I'm not sure the British would agree. Those ships were obsolete for a reason.
They were obsolete, but don't forget that HMS Renown, which was just as old and had less offensive firepower, fought off both
Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau during Operation Weserubung. The R-class BBs were considered obsolete more due to their lack of speed than anything else - aside from that they were remarkably similar to the Queen Elizabeth-class of battleships. The only other major difference was that the in-service Rs only had gunnery radars like the R-class battlecruisers, not the paired gunnery radar/firing computer like the QEs and the more modern BBs had.
Did she? Replacing mechanical computers with dimensions measured in meters deep under the armor deck was not a simple procedure. Warspite only got hers during reconstruction.
Like I said, the R-class BBs didn't get the full reconstruction of internals the QEs did. They lacked the gun firing radar/FCC combo that Warspite had, they only had gunnery radards, so it's not like Ramilles would be able to pull out as decisive a victory as, say, Warspite would be able to assuming Bismarck didn't retreat.
They only carried twenty supercharges per gun IIRC and they were very much intended for long range shots on ships where the gun elevation was not improved yet.
Right, and the R-class BBs like Ramilles never received the improved 15" mounts. Like the QEs, they were stuck with the Mk I turret mounts. Twenty super charges should be enough to cover the time it would take Ramilles to close into 6chr range against Bismarck.
The whole point of Rheinubung was that the Germans no longer needed to run from even old battleships. Ramillies is simply not a front line combatant anymore, and Bismarck very much is.
No, that wasn't the point of Rheinubung at all. Hell, let me quote Grand Admiral Reader directly:
"the objective of the
Bismarck is not to defeat enemies of equal strength, but to tie them down in a delaying action, while preserving her combat capacity as much as possible, so as to allow
Prinz Eugen to get at the merchant ships in the convoy" and
"The primary target in this operation is the enemy's merchant shipping; enemy warships will be engaged only when that objective makes it necessary and it can be done without excessive risk."
Don't forget, the only reason the engagement at the Denmark Strait even happened was because Lindermann disobeyed orders. Had he obeyed Lutjens, the British and German groups likely would not have engaged.
We know that won't be the case this time either because Schreiber intends to attack a convoy but if he thinks he can take HX 127 and escape with all of this ships he's sorely mistaken. If he engages Ramilles' battlegroup he stands a fairly significant chance of losing Blucher, Eugen, or both, and also exposes himself to significant risk that he himself will be sunk. I don't thing Schreiber is that stupid. It's an unnecessary amount of risk if your objective is to sink the convoy rather than the capital ship.
If you want to inflict as much damage and as many casualties as possible however, HX 126 and OB 318 are both examples of convoys that would be much more appealing to hit and are much, much more vulnerable to surface attack, their only escorts being DDs at the largest.
