Best Warships in active Service in 1Sept39

Considering it's HMS Victory, bombs and torpedoes would just bounce off the awesome shield that surrounds it.
 
CV - HMS Ark Royal - I prefer armored Cvs to carrying capacity (yay thinking of nearby airbases ;))

BB - The Nelsons (nagato being equal, but as I am RN fanboy ;))

CA - TOne (just love to have scout planes around - though doctrine did not favor this)

CL - De Ruyter - I am well aware of her weaknesses, but IMO the design was an excellent AA Cruiser - and thats the only real role CLs fulfilled in WWII

DD - Le Fantasque class

CE and the like - don't know, but I'd say the German Flottenbegleiter (most DE classes were only ordered during war) - maybe the SBooats though the better variants were commissioned well into the war.

SS - British T-class
 
Light cruiser, RN Leander Class (just ask Graf Spee) But I am biased my grand father designed her amongst other RN cruisers!

Frigate, Black Swan class, Good sea boat. reasonably quick for an escort and a very good DP 4" fit pluss quad pom pom in 1939,
As to the other classes, to me it's an open book and a matter of taste.
 
Light cruiser, RN Leander Class (just ask Graf Spee) But I am biased my grand father designed her amongst other RN cruisers!

Frigate, Black Swan class, Good sea boat. reasonably quick for an escort and a very good DP 4" fit pluss quad pom pom in 1939,
As to the other classes, to me it's an open book and a matter of taste.

The Black Swans were only comissioned after the war started. You can have the Egret class, but you loose ASW capability.
I like the idea of comparing pre war ships because: 1. War time ships have been discussed to death 2. We're at peace (sort of) now so we can draw more paralels with the design process in the 20/30s
 
Orsa class escorts

Time to justify some of my choices...
1st, the Orsas...
There were lots of excelent escort vessel designs being built in 1939, but one country had already comissioned an excelent well balanced one. The Italians had taken the basic 600t torpedo boat concept, enlarged it to increase range at the cost of a slight reduction on speed, given it a reduced gun armement but a much stronger ASW fit, and came up with a superb multirole escort.
840t standard
28 knots
2x100mm guns
8xAA HMG (later replaced by 7x20mm)
4x 18''TT
6XDCT
fitted for 20 mines giving them adicional multi role capability
good combat record
"PegasoBS Napoletani8 December 1936Sank British submarines HMS Upholder and HMS Thorn. She was part of the screen of destroyers and torpedo boats escorting a four-freighter convoy to Tripoli on 26 May 1941,[3] when two Blenheim bombers were shot down.[4] She also took part in the shooting down of a Beaufort bomber and a Beaufighter while escorting another convoy on 21 August 1942" wiki
and they looked good

ship-pegaso.jpg
 
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