User blog comment:Void Samukai/Best WW1 and Best WW2 Battlecruiser/@comment-13740085-20160212151832

Are we going off the base stats, or off of their combat record?

If it's the former, then the Admiral class hands down.

If we're going by combat record, however, I would say the Derfflinger class, specifically SMS Derfflinger herself, who could make a claim to the sinking of the battlecruisers Queen Mary, and Invincible, and the destroyer Defence, at the Battle of Jutland, and damaged the battlecruisers HMS Tiger at Dogger Bank.

As for WWII, I'd say the Hood again, though it wins by default. Most battlecruiser hulls were either scrapped, converted to carriers (Lexingtons and Courageous's), or refitted into fast battleships (Kongous) in the interwar years. I would otherwise say the Reichsmarines Deutschland class, though those are either heavy cruisers or "pocket battleships", and the Alaska class ships are technically "large cruisers", not battlecruisers. Really, the Hood is the only undisputed battlecruiser of WWII to really be considered.

Though I think we all know what the worst battlecruiser is, the Courageous class.