What does battleship mean. Iowa-class battleships - battleships for all battleships. What else to see

unique photo of four Iowa-class battleships together in one campaign, June 1954

Battleships type " Iowa” are considered the most advanced ships in the history of shipbuilding. It was during their creation that designers and engineers managed to achieve the maximum combination of all the main combat characteristics: weapons, speed and protection. Battleships of the Iowa type put an end to the development of the evolution of battleships. They can be considered an ideal project.

Here are the names of the legendary battleships: Iowa"(BB-61)," New Jersey"(BB-62)," Missouri" (BB-63) and " Wisconsin» (BB-64). Two more battleships , « Illinois" (BB-65) and " Kentucky» (BB-66) were not completed. Since by September 1939 the Americans had a clear advantage over the Japanese fleet in terms of the number of warships built, it was decided to experiment and build a high-speed battleship. But in the meantime, US intelligence suggested that construction of the third and fourth Yamato-class battleships had begun in Japan. According to them, the displacement of these warships is 46,000 tons, and the caliber of artillery is 406 mm (in fact, the data was different: 62,315 tons and 460 mm, respectively). The coming strengthening of the fleet of a potential enemy caused concern. Therefore, the General Council instructed the design department, in parallel with the development of a high-speed battleship, to consider its low-speed version.

battleship Iowa, August 1962

In April, three draft designs of a low-speed battleship were submitted to Admiral Hart for consideration. As a result, one of them is approved. Immediately after that, the production of working documentation - drawings - began. The decision to build the first two battleships of the new type was approved by Congress on May 17, 1939. Europe was already at war. Immediately after the surrender of France, the US Congress adopted a shipbuilding program that provided for the creation of a powerful fleet. She even had a name Two Ocean Navy Act", which means "Fleet of two oceans." Far from the last place in the program was occupied. Therefore, on September 9 of the same year, an order for two more ships of the type " Iowa': under the names ' Illinois" And " Kentucky". Production of battleships of the class " Iowa” was a rather difficult task, but the American industry coped with it quite easily. The laying of the lead ship took place on June 27, 1940, and on February 22, 1943, it already became part of the US Navy. The last pair of battleships, unfortunately, were not lucky, due to a change in priorities in the military-industrial complex, the construction of battleships was stopped.

see a good selection of historical photos and videos of the legendary battleship Iowa

On the ship " Iowa"At the end of 1943, US President Roosevelt went to Casablanca to escort the US Pacific Fleet's aircraft carrier formation.

After the war " Iowa"was placed in reserve, August 24, 1951 re-commissioned and was transferred to the US Atlantic Fleet.

In the spring of 1980, the US Congress decided to reopen battleships type " Iowa» (4 units). By that time, the "cold war" between the USSR and the "conditional enemy" had reached its climax. The United States took a course on a sharp increase in its fleet. "Rebirth", so you can call the return to life of the famous battleships. They retained sets of heavy artillery and armored belts with decks, in addition, they were equipped with strategic weapons - cruise missiles of the " Tomahawk» as well as anti-ship missiles and automated anti-aircraft artillery systems.

battleship "Iowa" photo

battleship Iowa fired a salvo

salvo of the battleship "Iowa"

battleship Iowa, 1988

battleship "Iowa" stern

On April 28, 1984, after a thorough modernization in New Orleans, the Iowa battleship re-enters service. However, in mid-April 1989, after the explosion of the powder compartment, which caused enormous damage to the central gun of the ship, it was put into reserve.

Battleship "Wisconsin” became on January 12, 1995 for permanent mooring in the port of Newport.

Battleships of this type participated in the Vietnam War, took part in Operation Desert Storm, as well as in the localization of the conflict in the Falkland Islands. They were repaired, modernized and put back into operation.

Battleship"Missouri" on May 4, 1998 was transferred to the US Navy Museum, which is located at the Pearl Harbor military base. Despite the age of 40, the battleships are quite well preserved, because they were operated for only about 13 years, and the rest of the time they were in reserve.

battleship Wisconsin, 1952

Naval historians agree that the first ship of the line (drawings and design by D. Baker) was built in England in 1514. It was a four-masted nave (high-sided wooden ship), equipped with two decks - covered gun decks.

From karakk and galleons

The linear tactics of sea battles began to be used by the fleets of European countries following the initiators of the innovation - England and Spain - at the beginning of the 17th century. Artillery duels replaced boarding duels. According to this strategy, the maximum damage to the enemy fleet was inflicted by ships lined up and conducting aimed volley fire with side guns. There was a need for ships that were maximally adapted to such battles. At first, large sailing ships - karakki - were rebuilt for these purposes. Equipped with decks for the installation of guns and cut holes in the sides - gun ports.

First battleships

The creation of ships capable of carrying powerful, functional artillery weapons required the revision and change of many established shipbuilding technologies, the creation of new calculation methods. So, for example, the flagship sailing ship of the line "Mary Rose", converted from a karakka, sank in 1545 in the naval battle of the Solent, not under the fire of enemy guns, but because of the flooding of incorrectly calculated gun ports by waves.

A new method for determining the level of the waterline and calculating the displacement, proposed by the Englishman E. Dean, made it possible to calculate the height of the lower ports (respectively, the gun deck) from the sea surface without launching the vessel. The first true cannon ships of the line were three-deck. The number of large-caliber guns installed grew. Created in 1637 at the shipyards of England, the "Lord of the Seas" was armed with a hundred guns and for a long time was considered the largest and most expensive warship. By the middle of the century, battleships had from 2 to 4 decks with 50 to 150 large-caliber guns placed on them. Further improvement was reduced to increasing the power of artillery and improving the seaworthiness of ships.

Designed by Peter I

In Russia, the first ship (of the line) was launched under Peter I, in the spring of 1700. The two-deck vessel "God's Omen" which became the flagship of the Azov Flotilla was armed with 58 guns cast at the factories of the industrialist Demidov, caliber 16 and 8 feet. The model of the battleship, which, according to the European classification, belongs to the ships of the 4th rank, was developed personally by the Russian emperor. Moreover, Peter took a direct active part in the construction of the Omen at the shipyards of the Voronezh Admiralty.

In connection with the threat of a Swedish naval invasion, according to the shipbuilding development program approved by the emperor, the composition of the Baltic Fleet in the next decade should be strengthened by battleships of the Azov flagship type. Full-scale construction of ships was launched in Novaya Ladoga, and by the middle of 1712 several fifty-gun battleships were launched - "Riga", "Vyborg", "Pernov" and the pride of the imperial fleet - "Poltava".

Instead of sails

The beginning of the 19th century was marked by a number of inventions that put an end to the glorious history of the military sailing fleet. Among them are a high-explosive fragmentation projectile (invented by the French artillery officer Henri-Joseph Peksant, 1819) and a ship's steam engine, first adapted for the rotation of a ship's lead screw by the American engineer R. Fulton in 1807. It was difficult for the wooden sides to resist the new type of shells. To increase the penetration resistance, the tree was covered with metal sheets. Since 1855, after mastering the mass production of a powerful marine steam engine, sailboats began to quickly lose ground. Some of them were converted - equipped with a power plant and lined with armored plating. Rotating machines began to be used as platforms for installing large-caliber guns, which made it possible to make the firing sector circular. The installations began to be protected by barbettes - armored caps, which later transformed into artillery towers.

Symbol of absolute power

By the end of the century, the power of steam engines had increased significantly, which made it possible to build much larger ships. An ordinary ship of the line of that time had a displacement of 9 to 16 thousand tons. Cruising speed reached 18 knots. The ship's hull, divided by bulkheads into hermetic compartments, was protected by armor no less than 200 mm thick (in the area of ​​the waterline). The artillery armament consisted of two turrets with four 305 mm guns.

The development of the rate of fire and range of naval artillery, the improvement of the technique of pointing guns and centralized fire control due to electric drives and radio communications made the military specialists of the leading maritime powers think about creating battleships of a new type. England built the first such ship in record time in 1906. Its name - HMC Dreadnought - has become a household name for all ships of this class.

Russian dreadnoughts

Naval officials made incorrect conclusions based on the results of the Russian-Japanese war, and the battleship Apostol Andrew the First-Called, laid down at the end of 1905, without taking into account the trends in the development of world shipbuilding, became obsolete even before launching.

Unfortunately, the design of subsequent Russian dreadnoughts cannot be called perfect. If in terms of the power and quality of artillery, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe armored surface, domestic ships were not inferior to English and German ships, then the thickness of the armor was clearly insufficient. The Sevastopol (linear) ship being created for the Baltic Fleet turned out to be fast, well-armed (12 305-caliber guns), but too vulnerable to enemy shells. Four ships of this class were launched in 1911, but became part of the Navy only during the First World War (1914).

The Black Sea battleships "Empress Maria" and "Catherine the Great" had even more powerful weapons and an improved system for attaching armor plates. The Emperor Nicholas I, which received 262-mm monolithic armor, could become the most advanced battleship, but the October Revolution did not allow the construction to be completed, and in 1928 the ship, renamed Democracy, was dismantled for metal.

The end of the battleship era

According to the Washington Agreement of 1922, the maximum displacement of battleships should not exceed 35,560 tons, and the caliber of guns should not exceed 406 mm. These conditions were met by the maritime powers until 1936, after which the struggle for military naval superiority resumed.

The bursting fire of the Second World War served as the beginning of the decline of battleships. The best battleships - the German Bismarck and Tirpitz, the American Prince of Wales, the Japanese Musashi and Yamato - despite powerful anti-aircraft weapons, were sunk by enemy aircraft, the strength of which increased every year. By the middle of the 20th century, the construction of battleships had ceased in almost all countries, and the rest were put into reserve. The only power to keep battleships in service until the end of the century was the United States.

A few facts

The legendary battleship Bismarck took just five salvos to destroy the pride of the British Navy, the battlecruiser HMS Hood. To sink a German ship, the British involved a squadron of 47 ships and 6 submarines. To achieve the result, 8 torpedoes and 2876 artillery shells were fired.

The largest ship of World War II - the ship of the line "Yamato" (Japan) - had a displacement of 70 thousand tons, an armor belt of 400 mm (frontal armor of the gun turrets - 650 mm, a conning tower - half a meter) and a main caliber of 460 mm.

As part of the "Project 23" in the 40s of the last century, three "Soviet Union" class super battleships were built in the USSR, in terms of technical characteristics they were slightly inferior to the Japanese "giant".

America's most famous Iowa-class battleships were last upgraded in 1980 with 32 Tomahawk ballistic missiles and modern electronic equipment. The last ship was put into reserve in 2012. Today, the US Naval Museums operate on all four ships.

Finished model length: 98 cm
Number of sheets: 33
Sheet format: A3

Description, history

Battleship(short for "battleship") (eng. battleship, fr. cuirass, German Schlachtschiff) - an armored artillery warship with a displacement of 20 to 64 thousand tons, a length of 150 to 263 m, armed with main caliber guns from 280 to 460 mm, with a crew of 1500-2800 people. It was used in the 20th century to destroy enemy ships as part of a combat formation and artillery support for ground operations. It was an evolutionary development of armadillos in the second half of the 19th century.

origin of name

Battleship - short for "battleship". So in Russia in 1907 they named a new type of ships in memory of the old wooden sailing battleships. Initially, it was assumed that the new ships would revive linear tactics, but this was soon abandoned.

The English analogue of this term - battleship (literally: warship) - also came from sailing ships of the line. In 1794, the term "line-of-battle ship" (ship of the battle line) was abbreviated as "battle ship". In the future, it was used in relation to any warship. Since the late 1880s, it has been most commonly applied unofficially to squadron battleships. In 1892, the reclassification of the British Navy called the word "battleship" a class of super-heavy ships, which included several especially heavy squadron ironclads.

But the real revolution in shipbuilding, which marked a truly new class of ships, was made by the construction of the Dreadnought, completed in 1906.

Dreadnoughts. "Only Big Guns"

The authorship of a new leap in the development of large artillery ships is attributed to the English Admiral Fisher. Back in 1899, commanding the Mediterranean squadron, he noted that firing with the main caliber can be carried out at a much greater distance if guided by splashes from falling shells. However, at the same time, it was necessary to unify all artillery in order to avoid confusion in determining the bursts of shells of the main caliber and medium-caliber artillery. Thus was born the concept of all-big-guns (only big guns), which formed the basis of a new type of ship. The effective firing range increased from 10-15 to 90-120 cables.

Other innovations that formed the basis of the new type of ships were centralized fire control from a single general ship post and the spread of electric drives, which accelerated the guidance of heavy guns. The guns themselves have also changed significantly, due to the transition to smokeless powder and new high-strength steels. Now only the lead ship could carry out sighting, and those following in the wake were guided by bursts of its shells. Thus, building in wake columns again allowed in Russia in 1907 to return the term battleship. In the USA, England and France, the term "battleship" was not revived, and new ships began to be called "battleship" or "cuirass?". In Russia, the "battleship" remained the official term, but in practice the abbreviation was established battleship.

The Russo-Japanese War finally established superiority in speed and long-range artillery as the main advantages in naval combat. There were talks about a new type of ships in all countries, in Italy Vittorio Cuniberti came up with the idea of ​​a new battleship, and in the USA the construction of ships of the Michigan type was planned, but the British managed to get ahead of everyone due to industrial superiority.

The first such ship was the English Dreadnought, whose name has become a household name for all ships of this class. The ship was built in record time, going on sea trials on September 2, 1906, a year and one day after the laying. A battleship with a displacement of 22,500 tons, thanks to the new type of power plant used for the first time on such a large ship, with a steam turbine, could reach speeds of up to 22 knots. On the Dreadnought, 10 305 mm caliber guns were installed (due to the haste, the two-gun turrets of the completed squadron battleships of 1904 were taken due to the haste), the second caliber was anti-mine - 24 76 mm caliber guns; medium caliber artillery was absent.

The appearance of the Dreadnought made all other large armored ships obsolete. This played into the hands of Germany, which began the construction of a large navy, because now it could immediately begin building new ships.

In Russia, after the Battle of Tsushima, they carefully studied the shipbuilding experience of other countries and immediately drew attention to a new type of ships. However, according to one point of view, the low level of the shipbuilding industry, and according to another, an incorrect assessment of the experience of the Russo-Japanese War (the requirement for the maximum possible booking area) led to the fact that new Gangut-class battleships received an insufficient level of protection that did not provide the required freedom of maneuver under fire from 11-12 inch guns. However, on subsequent ships of the Black Sea series, this drawback was eliminated.

Superdreadnoughts. "All or nothing"

The British did not stop there and, in response to the massive construction of dreadnoughts, responded with ships of the Orion type, armed with 343 mm caliber artillery and twice as heavy as the previous dreadnoughts, for which they were nicknamed "superdreadnoughts" and laid the foundation for the main artillery caliber race - 343 mm, 356 mm, ships of the Queen Elizabeth class were built during the First World War, equipped with eight 381 mm guns and set the standard for the power of new battleships.

Another important milestone in the evolution of battleships were American ships. After a series of ships with 12-inch guns, a pair of New York-class battleships were built with ten 14-inch guns in 2-gun turrets, followed by ships of the Nevada class, the evolution of which led to the creation of a whole series of ships, the so-called. n. "standard type" with a dozen 14-inch guns in 4-terminal towers, which formed the backbone of the American navy. They were characterized by a new type of armor scheme, according to the “all or nothing” principle, when the main systems of the ship were covered with armor of the maximum possible thickness, with the expectation that at long battle distances only direct hits from heavy armor-piercing shells could cause damage to the ship. In contrast to the previous "English" armor system for squadron battleships, on superdreadnoughts, the armor traverses were connected with the side belt and armored deck, forming one large unsinkable compartment (eng. "raft body"). The last ships of this direction belonged to the West Virginia type, had a displacement of 35 thousand tons, 8 16-inch (406 mm) guns (projectile weight 1018 kg) in 4 towers and were completed after the First World War, becoming the crown development of "superdreadnoughts".

Battle cruisers. "Another hypostasis of the battleship"

The high role of the speed of the new Japanese battleships in the defeat of the Russian squadron at Tsushima forced us to pay close attention to this factor. The new battleships not only received a new type of power plant - a steam turbine (and later also oil heating of the boilers, which made it possible to increase traction and abolish stokers) - but also relatives of a new, albeit close look - battlecruisers. The new ships were originally intended for reconnaissance in combat and the pursuit of heavy enemy ships, as well as the fight against cruisers, but a higher speed - up to 32 knots - had to be paid a considerable price: due to the weakening of the defense, the new ships could not fight with modern battleships . When progress in the field of power plants made it possible to combine high speed with powerful weapons and good protection, battlecruisers receded into history.

World War I

During World War I, the German "Hochseeflotte" - High Seas Fleet and the English "Grand Fleet" spent most of the time at their bases, since the strategic importance of the ships seemed too great to risk them in battle. The only combat clash of the fleets of battleships in this war (the Battle of Jutland) took place on May 31, 1916. The German fleet intended to lure the English fleet out of the bases and break it up in parts, but the British, having guessed the plan, put their entire fleet into the sea. Faced with superior forces, the Germans were forced to retreat, avoiding being trapped several times and losing several of their ships (11 to 14 of the British). However, after that, until the very end of the war, the High Seas Fleet was forced to remain off the coast of Germany.

In total, during the war, not a single battleship went to the bottom only from artillery fire, only three English battlecruisers died due to weak defenses during the battle of Jutland. The main damage (22 dead ships) to the battleships was caused by minefields and submarine torpedoes, anticipating the future importance of the submarine fleet.

Russian battleships did not participate in naval battles - in the Baltic they stood in the harbors, connected by a mine and torpedo threat, and on the Black Sea they had no worthy rivals, and their role was reduced to artillery bombardments. The battleship "Empress Maria" died in 1916 from an explosion of ammunition in the harbor of Sevastopol for an unknown reason.

Washington Maritime Agreement

The First World War did not put an end to the naval arms race, for America and Japan, who practically did not participate in the war, took the place of the European powers as owners of the largest fleets. After the construction of the newest superdreadnoughts of the Ise type, the Japanese finally believed in the possibilities of their shipbuilding industry and began to prepare their fleet to establish dominance in the region. These aspirations were reflected in the ambitious 8 + 8 program, which provided for the construction of 8 newest battleships and 8 equally powerful battlecruisers, with 410 mm and 460 mm guns. The first pair of Nagato-class ships had already gone ashore, two battlecruisers (with 5 × 2 × 410 mm) were on the stocks, when the Americans, concerned about this, adopted a response program for the construction of 10 new battleships and 6 battlecruisers, not counting smaller ships. England, devastated by the war, also did not want to lag behind and planned the construction of Nelson-class ships, although she could no longer maintain the “double standard”. However, such a burden on the budgets of the world powers was extremely undesirable in the post-war situation, and everyone was ready to make concessions in order to maintain the existing position.

On February 6, 1922, the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan concluded Washington Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Arms. The countries that signed the agreement retained the most modern ships at the time of signing (Japan managed to defend the Mutsu, which was actually being completed at the time of signing, while retaining the 410 mm main caliber somewhat exceeding the agreements), only England could build three ships with 406 mm main caliber guns ( since they didn’t have such ships, unlike Japan and the USA), which were under construction, including 18 "and 460 mm guns, were not completed as artillery ships (mostly converted into aircraft carriers). The standard displacement of any new warship was limited 35,560 tons, the maximum caliber of the guns was not to exceed 356 mm (subsequently increased, first to 381 mm, and then after Japan refused to renew the agreement, to 406 mm with an increase in displacement to 45,000 tons). participants, the total displacement of all warships was limited (533,000 tons for the USA and Great Britain, 320,000 tons for Yap onii and 178,000 tons for Italy and France).

At the conclusion of the agreement, England was guided by the characteristics of its Queen Elizabeth-class ships, which, with their R-class counterparts, formed the basis of the English fleet. In America, they proceeded from the data of the latest ships of the "standard type" of the West Virginia series. The most powerful ships of the Japanese fleet were the high-speed battleships of the Nagato type close to them.

The agreement established a "naval holiday" for a period of 10 years, when no large ships were laid down, an exception was made only for two English battleships of the Nelson class, which thus became the only ships built with all the restrictions. For this, the project had to be radically reworked, placing all three towers in the bow of the hull and sacrificing half of the power plant.

Japan considered itself the most disadvantaged side (although in the production of 460 mm guns they lagged significantly behind the ready-made and tested 18 "barrels of Britain and the United States - the latter's refusal to use them on new ships was in the hands of the land of the rising sun), which allocated a displacement limit of 3: 5 in favor of England or the USA (which, however, they eventually managed to revise at 3:4), according to the views of that time, did not allow counteracting the offensive actions of the latter.

In addition, the Japanese were forced to stop building the already laid down cruisers and battleships of the new program. However, in an effort to use the hulls, they converted them into aircraft carriers, hitherto unprecedented power. So did the Americans. Later, these ships will still have their say.

Battleships of the 30s. a swan song

The agreement lasted until 1936, and the British tried to convince everyone to limit the size of the new ships to 26 thousand tons of displacement and 305 mm of the main caliber. However, only the French agreed to this when building a pair of small battleships of the Dunkirk type, designed to counter the German pocket battleships of the Deutschland type, as well as the Germans themselves, who sought to somehow get out of the Versailles Peace, and agreed to such restrictions during the construction of ships of the Scharnhorst type, however, they did not keep their promises regarding displacement. After 1936, the naval arms race resumed, although formally the ships were still subject to the restrictions of the Washington Agreement. In 1940, already during the war, it was decided to raise the displacement limit to 45 thousand tons, although such a decision no longer played any role.

The ships became so expensive that the decision to build them became purely political and was often lobbied by industry to secure orders for heavy industry. The political leadership agreed to the construction of such ships, hoping to provide employment for workers in the shipbuilding and other industries during the years of the Great Depression and the subsequent economic recovery. In Germany and the USSR, considerations of prestige and propaganda also played a role when deciding to build battleships.

The military was in no hurry to abandon proven solutions and rely on aviation and submarines, believing that the use of the latest technological advances would allow new high-speed battleships to successfully perform their tasks in new conditions. The most noticeable novelties on the battleships were the gearbox installations introduced on the ships of the Nelson type, which allowed the propellers to operate in the most favorable modes and made it possible to increase the power of one unit to 40-70 thousand hp. This made it possible to raise the speed of the new battleships to 27-30 knots and merge them with the class of battlecruisers.

To counter the ever-increasing underwater threat, the size of anti-torpedo protection zones on ships increased more and more. To protect against projectiles coming from afar, therefore, at a large angle, as well as from aerial bombs, the thickness of the armored decks (up to 160-200mm), which received a spaced structure, was increasingly increased. The widespread use of electric welding made it possible to make the structure not only more durable, but also gave significant savings in weight. Anti-mine caliber artillery moved from the side sponsons to the towers, where it had large angles of fire. The number of anti-aircraft artillery, which received separate guidance posts, was constantly increasing.

All ships were equipped with airborne reconnaissance seaplanes with catapults, and in the second half of the 30s, the British began to install the first radars on their ships.

The military also had at its disposal a lot of ships from the end of the “superdreadnought” era, which were being upgraded to meet the new requirements. They received new machine installations to replace the old ones, more powerful and compact. However, their speed did not increase at the same time, and often even fell, due to the fact that the ships received large side fittings in the underwater part - boules - designed to improve resistance to underwater explosions. The main caliber towers received new, enlarged embrasures, which made it possible to increase the firing range, for example, the firing range of the 15-inch guns of the Queen Elizabeth ships increased from 116 to 160 cable guns.

In Japan, under the influence of Admiral Yamamoto, in the fight against their main supposed enemy - the United States - they relied on a general battle of all naval forces, due to the impossibility of a long confrontation with the United States. The main role in this was assigned to new battleships, which were supposed to replace the unbuilt ships of the 8 + 8 program. Moreover, back in the late 1920s, it was decided that within the framework of the Washington Agreement it would not be possible to create sufficiently powerful ships that would have superiority over the American ones. Therefore, the Japanese decided to ignore the restrictions by building ships of the highest possible power, dubbed the "Yamato type". The largest ships in the world (64,000 tons) were equipped with record-breaking 460 mm caliber guns that fired 1,460 kg shells. The thickness of the side belt reached 410 mm, however, the value of the armor was reduced by its lower quality compared to European and American [ source not specified 126 days] . The huge size and cost of the ships led to the fact that only two were completed - the Yamato and Musashi.

In Europe, over the next few years, ships such as Bismarck (Germany, 2 units), Prince of Wales (Great Britain, 5 units), Littorio (Italy, 3 units), Richelieu (France, 2 units). Formally, they were bound by the limitations of the Washington Agreement, but in reality all the ships exceeded the contractual limit (38-42 thousand tons), especially the German ones. The French ships were actually enlarged versions of the small Dunkirk-class battleships and were of interest because they had only two turrets, both in the bow of the ship, thus losing the ability to shoot directly at the stern. But the towers were 4-gun, and the dead angle in the stern was rather small.

In the United States, when building new ships, a requirement was made for a maximum width of 32.8 m so that the ships could pass through the Panama Canal, which was owned by the United States. If for the first ships of the type "North Caroline" and "South Dakota" this did not yet play a big role, then for the last ships of the "Iowa" type, which had an increased displacement, it was necessary to use elongated, pear-shaped in plan, hull shapes. Also, the American ships were distinguished by heavy-duty guns of 406 mm caliber with shells weighing 1225 kg, which is why six ships of the first two series had to sacrifice side armor (310 mm) and speed (27 knots). On four ships of the third series (“Iowa type”, due to the larger displacement, the shortcomings were partially corrected: armor 330 mm (although officially, for the purposes of the propaganda campaign, 457 mm was announced), speed 33 knots.

IN The USSR began construction of battleships of the "Soviet Union" type (project 23). Not being bound by the Washington Agreement, the Soviet Union had complete freedom in choosing the parameters of new ships, but was bound by the low level of its own shipbuilding industry. Because of this, the ships in the project turned out to be significantly larger than comparable Western counterparts, and the power plant had to be ordered in Switzerland. But in general, the ships should have been one of the strongest in the world. It was supposed to build even 15 ships, however, this was more of a propaganda action, only four were laid down. I. V. Stalin was a big fan of large ships, and therefore the construction was carried out under his personal control. However, since 1940, when it became finally clear that the upcoming war would not be against the Anglo-Saxon (sea) powers, but against Germany (that is, predominantly land), the pace of construction dropped sharply. However, by the beginning of the war, the cost of battleships, Project 23, exceeded 600 million rubles. (Plus, at least 70-80 million rubles were spent on R&D in 1936-1939 alone). After June 22, 1941, in accordance with the resolutions of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of July 8, 10 and 19, all work on the creation of battleships and heavy cruisers was suspended, and their hulls were mothballed. It is interesting to note that in the version of the 1941 plan compiled by N. G. Kuznetsov (in 1940) in case of the outbreak of war, it was envisaged “to completely stop the construction of battleships and cruisers in all theaters except the White Sea, where to leave the completion of one LC for development building heavy ships of the future. At the time of the termination of construction, the technical readiness of ships in Leningrad, Nikolaev and Molotovsk was 21.19%, 17.5% and 5.04%, respectively (according to other sources - 5.28%), the readiness of the very first "Soviet Union" exceeded 30% .

The Second World War. The sunset of the battleships

The Second World War was the decline of battleships, as new weapons were established at sea, the range of which was an order of magnitude greater than the longest-range guns of battleships - aviation, deck and coastal. Classical artillery duels are a thing of the past, and most of the battleships died not from artillery fire at all, but from air and underwater actions. The only case of an aircraft carrier sinking by a battleship was caused rather by errors in the actions of the latter's command.

So, when trying to break into the North Atlantic to conduct a raider operation, the German battleship Bismarck entered into battle on May 24, 1941 with the English battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood and severely damaged the first, and also sank the second of them. However, already on May 26, returning with damage from an interrupted operation to French Brest, he was attacked by Swordfish carrier-based torpedo bombers from the Ark Royal aircraft carrier, as a result of two torpedo hits, he lowered his speed and the next day was overtaken and sunk by English battleships " Rodney" and "King George V" (King George Fife) and several cruisers after an 88-minute battle.

December 7, 1941 Japanese aircraft from six aircraft carriers attacked the base of the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor harbor, sinking 4 and heavily damaging 4 other battleships, as well as several other ships. On December 10, Japanese coastal aircraft sank the English battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse. Battleships began to be armed with an increasing number of anti-aircraft guns, but this did little to help against the growing strength of aviation. The best defense against enemy aircraft was the presence of an aircraft carrier, which thus acquired a leading role in naval warfare.

English battleships of the Queen Elizabeth type, operating in the Mediterranean, became victims of German submarines and Italian submarine saboteurs.

Their rivals, the newest Italian ships Littorio and Vittorio Veneto, met them only once in battle, limiting themselves to long-range firefights and did not dare to pursue their obsolete opponents. All hostilities were reduced to skirmishes with cruisers and aircraft of the British. In 1943, after the capitulation of Italy, they went to Malta to surrender to the British, along with the third, who did not fight, "Roma". The Germans, who did not forgive them for this, attacked the squadron, and the Roma was sunk by the latest weapon - the X-1 radio-controlled bomb; other ships were also damaged by these bombs.

At the final stage of the war, the functions of the battleships were reduced to artillery bombardment of the coasts and the protection of aircraft carriers. The largest battleships in the world, the Japanese "Yamato" and "Musashi" were sunk by aircraft without engaging in battle with American ships.

However, battleships still continued to be a serious political factor. The concentration of German heavy ships in the Norwegian Sea gave British Prime Minister Winston Churchill a reason to withdraw British warships from the region, which led to the defeat of the PQ-17 convoy and the Allies' refusal to send new cargo. Although at the same time the German battleship Tirpitz, which so frightened the British, was recalled by the Germans, who did not see the point in risking a large ship with successful submarine and aircraft operations. Hidden in the Norwegian fjords and protected by ground-based anti-aircraft guns, it was significantly damaged by British mini-submarines, and was later sunk by super-heavy Tollboy bombs from British bombers.

Operating with the Tirpitz Scharnhorst in 1943 met with the English battleship Duke of York, the heavy cruiser Norfolk, the light cruiser Jamaica and destroyers and was sunk. The Gneisenau of the same type during the breakthrough from Brest to Norway across the English Channel (Operation Cerberus) was heavily damaged by British aircraft (partial explosion of ammunition) and did not go out of repair until the end of the war.

The last battle in naval history directly between battleships took place on the night of October 25, 1944 in the Surigao Strait, when 6 American battleships attacked and sank the Japanese Fuso and Yamashiro. The American battleships anchored across the strait and fired broadside salvos with all their main battery guns along the radar bearing. The Japanese, who did not have shipborne radars, could only fire from bow guns almost at random, focusing on the muzzle flashes of the American guns.

In the face of changed circumstances, projects to build even larger battleships (the American "Montana" and the Japanese "Super Yamato") were canceled. The last battleship to enter service was the British Vanguard (1946), laid down before the war, but completed only after it ended.

The impasse in the development of battleships was shown by the German projects H42 and H44, according to which a ship with a displacement of 120-140 thousand tons was supposed to have 508 mm artillery and 330 mm deck armor. The deck, which had a much larger area than the armored belt, could not be protected against aerial bombs without excessive weighting; the decks of existing battleships were pierced by bombs of 500 and even 250 kg caliber.

After World War II

As a result of the Second World War, in connection with the entry into the first roles of carrier-based and coastal aviation, as well as submarines, battleships, as a type of warships, were considered obsolete. Only in the Soviet Union for some time there were developments of new battleships. The reasons for this are called different: from Stalin's personal ambitions to the desire to have a reliable means of delivering nuclear weapons to the coastal cities of potential opponents (there were no ship-based missiles then, there were no aircraft carriers in the USSR and large-caliber guns could be a very real alternative to solve this problem). One way or another, but in the USSR, not one of the ships was even laid down. The last battleships were withdrawn from service (in the USA) in the nineties of the XX century.

After the war, most of the battleships were scrapped by 1960 - they were too expensive for war-weary economies and no longer had their former military value. Aircraft carriers and, a little later, nuclear submarines took on the role of the main carrier of nuclear weapons.

Only the United States used its last battleships (of the New Jersey type) several times more for artillery support of ground operations (due to the relative cheapness of shelling the coast with heavy shells in areas compared to air strikes). Before the Korean War, all four Iowa-class battleships were recommissioned. In Vietnam, "New Jersey" was used.

Under President Reagan, these ships were decommissioned and recommissioned. They were called upon to become the core of new strike ship groups, for which they were re-equipped and became capable of carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles (8 4-charge containers) and Harpoon-type anti-ship missiles (32 missiles). "New Jersey" participated in the shelling of Lebanon in 1983-1984, and "Missouri" and "Wisconsin" fired the main caliber at ground targets during the first Gulf War in 1991. The shelling of Iraqi positions and stationary objects with the main caliber of battleships during of the same efficiency turned out to be much cheaper than a rocket one. The well-protected and spacious battleships also proved to be effective as headquarters ships. However, the high costs of re-equipping old battleships (300-500 million dollars each) and the high cost of maintaining them led to the fact that all four ships were re-withdrawn from service in the nineties of the XX century. The New Jersey was sent to the Naval Museum in Camden, the Missouri became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, the Iowa was decommissioned and is permanently moored in Newport, and the Wisconsin is maintained in conservation class "B" at the Norfolk Maritime Museum. Nevertheless, the combat service of the battleships can be resumed, since during the conservation, the legislators especially insisted on maintaining the combat readiness of at least two of the four battleships.

Although now battleships are not in the combat composition of the fleets of the world, their ideological successor is called “arsenal ships”, carriers of a large number of cruise missiles, which should become a kind of floating missile depots located near the coast for launching missile strikes on it if necessary. There are talks about the creation of such ships in American maritime circles, but to date, not a single such ship has been built.

• While Japan introduced a regime of extreme secrecy during the construction of Yamato and Musashi, trying in every possible way to hide the true combat qualities of its ships, the United States, on the contrary, carried out a disinformation campaign, significantly overestimating the security of its newest Iowa battleships. Instead of the real 330 mm of the main belt, 457 mm were announced. Thus, the enemy was much more afraid of these ships and was forced to take the wrong path both in planning the use of their own battleships and in ordering weapons.

• The overestimation of the armor parameters of the first British battlecruisers of the "Indyfetigable" type in order to intimidate the Germans played a cruel joke on the British and their allies. Having real protection in the armor belt of 100-152 mm and in the turrets of the main caliber of 178 mm, on paper these ships had 203 mm of side protection and 254 mm of turret protection. Such armor was completely unsuitable against 11- and 12-inch German shells. But, partly believing in their own deception, the British tried to actively use their battlecruisers against the German dreadnoughts. In the Battle of Jutland, two battlecruisers of this type ("Indivetigable" and "Invincible") were literally sunk by the very first hits. The shells pierced the thin armor and caused detonation of ammunition on both ships.

Overstating the parameters of the armor deceived not only the German enemies, but also the Australian and New Zealand allies, who paid for the construction of the deliberately unsuccessful ships of this type, Australia and New Zealand.

SHIPS OF THE LINE

Until the middle of the 17th century, there was no strictly established battle formation for ships in battle. Before the battle, the enemy ships lined up against each other in close formation, and then approached for a shootout or boarding battle. Usually the battle turned into a chaotic scuffle, duels between ships that accidentally collided.

Many naval battles of the 16th-17th centuries were won with the help of fireships - sailing ships, stuffed to capacity with explosives or representing giant torches. Launched downwind towards the crowded ships, the fireships easily found their victims, setting everything on fire and exploding in their path. Even large, well-armed ships often went to the bottom, overtaken by "sailing torpedoes."

The wake system turned out to be the most effective means of protection against fireships, when the ships line up one after the other and can freely maneuver.

The unwritten tactical commandment of that time was: each ship occupies a strictly assigned position and must maintain it until the end of the battle. However (as always happens when theory begins to conflict with practice), it often happened that poorly armed ships had to fight huge floating fortresses. “The battle line should consist of ships of equal strength and speed,” the naval strategists decided. This is how battleships appeared. Then, during the first Anglo-Dutch war (1652 - 1654), the division of military courts into classes began.

The battleship Prince Royal, built in Woolwich by the outstanding English shipbuilder Phineas Pett in 1610, is usually called the prototype of the first battleship by historians of naval art.

Rice. 41 England's first battleship Prince Royal

The Prince Royal was a very strong three-deck ship with a displacement of 1400 tons, a keel of 35 m and a width of 13 m. The ship was armed with 64 guns located along the sides, on two closed decks. Three masts and a bowsprit carried straight sails. The bow and stern of the ship were outlandishly decorated with sculptural images and inlays, on which the best masters of England worked. Suffice it to say that the wood carving cost the English Admiralty £441, and the gilding of the allegorical figures and coats of arms - £868, which was 1/5 of the cost of building the entire ship! Now it seems absurd and paradoxical, but in those distant times, gilded idols and idols were considered necessary to raise the morale of sailors.

By the end of the 17th century, a certain canon of the battleship was finally formed, a certain standard, from which they tried not to deviate at shipyards throughout Europe until the end of the period of wooden shipbuilding. The practical requirements were as follows:

1. The length of a battleship along the keel must be three times the width, and the width must be three times the draft (maximum draft should not exceed five meters).

2. Heavy stern superstructures, as they impair maneuverability, should be reduced to a minimum.

3. On large ships, it is necessary to build three solid decks, so that the lower one is 0.6 m above the waterline (then, even in heavy seas, the lower battery of guns was combat-ready).

4. The decks must be solid, not interrupted by cabin bulkheads - subject to this condition, the ship's strength increased significantly.

Following the canon, the same Phineas Pett in 1637 launched the Royal Sovern from the stocks - a ship of the line with a displacement of about 2 thousand tons. Its main dimensions are: length along the battery deck - 53 (along the keel - 42.7); width - 15.3; hold depth - 6.1 m. On the lower and middle decks, the ship had 30 guns each, on the upper deck - 26 guns; in addition, 14 guns were installed under the forecastle and 12 under the poop.

There is no doubt that the Royal Sovern was the most luxurious ship in the history of English shipbuilding. Many carved gilded allegorical figures, heraldic signs, royal monograms dotted its sides. The figurehead depicted the English King Edward. His Majesty was sitting on a horse that tramples the seven lords - the defeated enemies of "foggy Albion" with its hooves. The stern balconies of the ship were crowned with gilded figures of Neptune, Jupiter, Hercules and Jason. The architectural decorations of the "Royal Soverne" were made according to the sketches of the famous Van Dyck.

This ship participated in many battles without losing a single battle. By a strange whim of fate, one accidentally fallen candle decided his fate: in 1696, the flagship of the English fleet burned down. At one time, the Dutch called this giant the "Golden Devil". Until now, the British joke that the Royal Sovern cost Charles I his head (to ensure the implementation of the maritime program, the king increased taxes, which led to discontent among the country's population, and as a result of the coup, Charles I was executed).

Cardinal Richelieu is considered to be the creator of the military linear fleet of France. By his order, the huge ship "Saint Louis" was built - in 1626 in Holland; and ten years later - "Kuron".

In 1653, the British Admiralty by a special decree divided the ships of its navy into 6 ranks: I - more than 90 guns; II - more than 80 guns; III - more than 50 guns. Rank IV included ships with more than 38 guns; to rank V - more than 18 guns; to VI - more than 6 guns.

Was there any point in classifying warships so scrupulously? Was. By this time, gunsmiths had established the production of powerful guns by industrial methods, moreover, of a uniform caliber. It became possible to streamline the ship economy according to the principle of combat power. Moreover, such a division by rank determined both the number of decks and the size of the ships themselves.

Rice. 42 Russian two-decker ship of the line of the late 18th century (from an engraving of 1789)

Rice. 43 French three-decker ship of the line of the mid-18th century

Until the middle of the last century, all maritime powers adhered to the old classification, according to which sailing ships of the first three ranks were called battleships.