A short history of Battleships

[Enaris]

Ok, this is mostly for the people who are new to naval warfare. The old salts will look at my gross oversimplifications and shake their heads.  Warning, this is mostly off the cuff, so beware.

 

The history of Battleships as we know them really begins in the late 19th Century.  Of course, there were always large "battle ships" before that.  In the Napoleonic era, they are often called "ships of the line" (as they stood in the Line of Battle).  Often they would be described by the number of guns they carried (ie. 64, 74, 104)

 

However, with the developments in technology and Naval Architecture of the last half of the 19th Century, the path to the Battleship was born.  The British built the first ocean going armored "battle ship" in 1860, the HMS Warrior.  As time went on and the technology developed, the ships changed radically from the look of the old sailing vessels.  Guns became bigger and were encased in turrets (something prefigured on the USS Monitor)  Further, the effective range of those guns began to increase.  At the time of Trafalgar, the effective range of a naval battle would be a few hundred yards.  By the time of the Battle of Tsushima, it would be thousands of yards.

 

With the increase in gun size, came further developments in armor (to protect against those larger guns) as well as fire control (to hit at those long ranges).  By the late 1890's, modern battleships began to resemble what we would think of when we hear the term.  For example, the Mikasa was the Japanese flagship at the Battle of Tsushima, one of the first major Battleship duels.

 

Still though, these end of the century battleships could be odd birds.  They often had very odd weapon mixes. For example, the HMS King Edward VIIcarried 4x12", 4x9.2", 10x6".  They also tended to have guns sticking out in odd places:

 

In any case, in the years leading up to World War One, the Germans embarked on a massive fleet building program, which led the British to match that.  In the course of that, the British decided to create a whole new type of battleship.  One that implemented improvements across the board.  It had improved engines, it rationalized the guns (ie, focused on having more big guns, and then secondaries to keep small ships away), and the like.  This was the HMS Dreadnought.

 

This ship marks one of the most dramatic revolutions in naval architecture of all time.  It was far superior to any of the "pre-dreadnought" type battleships which had preceded it.  Most of the world's other navies found themselves forced to adapt to the new reality. (Some ships, such as the USS South Carolinawere already being built with some of these concepts, but not all of them. That's why the SC is sometimes called a "semi-dreadnought")

 

The development of this new type of battleship continued at a rapid pace in the years leading up to World War One, to the point that the Dreadnought, though only a decade old, was all but obsolete by the end of the war.

 

At the same time, the British began development of the Battlecruiser, which focused on speed at the expense of armor and (sometimes) firepower.  They were primarily built to track down raiders on the trade routes, but in time, they were attached to the main battle forces.  The Battle of Jutland would show their limitations in that role. (Where 3 British BC would explode).

 

By the end of the war, the most modern Battleship was the British Queen Elizabeth class, capable of 24 knots (as opposed to the 21kts of most other Dreadnought types), and 8x15" guns.

 

When the war ended, the United States had determined to build a fleet to make itself the most powerful naval power in the world.  Likewise, the Empire of Japan had embarked on a major naval buildup.  This led to a rise in tensions, as Great Britain regarded being the premier naval power as the core of its security policy.

 

However, a new administration in Washington was not as keen as the Wilson Administration on the expense of a naval arms race.  Instead, President Harding called for an international arms control treaty.  This treaty, the Washington Naval Treaty, was one of the first major arms control treaties in history.  It pledged the signatories (Great Britain, USA, Japan, France and Italy) to limit their naval construction.  It limited the size of the respective navies by a ratio of 5:5:3:1.5:1.5 (GBr, US, Japan, Italy, France).  It called for the cancellation of new construction (and in some cases, the conversion of ongoing construction into Aircraft Carriers, up to an agreed tonnage).

 

At this point, most battleship building stopped.  A few nations were given permission to build a few ships to bring them up to their allowed ratio, or to replace older ships (this is how the British built the HMS Nelson).  Also, most of the ships were allowed to undergo major renovations in the 1930's, to install modern technology.

 

This situation carried on until the late 1930's.  By that point, it was clear that the limitations of the Washington (and followup London) Treaties were going to pass away.  As such, the various nations began building new Battleships taking advantage of New Technology.  Examples of this era of Battleships would be the USS North Carolina , the French battleship Richelieuand the HMS King George V At around the same time, the Germans re entered the Naval building race, building pocket battleships, battlecruisers and battleships.

 

The Japanese decided to try something a bit different. They decided to build a "super battleship" much heavier and more heavily armored than any other ship afloat.  Up until that time, the largest naval gun was 16".  However, the Japanese constructed massive 18.1" guns to put on the Yamato.  On the other hand, the US went a different direction for their last major Battleship class.  They'd developed greatly improved boilers, which gave their own battleships the speed of most cruisers.  That of course is the Iowaclass.

 

When the war ended, there were various plans for new, bigger and more powerful battleships, such as the USS Montana.  However, by this time, the day of the Battleship had passed.  By 1945, battleships were mostly used as artillery to support amphibious landings and anti aircraft escorts for Aircraft Carriers, the new Queen of the Seas.

[Sand_Ghost]

Nice one

[ForcestormX]

Good summary.

[MasterofGrond]

A good overview for those not as steeped in naval military history.

[redplauge]

fairly decent, tho one could expand on the "fast bb" theory a bit.

also the pocket battleship was based on the Versailles and Washington treaties, that while being technically in the letter, broke the spirit of the treaties (the beloved loltraktor is another excample also)

[xthetenth]

One note on the Iowas, It wasn't just better boilers, it was expanding the hull to where they could give it a lot more streamlined shape, and a larger plant that got it to 33 knots, which was important because US wargaming had shown it was needed to keep pace with the carriers to keep them safe from enemy fast battleships (mainly the Kongos). It took a lot of work and tonnage to get that speed boost too, the Iowas gained 10,000 tons over the South Dakotas for five knots of speed and extra space for the crew. Good short overview though.

 

The fast battleships mainly came from either a desire to run with the fast carriers (US), operate in conjunction with destroyers and cruisers (Japan), go commerce raiding (Germany), or stop commerce raiding battleships (France, UK)

[Vergil118]

Excellent summary, and my OCD thanks you for not placing the words "Fisher" and "revolution" in the same sentence here =)

 

@xthetenth

The speed was indeed due to a whole mess of factors, but a lot of them were directly power plant/ high steam related, which is why he directly mentioned the boilers I think.

[admarillstonewall]

He said it was a short history

[Forex]

personally i like frigates more than ship of the line, during that era, i like the way the Spaniards name their ships, poetic just like the japanese ships

[brian333]

And you can't call a Battleship Cacafuego and get away with it.

 

Forex, do you mean American Frigates or Frigates in general? American Frigates were purpose built heavy raiders, and as such should be in a class of their own. In fact, the Royal Navy prohibited their frigate captains from engaging the American Frigates because they were so obviously outclassed.

[yourheroo]

Great read and very educational thank you.   :) +1

[Crag_r]

Just when you think a topic is dead...

[W1Z22]

nice post op