In popular literature, there are many absurd statements related to the history of the development of the navy. Many are still convinced that the "era of dreadnoughts" was replaced by the "era of aircraft carriers." We often hear that artillery ships are outdated with the advent of carrier-based aircraft. That the formidable cruisers and battleships were useless and took only limited part in World War II.
Misconceptions usually come from ignorance of the issue. The Pacific theater of military operations, like most of the naval battles of World War II, "remained behind the scenes" in official Soviet history. As a result, many of us have no idea what happened in the Pacific between Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima.
It is characteristic that most opinions, one way or another, represent the war between the United States and Japan, exclusively as a "battle of aircraft carriers" - a raid on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto, the Midway battle, waves of "Zeros" and "Hellcats" flying towards each other, burning Japanese Akagi and Kaga, the sinking aircraft carrier Hornet …
Everyone knows the story of Pearl Harbor. But how many have heard of Second Pearl Harbor? This is how the catastrophe near the Savo Island is called - an artillery battle that took place on the night of August 8-9, 1942, and ended with the complete defeat of the American squadron. Four heavy cruisers, a thousand dead sailors - the severity of the losses was comparable to the raid on the Pearl Harbor.
Unlike the attack on Pearl Harbor, where the US Navy's failures are usually attributed to "Japanese treachery" and "surprise strike," the nighttime pogrom off Savo Island was a pure tactical victory for the Imperial Navy. The Japanese deftly circled the island counterclockwise and took turns shooting the American and Australian cruisers. Then they disappeared without a trace in the darkness of the night, without losing a single ship from their side.
An equally epic battle took place on February 27, 1942 in the Java Sea - the Imperial Navy inflicted a crushing defeat on the joint squadron of the British Navy, the Dutch Navy and the US Navy: on that day, the Allies lost three cruisers and five destroyers! The remnants of the united squadron withdrew from the battle, not even picking up the crew of the dead ships from the water (the cruel logic of war - otherwise everyone will die under enemy fire).
The day after the battle, the remnants of the Allied squadron again met with the Japanese in the Sunda Strait. Japanese destroyers fired 87 torpedoes at the American cruiser Houston and the Australian cruiser Perth, naturally destroying both Allied ships.
It is noteworthy that the pogrom in the Java Sea, the night battle near the Savo Island and the torpedo madness in the Sunda Strait did not involve aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft - the outcome of the battles was decided by dashing torpedo attacks and deadly large-caliber artillery fire.
Interception of the Tokyo Express in Vella Bay (torpedo battle between destroyers of the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy), a night artillery duel at Cape Esperance, the Battle of Cape Lunga, the Battle of Cape St. advantage in night battles - the Imperial Navy lost dry). And, finally, the enchanting pogrom in the Surigao Strait: the extermination of Admiral Nishimura's squadron by the joint efforts of American battleships, destroyers and torpedo boats. The Japanese lost two battleships, a cruiser and three destroyers, almost without causing harm to the enemy.
History unambiguously testifies: the myths about the "era of dreadnoughts" and "the era of aircraft carriers" do not correspond to reality - artillery ships were used no less actively than aircraft carriers throughout the Second World War. At the same time, battleships, cruisers and aircraft carrier ships often fought as part of one squadron, harmoniously complementing each other. Often, but not always. The number of day and night artillery duels, classic torpedo attacks and shelling of the coast exceeded the number of operations in which carrier-based aircraft participated.
All of the above is confirmed by the statistics of the construction of warships: during the war years, the Americans commissioned 22 heavy and 9 light aircraft carriers. However, during the same period of time, the US Navy received 12 super-battleships and 46 artillery cruisers from the industry!
Due to their relative small numbers, the American and Japanese battleships only managed to test each other's strength twice. In addition to the already mentioned night battle in the Surigao Strait, in which the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro were killed, the American battleships managed to destroy the battle cruiser Kirishima in the battle off the island of Guadalcanal on the night of November 14, 1942. The US Navy paid dearly for the victory over the Kirishima: one of the participants in the battle, the battleship South Dakota, was put out of action for 14 months!
However, despite the apparent lack of missions on the high seas, the monstrous guns of the battleships did not stop for a minute - with the help of their "special equipment", the US Navy was crushing the Japanese defensive perimeter on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Methodically, island by island, the Americans leveled the Japanese positions to the ground, subjected to violent bombardments to fortifications, bases and airfields, burned storage facilities and arsenals, and destroyed communications.
On June 6, the formation went to sea and from the 11th to the 13th struck the islands of Saipan and Tinian, after which the battleships began artillery bombardment of Saipan, covering the minesweepers. After the end of the trawling, the fire was transferred to ships in Tanapag harbor, most of which were destroyed and damaged. Huge fires began on the shore - ammunition, oil and supply depots were burning.
On November 28, North Caroline joined the group of the aircraft carrier Saratoga and continued operations in the Gilbert Islands area. On December 8, he participated in the shelling of the island of Nauru, firing 538 high-explosive shells at the railway line leading to the Japanese air base, a radio station, fortifications on the coast and radar installations.
The first strikes on Kwajelin Atoll began on January 29, North Caroline began bombing the Roy and Namur islands that were part of the atoll. On the way to the Roy from the battleship, they noticed a transport standing in the lagoon, along which they immediately fired several volleys, causing fires from bow to stern. After the Japanese runways were disabled, the battleship fired at designated targets at night and all the next day, while simultaneously covering aircraft carriers that supported the landing of troops on neighboring islands.
- chronicle of participation in the hostilities of the battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55)
As for the "European" battleships, they, contrary to the myth of their "uselessness", also had a significant impact on the course of hostilities.
The legendary naval battle in the Danish Strait - a successful salvo from the battleship Bismarck knocked the British battle cruiser Hood into the depths of the sea. Three days later, on May 27, 1941, damaged by the Bismarck carrier-based aircraft, he died in a classic artillery battle with the battleships King George V and Rodney.
On an icy polar night on December 26, 1943, volleys rang out in the Norwegian Sea - this killed the battleship Scharnhorst, destroyed by the battleships Norfolk and Duke of York, with the support of their escort destroyers.
Much less known are other cases of the use of battleships in European waters:
- attack by a British squadron on the French fleet in Mars-El-Kebir (Operation Catapult, July 3, 1940);
- shootout of the American battleship Massachusetts with the French Jean Bar on the roadstead of Casablanca (November 8, 1942);
- an unsuccessful sea battle on July 9, 1940, in which the Italian battleships Cavour and Giulio Cesare (the future Novorossiysk) fought the British monster Worspite.
And here is another little-known circumstance: during the raid into the Atlantic (January-March 1941), the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank 22 Allied transport ships with a total tonnage of over 115 thousand tons!
And how not to recall the Soviet battleship "Marat" - even in a dilapidated state, she continued to fire at the enemy, defending the approaches to Leningrad.
In addition to raiding operations, covering bases and providing fire support for amphibious operations, battleships of the European naval forces performed an important "deterrent" function. The British fleet confused the Third Reich - His Majesty's formidable battleships became one of the factors that forced the Germans to abandon the landing on the British Isles.
By chance, the German Tirpitz became one of the most effective ships of the Second World War - without firing a single shot at enemy ships, it managed to hamper the actions of the British fleet in the entire North Atlantic and destroy the PQ-17 convoy with one of its looks. So great was the fear of the German "miracle weapon"!
The best victory is the one won without a fight (Sun Tzu, "The Art of War", 4th century BC).
But all the achievements of cruisers and battleships pale against the background of the successes of the submarine fleet! There were no submarines, and there is no equal in efficiency - thousands of destroyed ships and vessels with a total tonnage of tens of millions of tons.
Here Gunther Prien and his U-47 infiltrated the main base of the British fleet in Scapa Flow - giant columns of water rise along the side of the battleship "Royal Oak". The British anti-aircraft artillery opens a furious fire, the night sky is colored with incredible beauty of fireworks of tracer bursts and beams of searchlights … It is impossible, it is simply impossible for an enemy submarine to be here. The Royal Oak must have sunk German planes …
Here's another story. Three torpedo hits - and the explosion of the ammunition cellars takes the battleship "Barham" to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The U-331 submarine is credited with a rather big trophy …
American submarines literally "gobbled up" Japanese cruisers - "Atago", "Agano", "Ashigara", "Maya", "Takao" …
They did not stand on ceremony at all - the bulk of the Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk by submarines: Taiho, Shokaku, Shinano, Dzunyo, Unryu … The US Navy seriously suffered from Japanese submarines - the Americans lost the Yorktown aircraft carriers "And" Wasp ". The British fleet suffered even more - the Kriegsmarine submariners sank the aircraft carriers Eagle, Korejges and Arc Royal.
By the way, the largest tragedy in the history of the US Navy (the largest number of casualties among personnel as a result of one sinking) - the death of the cruiser Indianapolis on July 30, 1945, was attributed to the Japanese submarine I-58. The Japanese were exactly four days late - had they sunk the cruiser a little earlier, the nuclear bombs on board the Indianapolis would never have fallen on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Submarines are a simple, cheap and powerful tool, ideally "sharpened" for naval combat. A destructive, undetectable, and therefore even more terrible weapon attacking from the depths of the ocean - submarines have become even more dangerous with the advent of nuclear power plants and modern sonar systems. It is in the successes of the submarine fleet that one of the reasons for the "obsolescence" of artillery dreadnoughts lies … however, more on that below.
Where have artillery cruisers and battleships gone in our time?
Answer: they did not disappear anywhere. How so? - the reader will be surprised - since the end of World War II, not a single battleship has been built in the whole world. British "Vanguard" (1946) - "swan song" of the glorious era of the dreadnoughts.
The explanation for the strange disappearance of the artillery ships sounds rather prosaic - the ships evolved into a URO cruiser (with guided missile weapons). The era of naval artillery gave way to the era of missiles.
The battleships, of course, were no longer built - their cost was too high for peacetime standards. Moreover, there was no need for bulky and heavy large-caliber guns. The most modest rocket turned out to be capable of delivering hundreds of kilograms of explosives with high accuracy at a distance of 100 or even more kilometers - it is difficult to imagine the size of an artillery gun, comparable in range to a rocket weapon!
However, until the end of the 1950s, artillery cruisers were still being built - for example, 14 Soviet ships according to the 68-bis project, American heavy cruisers of the Oregon and Des Moines types, light cruisers Fargo, Worcester, Juneau …
But gradually, with the newly built new cruisers, strange metamorphoses began to occur - the towers disappeared, instead of beam-type rocket launchers appeared on the decks. Rockets literally drove out artillery before our eyes.
Heavy cruisers of the Baltimore class (built during the war) were modernized according to the Boston project - with the installation of the Terrier naval air defense system instead of the stern tower. The bow group of artillery remained unchanged.
Light cruisers of the Cleveland type (also of military construction) were gradually transformed according to the Galveston project with the installation of the Talos long-range anti-aircraft missile system.
At first, this process was of a local nature - the characteristics of the missiles, as well as their reliability, left much to be desired. But soon there was a breakthrough: by the end of the 1950s, a project was developed for the total modernization of artillery cruisers under the Albany project - the artillery was completely dismantled from the ships, and instead four naval air defense systems with their fire control systems were installed.
Simultaneously with the Albany project, the shipyard laid the foundation for the first fully missile cruiser of special construction - the inimitable nuclear-powered Long Beach, launched in 1959. Simultaneously with the heavy, high-tech nuclear super-cruiser, a series of 9 light missile cruisers (URO cruisers) of the Legi type was laid … soon the Israeli destroyer Eilat will die from a Soviet anti-ship missile and the “missile euphoria” will sweep the whole world.
At the same time, the Soviet Union was building analogues of "Lega" - missile cruisers of Project 58 (code "Grozny") and a series of 20 anti-submarine frigates of Project 61 (code "Komsomolets Ukrainy"). However, unlike American escort cruisers, Soviet ships of Project 58 were originally designed for independent operations on sea lanes and were equipped with a complex of strike weapons.
The takeaways from this story are pretty simple:
There has never been any replacement of battleships with aircraft carriers. These ships are completely different in purpose and any competition between them is impossible.
This statement is true for any artillery ships - cruisers are still being built in all developed countries of the world, but the priority in their armament is given to missile weapons.
As noted above, the disappearance of giant super-battleships was facilitated by the development of the submarine fleet - there is no point in increasing the thickness of the armor belt if a torpedo salvo from an enemy nuclear submarine would still send the battleship to the bottom.
A certain (rather negative) role was played by the appearance of nuclear weapons - all modern ships necessarily have anti-nuclear and anti-chemical protection, but they burn out to the ground and sink from being hit by conventional ammunition. From this point of view, the WWII cruiser has an absolute advantage over any of the modern warships.
As for the historical retrospective, the reasoning on the theme of "the conquest of Japan with the help of aircraft carriers" is nothing more than a replicated myth. Aircraft carriers played an important, but far from key role in the war in the Pacific Ocean - according to statistics, the main losses to the belligerent parties were inflicted by submarines, cruisers and destroyers. And the overwhelming part of the battles in the Pacific Ocean took place in the form of classic artillery duels and torpedo attacks.
There is no doubt that the legendary Yorktowns and Essexes were real heroes - aircraft carrier ships had an exceptional advantage in airspace control, the combat radius of carrier-based aircraft was incommensurate with the artillery firing range - the planes overtook the enemy at a distance of hundreds of kilometers from their ship. However, the "era" of aircraft carriers ended pretty soon. Carrier-based aircraft completely went bankrupt with the advent of modern jet aircraft and air-to-air refueling systems - as a result, modern aircraft do not need “floating airfields”. However, that's another story.
