The End of an Era (Battleships, Part Three)

Elements of the WWI British Grand Fleet at sea
(Source)

Only twenty-four engagements in history saw armored, steam-powered, heavy gunned battleships fighting other ships of their kind. In all of that time, the only major battle to occur was during World War I, the Battle of Jutland.

#	Date	Battles	Conflict	Combatants A	Combatants B	Result
1	8–9 Feb 1904	Battle of Port Arthur	Russo-Japanese War	Imperial Japanese Navy 6 BB (p)	Imperial Russian Navy 7 BB (p)	Indecisive
2	10 Aug 1904	Battle of the Yellow Sea	Russo-Japanese War	Imperial Japanese Navy 4 BB (p)	Imperial Russian Navy 6 BB (p)	Japanese victory
3	27–28 May 1905	Battle of Tsushima	Russo-Japanese War	Imperial Japanese Navy 5 BB (p)	Imperial Russian Navy 8 BB (p)	Japanese victory
4	16 Dec 1912	Battle of Elli	First Balkan War	Royal Hellenic Navy 3 CDB	Ottoman Navy 2 BB (p)	Greek victory
5	18 Jan 1913	Battle of Lemnos	First Balkan War	Royal Hellenic Navy 3 BB (p)	Ottoman Navy 3 BB (p)	Greek victory
6	29 Oct 1914	Black Sea Raid	World War I	Ottoman Navy 1 BC	Imperial Russian Navy 1 BB (p)	Ottoman Victory
7	18 Nov 1914	Battle of Cape Sarych	World War I	Ottoman Navy 1 BC	Imperial Russian Navy 5 BB (p)	Indecisive
8	24 Jan 1915	Battle of Dogger Bank (1915)	World War I	Kaiserliche Marine 3 BC	Royal Navy 5 BC	British victory
9	10 May 1915	Action of 10 May 1915	World War I	Ottoman Navy 1 BC	Imperial Russian Navy 5 BB (p)	Indecisive
10	8–19 Aug 1915	Battle of the Gulf of Riga	World War I	Kaiserliche Marine 2 BB 2 BB (p) 3 BC	Imperial Russian Navy 1 BB (p)	Russian victory
11	08 Jan 1916	Action of 8 January 1916	World War I	Ottoman Navy 1 BC	Imperial Russian Navy 1 BB	Indecisive
12	31 May – 1 Jun 1916	Battle of Jutland	World War I	Kaiserliche Marine 16 BB 5 BC 6 BB (p)	Royal Navy 28 BB 9 BC	Indecisive
13	16 Oct – 3 Nov 1917	Battle of Moon Sound	World War I	Kaiserliche Marine 1 BB 10 BC	Imperial Russian Navy 2 BB (p)	German victory
14	09 Apr 1940	Action off Lofoten	World War II	Royal Navy 1 BC	Kriegsmarine 2 BB	Indecisive
15	03 Jul 1940	Battle of Mers-el-Kébir	World War II	Royal Navy 1 CV 2 BB 1 BC	Vichy French Navy 4 BB	British victory
16	09 Jul 1940	Battle of Calabria	World War II	Royal Navy 1 CV 3 BB	Regia Marina 2 BB	Indecisive
17	23–25 Sep 1940	Battle of Dakar	World War II	Royal Navy 2 BB	Vichy French Navy 1 BB	Vichy French victory
18	27 Nov 1940	Battle of Cape Spartivento	World War II	Royal Navy 1 CV 1 BB 1 BC	Regia Marina 2 BB	Indecisive
19	24 May 1941	Battle of the Denmark Strait	World War II	Royal Navy 1 BB 1 BC	Kriegsmarine 1 BB	German victory
20	26–27 May 1941	Hunt for the Bismarck	World War II	Royal Navy 1 CV 2 BB	Kriegsmarine 1 BB	British victory
21	8–16 Nov 1942	Battle of Casablanca	World War II	United States Navy 1 CV 1 CE 1 BB	Vichy French Navy 1 BB	American victory
22	14–15 Nov 1942	Second Battle of Guadalcanal	World War II	United States Navy 1 CV 2 BB	Imperial Japanese Navy 2 BB	American victory
23	26 Dec 1943	Battle of North Cape	World War II	Royal Navy 1 BB	Kriegsmarine 1 BB	British victory
24	25 Oct 1944	Battle of Surigao Strait	World War II	United States Navy 6 BB	Imperial Japanese Navy 2 BB	American victory

KEY
BB (p) pre-Dreadnought Battleship
BB Dreadnought-type battleship
BC Battlecruiser
CV Aircraft Carrier
CE Escort Carrier
CDB Coastal Defense Battleship (Sort of a poor man's battleship)
(Table Source)

Prior to the Battle of Jutland, there was one ship launched which, nearly overnight, rendered all other battleships obsolete, HMS Dreadnought.

HMS Dreadnought

The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of its kind, the Royal Navy's HMS Dreadnought, made such a strong impression on people's minds when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built subsequently were referred to generically as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as "pre-dreadnoughts". Dreadnought's design had two revolutionary features: an "all-big-gun" armament scheme, with more heavy-caliber guns than previous ships; and steam turbine propulsion. As dreadnoughts became a symbol of national power, the arrival of these new warships was a crucial catalyst in the intensifying naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany. With the launch of a single ship, Dreadnought, the scales of naval power were tipped overnight. As a result, dreadnought races sprang up around the world, including in South America, during the lead up to World War I. Successive designs increased rapidly in size and made use of improvements in armament, armor, and propulsion throughout the dreadnought era. Within five years, new battleships had outclassed Dreadnought. These more powerful vessels were known as "super-dreadnoughts". Most of the original dreadnoughts were scrapped after the end of World War I under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, but many of the newer super-dreadnoughts continued to be used throughout World War II. The only surviving dreadnought is USS Texas, which is located near the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site.

Dreadnought-building consumed vast resources in the early 20th century, but there was only one battle between large dreadnought fleets. In the 1916 Battle of Jutland, the British and German navies clashed with no decisive result. The term "dreadnought" gradually dropped from use after World War I, especially after the Washington Naval Treaty, as virtually all remaining battleships shared dreadnought characteristics; the term can also be used to describe battlecruisers, the other type of ship resulting from the dreadnought revolution. (Source)

USS Texas (BB-35)

At this point I should make mention of the battlecruiser:

The battlecruiser, or battle cruiser, was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. They were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed slightly in form and balance of attributes. Battlecruisers typically had slightly thinner armor and a lighter main gun battery than contemporary battleships, installed on a longer hull with much higher engine power in order to attain greater speeds. The first battlecruisers were designed in the United Kingdom in the first decade of the century, as a development of the armoured cruiser, at the same time as the dreadnought succeeded the pre-dreadnought battleship. The goal of the design was to outrun any ship with similar armament, and chase down any ship with lesser armament; they were intended to hunt down slower, older armoured cruisers and destroy them with heavy gunfire while avoiding combat with the more powerful but slower battleships. However, as more and more battlecruisers were built, they were increasingly used alongside the better-protected battleships. (Source)

HMS Hood, the largest battlecruiser ever built.

The battlecruiser had a mixed run of success, at Jutland the Royal Navy lost three of the nine battlecruisers involved...

At 15:48, with the opposing forces roughly parallel at 15,000 yd (14,000 m), with the British to the south-west of the Germans (i.e., on the right side), Hipper opened fire, followed by the British ships as their guns came to bear upon targets. Thus began the opening phase of the battlecruiser action, known as the Run to the South, in which the British chased the Germans, and Hipper intentionally led Beatty toward Scheer. During the first minutes of the ensuing battle, all the British ships except Princess Royal fired far over their German opponents, due to adverse visibility conditions, before finally getting the range. Only HMS Lion and HMS Princess Royal had settled into formation, so the other four ships were hampered in aiming by their own turning. Beatty was to windward of Hipper, and therefore funnel and gun smoke from his own ships tended to obscure his targets, while Hipper's smoke blew clear. Also, the eastern sky was overcast and the grey German ships were indistinct and difficult to range.

HMS Queen Mary

Beatty had ordered his ships to engage in a line, one British ship engaging with one German and his flagship HMS Lion doubling on the German flagship SMS Lützow. However, due to another mistake with signalling by flag, and possibly because HMS Queen Mary and HMS Tiger were unable to see the German lead ship because of smoke, the second German ship, SMS Derfflinger, was left un-engaged and free to fire without disruption. SMS Moltke drew fire from two of Beatty's battlecruisers, but still fired with great accuracy during this time, hitting HMS Tiger 9 times in the first 12 minutes. The Germans drew first blood. Aided by superior visibility, Hipper's five battlecruisers quickly registered hits on three of the six British battlecruisers. Seven minutes passed before the British managed to score their first hit.

The first near-kill of the Run to the South occurred at 16:00, when a 30.5 cm (12.0 in) shell from SMS Lützow wrecked the "Q" turret amidships on Beatty's flagship HMS Lion. Dozens of crewmen were instantly killed, but far larger destruction was averted when the mortally wounded turret commander – Major Francis Harvey of the Royal Marines – promptly ordered the magazine doors shut and the magazine flooded. This prevented a magazine explosion at 16:28, when a flash fire ignited ready cordite charges beneath the turret and killed everyone in the chambers outside "Q" magazine. Lion was saved. HMS Indefatigable was not so lucky; at 16:02, just 14 minutes into the gunnery exchange, she was hit aft by three 28 cm (11 in) shells from SMS Von der Tann, causing damage sufficient to knock her out of line and detonating "X" magazine aft. Soon after, despite the near-maximum range, SMS Von der Tann put another 28 cm (11 in) shell on HMS Indefatigable's "A" turret forward. The plunging shells probably pierced the thin upper armor, and seconds later HMS Indefatigable was ripped apart by another magazine explosion, sinking immediately with her crew of 1,019 officers and men, leaving only two survivors.

Hipper's position deteriorated somewhat by 16:15 as the 5th Battle Squadron finally came into range, so that he had to contend with gunfire from the four battleships astern as well as Beatty's five remaining battlecruisers to starboard. But he knew his baiting mission was close to completion, as his force was rapidly closing with Scheer's main body. At 16:08, the lead battleship of the 5th Battle Squadron, HMS Barham, caught up with Hipper and opened fire at extreme range, scoring a 15 in (380 mm) hit on SMS Von der Tann within 60 seconds. Still, it was 16:15 before all the battleships of the 5th were able to fully engage at long range.

At 16:25, the battlecruiser action intensified again when HMS Queen Mary was hit by what may have been a combined salvo from SMS Derfflinger and SMS Seydlitz; she disintegrated when both forward magazines exploded, sinking with all but nine of her 1,275 man crew lost. Commander von Hase, the first gunnery officer aboard SMS Derfflingler, noted:

The enemy was shooting superbly. Twice the Derfflinger came under their infernal hail and each time she was hit. But the Queen Mary was having a bad time; engaged by the Seydlitz as well as the Derfflinger, she met her doom at 1626. A vivid red flame shot up from her forepart; then came an explosion forward, followed by a much heavier explosion amidships. Immediately afterwards, she blew up with a terrific explosion, the masts collapsing inwards and the smoke hiding everything.

During the Run to the South, from 15:48 to 16:54, the German battlecruisers made an estimated total of forty-two 28 and 30.5 cm (11.0 and 12.0 in) hits on the British battlecruisers (nine on Lion, six on Princess Royal, seven on Queen Mary, 14 on Tiger, one on New Zealand, five on Indefatigable), and two more on the battleship Barham, compared with only eleven 13.5 in (340 mm) hits by the British battlecruisers (four on Lützow, four on Seydlitz, two on Moltke, one on Von der Tann), and six 15 in (380 mm) hits by the battleships (one on Seydlitz, four on Moltke, one on Von der Tann).

Shortly after 16:26, a salvo struck on or around HMS Princess Royal, which was obscured by spray and smoke from shell bursts. A signalman promptly leapt on to the bridge of Lion and announced "Princess Royal's blown up, Sir." Beatty famously turned to his flag captain, saying "Chatfield, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today." (In popular legend, Beatty also immediately ordered his ships to "turn two points to port", i.e., two points nearer the enemy, but there is no official record of any such command or course change.) Princess Royal, as it turned out, was still afloat after the spray cleared.

At 16:30, Scheer's leading battleships sighted the distant battlecruiser action; soon after, HMS Southampton of Beatty's 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron led by Commodore William Goodenough sighted the main body of Scheer's High Seas Fleet, dodging numerous heavy-caliber salvos to report in detail the German strength: 16 dreadnoughts with six older battleships. This was the first news that Beatty and Jellicoe had that Scheer and his battle fleet were even at sea. Simultaneously, an all-out destroyer action raged in the space between the opposing battlecruiser forces, as British and German destroyers fought with each other and attempted to torpedo the larger enemy ships. Each side fired many torpedoes, but both battlecruiser forces turned away from the attacks and all escaped harm except Seydlitz, which was hit forward at 16:57 by a torpedo fired by the British destroyer HMS Petard. Though taking on water, Seydlitz maintained speed. The destroyer HMS Nestor, under the command of Captain Barry Bingham, led the British attacks. The British disabled the German torpedo boat V27, which the Germans soon abandoned and sank, and Petard then torpedoed and sank V29, her second score of the day. S35 and V26 rescued the crews of their sunken sister ships. But Nestor and another British destroyer – HMS Nomad – were immobilized by shell hits, and were later sunk by Scheer's passing dreadnoughts. Bingham was rescued, and awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership in the destroyer action. (Source)

HMS Queen Mary blowing up

Invincible blowing up after being struck by shells from Lützow and Derfflinger

Beatty's flagship HMS Lion burning after being hit by a salvo from SMS Lützow

HMS Indefatigable sinking after being struck by shells from SMS Von der Tann

The outcome of Jutland was a German tactical victory of sorts, Royal Navy losses were heavy compared to German losses -

Royal Navy Casualties
6,094 killed
674 wounded
177 captured
3 battlecruisers sunk
3 armoured cruisers sunk
8 destroyers sunk

Kaiserliche Marine Casualties
2,551 killed
507 wounded
1 battlecruiser sunk
1 pre-dreadnought sunk
4 light cruisers sunk
5 torpedo-boats sunk

The British Admiralty initially thought to suppress reports on the battle as their losses were seen as so severe, they did relent though, knowing that the word would spread from the sailors who fought the battle.

In reality the result of Jutland was a German strategic defeat, their High Seas Fleet never again challenged the Royal Navy on the open seas and their ships sat in port until the end of the war. The sailors revolted, refusing to go to sea in 1918 as their admirals thought to set forth once more and go out in a blaze of glory.

SMS Seydlitz was heavily damaged in the battle, hit by twenty-one main caliber shells, several secondary caliber and one torpedo. 98 men were killed and 55 injured.

Fat chance.

The High Seas Fleet surrendered and sailed off to internment at Scapa Flow, where on the morning of 21 June 1919, most of the German ships were scuttled by their crews...

The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Treaty of Versailles. Von Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty. Unaware that the deadline had been extended to the 23rd, Reuter ordered the ships to be sunk at the next opportunity. On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships. Out of the interned fleet, only one battleship, Baden, three light cruisers, and eighteen destroyers were saved from sinking by the British harbor personnel. The Royal Navy, initially opposed to salvage operations, decided to allow private firms to attempt to raise the vessels for scrapping. Cox and Danks, a company founded by Ernest Cox handled most of the salvage operations, including those of the heaviest vessels raised. After Cox's withdrawal due to financial losses in the early 1930s, Metal Industries Group, Inc. took over the salvage operation for the remaining ships. Five more capital ships were raised, though three—SMS König, SMS Kronprinz, and SMS Markgraf—were too deep to permit raising. They remain on the bottom of Scapa Flow, along with four light cruisers. (Source)

Scuttling of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow: SMS Bayern down by the stern and sinking at Scapa Flow.

World War I was not the end of the battleship, though some visionaries like the US's William Mitchell foresaw that airpower would render the battleship obsolete. Early events in World War II seemed to confirm Mitchell's ideas.

While Bismarck managed to break out to sea, sinking HMS Hood along the way, she was eventually hunted down and crippled by carrier aircraft and sent to the bottom by gunfire from other battleships. Her sister ship, Tirpitz, spent much of the war in a Norwegian fjord until sunk, you guessed it, by aircraft (though this time land-based).

The Japanese worried enough about the US battleship component of the Pacific fleet that they attacked Pearl Harbor. Though they crippled the fleet, they missed the carriers.

HMS Prince of Wales, a battleship, and her consort the battlecruiser HMS Repulse were both sent to the bottom by Japanese land-based aircraft shortly after Pearl Harbor.

HMS Prince of Wales (left, front) and HMS Repulse (left, behind) under Japanese air attack on 10 December 1941. The destroyer in the foreground is HMS Express.

The Japanese super-battleships, Yamato and her sister Musashi never opened up with their 18-inch batteries upon others of their kind, they too were sent to the bottom by aircraft.

The explosion of Yamato's magazines.

While battleships proved useful for naval gunfire support in many amphibious landings, their gunfire often proved unable to suppress enemy resistance. The Japanese proved especially resilient at digging in and resisting. As in days of old, the infantry still had to go in and root out the defenders bunker by bunker, trench by trench.

The battleship was designed for one thing and for one thing only, to fight other battleships. Though the Iowa-class battleships served from World War II to the first Persian Gulf War, they were the last of their kind.

While having a battleship cruising off your coast is certainly an attention-getter and is very intimidating, in reality there isn't much they can do that can't be done by other, less expensive, assets.

If the battleships were to be resurrected, could they prove useful in a modern major war?

I think not.

Battleships once ruled the seas, but their time has passed. Magnificent ships, but of no use in the modern world.

USS Iowa (BB-61)
(Source)

I'd be interested in reading your thoughts.