Battleship
Battleship, a large, heavily gunned warship, protected by armor plate. For more than 50 years these vessels were the capital (major) ships of the world's navies, and a nation's naval strength was measured by the number of its battleships. The airplane, submarine, and missile-firing ship changed all this, and after World War II most navies withdrew their battleships from service or used them only as floating platforms for bombarding shore positions.
The battleship came into existence in the late 19th century. By 1900 it had become a 16-knot vessel of about 15,000 tons, armed with four 12-inch (305-mm) guns and usually with a variety of lesser weapons.
The first major battleship engagement took place during the Spanish-American War when United States ships completely destroyed the Spanish fleet off Santiago, Cuba, July 3, 1898. Another important battle was fought in 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War; the Russian Baltic fleet sailed halfway around the world to Tsushima Strait, between Japan and Korea, where it was met and destroyed by the Japanese navy.
In 1906 Great Britain launched the Dreadnought, a battleship so powerful—it was armed with 10 12-inch guns—that it made all of the world's other battleships obsolete. Its launching led to an arms race among naval powers, particularly between Great Britain and Germany, each building bigger warships with larger guns. (For a time, all battleships armed exclusively with big guns were called dreadnoughts.) Great Britain also developed the battle cruiser, a warship with heavy guns, but lightly armored.
When World War I opened in 1914, the battleship was challenged for naval dominance by lesser ships, especially the submarine. Nevertheless, the superior battleship force of Great Britain was a deciding factor in the war, because it was able to keep Germany's surface fleet in check, freeing smaller ships for convoy and antisubmarine duty. Only once did Germany's main fleet challenge the British—at the Battle of Jutland (1916), which was fought to a draw.
The typical battleship of World War II displaced 40,000 tons and carried as many as nine 14- or 16-inch (356- or 406-mm) guns as main armament. In 1941 the German battleship Bismarck sank the British battle cruiser Hood and damaged several battleships before being tracked down and sunk in mid-Atlantic. In the Pacific, United States battleships took part in smashing a Japanese force in the Solomons in November, 1942. Battleships, however, served mainly as powerful artillery batteries for bombarding shore positions, and generally took a secondary role to aircraft carriers. Nevertheless, battleships had a part in the last major engagement of the war against Japan, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, fought October 24–26, 1944.
At the close of the war the U.S. Navy had 23 battleships. By 1949 only the Missouri was still in active service. The newer battleships were decommissioned and put in the reserve fleet. The older battleships were scrapped, used as targets for nuclear weapons tests, or made into tourist exhibits.
When the Korean War broke out, the battleships Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Iowa were reactivated and joined the Missouri in shore-bombardment duty. The Missouri was decommissioned in 1955, the New Jersey in 1957, and the Iowa and the Wisconsin in 1958. In 1968–69, during the Vietnamese War, the New Jersey was again in active service in shore bombardment.
To bolster the strength of carrier strike forces, all four battleships in the reserve fleet were reactivated in the 1980's—the New Jersey in 1983, the Iowa in 1984, the Missouri in 1986, and the Wisconsin in 1988. The ships retained their 16-inch guns and, in addition, were equipped with antiship and cruise missiles. The Iowa and the New Jersey were decommissioned in 1990, the Wisconsin in 1991, and the Missouri in 1992. The Wisconsin and the Missouri were the last battleships used in action; early in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, they were deployed off the coast of Kuwait and shelled Iraqi artillery positions. In 1995, all four United States battleships were permanently retired from the U.S. Navy.