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The Battleships Portal
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. As they were largest, best-armed and most heavily armored ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a nation's naval power from the late nineteenth century until World War II. With the rise of air power, notably aircraft carriers, battleships were no longer able to establish naval superiority, and so all have been withdrawn from active service. The related battlecruiser, a successor to the armored cruiser, shared the very large main armament, general size, and cost of a battleship of the same generation, but they traded armor or firepower for higher speed. Battleship design evolved to incorporate and adapt technological advances to maintain an edge. The word battleship was coined around 1794 as a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail. It came into formal use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship, but these are now referred to as "pre-dreadnoughts". In 1906, the launch of HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design. Following designs that were influenced by this ship were referred to as "dreadnoughts". Battlecruisers were developed around this time by the British First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher. They were envisioned as being more effective armored cruisers, able to destroy any normal cruiser while being able to run away from any ships capable of sinking them. By 1910, so-called "super-dreadnoughts" were entering service. In the four years between Dreadnought and the first super-dreadnoughts, the Orion class, displacement had increased by 25% and weight of broadside had doubled. No battleships or battlecruisers were built between the early 1920s and the late 1930s due to various treaties, but quite a few of the former were constructed shortly before or during World War II; the last, HMS Vanguard, was commissioned just after the war, in 1946. From this time on, most battleships and all battlecruisers were decommissioned and broken up. France's Jean Bart and Turkey's Yavuz were the last to be scrapped. However, members of the American Iowa class lasted until 2006 to aid troops with fire support; four were deployed in Korea, one in Vietnam, and two to Iraq. Nine battleships exist today as museum ships, eight from the United States and Japan's Mikasa. (more...)
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Selected article![]() SMS Radetzky was the lead ship of the three Radetzky class of pre-dreadnought battleships (Schlachtschiff) of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (K.u.K. Kriegsmarine), named for the 19th century Austrian Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. Radetzky and her sisters, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and Zrinyi, were the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy—they were followed by the larger and significantly more powerful Tegetthoff class dreadnoughts. Radetzky was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico in Trieste and commissioned into the fleet on 15 January 1911. The ship conducted training cruises in the Mediterranean Sea before the outbreak of World War I in mid-1914. During the war, Radetzky operated largely as a fleet in being alongside her two sisters and the four Tegetthoffs; in doing so, the ships tied down considerable naval forces from the Triple Entente. Radetzky did participate in some offensive operations, primarily shore bombardments in the Adriatic Sea against French, Montenegrin, and Italian targets. With the war going against the Austro-Hungarians by the end of 1918, Radetzky was prepared to be transferred to Yugoslavia. On November 10, 1918—just one day before the end of the war—Yugoslav navy officers sailed the old battleship out of Pola and eventually surrendered to a squadron of American submarine chasers. In the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the transfer was not recognized; instead, Radetzky was given to Italy and broken up for scrap. edit
Selected biography![]() Fleet Admiral William Frederick "Bull" Halsey, Jr. (October 30, 1882 – August 16, 1959) was an officer of the United States Navy Known for his role in the naval battles against against Japan during World War II. Descended from Rufus King, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1904 to serve on several battleships and torpedo boats. Skipping the rank of Lieutenant (junior grade), he would command the Atlantic Fleet's Torpedo Flotilla, and later earned the Navy Cross commanding USS Shaw during World War I. After commanding USS Dale and two destroyer units, he would become a naval aviator in order to command the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. Earning his flag, he would command several carrier units. At sea in his flagship USS Enterprise during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Halsey would embark on the Pacific War, but missed the Battle of Midway due to health issues. He would take command of the South Pacific Area at a critical time in the Guadalcanal Campaign, and lead it through the remainder of the Solomon Islands campaign. He would then move on to command the 3rd Fleet for the Philippines Campaign, including the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Baited into moving Task Force 34 northward, he left an American task force unprotected for the Battle off Samar, resulting in the infamous "the world wonders" message from Admiral Nimitz. After enduring Typhoon Cobra and watching the Surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri, Halsey retired from active duty in March 1947. USS Halsey (DLG-23) and USS Halsey (DDG-97) would be named for him, and the airfield at Naval Air Station North Island would be dedicated in his name. edit
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Selected picture![]() A launch rescues a seaman from the burning USS West Virginia (BB-48) after the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December, 1941. Smoke rolling out amidships shows where the most extensive damage occurred, the ship having sustained several torpedo and bomb hits, as well as fire damage from nearby USS Arizona. Doris Miller would famously become the first African American Navy Cross recipient for his role in the battle. Though damaged enough to settle on the bottom of the harbor, the West Virginia was repaired, refloated, and sent to fight in the Pacific Theater of World War II. edit
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Derfflinger class battlecruisers • Iowa class battleships
Amagi class battlecruiser • Armament of the Iowa class battleship • Battleship • Brazilian battleship Minas Geraes • Derfflinger class battlecruiser • Design 1047 battlecruiser • Dreadnought • HMS Royal Oak (08) • Helgoland class battleship • Iowa class battleship • Kaiser class battleship • König class battleship • Moltke class battlecruiser • Montana class battleship • Nassau class battleship • North Carolina class battleship • Pre-dreadnought battleship • SMS Derfflinger • SMS Hindenburg • SMS Lützow • SMS Moltke (1910) • SMS Seydlitz • SMS Von der Tann • USS Connecticut (BB-18) • USS Illinois (BB-65) • USS Iowa (BB-61) • USS Iowa turret explosion • USS Kentucky (BB-66) • USS Missouri (BB-63) • USS Nevada (BB-36) • USS New Jersey (BB-62) • USS Wisconsin (BB-64) • Yamato class battleship
List of battlecruisers of Germany
Invincible class battlecruisers • Yamato class battleships
ARA Rivadavia • Brandenburg class battleship • Braunschweig class battleship • Brazilian battleship São Paulo • Colorado class battleship • Delaware class battleship • Ersatz Yorck class battlecruiser • Habsburg class battleship • HMS Indefatigable (1909) • HMS Indomitable (1907) • HMS Inflexible (1907) • HMS Invincible (1907) • Imperator Aleksandr II class battleship • Indefatigable class battlecruiser • Invincible class battlecruiser • Iron Duke class battleship • Italian battleship Roma (1940) • Mackensen class battlecruiser • O class battlecruiser • Radetzky class battleship • Russian battleship Dvenadsat Apostolov • Russian battleship Slava • Scharnhorst class battleship • SMS Bayern (1915) • SMS Helgoland • SMS Radetzky • SMS Szent István • SMS Weißenburg • South Dakota class battleship (1939) • Sovetsky Soyuz class battleship • Stalingrad class battlecruiser • United States Battleship Division Nine (World War I) • USS Massachusetts (BB-59) • USS Missouri grounding incident
Bayern class battleship • Design A-150 battleship • Dutch 1913 battleship proposal • Florida class battleship • HMS Lion (1910) • Japanese battleship Haruna • Japanese battleship Musashi • Japanese battleship Yamato • Lexington class battlecruiser • SMS Goeben • SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm • SMS Nassau • SMS König • Tosa class battleship • USS Texas (BB-35) edit
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