Battleships were an interesting chapter in naval history. They were first developed around 60 years before aircraft carriers, increasingly designed with the idea that they would be able to hit enemy targets while remaining out of range of returned fire. That ended up being an unrealistic expectation. Those 16 inch guns can lob a 1 ton shell nearly 24 miles but not very accurately at that range.
Battleships probably outlived their tactical usefulness. They were definitely good for projecting force. Few things say “I’m going to obliterate you” like a large, fast ship armed with 9 giant-ass canons.
The concept of a line of battle ship is really old -depends maybe on how you define weaponry. There were big ships with slingshots and trebuchets in ancient times. The first one matching the modern type was HMS Dreadnought in 1905, and the last was HMS Vanguard in 1945.
Development was really about deterrence more than anything, but then the planes came.
As for accuracy, the record for a hit at longest range is shared by Warspite and Scharnhorst, both hitting a target at 15 miles, also while steaming at high speed.
New jersey functioned as a marine artillery position and would routinely shell targets around 20 miles. They don’t need to be accurate but they are still technically on target hits.
I’ve read stories from marines in Vietnam calling in artillery strikes which were sometimes delivered by New Jersey. “We don’t target coordinates; we target grid squares.”
Yeah they did bombardment, point then at an area and the area will be removed from play. They destroyed like 300 caves and 200 bunkers between Wisconsin and New Jersey.
![[OC] Projectile ring for ammunition inside the 16 inch main gun of the USS North Carolina](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b54e0d3c-047a-4cd3-b73f-aaaff9c09feb.jpeg){kind=link}
Battleships were an interesting chapter in naval history. They were first developed around 60 years before aircraft carriers, increasingly designed with the idea that they would be able to hit enemy targets while remaining out of range of returned fire. That ended up being an unrealistic expectation. Those 16 inch guns can lob a 1 ton shell nearly 24 miles but not very accurately at that range.
Battleships probably outlived their tactical usefulness. They were definitely good for projecting force. Few things say “I’m going to obliterate you” like a large, fast ship armed with 9 giant-ass canons.
“Temper, temper!”
Giant ass-canons.
The mental pictures
The concept of a line of battle ship is really old -depends maybe on how you define weaponry. There were big ships with slingshots and trebuchets in ancient times. The first one matching the modern type was HMS Dreadnought in 1905, and the last was HMS Vanguard in 1945.
Development was really about deterrence more than anything, but then the planes came.
As for accuracy, the record for a hit at longest range is shared by Warspite and Scharnhorst, both hitting a target at 15 miles, also while steaming at high speed.
Against a naval target.
New jersey functioned as a marine artillery position and would routinely shell targets around 20 miles. They don’t need to be accurate but they are still technically on target hits.
I’ve read stories from marines in Vietnam calling in artillery strikes which were sometimes delivered by New Jersey. “We don’t target coordinates; we target grid squares.”
Yeah they did bombardment, point then at an area and the area will be removed from play. They destroyed like 300 caves and 200 bunkers between Wisconsin and New Jersey.
Wisconsin famously deleted a Korean gun emplacement and the hill it sat on.