Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 4:25:40-4:31:00

World of Warships HMS Devastation in the Second World War

The fictional super-battleship would be an overwhelming surface and anti-aircraft threat whose main limitation was that Britain possessed only one.

Alternate HistoryBattle of Cape MatapanBattleshipsHMS Devastation (World of Warships)Force H
Watch at this timeFull video guide
Question

How would the Royal Navy use the World of Warships version of HMS Devastation, and how would it change the Second World War?

Short answer

It would become a fast, exceptionally powerful fleet centerpiece capable of overwhelming contemporary surface forces, limited mainly by being a single ship and by massed air attack.

Notes

The panel treats the game's Devastation as an out-of-context problem: sixteen 16.5-inch guns, high speed, modern secondary weapons, radar-directed anti-aircraft fire, and enough mass to retain speed in heavy weather. It could dominate Bismarck, the Italian fleet at Matapan, or German ships off Norway. A Force H deployment would turn protective sorties into opportunities to destroy pursuing surface forces. Its vulnerability would lie chiefly in concentrated air attack and the strategic impossibility of being everywhere at once.