New visitors to the forum are asking the same old questions. I do not know where this misconception about the inefficiency of large highly protected ships comes from, but it becomes insulting for the heroes of the past.
They fought, won, bled to death, so that after a century the homegrown “experts” would at once write everyone down to useless trash. Among the hackneyed cliches - "stood in the bases", "they were protected and not allowed into the sea", "they stopped building". Well, let's start with the latter.
Everyone loved the giants, but especially the Americans.
Since entering the war, the United States has built 24 highly protected warships, incl. 8 battleships, 2 battle cruisers and 14 Baltimore-class heavy cruisers (TKr).
What do heavy cruisers have to do with it? Ha, even though the Baltimore was two meters longer than the battleship South Dakota. A person who has only a general idea of the Navy is unlikely to distinguish such a cruiser from a battleship at all.
How were such giants born? Unlike the pre-war "freaks", the TKRs of the war years were built in the absence of international restrictions, as a result they "expanded" to unprecedented sizes and combat power. They had dimensions of 17-20 thousand tons. Incidentally, this is the full displacement of the very legendary Dreadnought (only if they were placed side by side, the Baltimore would be 40 meters longer).
Structurally, the TKr and LK still had differences: the battleship's caliber was larger, the cruiser's armor was thinner. However, from the position of our days that the one that the other had prohibitive combat resistance. And the creation of such ships was a real scientific and technical feat. Efforts and funds were not spared for their construction. We invested in them in full.
As for the official classification, it can be thrown in the trash. Look at real performance characteristics, not stickers.
Someone will remind you of the differences in tactical application. Come on! During the Second World War, TKr and LK always walked "by the handle", often getting caught in the crossfire of each other. Approximately as shown in the illustration (the "Bismarck" campaign and the "Prince Eugen" cruise ship).
Remember who tormented the South Dakota in the night battle near Guadalcanal (most of the hits were 203 mm shells from Japanese cruisers). Or the composition of a motley Japanese unit that broke through with a fight into Leyte Gulf. High firepower, speed and exceptional resistance to combat wounds allowed them to operate in a single formation.
Cruisers and battleships had more in common than differences. And speaking of some, it is necessary to somehow take into account the existence of others. They were all monstrously large, expensive and complex. Let someone more, someone less. Battleships also differed in size at times by two times (30 thousand tons for Queen Elizabeth, 45 thousand tons for Littorio, 70 thousand tons for Yamato), but they are still classified as a single class of "battle ships". So why aren't ships taking part here, albeit smaller in size, but no less technically sophisticated ?!
If we break away from the usual classifications, we can talk about the so-called. "Floating fortresses". These include all large highly protected ships with predominantly artillery weapons, born during the First World War, between both wars and during the Second World War.
Let's go further.
Realizing the worthlessness of "floating fortresses" on the example of Pearl Harbor, the Americans continued to build such ships throughout the war. And they built later: the Baltimore series was followed by the even more formidable Oregon City and Des Moines. And also the light cruisers of the Worcester class, which turned out to be even larger and longer than the Baltimore itself! Sailors ironically nicknamed these monsters "well, very large light cruisers" (further confirmation that the official classification is often a lie). A unique feature of the Worcesters was the horizontal (deck) protection, surpassing all armored belts, traverses and barbets in mass: the ship was created to withstand air attack.
Let's return, however, to the main topic of our conversation. It suddenly turned out that the "floating fortresses" were still being built. And they were built in obscenely large quantities. So large that when the war ended, the victors simply did not know what to do with them. Some were put into reserve. And, of course, they stopped building new ships - before the era of rocket weapons.
The dear reader, of course, will not believe it and will lash out with criticism. Indeed, at the height of the war, no one except the United States built battleships. Which is quite natural. All developed powers built their battleships and TKr before the war. And then, of course, they did not have the strength and resources.
Royal Navy
Britain put into operation five new King George V-class aircraft just before the war. The composition of the "combat core" of the fleet also included relatively fresh "Nelsons" mod. 20s and the legendary 270-meter battle cruiser Hood. And that is not all.
In the period between the world wars, the British led to more or less modern LKR standards "Rinaun" and "Ripals" (modernized so seriously that they received the nicknames "Rebuild" and "Ripair" in the navy - "perestroika" and "repair").
Also, five battleships "Queen Elizabeth" with 15-inch were extensively modernized. main guns. It was an outstanding project. "Queens", which belonged to the era of the First World War, were so cool that they could confidently fight battleships of the 30s. Time, of course, took its toll - the “Queens” had problems (speed, PTZ), but they did not hold fire and protection in the surface of the side.
Total: 15 ready-to-fight sea monsters (of course, not counting the rest who did not have time to go through the modernization of the vessels left over from the WWII).
The British did not have heavy cruisers, which it would make sense to mention in this article. All pre-war projects are deliberately weakened "Washingtonians", somehow squeezed into a limited 10 thousand tons of standard displacement. This is not "Zara", not "Hipper" and not "Mogami".
Kriegsmarine
The Germans also did not sit idle, having given birth during the pre-war years, four battleships and three more exotic “large cruisers” with a caliber of 280 mm guns, which received the ironic nickname “pocket battleships”.
In addition to these freaks, the Nazis laid down five more heavy cruisers of the Admiral Hipper class. So heavy that their crews (1400-1600 people) outnumbered the crews of battleships of the era of the First World War. More people served on each German cruiser than on the heroically lost "Hood"! The stakes were great.
No one thought that the Germans would be able to rebuild their fleet so soon. They were not forced to sign international agreements prescribing strict restrictions on the displacement of ships. As a result, the Nazis built really huge cruisers, surpassing their peers - "Washington" by an average of 4000 tons.
As befits all German "wunderwaves", the cruisers had an overly complex design. In absolute prices of the 30s. The Hipper cost 2.5 times more than the London-class British heavy cruiser.
The entire displacement reserve was wasted. Why? It is necessary to ask about this the German "supermen" themselves. For example, the Americans managed to build much more balanced cruisers in the same dimensions. Of course, there are six years of age difference, but comparing Hipper with Baltimore is simply a shame (despite the fact that Baltimore is just a development of pre-war projects, devoid of artificial restrictions, which the Germans did not have initially).
However, the funds were spent. Huge ships were built (4 + 1 unfinished "Luttsov" sold in the USSR). From a modern point of view, despite the existence of even more sophisticated designs, "Hippers" were a scientific and technical achievement. In total, at the beginning of the war, the Nazis had 11 modern "floating fortresses". Quite modest, even by European standards.
Regia Marina
In Italy, they were preparing seriously for a naval war. The beauty and pride of Regia Marina are the three newest battleships of the Littorio class. Modest by world standards, nothing outstanding project, which nevertheless possessed all the advantages of a large super-protected ship.
The Italians also took a creative approach by modernizing five old battleships from the First World War. Serious work was done, the power plant of the battleships increased by 300%. It is clear what extensive design changes such experiments have led. The towers were removed, armor plates were installed, the modernization of the old "Cesare" came out as half the cost of building the new "Littorio". Why did they do it? Italians have only two convolutions in their heads, and those are spaghetti. Modernization did not make the "old men" in any way equal to the new battleships. Although it increased their combat capabilities very significantly.
In the interwar period, four more highly protected ships, the TKr of the Zara type, were built in Italy. Contractual "Washingtonians", favorably distinguished from foreign peers by remarkable armor protection. It was possible to combine security with high speed and the classic weapons of the TKR of that era due to a clear violation of the terms of the Washington Treaty. All this led to very amusing consequences.
One of the "Zar", having entered Gibraltar for emergency repairs, did not fit into the dock - where, according to the documents, it should have gotten up without any problems. As they say on the Internet, an epic failure. The British learned the truth, but it was too late.
In total, at the beginning of the war, the Italians had as many as 12 "floating fortresses".
Imperial navy
Japan is at the edge of the world, but its technological level is ahead of many. At the beginning of the war, the valiant sons of Amaterasu erected two impregnable fortresses in the ocean - battleships of the Yamato class. And before that, in 1920, they once again surprised everyone by building the world's first type of battleship with a 16-inch. the main caliber is the great "Nagato".
In addition to this "magnificent four", by the time of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had eight more modernized battleships and battle cruisers of the WWII era ("Fuso", "Ise" and the battle cruiser "Congo", which had nothing to do with an African country). The battleships that had undergone modernization were unrecognizable: the Japanese jokingly put 10-storey superstructures on them, simultaneously changing the armament, power plant and the battleship booking scheme.
Heavy cruisers were the special pride of the Imperial Navy. They brought many resounding victories on their decks and most of them held out until the last months of the war.
It is worth highlighting 12 cruisers, four projects: "Mioko", "Takao", "Mogami" and exotic "Tone". The earlier types ("Furutaka" and "Aoba") are too light and primitive, therefore they do not belong to the conversation.
A dozen samurai can be attributed to highly protected ships with some stretch: their protection was clearly weak, compared to the rest of the ships mentioned in this article. Although, even in this form, the Japanese TKr demonstrated exceptional combat resistance, unattainable for modern ships. The most powerful torpedo and artillery weapons - in this parameter, the samurai surpassed all their opponents. Power plants with more power than battleships. Speed 35 knots. Crews of 1000+ people. Everything indicates that we have before us another armada of "sea fortresses" with rebalanced characteristics in the direction of speed and fire.
How did all this fit into the established 10 thousand tons? No way. The Japanese cheated as best they could: at first, no one paid attention to the fact that the Mogami's waterline did not pass where it should be, the board was too high above the water (the ship was structurally underloaded). With the beginning of the war, the Japanese tore off their masks and put on the cruiser, instead of six-inch, new towers with 8-inch. "Bangs". This is what the Mogami project was originally intended for.
In total, the Japanese had 26 large protected ships, and their fleet as of 1941 was the strongest in the world.
Well stupid …
The only people who “kicked cotton wool” during the interwar period were the Yankees. Their last battleship was laid there in the years of the First World War, and then for 15 years they did nothing. Apparently, they hoped for the strength of their diplomacy, which fettered Japan with the shackles of naval treaties (after all, the Japanese were not fiddling with rusty PMV battleships for a good life, instead of building new ships).
By the beginning of the war, the US Navy came in a depressing state - with a pile of "standard battleships", whose caliber and low speed (21 knots) did not allow them to operate effectively in a new era.
However, the Yankees woke up quickly enough, built a couple of North Caroline LCs just before the war, and then made up for lost time with unprecedented speed.
Epilogue. Conclusions
A) Large, well-protected surface ships were available in sufficient numbers in the fleets of all developed countries.
B) Those who could build such ships throughout the war and even after the end of WWII.
C) TKr and LK occupied their own tactical niche. Protected ships have not lost their relevance with the advent of aviation (rather, as practice has shown, on the contrary). They are the only ones who could hold out under the intensified enemy fire.
How the sea giants fought will be described in the second part of the material on “sea fortresses”. Not afraid to kill the intrigue, I will say right away: they fought gloriously.
Or did someone seriously think that these majestic masters of defense, air defense and long-range combat modestly stood on the sidelines? Endowed with immeasurable strength, inflexible and tenacious, like terminators, they were not afraid of anything and went where any “one-time” light cruiser / leader / destroyer could not go a dozen miles. The command was well aware of their capabilities, so they were sent to the very hell.
