Limnos or Kilkis escape Greece and reach UK

[tigercat]

Now I know it's unlikely that these 2 ex Missisippi class pre dreadnaught escaped but if they did and saying that greek pride prevents them from being scrapped  or used as a guard ship somewhere. The only posssible use I can think of them would be some kind of AA ship akin to what the Germans did with the Norwegian coastal defence  battleships.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_battleship_Kilkis

[pyro-manic]

Perhaps used in an offensive blockship role? Sail them into a harbour in occupied France (or maybe somewhere in the Med - if they escaped to Malta or Alexandria) and sink them across the entrance. Or they could be used as monitors for shore-bombardment later in the war - the invasion of Sicily perhaps? Strip away all the old weaponry apart from the 12" main battery, and replace with a load of 4.7" DP guns and AAA.

[tigercat]

A WW2 Zeebrugge type raid that would be interesting perhaps alongside HMS Centurion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Centurion_(1911)#Interwar.2C_World_War_II


As a Monitor even if they couldn't make 17 knots anymore they'd still be more than  a match speed wise for the designed ships as they struggled to get into double figures.

 

[Joe C-P]

Pre-dreadnoughts did serve in WW2, for Germany. I have ideas about those that survived to WW2, like Lemnos and Kilkis, to be saved and updated as convoy escorts or shore bombardment, and other ideas about ways for more ships to have lasted until WW2, such as a couple Connecticut class for an independent Philippine Navy, and RN and French vessels for their colonies.

[sequoiaranger]

Yes, those old pre-dreadnoughts live in print on my "Furashita's Fleet" webpage, if not in plastic somewhere:

http://www.combinedfleet.com/furashita/rhodei_f.htm

But where do you get a kit of the old pre-dreadnoughts??

[NARSES2]

There are resin ones available but they are expensive. There are also some superb card models which look fantastic once built but are probably not wif material. Plus there are white metal war games scale models again not very wiffable.

Sorry can't be of much help

[Rick Lowe]

There are a few; from Zvezda, the actual 'Dreadnought' is available, three 1905 Battle Russians and I think someone does a Japanese, plus Revell's USS Olympia.
Academy has the WW2 Warspite, which could be backdated to WW1 or earlier configuration (or used as a 'super-advanced' turn-of-the-century-type, maybe?).
All are 1/350.

Not too sure what's out there in non-styrene (not a large ship guy), this is just what a quick Google brought up .

FWIW, HTH

Rick

[NARSES2]

Having reminded me of the Zveda stuff (geez I've even got an "Oriol" in the stash  ) there is a Chinese company doing a couple of the Chinese pre-Dreadnaughts. The late 1890's period from the Sino-Japanese war.