Silly question: A ship class' purpose in real life sense?

[Tiguurrr]

This is a bit of a silly question but since I am lazy ( See: Doing a lot of crap at the same time ) to look it up myself, I decided to ask you all here.

Because I am sure there are ship experts here that can tell me faster than I can find out about it.

 

In World of Warships, all class ships have different roles but they also have gameplay reasoning such as Destroyers being invisible basically.

 

What is the real life purposes of these kinds of ships?

- Cruisers

- Destoryers

- Battleships

- Aircraft Carriers

 

I can guess the two last ones of course, that's kinda self-explainatory. But wasn't Destroyers meant to hunt Submarines?

Have there ever been a combination of say Aircraft Carrier and Cruiser or so?

 

Thank you for your great information on beforehand, and keep on being great Captains!

[Sehales]

I can guess the two last ones of course, that's kinda self-explainatory. But wasn't Destroyers meant to hunt Submarines?

Have there ever been a combination of say Aircraft Carrier and Cruiser or so?

 

I am also not an expert, but with DDs you are right: Their focus was/is on submarines.

Carriers always have an escort with them. Mostly light cruisers and destroyers, maybe also some submarines (dunno exactly), but this situation we have in WoWs (you should cover the CV with CAs) is pretty much the same in real life.

That can look like this:

 

 

[praetor_jax]

So you re too lazy to look up "destroyer" and "cruiser" on wikipedia? Sure just have people mouthfeed it to you...

 

So here is 50% of the job for you, have fun reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyer

[MrFingers]

 

 There are more classes than there are ingame. 

Cruisers for example can be divided in battlecruisers (battleshipsized ships with the same armament, but less armour and thus faster), light cruisers (big destroyers), regular cruisers,...

Aircraft carriers can be capital ships (huge sailing airfields), but you also had escort carriers which were small and numerous, designed to escort convoys and provide air covers.

 

The battleship was obsolete in ww2, because there weren't any major battles in which two fleets came so close they could engage with gunfire. It was all done via airplanes. battleships were used for coastal bombardments or as lone raiders (German Bismarck and tirpitz). In ww1 there were a few battles in which battleships slugged it out like they did for ages: by sailing in two parallel lines and firing at eachother, and trying to "cross each others T".

 

In short: 

Destroyer: fast nimble ships used in anti-torpedo warfare (against subs, other destroyers and fast PT-boats/Schnellboote) and escorts of fleets and convoys. Cheap and easy to replace.

Cruiser: larger ships used for engagements, patrols and the core of small fleets. Also provided air cover in larger fleets

Battleship: fear inducing behemoths from yesterday. Main ships in large fleets prior to 1930.

Aircraft carrier: core of a large battlefleet and main strike force.

[Fruitinator]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_classification_symbol

read untill your eyes bleed

 

*Flies off*

[Gunship14]

Cruisers : Mostly escorts for battleships and carriers to provide AA support, raiding convoys and shore bombardment.

 

Destroyers : Escorts as well, fighting smaller ships and sinking submarines via depth charges. Also used for shore bombardment.

 

Battleships : Their purpose was to fight other ships, though they didn't do much in WW2. Also used for shore bombardment. It's interesting to note that they were mostly "symbols", showing the power of a nation during an ongoing arms race.

 

Aircraft carriers : Mobile airfield. Doesn't need much more explaining.

[KptStrzyga]

Destroyers at first came to life to counter torpedo boats. Torpedo boats were big threat for battleships. Later they got many other roles: AA escort vessels, mine sweepers, sub killers, torpedo launchers...

Battleships were created to dominate thru superior firepower and armor. It was dead end in ships development because torpedoes and aiplanes.

Cruisers were designed as patrol and escort ships with huge firepower. For battleships, convoys, whatever needed escorting. 

Carriers are carriers.

[N00b32]

 

What is the real life purposes of these kinds of ships?

 

Kill enemy cargo, make sea invasions possible, protect own cargo, deny sea invasion. The ship classes are only evolved reflections of the available weapons and their counter measures. So a battleship is a huge gun platform with massive armor against similar sized guns. Possibly the role of cruisers is unclear, Basically spoken, cruisers are there to protect the valuable units like battleships from all kind of threads, like torpedoes or enemy gun platforms. But like with all war things, they come in half a dozen variantions spezialized in their specific task, from even smaller torpedo boat destroyers to large cruisers designed for situations, where you don't want your battleship fleet to be (like in some colonies, basically a fleet should move together).

 

Of course destroyers are not only about torpedoes, but also about countering the torpedoe destroyers. 

 

And a sailing airfield pretty much explains itself. In the end it is only a weapon on a platform, designed for a specific task, mostly to counter other weapons but also with respect to available money.

 

Take the UK as an example, a lot of their battleships are compromizes or were canceled, once a specific thread was removed. In WoWs we have the unqiue situation of the Washigton Treaty, that is why there are so many cruisers at the time, because you can't just build battleships (aka the big units) by waving with the hand. And of course destroyers are cheaper and more efficient, but sometimes you need efficiency and sometimes pure firepower. It is up to the task.

[canuckster]

Destroyers at first came to life to counter torpedo boats. Torpedo boats were big threat for battleships. Later they got many other roles: AA escort vessels, mine sweepers, sub killers, torpedo launchers...

Battleships were created to dominate thru superior firepower and armor. It was dead end in ships development because torpedoes and aiplanes.

Cruisers were designed as patrol and escort ships with huge firepower. For battleships, convoys, whatever needed escorting. 

Carriers are carriers.

 

Yeah, in the end they all just ended up as AA platforms, sub chasers and radar pickets for Carrier task forces.

[KptStrzyga]

 

Battleships : Their purpose was to fight other ships, though they didn't do much in WW2. Also used for shore bombardment. It's interesting to note that they were mostly "symbols", showing the power of a nation during an ongoing arms race.

 

Battleship did not need to fight at all to play it`s role, fact that some country has BB in port was forcing other countries to move their fleets and to change politics in whole region. As you said: it was symbol of power with major implications. 

[N00b32]

 

Yeah, in the end they all just ended up as AA platforms, sub chasers and radar pickets for Carrier task forces.

 

Technically the class evolved to something else, we just keep the name. Like we do with frigate. They have nothing to do with the famous US frigates of the Independence era. 

[KptStrzyga]

Here is great and very interesting movie about destroyers: how and why they were created and how they evolved.

[MetropolitaN]

The battleship was obsolete in ww2, because there weren't any major battles in which two fleets came so close they could engage with gunfire. It was all done via airplanes. battleships were used for coastal bombardments or as lone raiders (German Bismarck and tirpitz). In ww1 there were a few battles in which battleships slugged it out like they did for ages: by sailing in two parallel lines and firing at eachother, and trying to "cross each others T".

 

Battle of Surigao Strait? Anyone?

[Tiguurrr]

Thanks for all the replies!

This has been most helpful!

 

Awesome ^_^

[MrFingers]

 

Battle of Surigao Strait? Anyone?

 

Yes, that of course, but I'm talking more about the "slugfests" like there were in WW1, like the Battle of Jutland (and even then... That was more a clash of (battle)cruisers and destroyers... the Hochseeflotte and Grand Fleet with their dreadnoughts didn't really bore the grunt of the battle, just their "presentation in the vincinity" was enough to scare enemies away.

 

[EsaTuunanen]

I am also not an expert, but with DDs you are right: Their focus was/is on submarines.

"Normal" fleet destroyers could do that (and did when protecting battle groups) but especially anti-sub job of convoys was mostly done by destroyer escorts (DE) which were weaker and "cheaper" in every way.

(didn't need many guns against subs or high speed in chasing sub/escorting slow transports)

Others than USN used name frigate for those convoy escort anti-sub ships.

 

Again today situation is really different because modern destroyers are the size/weight of typical WW2 era cruisers.

[Adwaenyth]

Again today situation is really different because modern destroyers are the size/weight of typical WW2 era cruisers.

 

Even some modern ships designated as "frigates" can reach that size/displacement. Like the newest German frigates of the F125 class displace 7200 tons which is almost the displacement achieved by WW2 CLs like the Königsberg-class at 7700 tons.

[BrushWolf2]

Destroyers were originally called torpedo boat destroyers and their mission was to stop torpedo boats. Then as time passed after WWI they started taking on the torpedo boats job and became what they, tier 4 plus, are in the game.

 

Cruisers were the maids of all work and were used when something stronger than a DD and not as strong as a BB was needed. In general within a cruisers time period they were stronger than anything faster and faster than anything stronger.

[T0byJug]

Tiguurrr, on 14 September 2015 - 06:44 PM, said:

 

 

In World of Warships, all class ships have different roles but they also have gameplay reasoning such as Destroyers being invisible basically.

 

What is the real life purposes of these kinds of ships?

- Cruisers were to Cruise... they were the eyes and ears of the fleet. also to show the flag where big ships were not needed

 

- Destoryers full name of a destroyers is Torpedo boat Destroyer. Role was to destroy torpedo boats and keep them away from the fleet.. also they could fulfill the role of Torpedo boat. later they picked up an anti submarine role after Subs were seen as a threat. Basicly they were the fleet escort

 

- Battleships Well easy one to be the Battle line fight the wars

 

- Aircraft Carriers started of to be the eyes but quickly went to an anti shiprole and when you get aircraft on ships as an anti ship role natruly you will get planes to counter these anti ship planes so Carriers full fill a unique defensive and aggressive role

 

I can guess the two last ones of course, that's kinda self-explainatory. But wasn't Destroyers meant to hunt Submarines?

Have there ever been a combination of say Aircraft Carrier and Cruiser or so?

First ship class  designated a Torpedo boat destroyer or destroyer was HMS Daring launched in 1892 first Submarine Proper was was about the same time but early subs like the Hollands were only really a threat against non moving ships in port. destroyers only picked up an anti sub role around 1916 about 20+ years after HMS Daring

 

Thank you for your great information on beforehand, and keep on being great Captains!

ok obviously this is somewhat simplified

 

 

 

Adwaenyth, on 16 September 2015 - 02:50 PM, said:

 

Even some modern ships designated as "frigates" can reach that size/displacement. Like the newest German frigates of the F125 class displace 7200 tons which is almost the displacement achieved by WW2 CLs like the Königsberg-class at 7700 tons.

 

The modern difference between Destroyers and frigates tend to be Roles. 

Frigates normaly are  Multi Role master of non

Destroyers have a role example the new type 45 daring class DD in Royal Navy are Air Defence