Sunken battleships are the wrecks of large capital ships built from the 1880s to the mid-20th century that were either destroyed in battle, mined, deliberately destroyed in a weapons test, or scuttled. The battleship, as the might of a nation personified in a warship, played a vital role in the prestige, diplomacy, and military strategies of 20th century nations. The importance placed on battleships also meant massive arms races between the great powers of the 20th century such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, United States, France, Italy, Russia, and the Soviet Union.
The term "battleship" first entered common parlance to describe certain types of ironclad warships in the 1880s,[1] now referred to as pre-dreadnoughts. The commissioning and putting to sea of HMS Dreadnought, in part inspired by the results of the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905,[2] marked the dawn of a new era in naval warfare and defining an entire generation of warships: the battleships. This first generation, known as the "Dreadnoughts", came to be built in rapid succession in Europe, the Americas, and Japan with ever more tension growing between the major naval powers. However, despite the enormous sums of money and resources dedicated to the construction and maintenance of the increasing number of battleships in the world, they typically saw little combat. With the exception of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War and Jutland, which would be one of the last large-scale battles between capital ships,[3] no decisive naval battles between battleships were fought. When the First World War ended in 1918, much of the German High Seas Fleet was escorted to Scapa Flow, where almost all of the fleet was scuttled to prevent its being divided amongst the victorious Allies. Numerous other battleships were scuttled for similar reasoning.
Between the wars, the Washington Naval Treaty and the subsequent London Naval Treaty limited the tonnage and firepower of capital ships permitted to the navies of the world. The United Kingdom and the United States scrapped many of their aging dreadnoughts, while the Japanese began converting battlecruisers into fast battleships in the 1930s. In 1936, Italy and Japan refused to sign the Second London Naval Treaty and withdrew from the earlier treaties, prompting the United States and the United Kingdom to invoke an escalator clause in the treaty that allowed them to increase the displacement and armament of planned ships. The naval combat of World War II saw many battleships belonging to the various nations destroyed as air power began to be realized as being crucial to naval warfare, rather than massive capital ships. As the battleship began to fall out of favor, some captured capital ships were decommissioned, stripped, and deliberately sunk in nuclear weapons tests.
Losses
Much like battlecruisers, battleships typically sank with large loss of life if and when they were destroyed in battle. The first battleship to be sunk by gunfire alone,[4] the Russian battleship Oslyabya, sank with half of her crew at the Battle of Tsushima when the ship was pummeled by a seemingly endless stream of Japanese shells striking the ship repeatedly, killing crew with direct hits to several guns, the conning tower, and the water line or below it, which became the cause of the ship's sinking.[5][6] Battleships also proved to be very vulnerable to mines, as was evidenced in the Russo-Japanese War and both World Wars. After the Battle of Port Arthur,[7] a number of Russian and Japanese vessels were struck by mines and either sank or were scuttled to prevent their capture. A decade later, the Marine Nationale and Royal Navy lost three battleships, HMS Irresistible, HMS Ocean, and Bouvet, to Turkish mines in the waters of the Dardanelles. Torpedoes were also very capable of sinking battleships. On 21 November 1944, USS Sealion sank Kongō with over 1200 casualties.[8]HMS Barham was struck by three torpedoes fired from German submarine U-331.[a]Barham could not make an attempt to dodge the incoming torpedoes and sank with 862 fatalities as a result of several magazine explosions that occurred after she had initially been hit by U-331's torpedoes.[11]
Although mines and torpedoes constantly threatened the battleship's dominance, it was the refinement of aerial technology and tactics that led to the replacement of the battleship with the aircraft carrier as the most important naval vessel. Initially, the large scale use of aircraft in naval combat was underrated and the idea that they could destroy battleships was dismissed. Still, the United States and the Japanese Empire experimented with offensive roles for aircraft carriers in their fleets.[12] One pioneer of aviation in a naval role was US Army General Billy Mitchell, who commandeered SMS Ostfriesland for testing of his theory in July 1921. Though these tests did not impress his contemporaries, they forced the US Navy to begin diverting some of its budget towards researching the matter further.[13] The belief that the aircraft carrier was junior to the battleship began to evaporate when the Imperial Japanese Navy, in a surprise attack, nearly destroyed the United States Pacific Fleet while it was at anchor at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.[14] The captain of the Bismarck, Ernst Lindemann, had almost dodged the Royal Navy until he was undone by British reconnaissance aircraft. Although almost every sea battle in World War II involved gunfire between surface warships to some degree, their time as the senior ship of a nation's fleet had run its course.[15]
Bismarck was found in great condition. She sank after being heavily bombarded by British ships. Bismarck sank stern first in her plunge to the ocean floor. Her bridge and stern ripped away as she spiraled downwards, and as she settled on the side of an extinct underwater volcano, the down blast from all the water she displaced hit her and caused her to slide down the volcano on a water avalanche of sorts. Soon a mud slide occurred due to the shifting of the soil caused by the massive ship and it began to carry her down. She finally settled upright under 4,791 meters (15,719 ft) of water. She slid half a mile.[80]
Heavily damaged as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor. After being struck off the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1942, Arizona was found to be in such terrible condition that she could not be made serviceable again even after salvaging.[89]Arizona's surviving superstructure was removed in 1942, followed by her main armament over the next year and a half.[90]
Utah capsized during the attack, and was partially salvaged but not recovered.[95]Utah's wreck is almost completely submerged, with a small amount of highly corroded superstructure visible above the surface.[94]
In 1972, a memorial consisting of a 70 ft (21 m) walkway from nearby Ford Island that terminates in a platform with a flagpole and a plaque.[96] Other relics of the Utah are preserved at the Utah State Capitol and are regularly on display.[97]
Due to salvaging efforts that ceased in the 1990s,[206] the only major piece of the wreckage that remains is a 35-meter (115 ft) stretch of the hull from the bridge to turret No. 1 at a depth of about 12 meters (39 ft).[207]
^Pobeda, like Poltava, was sunk by Japanese artillery at the Siege of Port Arthur on 7 December 1904,[24] but was refloated by the Japanese and given the name Suwo, and also refitted.[25]
^McLaughlin gives a death toll of 470 men,[27] while Campbell gives 514.[6] Neither Forczyk nor McLaughlin give numbers for the amount of sailors rescued,[4] but Campbell states that 385 men were saved by Russian destroyers.[6]
^Originally, Triumph was built for the Chilean Navy and christened Libertad, or Liberty.[43]
^Ranges for casualties aboard the Tirpitz range wildly. William Garzke and Robert Dulin place fatalities at "about 950";[129] Siegfried Breyer and Erich Gröner give a sum of 1204 deaths;[130][131] Niklas Zetterling and Michael Tamelander estimated nearly 1000 fatalities;[132] and John Sweetman gives 1000 out of a crew of 1900 as lost with the Tirpitz.[133]
^The ship launched as Peresvet and was scuttled by the Russian Empire at the Siege of Port Arthur on 7 December 1904, but was raised and put to sea again by the Japanese and christened the Sagami.[185] The Japanese then sold the ship back to the Russians, who gave her the name Chesma.[186]
^The number of casualties that resulted from the explosion of the Kawachi are high, they are disputed amongst the sources provided. Hans Lengerer's journal Battleships Kawachi and Settsu says that 600 men died,[191] and Sander Kingsepp tacks on an additional 18 fatalities.[192]Gardiner and Gray and Jentschura, Jung and Mickel, however, agree on a figure of 700 killed.[193][194]
^Sometime in mid-1918, Prince George was renamed Victoria II,[196] after her sister ship HMS Victorious,[46] but her name reverted to Prince George in February 1919.[46]
^The Alonso XIII was renamed the España,[199] the name of her sister ship, which had foundered in 1923,[198] after the unpopular king of Spain had been exiled.[199]
^Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya was laid down as Ekaterina II, but this was only a formality.[220] Later, she was renamed Svobodnaya Rossiya (Russian: Free Russia) by February Revolutionists.[221]
^USS Texas was renamed the San Marcos 15 February 1911 to free the name for USS Texas.[245]
^Formerly Russian battleship Imperator Nikolai I and was renamed Iki on 6 June 1905.[250]
^On 30 April 1919, the Iowa was renamed Coast Battleship No. 4 to free her name for one of the six new South Dakota-class battleships,[259] which would be abandoned.
^After being raised and put into Japanese service, the former Russian Retvizan was renamed the Hizen.[265]
^After being captured by the Japanese, the former Russian Oryol was given the name Iwami.[267]
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