The Firepower was good from that Ships, but they were to slow and had not enough Armor. One hit (like on the Hood) with an Torpedo or an Gun on the right positon and they are gone.
In a blue water battle, so would they be relatively bad. But this is were the battle would take place:The Firepower was good from that Ships, but they were to slow and had not enough Armor. One hit (like on the Hood) with an Torpedo or an Gun on the right positon and they are gone.
Modern battleships, with large torpedo bulkheads, were not easily sunk by torpedoes and their cruising speed was faster than submarines' top speed, so risk of loosing them for sub torpedoes was very low (aerial torpedoes were a far more dangerous threath).
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau took a match with BC Renown during the Norwegian campagn in 1940. Renown was first hit twice with German 11-inchers, with minor damage. Then Renown hit Gneisenau with a 15-incher much harder and the Germans retreated. After that the Germans knew 11-inchers had too weak punch against capital ships, so avoiding even old Revenge-class BBs was logical. If Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had got 6 15-inchers (as planned) instead of 9 11-inchers, they would have been much more useful capital ships.