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Robert M. Farley. The Battleship Book
Introduction
Purpose of this book. This book focuses on the strategic and political relevance of the “castles of steel” that so many nations built in the first half of the twentieth century. Battleships represented a tremendous investment of state resources, sometimes to the extent of bankrupting national coffers for an extended period. Unsurprisingly, the names that governments give them reflect national priorities, and sometimes intra-national conflicts. Consequently, each entry includes a discussion of how the ship acquired its name, and what that name meant to the nation (and navy) at the time
How to Read This Book
Origins of this book
I. The Pre-Dreadnoughts
HMS Victoria
Author’s Note
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USS Oregon
Author’s Note. In 1992, I convinced a young woman that the entire battleship was actually buried beneath the Park, with only the mast above ground. I carry no guilt from this deception
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HIJMS Mikasa
In 1894, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) annihilated a Chinese fleet at the Battle of Yalu. The victory helped establish Japanese power on mainland Asia, and served as an announcement to the Western powers that Japan would play an important role in the brawl over the decaying corpse of Qing China
The victory also highlighted some deficiencies in the IJN. Established in 1869, during the Meiji Restoration, the IJN had modeled itself around British and French tactics and doctrine, and had purchased ships from several European countries. The IJN initially preferred the French model, concentrating on small, fast cruisers and torpedo boats. At Yalu, however, two Chinese battleships proved almost unsinkable, pushing the Japanese back toward the British model. Accordingly, the IJN ordered half a dozen battleships from British yards, and accompanied this purchase with that of a large number of other, smaller warships. By 1903, Japan possessed an impressive battlefleet, competently trained and exhaustively drilled
Author’s Note
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SMS Schleswig-Holstein
SMS Schleswig-Holstein was the fourth of the Deutschland class, the last pre-dreadnought battleships built by Germany. The Deutschlands were authorized by Admiral Alfred Von Tirpitz’s Fleet Acts, designed to provide Germany with a large, powerful navy capable of challenging the British. The idea of a powerful navy appealed to a wide swath of German society, including not only ideologically minded nationalists, but also labor and big industry. The prospect for a larger overseas empire also excited Kaiser Wilhelm II, who saw colonies as the path to world power. Like many German battleships of the era, Schleswig-Holstein took her name from a province, much of which had belonged to Denmark prior to 1864
Author’s Note
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Danton
The Dantons were the last pre-dreadnoughts constructed by the French Navy. They were also the only pre-dreadnoughts to employ turbines, and the only twentieth-century battleships to have five funnels. In addition to her main armament of 12” guns, Danton carried a very heavy secondary armament of 9.5” guns arrayed in twin turrets, rather than in casemates. The French believed that Tsushima demonstrated the decisiveness of a large secondary armament, but no other major battleship builder shared this view. The speed and armament made the ships a good match for the Austro-Hungarian Radetzkys, which were about a knot faster but carried reciprocating machinery. Danton was named for Georges Danton, first President of the Committee of Public Safety. At the time, French battleships were named after major figures from French history, and the Dantons came into service at a moment in which the Revolution was held in high esteem
Author’s Note
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Battlecruiser, Dreadnought, Super-dreadnought, Fast Battleship
II. The World War I Era
HMS Dreadnought
State of the art battleship armament in the late nineteenth century involved a mix of large and small caliber weapons. Naval architects believed that most engagements would take place within the range of the smaller guns, and that a variety of guns would combine penetrating power with volume. Indeed, some argued that large armored ships with small weapons (armored cruisers, which were roughly the same size as battleships) could defeat battleships by saturating them with fire
Author’s Note. It’s interesting to consider what modern battleships would have been called if another ship had preceded Dreadnought. I doubt, for example, that the navies of the world would have come to call their ships “South Carolinas.” Satsuma has a decent ring to it, but the Japan is probably too remote for the name to catch on. Dreadnought was followed on the slips by HMS Bellerophon and HMS Temeraire, neither of which, I suspect, would have become popular
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Turrets
HMS Invincible
Author’s Note. In the years after Jutland, examination of the details of the losses of the three battlecruisers indicated that weapons storage and handling played a major role in the fatal explosions. Still, the eggshell thin armor on the early ships (such as Invincible) surely contributed to their loss. The passage of time would serve to vindicate Fisher’s interest in the battlecruiser type, however, as faster ships consistently played a more active role in naval warfare (in both world wars), than their slower, more well-armored cousins
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São Paulo
Author’s Note. The desires of the Southern Cone navies to acquire the most powerful dreadnoughts in the world, rather than ships that would have proven more manageable on their budgets, stands in contrast to the practice of most of the other naval powers. That these ships saw most of their action in revolts (also true of the Chilean Almirante Latorre) was hardly accidental
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USS Michigan
Dreadnought was the first modern battleship completed, but not the first designed. That honor went to a pair of American battleships, South Carolina and Michigan. Congress limited the size of Michigan to more-or-less the same as that of the Connecticut class pre-dreadnought battleships, 2,500 tons smaller than Dreadnought. Onto that small frame the architects managed to pack eight 12” guns in four twin turrets. Larger only than the España class dreadnoughts, Michigan minimally, if efficiently, fulfilled the requirements of the dreadnought form
Author’s Note
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SMS Ostfriesland
SMS Ostfriesland was the second ship of the Helgoland class, the second group of German dreadnoughts. Germany had been taken aback by the appearance of HMS Dreadnought and HMS Invincible. The Kiel Canal, which provided for quick, safe transit between the Baltic and the North Sea, could not accommodate vessels of Dreadnought’s girth. The Germans dawdled a bit before finally deciding to enlarge the canal, and in 1907 laid down their first modern battleships. The construction of HMS Dreadnought turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because while the Germans trailed badly in naval strength in 1906, Dreadnought reset the race; everybody went back to zero, and the Germans were well-positioned to make a game of it
Author’s Note
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SMS Goeben. Yavuz Sultan Selim. Yavuz Selim
Author’s Note
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Dante Alighieri
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USS Utah
USS Utah (BB-31) was the sixth dreadnought battleship commissioned by the United States Navy. She entered service in August of 1911. Utah and her sister Florida were the first two US battleships to use steam turbines, although some later battleships (New York, Texas, and Oklahoma) would revert to reciprocating engines
Author’s Note
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España
The battleship building fever that gripped the world in the wake of Mahan’s Influence of Sea Power Upon History extended to small navies as well as large. Of course, smaller navies operated under much more severe constraints in terms of construction and maintenance costs. Spain, having lost much of its naval strength and virtually all of its overseas empire in the Spanish-American War, concluded that dreadnoughts were necessary for national defense. After several abortive efforts, it ordered three ships of the España class, which would become the smallest dreadnoughts ever constructed
Author’s Note
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HMS Lion
HMS Lion was the first of the Big Cats (also known as the “Splendid Cats”), and the sixth battlecruiser constructed for the Royal Navy. The Big Cats represented a leap ahead in battlecruiser construction, designed with centerline turrets in order to take advantage of a full broadside, and were nearly a third larger than the preceding Indefatigable class. Lion’s armor protection was poor, although better than that of the Indefatigables. The name “Splendid Cats” referred to the fact that three of the five ships authorized bore the names of large cats: Lion, Tiger, and Leopard. HMS Lion was one of the oldest, most renowned names in Royal Navy history, reflecting the importance and expectations regarding this new class of ships. Tiger, however, was completed to an alternative design after the construction of the Japanese Kongo, and Leopard was never completed. The other two ships in the class were Princess Royal and Queen Mary, neither having particularly notable feline connotations
Author’s Note
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Sevastopol. Parizhskaya Kommuna. Sevastopol
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USS Arkansas
USS Michigan represented more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary design, with speed and size to match the preceding pre-dreadnought battleships. The next four classes of American battleships took the lessons of Dreadnought to heart, combining all big-gun armaments with speeds in excess of 20 knots. USS Arkansas and her sister USS Wyoming carried their main armament in six turrets, the most ever built onto an American battleship. The USN would not upgrade to 14” guns until the New York class, or to triple turrets until the Nevada class. Like all USN battleships, Arkansas was relatively well armored and carried a well-distributed centerline armament, instead of resorting to wing turrets
Author’s Note. Arkansas was a lovely old ship, and demonstrated that older vessels could still play important roles if limited to the appropriate missions. Fortunately, the USN had the luxury of using Arkansas in relatively safe areas. Other navies were not so lucky, and had to commit obsolescent ships to extremely dangerous missions
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Battleship Aviation
SMS Friedrich Der Grosse
Friedrich Der Grosse was the second ship of the Kaiser class, commissioned in October 1912. The first eight German dreadnoughts followed the naming convention previously adopted for pre-dreadnoughts. Similar to US naval practice, battleships were named after states, cities, or regions. This changed with the construction of the Kaisers, the third class of German dreadnoughts. They, and their successors the Königs , were named after general or specific monarchs. After nine ships the Kaiserliche Marine reverted to the practice of naming battleships after states with the Bayern class of super-dreadnoughts. Although one might suspect that the decision to name battleships after monarchs was designed to please William II, he had always been an ardent supporter of the naval program and no such flattery was necessary. The battleship Friedrich Der Grosse replaced an ironclad frigate of the same name, representing the evolution of German seapower from nearly nothing in the mid-nineteenth century to the world’s second most powerful fleet in 1910. With the Kaisers, The Germans abandoned the wasteful hexagonal turret distribution that they had used in the Nassau and Helgoland classes, instead carrying one twin turret forward, two turrets rear, and two wing turrets. Theoretically, the wing turrets could fire on either broadside, but such use put enormous strain on the hull and the superstructure. The arrangement was mildly better than that of her predecessors, but the Germans wouldn’t achieve a truly efficient turret arrangement until the completion of the König class. The Kaisers were also the first class of German dreadnoughts to use turbines
Author’s Note
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HMS New Zealand
Author’s Note. Great Britain’s approach to the Dominions feels a bit “Hey, that sounds like a great idea! Can we also purchase the optional all weather primer? And do you offer any kind of extended warranty or service plan?” Still, New Zealand depended for its security on the goodwill of the Royal Navy, and felt that the prestige of empire was sufficient to justify the contribution of funds to the United Kingdom. Unlike Canada or Australia, New Zealand could not hope to maintain a ship as large and powerful as a battlecruiser. Of course, any threat to New Zealand would also have been a threat to Australia and Great Britain, making it possible to free ride
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HMAS Australia
The Royal Navy effort to outpace the Germans in dreadnought numbers severely taxed the Royal Treasury. The Admiralty reasoned that since it fell to the Royal Navy to protect the Dominions, the Dominions ought to pay their fair share. Accordingly, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaya all coughed up the dough for new battleships. Canada initially offered to fund three Queen Elizabeth–type battleships, but the deal fell through on the collision of the Canadian domestic politics with an intransigent Winston Churchill
Author’s Note
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Giulio Cesare. Novorossiysk
Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) was the third battleship commissioned by the Regia Marina. Like most Italian battleships, Giulio Cesare had decent speed but relatively light armor. Italian warship design in the first half of the twentieth century was characterized by innovation and experimentation, with some results more successful than others. The Conti Cavour class (of which Giulio Cesare was the second ship) was the first class of battleships in the world to use both twin and triple turrets. At the time, the Regia Marina named its battleships after famous figures from Italian history, with Julius Caesar serving as the representative of the Roman Empire
Author’s Note
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SMS Viribus Unitis
SMS Viribus Unitis was the first Austrian dreadnought, commissioned in December 1912. Viribus Unitis meant “Joint Forces,” the motto of Emperor Franz Joseph and a call for unity in service to the Empire, which faced nationalist pressures for most of Franz Joseph’s reign. Like her sister SMS Szent Istvan, Viribus Unitis attempted a great deal on a small displacement, sacrificing stability for hitting power
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ARA Rivadavia
The Southern Cone dreadnought race began with the Brazilian order of Minas Gerais and São Paulo from British yards. Not to be outdone, Argentina and Chile soon ordered battleships of their own. The supply-side race was nearly as competitive as the demand side. Germany, Britain, and the United States all struggled to win the Argentine contract (Britain appeared to have the Chilean contact sewn up, as well as an additional Brazilian ship). The United States in particular leaned very heavily on the Argentine government, believing that it deserved a chunk of the naval contracts in its own backyard
Author’s Note
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Volya. Imperator Aleksandr III (Imperial Russia) Volya (Provisional Government) Wolga (Imperial Germany) General Alekseev (Whites)
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USS New York
USS New York (BB-34) was the ninth dreadnought battleship built for the US Navy. At the time of her commissioning, she carried one of the heaviest armaments on any battleship in the world, although she would soon be matched by HMS Canada (the former Almirante Latorre). German ships did not carry weapons of greater than 13”, and the Queen Elizabeth class battleships, with their 15” guns, would not come into service for over a year
Author’s Note
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Standard Type Battleships
Almirante Latorre. HMS Canada. Almirante Latorre
Chile was the final entrant into the Southern Cone battleship race. Although smaller than either Argentina or Brazil, Chile had maintained a respectable fleet and a strong martial tradition in the nineteenth century. When the other two ordered battleships, Chile felt compelled to follow suit, more for reasons of prestige than security. Chile ordered Almirante Latorre and Almirante Cochrane from Armstrong-Whitworth in 1911. The ships were very similar to the excellent British Iron Duke class, except with a heavier gun armament (borrowing the 14” gun from the Japanese Kongo). Unfortunately for Chile, World War I intervened, and both ships were purchased by the Royal Navy. Almirante Latorre was completed as HMS Canada, and joined the 4th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet
Author’s Note
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HIJMS Kongo
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USS Oklahoma
USS Oklahoma and her sister, USS Nevada, were the first of the “standard type” US battleships. Oklahoma entered service in May 1916. Unfortunately, because of problems with suppliers, Oklahoma was equipped with reciprocating engines, leading to vibration problems for her entire career. For this reason, she was the least popular battleship in the fleet. During World War I she engaged in some convoy escort, but because of oil supply concerns did not deploy to the United Kingdom. Rebuilt between 1927 and 1929, Oklahoma had her cage masts replaced by twin tripods. Her interwar career was uneventful, apart from a visit to Spain in 1936, when she helped rescue American refugees of the Spanish Civil War
Author’s Note
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HMS Iron Duke
HMS Iron Duke was the second battleship named after the Duke of Wellington. The first, scrapped in 1906, had the distinction of ramming and sinking HMS Victoria. The second Iron Duke was the name ship of the last class of dreadnoughts to enter Royal Navy service prior to the beginning of World War I. She and her sisters were considered “super-dreadnoughts,” an ill-defined term that distinguishes the second generation of dreadnought battleships from the first. Generally speaking, super-dreadnoughts avoided wing turrets, carrying guns in the centerline with super-firing turrets. Most super-dreadnoughts carried weapons heavier than 12” (although this varied from country to country), and had more advanced armor schemes. However, no one has successfully established a clear definition for the distinction
Author’s Note
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HMS Warspite
HMS Warspite was the second of the magnificent Queen Elizabeth class battleships. Warspite and her sisters outclassed every battleship in the world upon their commissioning, and remained useful and impressive ships until the end of World War II. Seventh ship of her name (accounts vary as to what exactly the name refers to), Warspite led the most distinguished career of any Royal Navy battleship in the twentieth century
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SMS Lutzow
Although the debate between a cruiser navy and a battleship navy had largely been settled in the favor of battleships by 1906, Germany wanted to keep a respectable cruiser fleet in order to manage its possessions in the Pacific and threaten British trade. HMS Invincible was larger and faster than any extant armored cruisers, making it very difficult for the Germans to compete. German intelligence learned of the construction of Invincible, but unfortunately reported her armament as consisting of 9.2” guns. The German response was the cruiser Blücher , a hybrid design that, because of her small guns and insufficient speed, was utterly outclassed by Invincible
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Why did the Battlecruisers Explode?
SMS Szent Istvan
The Compromise of 1867 had created a dual administrative structure in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, giving the Hungarian nobility substantial control over their own lands, and making Franz Joseph both King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. This arrangement created a variety of problems in foreign and security policy, as the military services of the empire needed to adjust in order to serve the various nationalities. In the army, this resulted in dedicated units for particular nationalities. For the navy, it involved compromises with respect to construction and employment. When the empire sought to build its first squadron of dreadnoughts, the government had to make allowance for the interests of both Austria and Hungary. As a precondition of incurring the expense, Hungary demanded that one of the ships be built in a Hungarian yard and be manned by a Hungarian crew. Of course, Hungary today has no major naval shipyard (neither does Austria, of course), but the jurisdiction of the Hungarian half of the Empire extended to Fiume, now known as Rijeka in modern Croatia
Author’s Note. Horthy’s sortie was aggressive, but given the circumstances at the time it is hard to find fault in using the resources that Austria-Hungary had available for fighting. Szent Istvan remains the only dreadnought ever sunk by torpedo boats, although HIJMS Fuso suffered at least one hit from American patrol torpedo boats before sinking at the hands of American destroyers
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Bretagne
Dreadnought created a problem for the French Navy. The French had begun construction of a class of six Dantons almost simultaneous with Dreadnought. These ships occupied all of the large French construction slips, meaning that the French arrived very late to the dreadnought game. The first French effort, the Courbet class, turned out well enough for a series of ships built in 1910. Unfortunately, they were not completed until 1914. Bretagne, an improvement on the Courbets, was named for the region of Brittany. The French never achieved any consistency with respect to naming conventions
Author’s Note
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HMS Barham
While he was First Sea Lord, Churchill repeatedly tried to recognize Oliver Cromwell by naming a battleship in his honor. Churchill settled on one of the Queen Elizabeth class, a squadron of powerful new fast battleships that would be commissioned in 1915. King George V didn’t like the idea of having one of his most powerful ships named after Britain’s most famous regicide, and prevailed upon Churchill to choose a more suitable name
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Naval Rifling
HIJMS Yamashiro
Yamashiro and her sister Fuso were the first super-dreadnoughts built by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Constructed at the same time as the Kongo class battlecruisers, they represented Japan’s effort to match the American standard-type battleships, as well as the big 14” gunned ships of the Royal Navy. In terms of speed and broadside, Yamashiro was comparable to the British Queen Elizabeth class. She entered service in March 1917, but World War I was effectively over in Asia, and plans to transfer a portion of the IJN’s battlefleet to Europe never came to fruition
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SMS Baden
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HMS Royal Sovereign. Arkhangelsk
The Royal Navy followed up its outstanding Queen Elizabeth class battleships with five Revenges (commonly known as the “R” class). Slightly smaller, slower, and powered by coal, the Revenges represented an intentional step back, an effort to check the increasing cost of the super-dreadnought competition with Germany. Royal Sovereign took her name from a long line of British front-line battleships; one of her predecessors served at Trafalgar
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USS Arizona
USS Arizona, second ship of the Pennsylvania class and fourth “standard type” American battleship, was commissioned in October 1916. She shared with the other standard types excellent armor protection, a heavy armament, and a uniform speed. Along with most oil-fired American battleships, Arizona saw very limited action in World War I. Although larger, more heavily armed, and better protected than the most modern Royal Navy battleships, the threat the U-boat campaign posed to British oil supplies meant that only the older, coal-fired American ships would deploy with the Grand Fleet
Author’s Note. USS Arizona is almost more interesting as sociological event than as piece of military technology. She represented, until September 11, 2001, the greatest intelligence and military failure in American history. Her wreck also served as a physical manifestation of the World War II generation. Had she survived, Arizona would likely have had a career much like the other standard types, including modernization, shore bombardment, and convoy escort
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USS Mississippi
Author’s Note
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HMS Renown
HMS Renown was to be the sixth “R” class battleship, but the Admiralty suspended construction in favor of smaller vessels that might have a more immediate impact. The return to service of Lord Jackie Fisher and the victories of Royal Navy battlecruisers at the Falkland Islands and Heligoland Bight changed this calculation, however, and the Admiralty decided to complete Renown and her sister Repulse as battlecruisers. Renown was a well-worn Royal Navy name, having identified at least a half a dozen ships since the seventeenth century. The Renowns traded speed for protection and armament, dropping a 15” turret and considerable armor in return for an eleven knot advantage over the Revenge class battleships
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Interlude: Jutland. Context
Setting. Many of the early operations of the High Seas Fleet involved efforts to lure part of the Grand Fleet under the guns of the High Seas Fleet. German battlecruisers could raid the English coast and make it back to safety before the Grand Fleet, deploying from Scapa Flow, could catch them. In deference to public and political opinion, the Royal Navy needed to respond to these raids in some fashion, which led to the deployment of the Grand Fleet’s battlecruisers to Rosyth, under the command of Admiral David Beatty. The battlecruisers were joined by the five fast battleships of the Fifth Battle Squadron, serving under Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas
The Run to the South
The Main Engagement. Unfortunately for the Germans, the British had received signals intelligence indicating that the High Seas Fleet was preparing to deploy. The Grand Fleet, led by Admiral John Jellicoe aboard HMS Iron Duke, left Scapa Flow before the High Seas Fleet left Kiel. The pre-positioned U-boats, because of the delays, had reached the limits of their endurance, and failed to find any targets. The British had taken the bait, but with too much force. The trap set by the Germans had become a trap for the Germans
Aftermath
Legacy
HIJMS Hyuga
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HMS Hood
Hood was the name ship of the Admiral class, a group of four superdreadnoughts ordered near the close of World War I. Hood was named after Admiral Samuel Hood, who served in the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the French Revolutionary Wars. Famous for his own exploits, Hood’s mentoring relationship with Admiral Horatio Nelson served to further enhance his reputation. Hood’s brother, cousin, and great-great grandson were also Royal Navy admirals. The last, Admiral Horace Hood, was killed in the explosion of the battlecruiser HMS Invincible at the Battle of Jutland. Horace Hood’s widow attended the launch of HMS Hood in 1918
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USS California
The first American battleship built on the West Coast was USS Oregon, commissioned in 1896. USS Virginia, USS Massachusetts, and USS New York were built in their nominal states. The first and only battleship built in its own state on the West Coast was USS California, second ship of the Tennessee class, and second of the “Big Five,” the last five of the twelve ships built to the standard type. The Big Five adopted a new underwater protection system, a more modern secondary armament, a more extensive superstructure, and reinforced cage masts capable of supporting heavier conning towers. The first two ships carried twelve 14” guns, while the next three carried eight 16” guns
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USS Maryland
USS Maryland represented the zenith of “standard type” US battleship development. The “standard type” ships had compatible speeds, turning circles, and armaments, allowing them to form a squadron that could operate as a cohesive unit. Maryland was one of the “Big Five,” the last five standard-type battleships completed by the United States. She and her two sisters (USS Colorado and USS West Virginia) differed from the first two ships (USS Tennessee and USS California) in that they carried eight 16” guns in four twin turrets rather than twelve 14” in triple turrets
Author’s Note. Yamato fell victim to US carrier aircraft, but it’s worth thinking about what an engagement with the huge battleship might have looked like. Yamato had considerable advantages in size, speed, and range over any of the American ships. The engagement would have been fought in darkness, which earlier in the war had worked to the Japanese advantage. In this case, I suspect that improvements in US radar and the long range of the battle would have worked in US favor, and that USS West Virginia, a ship with 16” guns and an advanced array, would have been the first ship to draw blood. Using her relatively high speed, Yamato could have tried to fight the battle at long range to her advantage, but I think that her suicide mission would have led to more aggressive tactics, and that she would have engaged with the US battleline. The US ships would no doubt have suffered severely from Yamato’s 18” guns, but hit anything with enough 14” shells and it will sink. The US advantage in destroyers would also have had an effect, as Yamato had virtually no defense against surface torpedo attack. However, as Yamato might easily have sunk one or more US battleships, with thousands of resultant dead, the Americans made the right decision by destroying her from the air
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HIJMS Nagato
Even before the Washington Naval Treaty limited new construction, the Imperial Japanese Navy determined that it could never match the USN in numbers. The Japanese decided to solve this problem by ensuring ship-to-ship superiority. The IJN was the first navy to use the 14” gun (on Kongo), although the Americans soon matched this with New York and the British exceeded it with the 15” guns of Queen Elizabeth. The IJN, which continued to have close ties with the Royal Navy, found the British fast battleships particularly impressive, and decided to combine speed, armor, and hitting power in its next class
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Interlude: The Treaties. Stopping the Next Arms Race
The Politics
The Military Impact
Follow On, and Collapse
III. The World War II Era
HIJMS Kaga
In the wake of World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy decided to pursue the “8-8” program, designed to provide Japan with eight modern battlecruisers and eight modern battleships. The follow-up Japanese designs included the Amagi class battlecruisers and the Tosa class battleships. Kaga was the second ship of the former class, initially designed to carry ten 16” guns in five twin turrets, displace 40,000 tons, and make 26.5 knots. Her most likely opponents would have been the American South Dakota class, which was more heavily armed and armored but much slower
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USS Lexington
The United States made a very late entrance into the battlecruiser game. The Royal Navy built the world’s first battlecruiser in 1908, with the Germans and Japanese quickly following suit. Since the USN viewed the Royal Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy as its most likely foes in the early part of the twentieth century, it’s surprising that the Americans would concede the battlecruiser race to enemy navies. The most charitable interpretation is that the USN recognized the basic problem with the battlecruiser form: its inability to participate in the line of battle because of light armor. The Japanese recognized this problem as well, but decided that, given the size of the Pacific theater of operations, battlecruisers would nonetheless be useful. To the credit of the USN, it consistently built the best protected battleships in the world, which may have made the battlecruiser unpalatable on an organizational culture basis
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HMS Rodney
The Washington Naval Treaty struck the Royal Navy harder than any of its counteparts. In 1921 the RN posssesed 32 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, compared to the 22 dreadnoughts of the USN and the 8 dreadnoughts and 4 battlecruisers of the IJN. Moreover, the battleships (N3 class) and battlecruisers (G3 class) on the Royal Navy drawing board were distinctly superior to their Japanese and American equivalents. The fact that the United Kingdom was nearly bankrupt in the wake of World War I, and that her resources were far outmatched by those of the United States, didn’t help alleviate the sting of having to scrap more than half of her dreadnought fleet, abandon her magnificent new battleships, and accept naval parity with the Americans and only modest naval superiority over the Japanese. British negotiators wrung a major concession, however. Because Japan and the United States had both completed battleships with 16” guns, Great Britain would be allowed to construct two of its own
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Admiral Scheer
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Littorio. Italia
The Regia Marina was one of the busiest navies of the interwar period. Four old battleships were rebuilt so completely that they barely resembled their original configuration. This helped Italy achieve what was really, by the late 1930s, significant ship-to-ship superiority over the French Navy. The reconstruction of these ships helped generate ideas as to what their new battleships should look like. The new ships were to have enough speed to catch Dunkerque and Strasbourg, and enough firepower to destroy them. The result was the first post-treaty class of genuine fast battleships, the Littorio class
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Strasbourg
France’s early efforts at battleship construction suffered from slow building, full slips, and a concentration on the more pressing issues of World War I. Early French ships could not compete against foreign contemporaries, and the Marine Nationale failed to remedy these problems with reconstruction projects during the interwar period. The Washington Naval Treaty allotted France 70,000 tons for battleship construction, which the French wisely delayed using for a decade
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Scharnhorst
The Treaty of Versailles drastically limited the size of the postwar Kriegsmarine, precluding Germany from owning any dreadnought battleships. The Germans could keep (and replace) pre-dreadnought vessels of 10,000 tons or less, roughly the size of a heavy cruiser in most navies. Presented with a problem, the German engineers designed the pocket battleships, warships of relatively small size (12,000 tons or so), with relatively heavy armaments (six 11” guns) that were faster than any ship more powerful than they and more powerful than any ship faster. Alas, the concept behind the pocket battleships went the way of all technology. The Royal Navy retained three of its battlecruisers, each of which would have no difficulty catching and destroying the German ships. More troubling, the French built Dunkerque and Strasbourg, a pair of battlecruisers that similarly would have meant doom for the German vessels
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Tirpitz
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Jean Bart
The Marine Nationale followed up Dunkerque and Strasbourg with the Richelieu class. Although fine ships, the Dunkerques could not compete with the latest heavy battleships emerging from Germany and Italy. Richelieu and her sister, Jean Bart, represented the Marine Nationale’s first truly competitive battleship design since the ill-fated Dantons. Essentially, the Richelieus were enlarged Dunkerques, with heavier armament and better armor. Like the Dunkerques and the British King George V class, their main armament was disposed of in quadruple turrets. This allowed them to combine very heavy armor with very high speed, almost certainly rendering them superior to their Italian, German, and British contemporaries. Apart from the South Dakotas, they would probably have been the most powerful battleships built under the London Naval Treaty restrictions
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HMS Prince of Wales
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HIJMS Yamato
Japan withdrew from the London Naval Treaty in 1936. The chief Japanese negotiator, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, feared that concessions on the part of his negotiating team would lead directly to their assassination upon return to Japan. Japanese nationalists believed that the Washington Naval Treaty system was holding Japan back and preventing it from becoming a first-rate power. Freed from the constraints of international treaties, Japan could build a world-beating fleet that would push the Western powers out of Asia and help usher in a new era of Japanese dominance. The partisans of this position didn’t call their organization “Project for a New Japanese Century,” but they might as well have
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The Battleships That Never Were
USS Washington
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Battleship Movies
USS Massachusetts
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USS Wisconsin
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HMS Vanguard
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Interlude: Pearl Harbor. The Setting
The Ships
The Strike
USS Guam
At the turn of the twentieth century, the divide between battleship and cruiser had yet to take full form. Armored cruisers were large, relatively fast ships that carried a large number of small caliber guns. Battleships were large, relatively slow ships that carried a mixed armament, including a small number of large guns. The almost exact contemporaries HMS Warrior and HMS King Edward VII, for example, differed in displacement by only 2,000 tons. At Tsushima, battleship and cruisers fought in the same line of battle
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RFS Pyotr Velikiy
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Conclusion
Role Played
How they were built
How they were lost
Why no more?
Memories
Further Reading
Photo Credits
