Phalanx is an anti-missile system anyway, not anti-ship. (On the Wikipedia article: “The Phalanx CIWS is an anti-ship missile defense system.” It’s not “a missile designed to attack ships”; it’s “a weapon–specifically a high-tech Gatling gun–designed to defend against anti-ship missiles”.)
The officers on deck should have service pistols. M9 I think - probably can’t sink a Battleship.
Interesting. Thanks for the discussion, Gray Ghost. I was more concerned with the rocking motion of the ship when the guns are fired. But even the shaking in that video may be more the result of shock waves acting on the camera than the boat moving. And I would guess that an aircraft carrier is more stable than a battleship. So my concern about ship movement may be overblown.
D’oh! Thanks for the correction.
You have to nobble the situation quite a bit for the battleship to have the advantage. A ten-mile gap, for example (borderline claustrophobic even by WW2 standards) means the BB trashes the CV almost immediately, while a 50 mile range gives the CV a chance to scramble its planes, unless the scenario means it doesn’t get any, in which case… what’s the point?
Next up - Typhoon-class sub vs Halifax-class frigate, except the former has no torpedos and the latter can only turn left.
All Nimitz-class carreirs have CIWS systems. They’re not very big, and wouldn’t be easy to see on a picture like that.
A Viking longship against an Iowa-class battleship, but the battleship doesn’t have any ammunition for any of its weapons (shells or missiles) or any fuel for its engines, and in addition to the Vikings, half the crew of the longship are ninjas!
Project Habakkuk vs. a plastic submarine filled with baking soda! To keep it fair, the former has to remain purely hypothetical.
That is plausible; BUT why then is the last shock wave at the bow and no further–seems an odd coincidence if shock waves explain it.
Not with that attitude.
The prophet Habakkuk vs a large fresh water catfish. The prophet is blind and the catfish thinks it’s a snail.
Star Trek vs Star Wars, by which I mean two shrink-wrapped DVDs enter, one shrink-wrapped DVD leaves.
The comparison I was thinking of was a pistol vs. a sword - but the pistol has no bullets.
Well, I dunno. If the aircraft carrier has no planes and the battleship has no guns and they’re trying to sink each other . . . then we’re down to ramming.
And I think a battleship might have the advantage there. Sturdier construction, yes? A carrier’s defenses are its planes keeping enemy ships out of shelling-range; a battleship is designed to stand up to shelling from another battleship.
Well, it is the navy.
Oh, you mean ramming the ships…
Maybe. But what if the battleship was filled with barrels of nitroglycerin?
Ah yes. The USS Derek Zoolander.
Google the Battle off Samar (one of the Leyte engagements) for an action where
Japanese BB (including Yamato) actually did get within shooting distance of USN AC/E.
Luckily there were just enough rain squalls to provide some cover for the AC/E
and just enough heroic destroyer escorts to perform suicidal attacks on the IJN
capital ships to throw them into confusion.
3 out of 6 USN AC/E were sunk, although I am not sure of anyone knows whether
by BB or cruisers.
The Japanese Admiral was sufficiently daunted by the reception to lose heart and
abandon the mission. That was lucky because he could have brushed the opposition
aside and gone on to completely destroy the US landing site on Leyte Island.
What was not luck was the skill and valor of the USN sailors who saved the day
against literally impossible odds.
Then both ships sink, I guess.
Only one actually, the Gambier Bay. You may be confusing that there were 3 US carriers sunk in the entirety of the Battle of Leyte Gulf; the Princeton had been lost earlier to dive bombing and the St. Lo was lost later to kamikaze attack, but only Gambier Bay was lost off of Samar.
The loss of the HMS Glorious during the Norway campaign is probably the closest thing to the scenario posited in the OP, she was sunk by the German battlecruisers Schnarnhost and Gneisenau along with her two escorting destroyers.