Land battleships vs actual battleships

There is an interesting report by the US Office of Naval Intelligence on the Battle of the River Plate, with quite a few photos and ship damage reports.  It can be found here, at the Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library, and downloaded for free.

http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org

As for a battle between the Admiral Scheer and a Baltimore–class cruiser, I would bet on the Baltimore-class ship, unless the Scheer got some early lucky hits on gun turrets, as the Spee did on the HMS Exeter.  The USS Salt Lake City, one of our two oldest heavy cruisers in World War 2, with an older gunfire control system than the Baltimores, was able to score hits on the IJN Nachi at ranges in excess of 21,000 yards.  The following comment from the ONI report applies to the Spee’s gunnery.

German shooting was described as quite good, initially, but the accuracy fell off rapidly.
(a) 11-inch opened with two 3-gun salvos, very close and on in deflection.
(b) 5.9-inch also fired at Exeter; no definite hits determined, but many splinters came aboard.

I think I Go with the Sherman Firefly in this case, since I prefer a 5-men-crew in Tanks.
This is my plus I give to the Firefly ,for wich I choose the Firefly over the T34/85.

I don’t know much about the 25-pounder, but as regards the famed German 88: it was excellent in both its original role as an anti-aircraft weapon and in its later additional role as an anti-tank gun, but I’m not sure how well it would work as “traditional artillery”.  Anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns are both intended to work as direct-fire weapons, which basically means shooting in a straight line at a target you can see (at virtually no elevation for an anti-tank gun and at a very high elevation for an anti-aircraft gun).  The 88’s high muzzle velocity was well suited to both jobs.  Field artillery and divisional heavy artillery, on the other hand, are often called upon to deliver indirect fire: plunging fire against targets which can’t be seen (a classic example being WWI artillery barrages).  This requires lower muzzle velocity and different sighting mechanisms than the 88 had.

@abworsham4

Please send me his strategies and game reports!

Ships come with a crew and to compare ships has nothing to do with crews and also has nothing to so with comparing SHIPS.  I’m glad you agree as well!

http://www.combinedfleet.com/baddest.htm

And this site has done something similar, (which obviously does not compare crews because this is a comparison of ships) concluded rightfully that Iowa class BB is the best ship all around based on all basic stats.

so when do we get to find out the results?

Haha, well China invades Russia to secure the Quarantine Zones and the Ruskies use da nukes.  Needless to say, the world goes boom.  Great game, great story!

In the Pacific they have using the trem Laod & Lock before going into action as compared to the modern (Veitnam and on) saying of Lock and Load, any anybody know the deference in the sayings? if any?