User blog comment:Void Samukai/Best WW1 and Best WW2 Battlecruiser/@comment-13740085-20160212151832/@comment-13740085-20160212201439

I agree fully on the Deutschland point.

For the Alaska however, there are several reasons why I disagree. For one, the design was essentially a scaled up Baltimore, with the same number of 5' guns, effectively equal AAA volume, and similar armor patter (while actual capital ships had thicker armor and more secondaries. Heck, Hood had thicker armor). Like cruisers, the Alaska class had its own aircraft hangers and a single large rudder, rather than the twin rudders found on American capital ships. Its torpedo protection was non-existent, and its other armor might as well been plywood against anything bigger than a 12' round. As described at the time, it had "the size of a battleship, but the capabilities of a cruiser."

I'm one of those who consider service more important, because what good does this world-beating ship do if it does poorly in combat? Compared to the Iowas, next to no one will say the Yamatos were the best battleships ever, but had Yamato and Musashi been able to steamroll over Taffy 3 and ROFL-stomp Halseys battleships, then it'd be a different conversation, similar story with the Bismarcks had they prevailed over the Royal Navy.