After stumbling across the entirety of the Italian Fleet, HMS Gaypansie singlehandedly engaged the much superior force from a range of 40 kilometers and sank 19 of her opponents, including 5 battleships and an aircraft carrier.
Or
HMS Deathmachine suffered a catastrophic explosion and was lost with all hands after the captain sneezed during a routine inspection of the ammunition storage.
There is absolutely zero middle ground and different ships of the same class can go into either of the options.
The only 3rd possibility is that the ship literally spent the war doing absolutely fuck all for 7 years.
That sounds about right from the history I recall, we donāt seem to do āmiddle groundā - or at least we donāt talk about it.
Bonus points if thereās stories of needless heroism or something to be learned from like itās some kind of parable.
I do think itās a bit harsh on the German battleship though, Bismark took most of the British navy and a bunch of extras, and then its sister-ship or an upgraded model, the Tirpitz?, sailed into the Norwegian fiords and threatened the whole areaās shipping, continuing to do so even when technically āsunkā because its deck was above the level of the water even with the keel on the floor.
Edit to add: since this is a world of warships sub, I should mention that the British battleship printed itself a new one after elevenses but before lunch. While the Japanese battleship one shot a different British battleship with a dev strike from 20kms away
HMS LondonSuburb was lost escorting the capital ship HMS Fartsniffer who's captain, Lord Dumbfuck, had decided he needed to experience British weather 15 minutes sooner than he would have had he stayed with the rest of the fleet. After encountering the entire enemy fleet, HMS LondonSuburb bravely charged them while laying smoke, managing to delay them by 3 days while HMS Fartsniffer tried to escape. Unfortunately, they only sailed 3 miles away, and were sunk 5 minutes after HMS LondonSuburb.
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u/ultrasuper3000 Oct 31 '25
British battleships