What If Japan Built the Cruiser Meant to Replace Kongo? | B65 vs Kongo | ft. Drachinifel | WotS

🔔 RING THE BELL!!!! Subscribe for weekly battle briefings, poll battles, and full grudge match recordings. Kongo has already lost once in this tournament. Eliminated from the winners' bracket by Tiger, she drops into the Losers Round to face a ship that, on paper, was supposed to make her obsolete. Laid down in 1911 at Vickers' yard in Barrow-in-Furness, Kongo was the last major Japanese warship built abroad. Twice rebuilt into a 30-knot fast battleship, she bombarded Henderson Field in 1942 and fought off Samar in 1944 before USS Sealion's torpedoes ended her off Formosa that November. Sealion's crew saw three hits; archival accounts confirm two. Design B-65 never got that far. Studied from around 1940 as a "Super Type A" cruiser for Japan's Night Battle Force, it appears to have been drawn up to replace the Kongo class, though many sources say it answered America's Alaska class. Midway redirected Japan toward carriers in mid-1942, and no hull was ever laid down. Now the would-be replacement meets the ship it may have been drawn to replace. B65 brings nine guns, thicker deck armour, and two and a half knots of speed on paper. Kongo brings the one thing B65 never had: a combat record. Losers Round 1, Battlecruiser Bosh. DONATE/SUPPORT GRIM REAPERS PATREON monthly donations:   / grimreapers   PAYPAL one-off donations: https://www.paypal.me/GrimReapersDona... MERCH: https://grimreapers.net/grim-reapers-... GRIM REAPERS YOUTUBE CHANNELS Grim Reapers 1 - DCS & Sea Power:    / @grimreapers   Grim Reapers 2 - WWII naval battles:    / @grimreapers2   Grim Reapers 3 - Full DCS missions    / @grimreapers-fulldcsmissions   SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE: https://grimreapers.net/ STREAM(Cap):   / grimreaperscap   FACEBOOK:   / grimreapersgroup   TWITTER:   / grimreapers_   DISCORD:   / discord   THANK YOU TO: Mission Makers, Admin, Staff, Helpers, Donators & Viewers(without which, this could not happen)