Greatest Warship Class of WWII?

Question

Sorry I resolved the First one too quickly
The Factors again are

1. Firepower- The Hitting power of the Class
2. Armor- How Much Can it take
3. Speed & Range
4. Fear Factor
5. Service Life- Getting your money out of a class

MY EX. US Fletcher Class Destroyer
1. 5 X 5in Duel Purpose Gun/ 6 X 20mm AA/ 10 X 20mmAA/ 10 X Torpedos/ 4 X Dept Charge Racks
2. A Fletcher USS Johnston Took Fugo's 14in Shells, Yamato's 6in Secondary Guns, and Countless hits from Destroyers and a Light Cruiser.

3. Max Speed of 36.5 Knots and can cross the Pacific Ocean.

4. Scared the enemy army for close-range bombardment and took on easly light and heavy cruisers.

5. the class was on the books till the 1970's

The Ship above is one Example of what im looking for in a question.

To elaberat, a class is not a type like Battleship, but a style of the type. For EX Iowa-Class Battleship, Yamato-Class Battleship, and Bismark-Class Battleship

Answer 1

Gotta be the Iowa Class battleships.

HUGE hitting power - I think the weight of broadside is going to be close to the entire weight of a Fletcher destroyer...;-)

Immense armor.

Very fast, very long range.

Is there anything more frightening than a vessel that fire shells the size of a volkswagen?

They keep re-activiating them, - Iowa's fought in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, and Gulf War I. Now THAT is a service life!

Speed - 35 knots with a range of over 9,600 miles.
Carries aircraft as well.
Fletcher - 1.5 knots faster, but not the same range.

I give it beating out the Fletcher on 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Beats the Yamato as well, which didn't make it out of WWII...Beats the Bismark on all points as well.

EDIT: After reading the other entries, I had to admit, I was thiking strictly surface combatants. You may have me sold on the Essex class - that air wing was considerably more devestating than anything aboard an Iowa and a much greater fear factor. Subs were pretty good in the firepower and frightening capacity too...

Note that the USS Fletcher, while succeeding in her attack while absorbing that punishment AND sinking a cruiser to boot, while damaging other vessels, was utterly destroyed by the IJNS Fugo and the other ships firing at her. Tough little ship though, as was the DE USS Samual B. Roberts. Valiant crews. But I doubt they would consider their attack on those cruisers 'easily' - The comment from one of the gunners was "our biggest shells would just bounce off the hull, so we had to work over the superstructure."

Orion

Answer 2

Pretty easy. Air Craft Carriers. Pick any class you want.

Look at what six carriers did to the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The only ship that one could consider in the same breath is the Iowa class battleships yet if the enemy ship is more than 25 miles away, the guns of the battle ship are worthless. All a carrier would have to do is stay out of range and it would not matter what kind of guns the battleship had or how little armor the carrier had, the battleship was worthless.

Answer 3

Essex class carrier they carried at least 90 planes and could and did sink the most powerful ships in the world like the Musashi and Yamato. The ships had 12 x 5" 38's and 68x 40mm and 70 20mm guns. The ships had 3' belt armor and a 2.5" hangar deck armor. The fire control was a top of the line radar controlled units. The ship had a range of 15,000 miles at 15knot speed and could go 35 knots on occasion. These ships were so successful that they lasted until 1990's when the last one USS LEXINGTON was Retired she had been used as a training carrier. It would seem to me that if you knew that an Essex class was in town you made tracks just like the admiral aboard the Yamato did when the escort carriers he was hitting were mistaken as Essex he beat feet.

Answer 4

People people people. Class is now in session. Iowa class battleships, were the best. Yes Sir, carriers were awesome, but the Missouri was still throwing shells like Dwight Evans threw out base runners, and were platforms for cruise missiles during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991, it also saw service as gunboats during Korea, they could take hits not that anything could get close to them. The Iowa and New Jersey were also active during Korea and into the late 1990s. They were on and off mothballed through the years and were all finally decommissioned in the 1990s. Like any other ships they needed support, they were vulnerable to submarines and stand off anti ship missiles but with a battle group including anti sub destroyers and some anti aircraft pickets. All in all they were the best. Good Luck

Answer 5

You asked the question, and then you answered it. Whats up with that???? The Battleship with her big 16 inch, 25 mile range guns was feared by the Japanese more that any other ship. Reference.......my brother....he served on a battleship in the Pacific during WW2 and he has stated that the Japanese navy would steer a 1000 miles around them rather than stay and fight.

Answer 6

C'mon!
Using your requirements the AIRCRAFT CARRIER is the S___!
-most firepower, goes without saying
-armor ??? but nothing is getting close enough to do damage
-speed and range, greatly enhanced by the use of aircraft
-Fear factor , hands down the winner
-service life, still the winner

Answer 7

well you shouldnt have listed the answer. I definitely agree. It worked well vs most types of enemy ships including submarines. I liked destroyer escorts as well in the pacific theater.

Answer 8

The Largest most powerfull were the Battlecruiser Classes. Here is a link to each class of all nations back then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlecruiser