soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Rich Rostrom wrote:

Just two minor nitpicks:

> In September 1939, Germany had 57 subs in service.
> At that time they had 21 destroyers, 9 cruisers,
> and 5 battleships (counting the panzerschiffes).

You should count the Panzerschiffe as cruisers, since that is what they
were later reclassified as. They were also in no way equal to any real
battleships, either in armament or armor. (Unlike the Scharnhorst class,
which had battleship level armor, even if it had sub-battleship armament.)

Germany also had two pre-dreadnought battleships (Linienschiffe or ships
of the line in German designation) still in service in 1939, albeit they
were clearly obsolete as blue water warships.


Tero P. Mustalahti