DrakBibliophile wrote:Well, while I don't think anybody's going to drop a war galleon on a KHVII
, there's one aspect of "successful engagement" that you're missing.
That's the concept of "mission kill".
If Warship A has a given mission but Warship B is able to damage Warship A enough that it can't complete its mission, then it can be a "successful engagement" for Warship B even if it's lost with all hands.
After all, Warship B successfully prevented Warship A from completing its mission.
Henry Brown wrote:Well no, I did NOT think about that.
But even so, I believe I said a successful engagement. George Patton once said "The object of war is not to die for you country, but to make the other bastard die for his." To me THAT is a successful engagement. Having your ship dropped on another ship from a few miles up in a kamikaze mission were everybody "dies for their country" would be at best a draw.
Though I admit that the scenario you propose is probably a better outcome than any that the galleons could expect if they actually engaged a KHVII on the open seas. Now if *ONLY* the CoG had the airlift capability to drop a galleon onto a KHVII.
I think the concept of "mission kill" only works if it is followed by a later victory. Because the "mission killed" ship has not been sunk, it has merely been badly damaged. So for a "mission kill" to truly be meaningful I think it must be followed up fairly quickly by a 2nd, more decisive battle. Otherwise the "mission killed" ship merely returns to port, makes repairs, and returns to battle later. In this sense, a "mission kill" is rather like a delaying action or a last stand in a land based conflict.
Two historical land based examples that I would compare to a naval "mission kill" would be the Battle of the Alamo and the Battle of Thermopylae. In both cases a small force of defender delayed and inflicted serious casualties on a vastly superior force. You might say that in each of these cases the Texans or the Spartans "mission killed" their foes.
However, I would also point out that in both these cases there was a 2nd subsequent battle shortly afterwards in which the "mission killed" army would loose badly. Had Xerses or Santa Anna's armies won the subsequent engagements than Thermopylae or The Alamo would not be as famous as they are now.