The battleship has remained an icon of modern naval power beyond it’s time in active duty. These ships were characterized by their heavy armor and large arsenal. These characteristics made them the most popular type of warship from the late 19th century to the second world war. However, the battleship’s lack of cost efficiency and the introduction of new types of watercraft being used in naval warfare led to its slow retirement. Many navy officers were reluctant to abandon the battleship since it would change the command structure and the daily routine of enlisted sailors within the navy. Also, since there was no immediate war to fight after World War Two the quick replacement of the battleship was not yet needed. The battleship stayed in use …show more content…
As time went on the nature of warfare changed, so naval technology changed along with it. Until World War Two naval warfare consisted of direct combat between two ships. This meant that a ship had to have defenses strong enough to withstand a naval battle while being equipped with the enough firepower to punch through an enemy ship’s defenses. In the article The Battleship Is Dead; Long Live the Battleship. HMS Dreadnought and the Limits of Technological Innovation from the Mariner’s Mirror, it describes the adaptation of the arsenal of the British HMS Dreadnought to better suit new ship …show more content…
Aircraft carriers and submarines no longer fought the traditional ship-versus-ship warfare. The aircraft carrier employed the use of planes that could attack enemy land based troops without the carrier being in the reach of land based artillery. Battleships were also susceptible to aircraft attack since the powerful arsenal of the ship was rendered useless in aircraft-versus-watercraft warfare. In a similar way, submarine torpedo strikes were a threat to battleships since there was little warning and the weaponry of the ship was nullified against an unseen target. As aircraft carriers and submarines saw more active duty during World War Two it forced the battleship into fighting more battles that it was not developed for. The powerful offensive and defensive technology of the battleship was developed to fight other battleships which became an uncommon occurrence in naval warfare. This meant that the battleship was no longer a rational choice for the navy to keep in use, causing it to be removed from active duty over
The Trident Submarine houses twenty-four nuclear warheads with each having a range of 4,600 miles over land. If a nuclear war were to break out between the Soviet Union and the United States, virtually every major city could be destroyed in a matter of hours. The origin of these major players in modern day warfare lies in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
...now to all the different components that must be brought together to form even one ship; the mass resources, up to two hundred men, extensive time in training- it is no surprise that naval warfare proves to be an extremely expensive and therefore risky endeavor (Hale 2009).
...hought it was interesting learning the various ways people had fought out in the sea, including the ways the young officers would eventually end up becoming the only Five-Star Fleet Admirals. In the book The Admirals the officers (Nimetz, King, Halsey, Leahy) prove that men should not be ranked on their skills or technology alone, but on both areas in a synchronized manner to overcome obstacles and rise above all other elements that stand in the way. The ships that the men grew fond of had become an inspiration to keep moving forward and succeed when it came to the battlefield. This thought would later become the thought that America has adopted to move forward when it comes to technology and build upon what has been learned. Anything from the structure of sea vessels to the artillery it carried did not only aid in war, but it aided in a country that could progress.
Roosevelt had been influencing the United States Navy to be stronger ever since he wrote The Naval War of 1812, while he was at Harvard. Theodore Roosevelt’s book puts the war in a whole new perspective. Roosevelt with the help of Captain Alfred T. Mahan and Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce identified that their common ground was that America had great power in her deep ocean waters and needed to use it. Those oceans needed a capable water fleet to operate them (The Naval Strategist). In 1890 Congress approved the building of the first modern steam-powered, steel-hulled ships. Out came the most excellent warships anywhere; they were named the Indiana, the Massachusetts, and the Oregon. Roosevelt was impressed with these ships, but he wanted more. Roosevelt wanted a two-ocean navy capable of attacking the Pacific and the Atlantic simultaneously (Grondahl 2015 246). Congress agreed and Roosevelt got what he wanted. Mahan and Roosevelt campaigned to strengthen the navy through their speeches and writings. The Navy was slow, bulky, short-haul monitors guarding the home shores and swift, light cruisers that shot out of protected ports to attack enemy ships. Theodore and Mahan’s writings and speeches changed that part of the Navy for the better (Grondahl 2015 246-247). Theodore changed the Navy several ways and not all by
The technological advances since WW1 introduced such things as the atomic bomb and new and improved sea and air warfare. The atom bomb was a big part of WW2 as people could be killed from a bomb from a long distance. This bomb also covered a long area killing more people and people of the area bombed could still be feeling the effects in the form of cancer. New air warfare such as fighter jets were introduced in WW2. These planes carried deadly bombs and could take out a large number of people. New sea warfare was introduced, such ships as the corvette were popular, and the corvette was mostly used for shipping ammunition to Europe from North America. Also, submarines proved deadly as they were out of radar and carried deadly bombs such as the torpedo.
...hich wooden ships were beginning to be unable to handle. 18 and 24-pounder guns were replaced with 32-pounder guns, and because of the power of the stem-propelled ironclads, 68-pounders were made use of.
...mbers which carried out the attacks to decisively finish the first three Japanese aircraft carriers showed excellent economy of force. Although the Americans had thrown around a hundred aircraft at the Japanese fleet, no major hits had been recorded. These last remaining aircraft were well synchronized in order to provide the hits resulting in the thorough destruction of the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet. Offensive of a fighting force means having the initiative to attack the enemy forces and seize what you want. In this battle both forces displayed great amounts of initiative. The battle consisted of sending out multiple waves of aircraft in order to seek and destroy enemy aircraft fleets. Admiral Nagumo of the Japanese Carrier Group one was unable to display initiative to attack the American fleet which had been spotted while his aircraft were returning to base.
The U.S. Navy nurtured into a challenging power in the years previous to World War II, with battleship construction being revived in 1937, commencing with the USS North Carolina . It was able to add to its fleets throughout the early years of the war when the US was still not involved, growing production of vessels both large and small. In a conflict that had a number of amphibious landings, naval superiority was important in both Europe and the Pacific. The mutual resource...
The Civil War consisted of many legendary battles over the soil of the United and Confederate States of America, which will be retold for generations in history books. Although these land battles were indeed great, the concept of this paper will be the Naval warfare of the Civil War, paying certain attention to the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac.
On December 7th 1941, Japanese Planes and submarines attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This event singlehandedly brought the U.S from its then neutral stance in World War Two to a fighting member of the “Allied Powers.” Pearl Harbor was the first of a long series of confrontations between the U.S and the Japanese in an effort to gain control of the Pacific. Unlike the “War in Europe” the Pacific strategy was dominated by naval and aerial battles, with the occasional land-based “Island Hopping” Campaign. As such, one of the most important factors in the war in the pacific was Fleet Size, the more ships a country could send to war, the better. Pearl Harbor was the Japanese’s way of trying to deal with the massive U.S Pacific fleet. However, Pearl Harbor was not the turning point of the war. After December 7th the United States began work on numerous technological developments which would ultimately help them in one of the most important battles of WWII, the largest naval confrontation of the war, The Battle of Midway. The battle, which took place from June 4th to June 7th , 1942 is widely considered the turning point of the Pacific Theater (James & Wells). Through the Post-Pearl Harbor desire for “Revenge” and various technological advantages including code breaking and radar, the U.S were able to outsmart the Japanese at Midway and ultimately win the battle, eventually leading to a victory in the Pacific.
The book begins right in the midst of the clean up effort in Pearl Harbor; Admiral Chester Nimitz was sent immediately after the bombs fell to take command of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz would obtain control of the Pacific fleet for the entirety of the novel. He contributed many key decisions that would lead to an American victory. On the opposing side Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku would lead his feared task force against the American fleet. A large advantage dealing with the way the tasks forces operated is revealed early in the book and would prove vital in the battle. Throughout the book it was made obvious that air craft carriers where essential for victory. When attaching an American Fleet or land based asset the Japanese combined all their carriers in a task force called The Kido Butai. While this task force h...
The defeat of the Spanish Armada also demonstrated the strength of the English navy and their new techniques of warfare such as effective long-range weapons: previous to this battle, naval battles often consisted of boarding the enemy's ship and engaging in man-to-man combat. Due to the manouvrability of the English ships they were able to effectively use long-range weapons.
In the spring of 1942 the U.S. Navy and Japanese Imperial Fleet engaged in battle at sea on more than one occasion. The Battle of Coral Sea, however, was the first time that these too forces would engage one another at sea using only aircraft. This will be the first battle in history where ships from both sides would never see the other like most conventional naval battles; this one will be fought entirely by aircraft.
...” ((Spicer THE AGE OF SAIL 88). The demand for ships was just beginning when Troop became to build his fleet, as two were later acquired in the 1840s and a subsequent eight in the 1850s (Spicer THE AGE OF SAIL 90). These ships varied in size, caring anywhere from 300 tons to 1200 tons depending on their make. The Troops development helped to create and support the Golden Age of Shipbuilding as “the demand for ships [was] said to be greater than [had] ever been known to [the] builders” (Spicer THE AGE OF SAIL 91) of the time. The fleet was developing at a time where they could capitalize at the expense of others. One of the reasons for the high growth rates was the decline in the American fleet in the 1860s and 1870s and resulting in opportunities for Canadian vessels in American export trades (Sager and Fisher 27) as a result of the Crimean and American Civil wars.
Abrashoff begins the book by informing the reader of how his story begins; when he is given command of the USS Benfold. The Benfold was the Navy’s most advanced guided missile destroyer the Navy had in 1997 and its command was to be one of the Navy’s top innovators. Unfortunately, Abrashoff points out some flaws with the Navy’s personnel management that I found to be shocking. First, was that “nearly 35 percent of the people who joined the military annually, wouldn’t complete their enlistment contracts.” (p.2) Such turnover can be understood by many business managers in the service industry, but unlike the quick and cheap training process for them, the cost for the military (taxpayers) is astounding. Abrashoff estimates that it cost roughly “$35,000 to recruit a trainee and tens of thousands more in additional training costs to get new personnel to the basic level of proficiency.” (p.2) Curbing this trend on his own ship and eventually helping to achieve a decrease overall in the mil...