The Worst Battleships of World War II

In this episode we're talking about tanks!

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[Klyis]

A little known ship that could have made this list is the Spanish battleship Jaime I of the Espana class. Even by WWI standards when they were built they were considered some of the worst dreadnoughts, being smaller and slower than their contemporaries and having the worst armor (8" belt). All three Espana battleships were destroyed, one after running aground in 1923 and another after hitting a mine in the Spanish Civil War. Jaime I was damaged by aircraft in the war and later by an internal explosion but wasn't scrapped until 1939.

[timclaus]

Of course, the Arkansas, New York/Texas, Nevada/Oklahoma, Pennsylvania/Arizona were all scheduled to be retired as the fast battleships joined the fleet. Then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war. The rest is history. You have to admit the Arkansas gave good service in convoy escort and shore bombardment roles, even at her elderly age in 1941-45,

[theomass]

A small correction on Kilkis and Lemnos. The WW2 started for Greece on October 28, 1940 with the attack of Italy from Albania. Germanny came to Musolini's help on April 6th. The ships, acting as floating batteries for the Salamis Island Naval base, were both attacked on April 23rd. IE they made it through the first few months of Greece's participation in WWII

[eliomarlacerda]

Ryan, as a brazilian i can guarantee you that Minas Gerais was pretty much useless even before the WW2 starts, even for coastal defense. There were shortage of ammunition, fuel, training, good communication hardware etc.

[jeffreyhall]

My dad served on the Arkansas during WWll. He was a 3rd class gunners mate on a secondary battery (5 inch gun). He spent his 18th birthday on that ship off the coast of Normandy. They later went on to the Pacific and did shore bombardment at Iwo Jima & Okinawa. I remember being a boy and paging through the War Diary of that ship.

[Matt_The_Hugenot]

Royal Sovereign when she was in Soviet service as _Archangelsk_ is my choice for the list. Whilst she was thoroughly out of date by WW2 she was adequate in the roles the RN used her but the Soviet Navy were incapable of operating her properly. So poor was her maintenance they never even turned the turrets and they rusted in place, any battleship incapable of firing its main guns has to have a place on the list.

[vovinio]

Arkansas, being outdated and obsolete, had far greater service during WW2 than modern and overpowered Yamato and Musashi _combined_.

Any weapon is only as good as how well it is used...)

[DonaldMcKay]

I think it's not entirely fair to class the coast defense ships as battleships. While many of them did sport battleship-size main guns, the lesser displacement meant they couldn't have battleship type defensive features. The fact that many of them were really old by World War II is important. I like the coast defense battleship as a type. It's a product of a different line of thought compared to seagoing battleships, very suitable for a smaller, regional power like the Scandinavian countries. We should remember that the US entry into the era of steam and steel was spearheaded by just such a ship type...the monitor. It's significant that the 2-turret monitor was the origin of the "predreadnought" layout of the main armament. And that was in 1863 or '64, right? Way ahead of its time.

[johnnash]

Thank you for not mentioning BB-3 USS Oregon in the honorable mentioned list. It’s a crime and shame that she was removed from moored museum service to “serve” as an “ammunition barge” and later scrapped in Japan. IMHO, she qualifies as the most egregious of scrappings due to her epic place in Pre-dreadnought history. Imagine pulling out the Mikasa, stripping her down to her hulk and using her as a storage barge, that’s what happened to Oregon!

[anonymusum]

the German ship of the line "Schleswig-Holstein" was used as a training ship only. There were only 2 exceptions: Firstly she fired the first shots against the Polish garrison in Danzig and secondly she participated in the occupation of Denmark. That´s it. The rest of her life she was used as a training ship, sometimes in the very cold winters as an icebreaker in the Baltic Sea. As such she accompanied "Gneisenau" on her last voyage to Gotenhafen.

[JJbm]

Great video and God bless the work you do reserving the legends of World War II. If only, if only CV-6 USS Enterprise have been saved.

[rawhitewolf]

Was expecting a list of battlecruisers and battleships, not necessarily the coastal defense ships of smaller nations like Sweden and Finland. My grandfather served on the Sverige which was the flagship of the Swedish navy, they did serve as a clear deterrent against invasion for Sweden along the rest of the navy during WW2 (unlike the army and air force that were not on a proper level until 1943 when the threat of invasion had all but dissipated). Still a very nice video with the breakdown and presentation of ships you rarely hear about :)

[kennethhanks]

Would say the Swedish Sverige class was fairly effective in its intended purpose, especially considering that she and her two sisters were critical in thwarting a German naval force advance on their home territory in 1944.

[HACM-mkqx]

October Revolution (Gangut) and sister Marat were with the Baltic fleet and blockaded in Leningrad. Both were heavily damaged like Pearl harbor but Marat was refloated and served as a gun platform and October Revolution aided on breaking the 890 day seige and latter bombardment so they should be considered useful

[JeffKamikiJurai]

Definitely the Fuso-class battleship. They had the turret farm layout and all the explosive dangers that come with that, the extremely tall pagoda mast causing stability issues and worst of all the turret layout meant having the two magazines either side of the boiler space, the hottest part of the ship. They were considered obsolete by the start of WWII and Japanese sailors considered them the worst possible ships to be assigned to as any combat sortie basically meant they weren't coming back.

[kevinjarchow]

I'd like to see a segment on the USS Mississippi. Some of her remains in a park in Mississippi. She had a long life from 1917 to 1956. Participated in two World Wars, and transformed into a missile test ship after WWII.
Plus, my Grandfather was a plankowner and a GM.

[billbrockman]

I have a soft spot for pre-Dreads, just for their steampunk look.

[Hendricus]

I'm a bit confused if SH and Schlesien were the "best" of the worst or the worst of the worst pre dreadnoughts. Because normally you would expect number 1 to be the worst, but what Ryan says sounds more like first place is the best of the worst

[robertcounts]

My dad served on the Arkansas, at this time when Arkansas embarked approximately 800 troops for transport to the United States as part of the "Magic Carpet" to return American servicemen home as quickly as possible. Arkansas received four battle stars for her World War II service.

[HACM-mkqx]

Experienced capable crew with confidence in their abilities and equipment and good leadership is a critical factor. Sounds like USS Washington under Admiral Lee.