW2 in the Pacific.
I'd argue it's by name. Sure Iowa/Mighty Mo deserve to be on the list.
As many videos and books as I've read, there seems to be not a ton of info (at least super documented in such things) about the USS Washington (sure the washington had 13 battle stars)
If anything you could throw the USS New Jersey one of the most decorated Battleship in the entire fleet. The USS Texas took 4 part in 4 major Landings (and the only one to do so) (D-day,Iwo,Okinowa, and North Africa)
Washington. Pivotal at Guadacanal.
@@TheGLORY13 Yeah but the USS San Diego also had a shit load of battle stars too (18?) and she didn't really do anything of note other than cheerlead for Enterprise .... so ehhh on the whole battle star thing.
Washington and South Dakota would have had a very bad day if not for their radar guided fire, this was the first time it had been done (In actual combat anyway.) and they didn't just score hits, they were raining shells down with a precision that is kind of scary for WW2.
Washington crippled the heck out of the IJN Kirishima because Kirishima's spotlights were so focused on South Dakota they didn't even realise Washington was firing upon them until womp womp. (If I recall anyway! Something like that.)
But yeah, North Carolina/South Dakota class gang huzzah!
I don't think Arizona is all that random a choice for a historian. It's a "favorites" list and everyone has their own reasons for what they like and don't like. Perhaps being a ship that can still be visited - even as a wreck - is a factor. It can be experienced whereas Washington can only be read about as it was scrapped. The USS Missouri museum is basically looking out over the USS Arizona memorial, and together they're they're symbolic of the start and end of WW2 for the US. That's gotta mean something from a historian's perspective.
@@Pure_Havoc i mean why have more US ones, they could have Italian and more British, seen as up until 1944 they had the largest navy in the world and many more battleships of note. Especially as the most successful US ship on this list sunk a trawler and a destroyer with the help of other ships.
My dad lived near where Warspite beached herself on the way to the breakers, refusing to die, and remembers older boys swimming out to her. Imagine having a battleship to play with. And Warspite at that!
Prussia cove, note accurately by st Michael’s mount in Cornwall where I lived for ten years. And yes, if the tide was out and the flats exposed you could still see some of her heel and boilers up until the late 2010s
@@DanielGreen-j4c possibly the most iconic British ship since the Hms Victory such a shame they never kept her around
Americans made museums of ships with such bland combat records, and we couldn't spare the grand old lady? Genuinely angers me.
@@Iamlurking504 Before you give us too much credit we did scrap the Enterprise and if there was going to be 1 museum ship only, that should be the one. It's combat record is remarkable, at least Star Trek got it right anyhow. It makes me sad that I can't visit that iconic ship.
@@jameshannagan4256 fair enough... that lady could hold a candle to anyone
Sad to see no USS Wisconsin. She made the North Koreans redraw maps she was so angry.
Temper, temper
And where are the rest of the British battleships? King George V? Nelson? Revenge?
Mate, read the title of the video.
Dan's favorite battleships of the SECOND World War.
@@cleverusername9369 big whiskey was in WWII
Famously short tempered! Gets hit, blows island to smithereens
Not convinced Arizona makes sense on this list. Sure, Bismarck is also famous for sinking, but at least she was part of naval battles, at sea. Arizona sunk in harbor.
That part right there got me bamboozled😂😂😂
@@jenclydelemosnero2529 The Arizona had a similar resume to the Warspite (being a WWI juggernaut and all), but unfortunate circumstances led to it getting knocked out of the war before it could contribute to it. I'm pretty sure he added it to contrast the Warspite
yeah, am scratching my head on that one. Bismark sunk the hood damage the prince of wales and then took on a fleet by itself and he give it a D. While Arizona has no prewar history as a battleship and was immediately sunk at the start of the war. He should had put Bismark at the same tier as Arizona.
@@Marveryn
Bismarck was built different
Bismark did one heck of a job beating on the Brittish fleet.
Think the Tirpitz had a bigger impact than Bismarck on the war. She spend three years in a Norwegian fjord, but the Royal Navy spend alot of resources keeping her bottled up and trying to sink her (something she simply refused to do). Textbook 'fleet in being'.
Tirpitz main contribution was to be on the coolest airstrike video on youtube
Yes but that was because of havoc done by Bismarck
To be fair Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were meant to be battle cruiser commerce raiders.
You mean Polish battleship Gneisenau ? , because Poland own it 1945-51 , and there was plans to repair it and place in Polish navy , that did not happen because soviets have offer Poland 3 destroyers and 5 submarines instead.
@@Huzarionix What Polish? Just because the soviets saved you and then the ship ended up in Poland after the war doesn't make it Polish xd You guys were barely able to build destroyers on your own before the war. And not like the soviets had to offer anything for it as commie Poland was just a puppet state of the USSR. They could have just taken it but i guess they were feeling generous, uncharacteristic.
They're battleships. Considered both by germans and british to be one
@@tandemcharge5114, indeed, in fact I believe it’s on record that it was Churchill specifically who was the main driver force to classify them as battlecruisers so as to save money and not build newer battleships to counteract them. Given Britain already had Hood, Renown and Repulse, calling Scharnhorst and Gneisenau battlecruisers would mean they would already have similar ships which could counter them.
Should be:
To be fair Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were decent battleship ships. Gneisenau just kept having constant air raids against her and so she could never unfortunately get fully repaired. And hence scuttled when Allies approached. And Scharnhorst got completely ambushed in an unfair fight, and almost got away if it weren’t for one lucky shell hitting through a niche spot in the armour that took out one of her boiler rooms.
No Texas? I'm not angry, just disappointed.
BB-35!
Yeah it should be USS Texas rather than the US Arizona ...
Boring ship
Texas didn't actually do much, even had to be bailed out by Warspite at Normandy.
@@SennaAugustus compared to Arizona Texas atleast seen war ...
USS Washington... With "Chang" Lee on board... She took apart the BB Kirishima at night in tight quarters. A battle that made the Japanese realize they could not win the battle. This gave her an outsized influence on the War in the Pacific.
Poor Kirishima, she was extremely unlucky to encounter USS Washington with Chang Kee onboard.
The Kongo class of battlecruisers (later classified as fast Battleship) were not designed to fight in a slugfest with other battleship ls due to its thin armour
@@timid932 Not only that, the Kushima was commissioned 26 years earlier than the Washington. 14" guns vs 16" of the Washington, and within 8000yds.
@@distractedgeek yeah and 8000 yards is a knife fight range for battleships
PURELY TECHNICAL LIST:
S tier: Yamato, Iowa
A tier: Richelieu, Bismarck, (and I´d also add Littorio, and King George V and North Carolina and South Dakota)
B tier: Scharnhorst (+ Strasbourg, Hood, Colorado and Nagato)
C tier: Queen Elizabeth (+ Repulse, Kongó, Ise, Fuso, Nevada, Cavour, Andrea Doria)
D tier: Arizona (+ New York, Gangut, Deutschland - the pre-dreadnought, Revenge, and all of the South American dreadnoughts)
Yamato didn't achieve anywhere near what Warspite did. Also the scharnhorsts did far more than Bismarck,Tirpitz or the littorios
@@tigerland4328 what part of "technical list" that you dont understand
Fuso & Ise at C is debatable, yes it got a lot of guns but they are slow, slow rate of fire and very weak AA defense, the later converted Ise is a bit better with added active offensive & defensive by her seaplane.
Nagato don't belong in B, I think it's just worse version of Kongo.
Given how outdated her torpedo defences were, the poor quality of her armour and how generally technologically outdated she was, I have a hard time putting Yamato as anything other than solid C tier…
@@BlueCollar80 yes sorry about that missed the title of your list. My apologies
Another Bismarck fan boy here. Its not the technical aspects of the Bismarck that make him legendary. It's the sinking of the Bismarck that's the legend. My god, in one sortie, the Bismarck faced 4 battleships, 2 carriers, and an assortment of cruisers and destroyers. Its has international intrigue, Churchill, and more. It's a literal Hollywood movie. Bismarck is a legend.
Bismark one on one would stand its ground.
@@thecurlew7403
with the battle against hood and prince of wales even 2 to 1 bismarck could stood up
@hugonubario Yes people don't realise how powerful she was the Admiral was not happy about the mission the crew needed more time esp the AA gunners they found radar control was best usa found this out in Pacific turpits was nearly ready the 2 could have went together Hood wasn't ready to fight bismark but as usual they couldn't care less their were plans to build 6 to 8 bismarks and 2 of the big H battleships bigger than her with twin funnels lovely ships lovely lines the brits were to replace there outdated fleet with lion class and the vanguard class but never happened. 🛳🛳🛳🇬🇧🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
He is biased as he said, just sour it sank the Hood.
Bismarck was a leg end until the Rodney turned up and neutralised it for the destroyers to finish it off. Sure KG5 pretty much the equivalent of the Bismarck turned up but it was the Rodney that did the damage
The Warspite is the true unsinkable ship
She was an old Lady, but she demonstrated that "old" doesn't mean "less powerful" or "less resistent"
One detail: on the way to the scrapyard (which for me was one of the biggest sins of that time), Warspite towing ropes snapped a few times, it was like the grand old lady was fighting for her life...O7
@@Yamato-tp2kf yes it is a crime, she should rest beside HMS Victory 😢 and on the way to the scrapyard , she eventually beached , telling everyone that she will rest in the seas not a scrapyard. ❤
Warspite should have been preserved for the nation.
Fr
For mentioning Steven Seagal, you should be downvoted....but I'll let this one pass..........THIS time.
Rating the Bismarck as a D is criminal. The amount of effort, and resources, committed to sinking it was astonishing. Because, the British Knew they could not even allow Bismarck to exist. If Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Tirpitz were available to form a Battle Group, they would have posed a significant threat to the Royal Navy. It's greatest weakness was only the fact that it was alone.
More like its greatest weakness was its lackluster everything else. Lacked in AA for its time, lacked the speed, lack the sufficient damage control equipment, lacked the repair ports to go to, etc. Her sister was better designed
@@tandemcharge5114 Changed it's turrets to electric motors too late to run the cables under the armour belt. First big hit took out the cables. Turrets were frozen. There was also that problem with her rudders. Her only achievement was the golden bb on Hood.
@@tandemcharge5114ur a clown, she was the fastest battleship at the time and the aa was to modern that it couldnt be calibrated on the slow sword fish
@@lollofixxi2216 no, she wasn't. Littorio was of an equal speed, Dunkerque and Richelieu were faster.
TBH the Bismarck to put it bluntly was a pretty trash ship with many problems, Firstly for its intended role you were better of making two or three more Scharnhorst's since they just outright perform better at the convoy raiding role. Secondly Its fire control systems were knocked out in its own first salvo which is not exactly what you want for a battleship, Its armour protection scheme although has a reputation for being "good" in actuality it was actually pretty horrific for the time since the quality of plate used is one of the worst rated amongst all navies of the time with the Royal Navy having the best rated quality of steel used for a battleship belt. Its armour protection scheme was also heavily dated for the time as the turtle back scheme was a relic of ww1 design and was hardly used by any capital ship onwards as they progressed to the all of nothing scheme. Funny enough on paper a KGV class of battleship is also better rated when it comes to protection as well. With Bismarck having a turtleback protection scheme it also weighed more than it needed to, since the turtleback scheme was irrelevant for the era as newer technologies essentially nullified the use of one I.E torpedo bombers dive bombers newer and better shells etc. Finally the AA suite was also bad since the DP 105s which provide the most amount of coverage at range had horrific angles of fire as well as medium 37mm AA mounts were infamous for the poor ROF which is not what you want for an AA mount.
As a side note her shells were of poor design as multiple instances are recorded of the shells simply not detonating which for an APCHE shell is definitely not what you want.
This guy was really pissed the Bismark sank the Hood xD
So is everyone else that isn't a fucking Nazi.
Well quite a lot of people are upset about that……
Well he's British, you can't expect the guy to place Bismark along in the S Tier. Favoritism at it's Finest😂😂
@@jenclydelemosnero2529lol
bismarck is overrated by wehraboos. worse career than scharnhorst. deserves to be at D
The Nelson class deserves a mention just because of how unusual the turret layout is.
Was kind of expecting to see Nelson here as well.
And the KGV class?
@@cameronkeen7551 the design feels fairly in keeping with a lot of other battleships. The 14" guns were a bit behind the times. Perhaps a good ship that didn't really stand out...?
Nelson class fire power 9 16in guns only battleship I believe to fire full "broadside" forward
Never heard of Warspite before this video. Holy crow what a resume.
You missed the only other S tier battleship, HMS Rodney.
Sunk the Bismark. Allegedly torpedoed Bismark, and Operation Pedestal, and went to the East Indies without being sunk.
My great uncle served on the Rodney, he lived till 93 and past away a few years ago, he manned the 16” guns. His last mission of the war was being home aussie warbrides
It didn't sink the Bismarck. The Rodney and the fleet that accompanied her did.
@@truesavagejack it is pretty much confirm that it did torpedo Bismarck making it the only battleship to torpedo another battleship in combat.
@@hashteraksgage3281 yes and no Rodney did most of the damage and Rodney would have sunk Bismarck if it was on it's own Bismarck was destroyed stem to stern, being with a fleet is normal. Did Bismarck not sink hood because Prinz Eugen was there as well?
You are a man of good tastes indeed. Rodney deserved S tier alongside her British compatriot.
HMS Warspite is so Epic that when she was sold for scrap instead of allowing her self to be hauled off to the breakers yard she slipped her tugs and beached her self to avoid that ignoble fate. The Grand Old Lady her story will forevermore be the best in royal naval history.
She was one of the first ships hit by a guided missile, she shrugged it off.
She bombarded northern France to such an extent that she wore out her guns.
She single handedly sailed into tight confines of Norwegian fjords and engaged in a knife fight with 10 German destroyers and sunk 5.
Long may her memory live on.
My great uncle served on HMS Rodney and manned the 16” guns on D Day. He lived till 93 and passed some years ago. Another family member of mine was on HMS Repulse and HMS Electra, he died trying to escape a Japanese POW camp. And my great grandfather served in the First World War Navy. Great video, keep up the good work
USS North Carolina should've been on the list. She's the most decorated American battleship of WWII, she was in more action than any other US battleship in that war, and sailors of the legendary aircraft carrier USS Enterprise CV-6 referred to the NC as their best friend, as they operated together so frequently and NC provided such overwhelming AA firepower. The captain of Enterprise even had to signal to NC once "are you afire?", so fierce was NC's AA coverage. She was also the first American battleship built since I think 1922, the Colorado, the first American "fast battleship", and she was revolutionary in her design, firepower, and speed, she was the most powerful and modern ship in the world for a while. When she showed up at Pearl after the attack, sailors and civilians alike utterly REJOICED, I've seen video of her showing up in Pearl Harbor and it's very moving. What's more, she's still around, she in Wilmington, NC, and she's maybe the most well-preserved battleship in the museum ship fleet.
Also I'm from NC so I'm biased
The Iowa's fought in 3-4 wars. The Big J has 19 battle stars.
@@loyalrammy notice how it says "of WWII"?
Honestly, claiming yamato cannot get A because it was sank with most hands on deck and put at B next to Arizona, who just got that high just because how it sank, i dunno man, it sounds not only biased but a little.ridiculous.
I respect all the rankings, i would even accept yamato in B, but not with that reasoning, its ridiculous
where is the USS Washington? She was the last battleship to actually sink an enemy battleship in combat.
Well oldendorf`s battle line at surigao strait may disagree.
The destroyer sunk Fuso and damaged Yamashiro. And anyways Washington sunk Kirishima almost single handedly, while Yamashiro was fired upon by so many ships including cruisers.
What not one Italian Battleship? The Vittorio Veneto was awesome
With her hypersonic shell speeds lol - And extremely pleasing to the eye.
Agreed!
Fr
Vittorio Veneto ran away from a very slow R class and caused the retirement of Admiral Campioni, Littorio couldn't beat some destroyers.
@@SennaAugustus In fact, battleships shouldn't fight destroyers, that's the work of the cruisers or other destroyers. Destroyers are a problem for the battleships, because the main guns are not appropiate for little targets, and the speed and torpedos of a destroyer can cause big troubles to a big ship.
Love these ranking videos. Had heard of most of the ships ranked but had no idea as to speed, power or history which made Dan Snow's placements that much more entertaining and interesting. Well done,
Dan's pro-Brit, anti-German bias is off the scale here. Bismarck's hit on Hood wasn't "lucky"; she straddled Hood with the 1st salvo then sank her. If Lutyens had decided to pursue the POW she might have been sunk as well. Bismarck was very well armoured, as she took a tremendous pounding from Rodney's 16" guns before probably being scuttled by her own crew. She was also fast for 1941, so she had the firepower-speed-armour balance just right. She wasn't perfect & had her flaws, but was as good a ship as any British battleship of the war. Her crew fought her courageously to the end, and the fact that she drew so much of the Royal Navy's resources meant she had a huge influence historically, despite her short service life. And the fear-factor she created was immense.
So the Bismarck's hit on Hood wasn't lucky - but the damage it did certainly was!
@@postie48 Yet a long-range plunging 15" hit on Hood was almost always going to penetrate Hood's weak deck armour, so after a few hits there would be a fairly high probability of hitting one of the 4 main magazines. If the POW had been hit & blown up in the same way, it would have been a much luckier hit.
@@TheNigelrojo: The weak deck armour thesis has been dismissed after looking at the actual as built designs. As a battlecruiser (an eggshell armed with hammers) HMS Hood was not designed to resist guns of the same calibre as she had. However, some people point out that HMS Hood was 'improved' during construction so her deck armour was not particularly thin. Latest analysis ( looking at the actual engagement distance) which indicates the shell was NOT plunging fire. The review of the actual damage as seen on the wreck, and the two reviews during WW2 of agree that a magazine explosion occurred. However, many experts now suggest that her magazine was penetrated by either a 'diving' shell or her thinner underwater armour was exposed when her bow wave + heeling left this exposed NOT plunging fire.
I suggest you read one of the recent analysis by Drachinefel or Oceanliner Designs or the custodians of the USN New Jersey they all agree the shell was NOT plunging fire i.e. penetration through the deck.
I would personally think one should mention the channel dash from Scharnhorst, an incredible feat, and also not simply mention the hit, but actually be with Geneisenau to sink the carrier Glorious. It probably be worth mentioning Ardent and Acasta that fought valiantly to save the carrier and that later in battle of north cape, though sunk by Royal Navy, did won the respect of captain of Duke of York. Plus it's a nice looking ship!
Although it was a glorious moment for Scharnhorst, we can't really equate that to skill since the RN and RAF were absolutely atrocious on that day with almost everything they did.
That dash was more down to the audacity of the leaders and crew rather than the actual ship itself.
It is a very beautiful looking ship.
There is a funny story onboard Warspite during Jutland where a crewman onboard witnessed a German shell penetrate the hull and smashed into the bread store on board the ship. The crewman apparently proclaimed witnessing bread flying out past him and wondering if the Germans had run out of shells and had resorted to firing braked bread at them instead.
Warspite: Impenetrable to German shells. Only weakness.... German Bread. LOL
Great List. I would replace Arizona with USS Tennessee, due to her war record, refitted after Peal Harbor and was present at the last Battleship vs Battleship battle at Surigao Strait. I’d also add USS Washington as a B or C, as adm Lee’s gunslinger. And why only one British ship?
01:39 - Exceptional description Dan! 👏
Exactly what I think when I hear it! 🚢
16:25 - Yep, i knew this absolute Titan of the seas would be on the list!
I have the Yamato on WOWL!
Funny how you say Bismarck took Hood by LUCK and don´t say that it was torpped in the rudder by LUCK and forced to go around and around. If not, she would have reached France easilly outspeeding the Royal Navy. What you missed to mention was that this single ship forced UK to keep a ton of ships on ScpaFlow in constant alert.
Incorrect. Scapa Flow had been the grand fleet's base since 1904.
Let's get real the Bismarck had an active service life of 9 days, let's concentrate on what actually happened rather than what bubbles around in your imagination 😑
@@barbararice6650 100% agreed. Raeder was an incompetent fool. Bism should have only stayed in port. From time to time intelligence could have suggested a raid was imminent ans hence force Royal Navy to mobilize for nothing.
@barbararice6650 the brits were TERRIFIED of the Bismark. the only answer they had for her was to send the entire fleet.
@@Bootstrap-qi1rw The RN identified a threat, then sent assets to deal with it. Threat eliminated. In 9 days. The Bismarck failed to achieve its objective and sank a single out dated battle cruiser.
I think HMS Rodney deserves a mention since she took out the Bismarck
Rodney always deserves a mention on any list.
Warspite held that world record right up until a couple years ago when declassified information revealed the longest direct hit belongs to the USS Massachusetts and the longest shot to cause damage but cannot be classified as a direct hit belongs to the USS New Jersey
declassified Usian info by any chance. That noone has been able to qualify? Hmmm
@@markshakespeare5146 no it was declassified by the US and French government. The person that researched it was a naval historian named Vincent O’Hara, and has been accepted by many of the museum ships in the US including the New Jersey, and Battleship cove. Additionally in support of that the French have confirmed they found damage and shell fragments consistent with a US 16in shell penetration on the Milan (the ship that was hit). So although perhaps not the most widely recognized shot there’s significant evidence. Additionally the warspite was completed in 1915 she was a WW1 design. That means with all the advancements in battleship design in the interwar years from all nations, it didn’t make any difference at all in range and accuracy? Logically the longest ever shot would belong to a newer ship.
I always had a feeling Dan Snow plays WoW...This guy keeps getting cooler and cooler.
Battlewagons, he plays 40k as well.
he use to be the lead historian for Ensemble's Age of Empires....those were better days.
@@jbagger331 what a legend
Dan is a very polite person,so he thought he had to put a french ship in there,way too polite.
Why make three categories if you only decide based on one???
FWIW, Swap New Jersey for either Iowa or Missouri. Most decorated of all US Battleships. Longest active career. Probably THE most iconic battleship of all US battleships.
HMS Thunder Child ftw.
HMS Thunderchild was an ironclad torpedo ram, not a battleship although it's hard to think of her as anything else than a Dreadnought.
@@CIMAmotor Yes all that is true, but she did take out a Martian War Machine. None of the others can say that.
@@taun856 Not just one!
1. USS Missouri - for service record
2. IJN Yamato - for technical record and final action
3. HMS King George V - for service record
4. USS Nevada - for actions during Pearl Harbor
5. Bismarck - for final action
Honorable mentions: USS Texas (for D-Day), IJN Musashi (for technical record) and the entire Iowa class
Bismarck is one shot and eternal glory, otherwise no particular contribution to the war.
Yamato had a heroic last stand... sort of. Her AA guns were largely ineffective against USN planes. Of the 10 or so aircraft down in Ten-Go, 5-6 of them were taken down when Yamato capsized and exploded. Ok, here Leyte Gulf performance was more impressive when she actually hit Taffy 3 ships with her main battery.
Musashi takes honour for heroic last stand.
Fr
Yes i definitely would have chosen Nevada over Arizona for her wartime record.
If we just consider WW2 then USS Missouri doesn't deserve 1st position because of her service record.
Replace her with Massachusetts as Yamato had more ship engagement in a single battle than all 4 Iowa class ships in WW2.
@@captainphilips5469yet the NJ holds the world record for the farthest hit. A Japanese DD at 26 miles killing 6 sailors.
Such a shame the UK didnt save a single heavy cruiser, battleship or carrier after WW2 for a museum ship...
Criminal really
Totally agree.
@@IamRyanLPs I agree on the Battleship and Carrier front. Although HMS Belfast is heavier than most heavy cruisers. It's a bit of a misnomer it just refers to the armament either being 6 inch light and 8 inch heay. But some 6 inch ships such as Belfast would have more guns than 8 inch armed vessels and due to the higher rate of fire and the armour on cruiser not having the ability to stop 6 inch fire at notmal battle ranges. Light cruisers were considered equivalent.
We have to see it in the context of the after war period. Europe was devastated and short on literally everything and of course also on raw material like steel that was now needed for very different things to rebuild the countries. Then, even after a ship is decommissioned it doesn't come for nothing. It still has to get some minimum maintenance and care. For what? The war was over, other things were much more pressing than preserving an old mountain of steel. It was very different than today when we just enter a shop and get what we want.
If I had a time machine the first thing I would do is to make sure that hms warspite was preserved as a museum ship
Indeed. It pisses me off that they didn't keep the warspite too.
This is such a cool video concept! Can you start doing this with WW2 fighters, tanks, guns etc. Think it would be a very popular series!
This video is great. Anyone can do a tier list, but this is top quality and really interesting to listen to. I would love it if you were to expand on this and maybe do to top tanks, rifles, jets etc.
I don’t care, Richelieu is the best looking one 😋
I have to say, good thing for that disclaimer beforehand, since I agree with almost nothing on the list, apart from Warspite and maybe Richelieu. For example, Arizona was a glorified ferry and blew up, and that's about it for her accolades. And while Bismarck certainly does not deserve the god-tier reputation she still sometimes gets, putting here alone at the bottom is quite weird. At least she tied down quite a number of enemy forces to hunt her down and managed to sink a ship of almost equal size. Certainly did more than the huge pinata that was Yamato.
Yamato was slower than the Iowa class but had them significantly outgunned. Although it's said that american fire control was better. It would have been an interesting fight if it ever had came across an iowa class.
@@claytonberg721 It is unlikely to be interesting as Iowa does
not have an Immunity zone to Yamato at any range. And we have plenty of examples of what occurs when that is the case.
The list itself is very silly
@@claytonberg721 Outgunned by caliber and maybe firing range (but I don't know this exactly) but not in terms of fire control and subsequently its hit rate, especially at night or in poor weather conditions. That and the speed of the Iowa class would have enabled them to dicate the terms of engagement. Additionally the Japanese were very hesitant to deploy Yamato and Musashi to combat. They were of course very expensive so they didn't take that risk. Additionally Yamato is an ancient term for Japan, so losing her might have had a negative psychological impact. Technological progress in WW2 was insane and battle ships that were considered modern at the beginning of the war were clearly inferior to ships built by the later stages of the war.
@@Harry-tb8yo The only time an Iowa class could've met a Yamato class was off San Bernardino Strait on the afternoon of October 25th 1944, and given who was in command of the Iowas at that fight I am highly doubtful they'd be doing any "dictating the engagement" as many people like to posit for this classic matchup-Halsey would almost certainly have tried to bulldoze his way in and gotten a bloody nose as in that case he was outnumbered and incensed, at least until Ching Lee showed up and set the record straight with his Washington and the 4 SoDaks. Yamato's fire control, esp. at daytime, was nothing to scoff at (damaging near miss or hit on a carrier at 32KM) and Ching Lee himself was not fond of the idea of tangling with them at night. As it was Halsey decided to slow to 20 knots to refuel the destroyers in his formation and ended up missing Kurita by several hours.
Gosh, I do hope Dan doesn't get hunted down by some committed wehraboos for putting Bismarck in D tier.
Their arguments for it being good are dead in the water.... just like the Bismark.
He should make a machine gun tierlist. Man, what would I give to see him argue why bren gun is S tier while mg42 gets a B due to ammunition consumption xD
Well, i expected this to be about battleships, not about how little time the German navy could operate on the seas. If they could, apparently Bismarck would then be higher, which makes no sense i we were talking about the battleships and the not situation at the sea.
So, just surprised the moving of goal posts and that doesn't require being a "wehraboo".
@alaric_ Chill bro, we all know warspite didn't do anything other than exist in the royal navy for 30 years. Litteraly every other battleship could have done the same. He should have at least taken HMS Dreadnought in her place.
Read the comments. It is already happening…
I do agree about Warspite and Missouri being very special, literally iconic, as the good folk of LA might have it.
As everyone who's into the navy lark knows, what the best warships have in common is... BIG GUNS! BIG GUNS! BIGGUNS, BIGGUNS, BIGGUNS, BIGGUNS!
Nice one Dan and team. 🌟👍
Really miss seeing HMS Rodney on the list! She's my favourite. Aside from her varied, valuable and exhausting WWII career, she just looks awesome, like an imperial spaceship from Star Wars. And she and sister Nelson had the biggest guns of any Royal Navy battleship ever, at 16 inches. Legend :)
Spot on, RW!
As an American, I got to say I love the South Dakota and Iowa class battleships did some great work in the Pacific
Don't forget the USS Washington commanded by the admiral Augustus "Ching" Lee, one of the best Admirals in the US Navy that (like the RUclipsr Fat Electrician would say: "USS Washington just bit*hslapped IJN Kirishima") destroyed Kirishima with more than 20 main 16 inch guns shots using radar guiding, which was a brand new way at the time to overcome the best night optics of the Japanese Navy
@@Yamato-tp2kf absolutely right. Adm. Lee is one of a kind
@@carveraugustus3840 Even the Bureau of Ordinance at that time was afraid of him... Admiral Lee was their worst nightmare....
@@Yamato-tp2kf USS Washington failed to actually destroy Kirishima, a WWI Battlecruiser. She escaped the battle but would later sink several hours later due to progressive flooding from the damage. The USS South Dakota, which was not only completely useless during the battle and was nearly sunk by Kirishima, then took credit USS Washington. This would result in the two ships having a bloody feud for the rest of the war and earn South Dakota the nickname "Shitty Dick" from the Washington sailors. Admiral Lee had to personally ensure that the two ships never gave their crew leave in the same port to prevent the very violent fistfights that would occur
@@captaincoxwaggle6882 You're most probably confusing the Kirishima with the Hiei that was sunk some hours later by the TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, Kirishima sunk on the Iron bottom sound as for Hiei, hours after having been shot at point blank gun range by the USS Laffey, she was sunk when she was trying to get out of range from the US air squadrons at Anderson field
No Tirpitz- she sank an entire convoy just by her fear
Which is somehow still less than what Bismarck did, she sat in port all war getting bombed, her attempt to intercept pq17 was a massive cost in fuel that germany couldn't afford, and she didn't even do anything, it was u-boats and the luftwaffe. The KGVs did more and aren't on the list.
Criminal withdrawing the escort of PQ17 & one of the worst disasters of the war.
Admiral Pound of the RN went against all advice, intelligence & sense. He was a unwell man & died from a brain tumour. It's thought it effected his judgment & sent many ships & men to their doom .
Strongest escort sent to that date & fought of all attacks with it before the shameful order.
Joseph Gradwell ignored the order that made no sense & managed to bring in 3 merchant men to Russia on a armed trawler, with nothing more than a Times Atlas . Worth looking up & about the only thing that was positive for the Allies with convoy PQ17
Personally, I would switch the places of the Arizona and Bismark. The Bismark may have only been in service 10 days, but the Battle of the Denmark Straight was a clear victory over the Royal Navy. The German fleet doesnt have too many surface victories to boast of during WW2, but this was clearly a signature victory. The Arizona really never did anything in battle. It's claim to fame is it's demise.
Clear victory? No it was a clear loss. They lost their only battleship and the Prinz Eugen did nothing. How is that a win?
"the Battle of the Denmark Straight was a clear victory over the Royal Navy"
Was it fuck. It was a German defeat. The German objective was to break out past Home Fleet into the Atlantic and attack Allied commerce. The British objective was to stop them. Who achieved their objective? Once you understand that, you'll know who won.
@@PeoeieThe battle in the Denmark Strait was a complete victory for the Kriegsmarine. This cannot be disputed. The sinking of the Bismarck was not part of that battle.
@@Amrod97 Pyrric victory. The hit from HMS Prince of Wales doomed Bismarck
Gotta love the Italian Regina Marina, super clean lines and decent firepower!
Great video!
This was cool. Have you guys done a version for war planes, war submarines and tanks?
Scharnhorst is a battlecruiser? Why is it on a list of battleships
It's a battleship
@@tandemcharge5114 she was built during the restrictions that were placed on Germany during the interwar period where the germans were not allowed to have battleships
@@alexblanco5116 It's a battleship. Both the german and british wonderfully and utterly disagree with the notion that they're battlecruisers
I believe that by WWII there officially were no more Battle Cruisers i.e. all were designated Battleships ... That said her stats and purpose clearly fall into the Battle Cruiser category.
In most forums I have seen this is a common debate meaning it is not cut and dried either way.
@@karlsenula9495 you say that but the United States built 4 battlecruisers to the end of the war the Alaska Class to be specific
One thing that really annoys me? That we (Britain) never kept HMS VANGUARD Britain's last battleship. So generation after generation can see what a battleship was. Yes we have HMS BELFAST but she's not a battleship.. Imagine HMS VANGUARD near or next to HMS VICTORY at Portsmouth what a day out that would have been. But she's gone so no good crying over spilt milk.
Any battleship Willis Lee commanded automatically becomes S tier…
Finally, a man who loves and respects Warspite as much as I do. Good show!
Dear Dan. I can't say that I agree with all your choices, but it is always a pleasure to see your face and hear your voice.
I'd have included a few 'lesser-known' battle-wagons, such as the Italian 'Littorio' or maybe a 'South Dakota' class, either above Arizona or Scharnhorst...
I was wondering why they didn’t feature any Italian ships either, especially the Littorios /Roma
What about the most decorated, BB62 NJ?
I was waiting for the New Jersey as well. It definitely deserves to be at the top
I have the feeling that there will be a second video about this topic
What did it actually do in the war to warrant it being on the list? be honest. Also it was Dan Snows list, other lists may vary.
Please compare it to Warspite's war record.
In my opinion, it should've been USS NJ instead of USS Iowa for this list. NJ served longer before retirement, was in that same typhoon, and unlike Iowa was Halsey's flagship in the Third Fleet. Also the fact that it sunk an entire island
@@k9pc1235 USS New Jersey fought in four wars and Warspite fought in two. New Jersey still exists and Warspite was turned into scrap.....
I think you made a big mistake choosing 2 Iowa class battleships. And yo missed the USS Washington, which actually engaged and sank another battleship in the 2nd Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Even though it was a Treaty battleship, the 16-in guns and radar fire control allowed Willis Lee to make mincemeat out of the Kirishima.
Not to mention not put the King George V on the list. The most heavily armored BB class in WW2.
@@hrhagadorn aside from Yamato.
The only mistake was not including all four Iowa class battleships, the pinnacle of battleships.
@@loyalrammy how? He added two which shouldn’t have been on there, their service during ww2 was laughable and they wasn’t the pinnacle of battleships. They were just glorified longer versions of the South Dakota class. They didn’t have the best armour at all, nor the biggest or best guns or crew. Also their technology still wasn’t the best. The overall best and most advanced ww2 ship was obviously the HMS Vanguard every system and design on the HMS Vanguard except the actual guns were newer and more advanced than the Iowas. Don’t forget the Vanguard was launched in 1946 do they had taken every mistake of previous battleships into account whilst also incorporating the modern technology from 1946 compared to Iowas late 1930s technology.
Willis Lee and his crew were accurate, with or without fire control radars. He relentlessly trained the Washington guys to be insanely accurate and would have done the same on any battleship. IMO.
Very nice job. Honorable mention for Derfflinger. Beautiful ship that helped to sink two British battle-cruisers at Jutland and had the best nickname “Iron Dog” given to it taking 21 high caliber hits from the British.
This is the kind of guy I wish I had as my history teacher back on high school.
He is just feeling what he says, the passion in his eyes is that of a little child talking about his favorite stuff
You forgot to mention the Iowa class's poorly designed bow that vibrated in heavy seas so the top speed was reduced.
that was because half of Japan's navy was stuck on the bow as we quickly chewed up their toy navy
Bismarck probably deserves to be higher, if for no other reason than surviving as long as she did under whithering fire. Hundreds of shells hitting at pt blank range, and multiple confirmed torpedo hits.
Come on, it is a Britt. What else did you expect? Keep them happy.
@@marNL1970 what? Are you another German that’s mad that the Bismarck was sunk??
@@Peoeie Me German?! Apologize yourself please. No, just laughing about you Britts.; every opportunity is taken to drag down Bismarck's reputation. Are the Britts still upset about the good shooting of Bismarck which made the Hood explode? Still upset about Jutland?
That was done on purpose to get up close so plunging fire wouldn't hole it, and it was a cruel act to chop the crew up ✌️😑
@@Peoeie why should a current day german be mad at that? The german navy basically sent them to their death in suicide missions against an allied fleet that outnumbered them by roughly 20 to 1, so it was a foregone conclusion that they would eventually find them and sink them. I believe most of us today are just annoyed at the sheer arrogance with which brittish people talk about this now as if the Bismarck, aswell as Prinz Eugen and Scharnhorst were supposedly terrible vessels, yet historical facts and accounts from real people who were involved in the fighting say completely otherwise.
Everyone should remember, this is Dan's favourite battleships, not "best battleships". Still fun to watch though.
I still remember going on a tour of uss Missouri when i was a kid. All these battleships are a marvel.
Magnificent! Bias? Don't care, it was fun! My late Father-In-Law went aboard the Missouri just after the war while serving on HMS Jamaica (one of the ships that sank the Scharnhorst), he was very impressed. Warspite was special, he told my wife about her when she was a small child.
Putting Bismarck in D is a technical insult. But what to expect from chauvinist Brit sentiments when it hummiliated the RN by sinking HMS Hood only with in a few shots and it took literally an entire fucking fleet to sink it... And this only with a prior shitload of luck with the torpedo hit at the rudder...
womp womp
How many hits did Bismarck score when fighting for her life? How many of the attacking aircraft did she shoot down? How utterly flukey was the shell that sank the Hood? How easily was she incapacitated? And I don’t think you mean chauvinistic I think you mean jingoistic. Bismarck couldn’t even hit Poiron while she was signalled “I am Pole” over and over at her. Bismarck Schmismarck!
D is indeed an insult
should have been e tier
The only reason it accomplished anything was because it had a one-in-a-million stroke of luck and then it was doomed very shortly after by a literal biplane. It was a crap design with massive flaws, sending it out as the Germans did was pure idiocy, and there was nothing special whatsoever about the use of force to sink it because it had been blatantly apparent since Jutland that battleships take a stupid amount of punishment and effort to sink under normal conditions in ship to ship combat.
D tier all day long.
HMS Warspite had 15 battle honours ,.... no other ship compares.
The USS New Jersey beats it with 19 battle stars.
@@loyalrammy If you count Korea and Vietnam ....... where she had no enemy to fight.
@@loyalrammy 15 during an actual war though
@@connorkitchen7156 I'm not diminishing Warspite, but I am promoting the Iowa class and the USS Texas The last battleships and only super dreadnaught in existence. That counts for a lot being the last ones standing.
@@loyalrammy Yeah there's no denying they were genuine sea monsters
Great ranking I’d say but I honestly think Bismarck should have had a higher ranking
her career was short but the reason for that was the absolute fear factor she gave the Royal navy, and the outcry to avenge the hood after that engagement plus having a battleship in the Atlantic sinking all the shipping merchants. They had to send any vessel that was active in the Atlantic to go after her
As for Bismarcks beating she had King George V, Rodney and a few cruises pound at her until their ammo was almost completely depleted and mind you Bismarck was already limping thanks to a lucky torp jamming her rudder. and the Navy did cripple her but there’s been evidence she was in fact scuttled.
Scuttled or not it’s doesn’t matter the Entire ship was destroyed and going under. The British ships clearly aimed for the deck and bridge for revenge.
The Germans scuttled a burning hulk. She was no longer technically a ship long before she sunk.
I also dont get why shes ranked so far below yamato. Yes of course, yamato was way bigger, had bigger guns and a longer Service live, but what did she accomplish? She sank a destroyer and damaged a carrier. Bismarck sunk a battlecruiser and heavily damaged a battleship. And any other battleship wouldnt have survived much longer with how many ships the brits sent after her.
Not saying that Bismarck should've been S Tier, but D Tier, with seeing whats in C Tier, is just a Joke.
@@RANDP117 Well it got a lucky shot on hood and the POW had gun trouble so it had to sail away. It didn’t heavily damage POW also Britain only engaged the Bismarck with 2 battleships and 2 cruisers. Bismarck also missed every single shot. Nelson or KGV could’ve easily taken on the Bismarck alone and sunk it.
@@Peoeie Why the salvo that obliterated Hood was lucky and the torpedo on Bismarck's rudder was not?..talking abou bias....I am pretty sure that if Admiral Lutjens had not pull rank....Captain Lindemann would have gone and sink POW as well ...not that it mattered so much because that fat drunk churchil sacrificed her and Repulse in Singapore a few months later
Thanks for the nice light-hearted video. To be fair to Bismarck, perhaps consider all the resources dedicated to finding, hunting and sinking her.
Great video! No Italian battle wagons though?
What a bizarre list! Firstly, the title of this video is Dan Snow Ranks His Favorite Battleships of the Second World War but at around the 10:55 mark Dan states that he isn't a fan of the Scharnhorst - then why the heck is it on the list? Next, he ranks the Bismarck as D Tier. Astonishing. It sank the Hood! Admittedly it had a very short service history but look at what the Royal Navy had to throw at it to bring about it's demise. Bismarck took an incredible amount of punishment to dispatch and proved just how well built it was. Conversely, the USS Arizona sank at harbor and given the video title, achieved nothing in WWII. I realize this is Dan's personal view and not necessarily an objective list but even so he makes some odd statements. I find it hard to believe he didn't select one of the KGV's. This video cements what I have long thought - Dan knows less about naval history than he thinks he does. The History Hit team should've asked a real naval historian to compile a list.
"Bismarck took an incredible amount of punishment to dispatch"
So what? She was mission killed in her first engagement and quickly disarmed in her second. Who cares that her useless, blazing hulk soaked up a few torpedoes before it finally sank? She was dead long before that. Her armour scheme was, frankly, rubbish.
@@fergusmason5426 My point is that she did far more in WWII than Richelieu and the Arizona but scored far worse according to Dan.
@@robperkins2085 She was also built and crewed by fucking Nazis, which is a massive point against her.
Agree on Warspite, it was one hell of a ship and done its job. It's a shame that the HMS Vanguard didn't make you list due to the timing, it was completed 1 year after the war but it was the best all around Battleship ever made for me.
I have to agree the 15 inch gun at no point was ever not powerful enough in penetration and has the joint world record for the longest hit on an enemy warship in combat. In terms of it's Radar and fire control it is incomparable to any other battleship. Missouri which had the 2nd most of any other Battleship had 13 Radar and fire control units, Vanguard had 20 and they were all more advanced, just to show the gulf. It's armour belt is thicker than all but Yamato and due to the better armour plate produced by Britain it's strength wasn't even that far behind. The deck plating had taken all the lessons from the war, in terms of plunging fire, aircraft and again due to the better armour prodcued in britain meant it was stronger than any other. It was also a fast vessel, only being 1.5 knots slower than the fastest.
The best case would have been if the US could have bought the Vanguard to give it a postwar career alongside the Iowas. The UK certainly needed the $ at the time. It would have been very interesting and awesome to see a modernized Vanguard, Wisconsin, and Missouri side by side in the Persian Gulf.
@@davidmacy411 If Vanguard hadn't been scrapped she would have been round for the Falklands War which would have been very interesting
@@Alex-cw3rz Very true. If the UK wasnt strapped for cash, she would have been there.
@@davidmacy411 well it wasn't just cash it was because of politicans being a bit dim as well, because Vanguard was meant to be kept with HMS Royalist an anti-aircraft cruiser. But instead they Keep HMS Belfast and another town class cruiser and thought that would be equivalent enough and they could be in two places.
Every Wow player knows the cruiser Omaha is the most powerful ship 😂
The most powerful in terms of earning credits when you hit it :)
Cant believe you do this for a job? Dude, you EARNED what you do!
I was living at Hickem AFB, Hawaii when the Missouri was finally retired, and I remember watching her sail around the island on her final voyage and finally come into port in Pearl Harbor. My dad was one of the guys on the committee to convert the Mighty Mo into her place among the US Navy's museum fleet, and I had the privilege of seeing her before she was opened to the public many times. Truly an S tier battleship.
Which battleship in WWII sunk most other warships?
@@NielsenDK-1 Warspite, by quite a long way. sunk and was involved in sinking 8 destroyers, 3 cruisers and also damaged mutiple battleships including getting the joint longest gunnery hit on a ship during combat. It's spotter plane also dunk a U-Boat. In terms of tonnage combined it is also the highest. In terms of the highest on one vessel that is Bismarck with Hood, although within a very short time then Bismarck itself became the largest tonnage sunk by another warship when Rodney sunk her.
V New Jersey.
@@demonicusa.k.a.theblindguy3929 New Jesery sunk two ships and one was a fishing Trawler and the other a destroyer. So definitely not New Jesery.
@@Alex-cw3rz Well there was more ships that sunk Bismarck , that was team work .
@@Huzarionix same with Hood
nothing better in WOWS when your playing Hood and get put in a tier7 battle and see ze bismarck.....revenge
For me its Warspite. A grand old lady at all the key battles. Extraordinary long range gunnery. And that name. Warspite.
As an American not bad not bad. BUT not as grand as Enterprise or Big Whiskey
@@jamesbricher300 Way more grand than any US ship
This was fantastic ! C'mon Dan, let's get a part 2 going!!
As a war & history enthusiast, I enjoyed this 😂❤
USS New Jersey is the standard in nearly every possible category and by far the greatest battleship in the history of the US Navy
USS Washington by standard of sinking another "Battleship" in one on one combat
Apart from his notorious bias against axis ships, he says “no ship that gets a beating and sinks, deserves more than B” well then all axis ships won’t get a realistic rating cuz of the situation they were in because of the Axis powers were slowly losing the war. Not necessarily because those ships were worse.
Yeah those ratings are trash. and everyone with a functioning brain could see this before he started his rating. There simply is no way to rate them properly and fair. At least not in that conflict at sea which was not a focal point of the germans. They were outnumbered from the start and tried spamming submarines to have even a slight chance to circumvent their main disadvantage. Trying to rate warships in a conflict where one side had roughly 20 times the amount of ships than the other is pretty hilarious and shows that these guys cannot be taken serious.
You should read the title, the word 'favourite' is used.
This. You have to keep in mind the power balance between different navies and the role a ship was meant for. The Scharnhorst was meant to be a convoy raider that was big enough to beat any convoy protection, but fast enough to outrun the battleships. Similar to the pocket battleships but intended to be refitted with bigger guns once the Bismarck and Tirpitz were commissioned. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau performed very well in that role during the first two years of the war.
19:59 Yamato would have been a pointless design for the US Navy. For the IJN it made as much sense as a chocolate tea pot.
I lived in Tromsø in the north of Norway for 12 years. The sister ship to Bismarck, Tirpitz, was sunk by the allies outside of the city, at Håkøya. She did little during the Second World War, but due to the danger of her entering the Atlantic, Churchill wanted her sunk in order to free up naval resources. “Target Tirpitz” by Patrick Bishop is a fascinating read.
Correct placement of HMS Warspite earned the like for your video.
Bismark took a heck of a beating but she was not sunk by the Royal Navy, she was scuttled by her own crew. Could she have survived? Definitely not. Also, "lucky shot" on the Hood is nonsense, she was poorly protected, outdated (bar the radar system) and no match for Bismark.
But that doesn't mean that it wasn't a lucky shell that detonated Hood. Bismarck would have won I agree as long as her fire control didn't break like it did later on. But Luck was not on Hood's side in her last fight.
Wrong on both subjects. Classic German sympathiser response. It was sunk by the British and it was a lucky shot. End of cry harder. At this point it’s just embarrassing that you try to justify this.
@@hrhagadorn Agreed. However what I meant was that the outcome was already very likely and not a complete luck as Dan Snow seem to suggest.
@@Peoeie Bob Ballard would laugh at you.
Hood was not "poorly protected". The Admiral class was an improved Queen Elizabeth, the class famous for taking hits. That means that Hood was not even a battlecruiser, but a fast battleship, it's just that the term was informal, and "battlecruiser" means anything above 25 knots.
You were quick to talk about the fear factor of Warspite, but Bismarck was the most feared ship in the Atlantic and therefore the British navy sent 11 ships to destroy it, and they still could not do it. The German navy had to scuttle the ship after it took more than 1500 rounds. So be neutral and fair in your results.
If you wanna talk about fear factor imagine how bismarks crew felt when they realised what was coming for them after sinking the hood. As for the brits "not actually sinking bismark" yes ... yes they did 😂 hypothetically if I shot your car 1500 times but then you blew it up later after realising it was a write off, then im still the one that wrote your car off.
@@islander1939 You don't understand the ethics of war...the coup d'etat was honorably given by your combatands.even from antiquity.....when a Roman General was in a battle lost he asked his ordinary to hold the sword so that he could fall upon it!
"Bismarck was the most feared ship in the Atlantic"
Bismarck spent her short life as prey. She was never going home, and everyone on both sides knew it. And who cares if she was scuttled or not? She was a wrecked, defeated hulk long before she went down.
@@fergusmason5426 not prey but predator.....who cares if a pack of hyenas surround a wounded lion ..he is still a lion sitting upright in the darkness even now..the Titanic of Battleships ........not scrapped like KG or Rod...or belly up submissively like royal oak....or pow or even repulse ( am not mentioning hood cause there is no carcass to be found)
@@vanmust Oh shut up. Bismarck failed miserably on her one and only combat mission and was rapidly killed in her final battle.
What a stupid video.
Ranking is all over the place. Like I don’t think he understands how these ranking lists work. Like what is the tier list ranking about?
Also some of the information here is misleading, wrong and just flat out false.
Like the Bismarck had a tremendous effect on the war. It changed the way Germany viewed their naval strategy. The Brits feared what Tirpitz could do so much that they did the Operation Chariot, Operation Source, etc. You had convoy escorts fleeing because of rumours the Tirpitz was coming.
British admiralty literally ranked the Tirpitz being superior to the KGV class (obviously debatable if this was correct by the British admiralty). But Tirpitz was an absolutely mean foe. Also many naval historians don’t believe that the Hood succumbed to a shell going through deck armour.
Warspite while a badass ship, the class still had plenty of weaknesses. Look at the torpedoing of HMS Barham.
USS Arizona, what a weird ship to include, especially when you go about Bismarck having little effect on the WW2.
There’s just so much more wrong here, and obviously if anything I say here is factually incorrect, please correct me.
But please also correct this guy.
Thank you very much for your summary of all those great ships.
Very glad to see that Warspite in its rightful place. It's hard to argue with the battleship that had one of the longest range hits, yet also sailed up a Norwegian fjord to get in to a melee brawl with a group of destroyers.
My grandad was on warspite. So good to see people loving her
It's funny how inexplicably passionate we all are about our favorite battleships considering so few have been in service since most of us were born 😂 Dan Snow, you're the man dude
imma be waiting for a battle cruiser version soon
Brilliant video!