They say to newcomers - luck!
Only god thought otherwise
And he said to the battleship dryly:
“I don’t see good luck in battles!”
Those who hostile sweeps hordes ?!
And for what this opal you ?!
But with each other indeed, lords,
In that war you fought a little.
Only god thought otherwise
And he said to the battleship dryly:
“I don’t see good luck in battles!”
Those who hostile sweeps hordes ?!
And for what this opal you ?!
But with each other indeed, lords,
In that war you fought a little.
Purely offhand, from memory, in European waters during the war years, there were nine major fights, in which the “ocean lords became” managed to shoot at each other.
Fight in the Danish Strait. The result is the “Hood” sunk.
“The Hunt for Bismarck”. The result - drowned "Bismarck".
The shootout of “Rinaun” with “Scharnhorst” and “Gneisenau”. All participants got off with moderate damage, without loss of combat capability and the threat of sinking ships. The battle had serious strategic consequences: the British battle cruiser was able to ward off German heavy ships covering the landing area in Norway. Having lost the battleship of the cover, the Germans lost 10 newest destroyers from the landing force.
Meeting the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" with the aircraft carrier "Glories" (sank the aircraft carrier "Glories" and his escort).
Mayhem in Mars al-Kebir. British attack to prevent the transition of French fleet to the side of the Third Reich. Result: one old battleship is sunk, two are damaged, the feed of the destroyer leader is torn off.
Shootout in Casablanca of the American LK “Massachusetts” with the French battleship “Jean Bar”. The result - five hits 1225-kg "suitcases", the goal is disabled. And for nothing that “Jean Bar” was not completed. If the project were completed and armed - the kaput would come: the American projectile flew into the cellar of the SC, fortunately empty.
“Shot at Calabria”. Accidental hit in the Italian LC "Giulio Cesare" from the 24 distance of a kilometer. In battle, the British distinguished “Worspite”. The impact of the 871-kg blanks caused extensive destruction, injury and death of the crew members of the Cesare 115.
Fight at Cape Matapan. The fire of the British battleships sank three Italian heavy cruisers (“Pola”, “Fiume” and “Zara”).
New Year's battle at North Cape.
The British before the battle ohochi,
Pipes breathe ominously hot.
In the dark blue of the polar night
Duke of York is catching up with the Scharnhorst!
Caught up and drowned.
Nine major battles, some of which had the most serious strategic consequences.
Linear cruiser "Rinaun"
“They stood the whole war in the bases”, “outdated”, “turned out to be useless”. It’s not even a matter of the notorious confrontation “battleships vs aviation”, How many inability (or unwillingness) of most military lovers stories open the book and write on the sheet all the events. Instead, like parrots, repeat the phrase about the uselessness of this type weapons.
“There are three useless things in the world: the wall of China, the pyramid of Cheops and the battleship Yamato.
Than at the pier to rust in the obscurity,
One to the squadron proudly
It is better to go - in that more honor!
And in my dreams I, steel lords,
With a boldly raised head,
Gritting his teeth, straightening his shoulders,
I always prepare you for battle,
Though I know that the battle is not eternal.
Is the “Yamato” problem a mismatch between the costs of its construction and the result achieved? The battleship was built, fought and accepted a heroic death. The enemy had to use the whole air army, pulling aircraft carriers into the 8 area. So what more?
In the desperate situation in which Japan was located, no other options gave the Imperial fleet a chance to win. Construction instead of the “Yamato” and “Musashi” four aircraft carriers? Proponents of this theory somehow do not think about where the Japanese would take another five hundred trained pilots and additional fuel. Under the conditions of the absolute superiority of the enemy at sea and in the air, the battleship at least possessed the necessary combat stability, unlike “Taiho”, which was unstuck from the first torpedo.
The only miscalculation of the Japanese - in strict secrecy around the “Yamato”. Such a ship should have been proud and terrified by the enemy. Hearing about the 410-mm belt and 460-mm guns, the Yankees would rush to build their superlinkors with the main caliber in 500 mm, over-exerting their industry and taking funds from other important areas (destroyers, submarines).
And, probably, it should be more active to use “Yamato” at Midway. Be close to aircraft carriers such a powerful air defense platform, things could have happened differently.
So leave “Yamato” alone. It was a great ship, if used more properly, it would not have been priced at all.
Since we started talking about the Pacific theater, three violent battles happened in which the battleships fired.
On the night of November 14, 1942, the American LC “Washington” and “South Dakota” mutated the Japanese “Kirishima”. The Japanese soon utopian, and “South Dakota” was out of action for 14 months.
The sinking of the battleship “Yamashiro” in a brutal artillery battle - seven for one. (Philippines, October 1944)
And a unique battle near the island of Samar 25 in October 1944. A large Japanese compound that broke into the landing zone in the Philippines and went for several hours under endless attacks over 500 aircraft from all the surrounding airfields.
The Japanese failed the task, but the Americans did not achieve success that day. Despite the air strikes and the suicidal counterattack of the destroyers, all Japanese cruisers and battleships left the database zone and safely reached Japan (with the exception of three TKRs). The battle is notable for the fact that the Japanese managed to sink an escort aircraft carrier (“Gambier Bay”) out of guns and riddle the rest of the jeep boxes. Fortunately, for an armor-piercing projectile aircraft carrier was not any significant barrier.
“Yamato” also participated in the execution of jeeps. Whether he got at least once is unknown, but the essence of the battle was different. The Japanese had a chance to kill the entire American landing force, and the Yamato guns would have been covered in blood by the most breech. Objectively, the Americans did not have the means to stop the battleships. Takeo Kurita himself ordered the retreat. As he later admitted, he made a mistake. They say that the Japanese admiral was not in the best shape: he was still under the stress of the night shipwreck, which he had participated in just a day before the events described above (the death of the Atago TKR).
Once again, the Japanese superlinker was in the balance of triumph. He was in the thick of things. Not only did it go unnoticed through all the cordons and deceived the air force from 1200 airplanes, penetrating the restricted area, just a dozen miles ahead - and Yamato became the main cause of the failure of the American landing in the Philippines.
And then in the books they will write: “useless”, “not needed”.
Someone will smile skeptically - just three battles with battleships. Well, how many such ships? Japanese - you can count on the fingers of one hand. The Americans built 10 high-speed battleships, not counting the outdated LC of the time of the PRC. Moreover, some were damaged in Pearl Harbor and stood at the docks until 1944.
Only five to ten ships on both sides in the vast ocean! By the way, the great aircraft carriers met each other no more often, despite the fact that their number was twice as large as the number of LC.
Strictly speaking, of all the participants in the Second World War, only six of the most developed maritime powers had real battleships. Fast, powerful and extremely protected late period battleships designed for action in the open ocean.
And these three dozen ships - 12 serious battles.
Excluding small, daily “fights” and participation in large-scale operations, involving diverse aviation and navy forces.
These are endless (but not very successful) attempts to intercept British convoys by the forces of the Italian fleet. The most famous - the battle at Cape Spartivento or the battle in the Sirte Bay, when the “Littorio” hit an 381-mm projectile in the enemy destroyer. The reasons for the low performance of the Italian fleet were not so much the flotation abilities of the “macaroni”, but the lack of radar. Have they radar and modern MSAs, as on the ships of the allies - the outcome of the confrontation could be different.
These are the “Scharnhorst” and “Gneisenau” raids into the Atlantic (22 drowned and captured by transport with a total displacement of 115 thousand tons).
These are hikes of the American LC as part of high-speed aircraft carrier compounds, where the battleships were used as powerful anti-aircraft platforms. The most famous fight “South Dakota”. Covering his compound in a battle at Santa Cruz, the battleship shot down 26 Japanese aircraft. Even if you divide the stated figure by two - the achievement of “South Dakota” was a real military-technical record. But the most important thing: having such a powerful air defense “umbrella”, not one of the ships of the compound suffered serious damage.
The anti-aircraft fire from the battleship was so intense that from the side it seemed as if fires were blazing on it. In 8 minutes, the ship repulsed at least 18 attacks, in which he shot down from 7 to 14 aircraft.
"WITH. Carolina "covers AB" Enterprise "in the battle of the Eastern Solomon Islands.
This is the “red zone” in Normandy. The German command banned armored vehicles to approach the coast for a couple of dozen kilometers, where there was a great risk of being hit by ship artillery.
These are 77 amphibious assault forces on the Pacific Ocean, each of which was supported by mighty guns of battleships. Apart from the raid operations - strikes along the coast of Formosa, China and the Japanese islands, in which capital ships also took part.
The first attacks on Kwajalein Atoll began on January 29, North Caroline began the bombing of the islands that entered the atoll of Roy and Namur. On the approach to Roy from the battleship, the transport standing in the lagoon was noticed, along which several volleys were fired immediately, causing fires from bow to stern. After the disruption of the runways of the Japanese, the battleship at night and the whole next day fired at the designated targets, at the same time covering the aircraft carriers that supported the landing of troops on the neighboring islets
Battle Chronicle “North Carolina”.
“Tennessee” supports the landing on Okinawa. During the operation, the battleship fired 1490 shells of the main caliber (356 mm) and made 12 thousand shots universal artillery (127 mm).
The only battleship that stood in the bases throughout the war was the German “Tirpitz”. He did not need to go anywhere. Without a single shot, he broke up the PQ-17 convoy. 700 endured allied aviation sorties, British squadron raids and well-planned attacks using underwater special equipment.
"Tirpitz" creates universal fear and threat in all points at once. "
W. Churchill.
Fears were not in vain. While at sea, the Tirpitz was invulnerable to ordinary ships. There is little hope for aviation. In the polar haze, in a blizzard aircraft will not be able to detect and successfully attack the battleship. Submariners had no more chances: low-speed submarines of WWII could not attack such a fast maneuverable target. So the British had to constantly keep three battleships in case the Tirpitz sailed into the sea. Otherwise, the wiring of the Arctic convoys would be impossible.
Contrary to the myth of “cumbersome, useless battleships,” capital ships were the most combat-ready and active participants in the naval battles of World War II. A huge number of ships died at the first meeting with the enemy. But not the battleships! Highly protected battleships continuously participated in combat operations, were damaged and returned to service!
This is the standard. This should be the modern surface ships. Hurricane power and excellent combat stability!
To get is not to punch. And to pierce does not mean to disable.
Let someone laugh at the death of “Bismarck”, comparing it with Commissioner Cattani. 2600 shots main and medium caliber! The British plowed the doomed ship from all the trunks until they dared to come closer and sink the burning ruin with torpedo fire.
The difference between Bismarck and Commissioner Cattani is that until the last moment, before the battleship disappeared under water, most of its crew remained unharmed. And the ship itself kept the course, some systems were functioning on board. In other conditions (suppose the battle took place off the coast of Germany, the German squadron and the Luftwaffe planes came to the rescue) Bismarck had a chance to get to the base and return to service after an annual repair. After dozens (and maybe hundreds) of projectile hits from enemy ships!
Why did they stop building such magnificent battleships after the war?
After the war, they stopped building any surface ships with a displacement of more than 10 thousand tons. Savings due to the appearance of a compact rocket weapon and the removal of body armor under the pretext of lack of need. In the age of jet aircraft, any “Phantom” could lift a couple of dozen bombs and fill them with battleship from bow to stern. At the same time, the air defense weapons of those years turned out to be completely useless in repelling such attacks.
Modern air defense will prevent any attempts mast bombing. While the guns with adjustable projectiles organically complement the missile when striking the shore.
Everything gradually returns to normal. Destroyers with a displacement of 15 thousand tons are already being built in America. Russian shipbuilders without any modesty cite data on the destroyer “Leader” in 15-20 thousand tons. Any classification is conditional. Call them what you want - cruisers, destroyers, battleships, sea rocket platforms ...
20 thousand tons - the possibility of creating warships, whose security would not be inferior to the battleships of previous years, with a twice smaller displacement (with the availability of modern technologies and optimization of protection for new types of threats).
The battleship "North Carolina", our time