Battleship

Battleship refers to a type of heavily-armored warship bearing the largest caliber of guns afloat, specifically those warships built between the 1890s through the 1940s.

End of the battleships

The Royal Navy sank the Italian fleet in Nov. 1940 at the Battle of Taranto using warplanes from aircraft carriers. The Japanese took note and at the Battle of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7. 1941), sank nearly the entire American battleship fleet using carrier planes. Immediately the carrier replaced the battleship as the capital ship of seapower. The era of big-gun battles between fleets at 30,000 yards was (almost) over. Heavy guns were useful for shore bombardment, but for combat were replaced by bombs delivered by air, and torpedoes (delivered by airplane, submarine, or destroyer) as the chief offensive weapons of naval warfare. The last battleship ever was built in 1945.

see also

• Colorado-class battleship
• Connecticut-class battle
• Iowa-class battleship

• Pennsylvania-class battleship

• Naval guns
• USS Missouri (BB-63)
• USS Arizona (BB-39)
• [Battleship Bismarck]]

Further reading

• Brown, David K. Eclipse of the Big Gun: The Warship 1906-45 (1992)
• Friedman, Norman, and A. D. Baker. Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnaught Era (2008)
• Friedman, Norman. U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History (1985)
• Garcia Y Robertson, Rodrigo. "Failure of the Heavy Gun at Sea, 1898-1922." Technology and Culture 1987 28(3): 539-557. Issn: 0040-165x Fulltext: in Jstor
• Hodges, Peter. The Big Gun: Battleship Main Armament 1860-1945, (1981), highly detailed coverage
• Hone, Trent. "The Evolution of Fleet Tactical Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1922-1941," The Journal of Military History - Volume 67, Number 4, October 2003, pp. 1107-1148 in Project Muse
• Hore, Peter. Battleships of World War II: An illustrated history and country-by-country directory of warships, including battlecruisers and pocket battleships, that ... Jersey, Iowa, Bismarck, Yamato, Richelieu (2008)
• Hore, Peter. Battleships of World War I: A Fully Illustrated Country-By-Country Directory Of Dreadnoughts, Including Armoured Cruisers, Battlecruisers And Battleships From 1906-1918 (2007)
• Hore, Peter. Ironclads: An Illustrated History of Battleships from 1860 to WWI (2007)
• Lambert, Nicholas A. Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution (2002) excerpt and text search
• McBride, William M. Technological Change and the United States Navy, 1865-1945 (2000) excerpt and text search
• Morison, Samuel Loring, and Norman Polmar. The American Battleship (2003) excerpt and text search
• Muir, Malcolm. The Iowa Class Battleships: Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri & Wisconsin (1991)
• Mulligan, Timothy. "Ship-of-the-Line or Atlantic Raider? Battleship Bismarck Between Design Limitations and Naval Strategy," The Journal of Military History 69#4 October 2005, pp. 1013-1044 in Project Muse
• Parkes, Oscar British Battleships: 'Warrior' 1860 to 'Vanguard' 1950 - A History of Design, Construction and Armament (1990) Naval Institute, Annapolis
• Sondhaus, Lawrence. Naval Warfare, 1815-1914 (2001) online edition
• Sturton, Ian. Conway's Battleships: The Definitive Visual Reference to the World's All-Big-Gun Ships (2008)
• Sumida, Jon Tetsuro. "Gunnery, Procurement, and Strategy in the Dreadnought Era," The Journal of Military History v69#4 (2005) 1179-1187 online at Project Muse
• Sumrall, Robert F., and Thomas Walkowiak. Iowa Class Battleships: Their Design, Weapons and Equipment (1989)
• Weller, Donald M. "Salvo-splash! The Development of Naval Gunfire Support in World War II". United States Naval Institute Proceedings 1954 80(8): 839-849, 1011-1021
• Whitley, M.J. Battleships of World War Two (2001) excerpt and text search