Ships of the 2nd World War. Warships of World War II

Second World War became the golden age of battleships. The powers that claimed dominance at sea, in the pre-war years and the first few war years, laid on the stocks several dozen giant armored ships with powerful main-caliber guns. As the practice of the combat use of “steel monsters” has shown, battleships acted very effectively against formations of enemy warships, even being in the numerical minority, capable of terrifying convoys from cargo ships, but they can practically oppose nothing to aircraft that, with several hits of torpedoes and bombs, can let multi-ton giants to the bottom. During the Second World War, the Germans and Japanese preferred not to risk battleships, keeping them away from the main naval battles, throwing them into battle only at critical moments, using them very inefficiently. In turn, the Americans mainly used battleships to cover aircraft carrier groups and amphibious landings in the Pacific Ocean. Meet the ten biggest battleships of World War II.

10. Richelieu, France

Battleship "Richelieu" of the same class, has a weight of 47,500 tons and a length of 247 meters, eight guns of the main caliber of 380 mm caliber placed in two towers. The ships of this class were created by the French to counter the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean. The ship was launched in 1939 and was adopted by the French Navy a year later. The Richelieu did not actually take part in the Second World War, except for a collision with a British aircraft carrier group in 1941, during an American operation against Vichy forces in Africa. In the post-war period, the battleship was involved in the war in Indochina, covering naval convoys and supporting French troops with fire during landing operations. The battleship was withdrawn from the fleet and decommissioned in 1967.

9. Jean Bar, France

The French battleship "Jean Bar", class "Richelieu", was launched in 1940, but by the beginning of the Second World War, it was never put into the fleet. At the time of the German attack on France, the ship was 75% ready (only one main battery turret was installed), the battleship was able to get from Europe to the Moroccan port of Casablanca under its own power. Despite the absence of part of the weapons, the Jean Bar managed to take part in the hostilities on the side of the Axis countries, repelling the attacks of the US-British forces during the Allied landing in Morocco. After several hits by the main caliber guns of American battleships and aerial bombs, the ship sank on November 10, 1942. In 1944, "Jean Bar" was raised and sent to the shipyards for repairs and rearmament. The ship became part of the French Navy only in 1949, never took part in any military operation. In 1961, the battleship was withdrawn from the fleet and sent for scrap.

8. Tirpitz, Germany

The German battleship Tirpitz of the Bismarck class, launched in 1939 and put into service in 1940, had a displacement of 40,153 tons and a length of 251 meters. Eight main guns with a caliber of 380 millimeters were placed in four towers. Vessels of this class were intended for raider operations against the enemy merchant fleet. During the Second World War, after the loss of the battleship Bismarck, the German command preferred not to use heavy ships in the maritime theater of operations, in order to avoid their loss. Tirpitz spent most of the war in the fortified Norwegian fjords, taking part in only three operations to intercept convoys and support landings on the islands. The battleship sank on November 14, 1944 during a raid by British bombers, after being hit by three aerial bombs.

7. Bismarck, Germany

The battleship Bismarck, commissioned in 1940, is the only ship on this list to take part in a truly epic naval battle. For three days, the Bismarck, in the North Sea and the Atlantic, stood alone against almost the entire British fleet. The battleship was able to sink the pride of the British fleet, the cruiser Hood, in battle, and seriously damaged several ships. After numerous hits by shells and torpedoes, the battleship went under water on May 27, 1941.

6. Wisconsin, USA

The American battleship "Wisconsin", class "Iowa", with a displacement of 55,710 tons, has a length of 270 meters, on board, which has three turrets with nine 406 mm main battery guns. The ship was launched in 1943 and entered service in 1944. In 1991, the ship was withdrawn from the fleet, but remained in the US Navy reserve until 2006, becoming the last battleship in the US Navy reserve. During World War II, the ship was used to escort aircraft carrier groups, support amphibious operations, and bombard the coastal fortifications of the Japanese army. In the post-war period, he participated in the Persian Gulf War.

5. New Jersey, USA

The Iowa-class battleship New Jersey was launched in 1942 and entered service in 1943. The ship went through several major upgrades, and was eventually decommissioned from the fleet in 1991. During the Second World War, it was used to escort aircraft carrier groups, but did not really participate in any serious naval battle. For the next 46 years, she participated in the Korean, Vietnamese and Libyan wars as a support ship.

4. Missouri, USA

The Iowa-class battleship Missouri was launched in 1944 and commissioned into the Pacific Fleet the same year. The ship was withdrawn from the fleet in 1992, and turned into a floating museum ship, which is now available for anyone to visit. During the Second World War, the battleship was used to escort aircraft carrier groups and support amphibious landings, and did not participate in any serious naval battle. It was on board the Missouri that the Japanese surrender pact was signed, which put an end to World War II. In the post-war period, the battleship participated in only one major military operation, namely the Gulf War, during which the Missouri provided fire support to the multinational forces from the sea.

3. Iowa, USA

The Iowa battleship, class of the same name, was launched in 1942 and was put into service a year later, fought on all oceanic fronts of World War II. At first, he patrolled the northern latitudes of the US Atlantic coast, after which he was transferred to the Pacific Ocean, where he covered aircraft carrier groups, supported landing forces, attacked enemy coastal fortifications, and participated in several naval operations to intercept strike groups of the Japanese fleet. During the Korean War, she provided artillery fire support for ground forces from the sea. In 1990, the Iowa was decommissioned and turned into a museum ship.

2. Yamato, Japan

The pride of the Japanese Imperial Navy, the Yamato battleship had a length of 247 meters, weighed 47,500 tons, had three turrets with 9 460 mm main caliber guns on board. The ship was launched in 1939, but was ready to go to sea on a military campaign only in 1942. For the entire duration of the war, the battleship took part in only three real battles, of which only in one was it able to fire on enemy ships from main battery guns. Yamato was sunk on 7 April 1945 by enemy aircraft after being hit by 13 torpedoes and 13 bombs. Today, the Yamato-class ships are considered the largest battleships in the world.

1. Musashi, Japan

"Musashi" is the younger brother of the battleship "Yamato", has similar specifications and weapons. The ship was launched in 1940, was put into service in 1942, but was ready to go on a military campaign only in 1943. The battleship participated in only one serious naval battle, trying to prevent the Allies from landing troops in the Philippines. On October 24, 1944, after a 16-hour battle, Musashi sank in the Sibuyan Sea, after being hit by several torpedoes and aerial bombs. Musashi, along with her brother Yamato, is considered the largest battleship in the world.

By the end of World War II, the class of high-speed battleships had reached the limit in its development, combining the destructive power and security of dreadnoughts with the high speed of battlecruisers, these types of naval weapons performed many amazing feats under the flags of all warring states.

It is not possible to compile any "rating" of the battleships of those years - four favorites claim the first place at once, and each of them has the most serious reasons for this. As for the other places on the honorary pedestal, it is generally impossible to make any conscious choice here. Only individual tastes and subjective preferences. Each battleship is distinguished by its unique design, chronicle of combat use and, often, the history of a tragic death.

Each of them was created for its specific tasks and conditions of service, for a specific enemy and in accordance with the chosen concept of using the fleet.

Different theaters of operations dictated different rules: inland seas or the open ocean, the proximity or, conversely, the extreme remoteness of the bases. Classic squadron battles with the same monsters or a bloody mess with repelling endless air attacks and shelling fortifications on the enemy coast.

Ships cannot be considered in isolation from the geopolitical situation, the state of the scientific, industrial and financial spheres of states - all this left a considerable imprint on their design.

A direct comparison between any Italian "Littorio" and the American "North Caroline" is completely out of the question.

Nevertheless, the contenders for the title of the best battleship are visible to the naked eye. These are Bismarck, Tirpitz, Iowa and Yamato - ships that even those who have never been interested in the fleet have heard of.

Life According to Sun Tzu

... Her Majesty's battleships Anson and Duke of York, aircraft carriers Victorias, Furies, escort aircraft carriers Sicher, Empire, Passuer, Fancer, cruisers Belfast, Bellona , Royalist, Sheffield, Jamaica, destroyers Javelin, Virago, Meteor, Swift, Vigilent, Wakeful, Onslot ... - a total of about 20 units under the British , Canadian and Polish flags, as well as 2 naval tankers and 13 carrier-based aviation squadrons.

Only in this composition in April 1944 did the British dare to approach the Alta Fjord - where, under the gloomy vaults of the Norwegian rocks, the pride of the Kriegsmarine, the Tirpitz super-battleship, rusted.
The results of the Wolfram operation are estimated as controversial - carrier-based aircraft managed to bomb the German base and cause serious damage to the battleship's superstructures. However, the next Pearl Harbor did not work out - the British could not inflict mortal wounds on the Tirpitz.

The Germans lost 123 men killed, but the battleship still posed a threat to shipping in the North Atlantic. The main problems were delivered not so much by numerous bomb hits and fires on the upper deck, but by newly opened leaks in the underwater part of the hull - the result of a previous British attack using mini-submarines.

... In total, during the stay in Norwegian waters, the Tirpitz withstood dozens of air strikes - in total, during the war years, about 700 British and Soviet aviation! In vain.

Hiding behind an anti-torpedo net, the ship was invulnerable to Allied torpedo weapons. At the same time, aerial bombs proved ineffective against such a well-defended target; it was possible to smash the armored citadel of the battleship for an infinitely long time, but the destruction of the superstructures could not critically affect the combat capability of the Tirpitz.

Meanwhile, the Britons stubbornly rushed to the parking lot of the Teutonic beast: mini-submarines and man-torpedoes; deck and strategic air raids. Informant agents from the locals, regular surveillance of the base from the air ...

"Tirpitz" became a unique embodiment of the ideas of the ancient Chinese commander and thinker Sun Tzu ("The Art of War") - without firing a single shot at enemy ships, he fettered all the actions of the British in the North Atlantic for three years!

One of the most effective warships of the Second World War, the invincible Tirpitz turned into an ominous scarecrow for the British Admiralty: the planning of any operation began with the question “What to do if
Will the Tirpitz leave her anchorage and go out to sea?

It was the Tirpitz that scared away the escort of the PQ-17 convoy. All battleships and aircraft carriers of the metropolitan fleet in the Arctic latitudes hunted him. The boat K-21 fired at him. For his sake, the Lancasters from the Royal Air Force settled at the Yagodny airfield near Arkhangelsk. But everything turned out to be useless. The British were able to destroy the super-battleship only towards the end of the war with the help of the monstrous 5-ton Tallboy bombs.

Tallboy ("Big Boy")

The impressive success of the Tirpitz battleship is the legacy left over from the legendary Bismarck, a battleship of the same type, a meeting with which forever instilled fear in the hearts of the British: a funeral column of flame froze before their eyes, shooting up over the British battlecruiser HMS Hood. During the battle in the Danish Strait, the gloomy Teutonic Knight took only five volleys to deal with the British "gentleman".

"Bismarck" and "Prinz Eugen" in a military campaign

And then came the hour of reckoning. The Bismarck was chased by a squadron of 47 ships and 6 submarines of Her Majesty. After the battle, the British calculated: in order to sink the beast, they had to fire 8 torpedoes and 2876 shells of the main, medium and universal caliber!

What a tough guy!

Hieroglyph "fidelity". Yamato-class battleships

There are three useless things in the world: the Great Pyramid of Cheops, the Great Wall of China and the battleship "Yamato" ... Really?

This is what happened to the battleships Yamato and Musashi: they were undeservedly slandered. Around them there was a stable image of "losers", useless "wanderwaffles" who shamefully died at the first meeting with the enemy.

But the facts are:

The ships were designed and built on time, managed to make war, and finally accepted a heroic death in the face of numerically superior enemy forces.

What else is required of them?

Bright victories? Alas, in the situation in which Japan was in the period 1944-45, even the sea king Poseidon himself could hardly have acted better than the battleships Musashi and Yamato.

Disadvantages of super battleships?

Yes, first of all, weak air defense - neither the monstrous fireworks "Sansiki 3" (anti-aircraft shells of 460 mm caliber), nor hundreds of small-caliber magazine-fed machine guns could replace modern anti-aircraft guns and control systems with fire adjustment according to radar data.

Weak PTZ?
I beg of you! "Musashi" and "Yamato" died after 10-11 hits by torpedoes - no battleship on the planet could withstand so much (for comparison, the probability of the death of the American "Iowa" from being hit by six torpedoes, according to the calculations of the Americans themselves, was estimated at 90%) .

Otherwise, the battleship "Yamato" corresponded to the phrase "most, most"

The largest battleship in history and, concurrently, the largest warship that took part in World War II.
70 thousand tons of full displacement.
The main caliber is 460 mm.
Armored belt - 40 centimeters of solid metal.
The walls of the conning tower - half a meter of armor.
The thickness of the frontal part of the GK tower is even greater - 65 centimeters of steel protection.

A grand spectacle!

The main miscalculation of the Japanese is the veil of extreme secrecy that shrouded everything that was connected with the battleships of the Yamato type. To date, there are only a few photographs of these monsters - mostly taken from American aircraft.

It was worth being proud of such ships and seriously frightening the enemy with them - after all, until the last moment the Yankees were sure that they were dealing with ordinary battleships, with 406 mm guns.

With a competent PR policy, the very news of the existence of the battleships Yamato and Musashi could cause panic fear among the commanders of the US Navy and their allies - just as happened with the Tirpitz. The Yankees would rush to build similar ships with half a meter of armor and guns of 460 or even 508 mm caliber - in general, it would be fun. The strategic effect of Japanese super-battleships could be much greater.

Museum "Yamato" in Kure. The Japanese cherish the memory of their "Varyag"

How did the leviathans die?

Musashi sailed all day in the Sibuyan Sea under heavy attacks from aircraft from five American aircraft carriers. He walked all day, and in the evening he died, having received, according to various estimates, 11-19 torpedoes and 10-17 air bombs ...
What do you think, were the security and combat stability of the Japanese battleship great? And who of his peers could repeat this?

"Yamato"... death from above was his destiny. Traces of torpedoes, the sky is black from aircraft ...
Speaking frankly, the Yamato made an honorable seppuku, leaving as part of a small squadron against eight aircraft carriers of the 58th task force. The result is predictable - two hundred aircraft tore apart the battleship and its few escorts in two hours.

The era of high technology. Iowa-class battleships

What if?
What if, instead of the Yamato, a battleship identical to the American Iowa had come out towards the 58th operational formation of Admiral Mitscher? What if the Japanese industry could create air defense systems similar to those on US Navy ships at the time?

How would the battle between the battleship and the American aircraft carriers end if the Japanese sailors had systems similar to the Mk.37, Ford Mk.I Gunfire Control Computer, SK, SK-2, SP, SR, Mk.14, Mk.51, Mk.53 …?

Behind the dry indices hide masterpieces of technological progress - analog computers and automatic fire control systems, radars, radio altimeters and shells with a radar fuse - thanks to all these "chips", the Iowa anti-aircraft fire was at least five times more accurate and effective than the shots of Japanese anti-aircraft gunners .

And if you take into account the terrifying rate of fire of the Mk.12 anti-aircraft guns, the extremely effective 40 mm Bofors and Oerlikon belt-fed assault rifles ... There is a considerable chance that the American air attack could choke in blood, and the damaged neo-Yamato could hobble to Okinawa and run aground, turning into an invincible artillery battery (according to the Ten-Ichi-Go operation plan).

Everything could be ... alas, "Yamato" went to the seabed, and an impressive set of anti-aircraft weapons became the prerogative of the American "Iows".

It is absolutely impossible to come to terms with the idea that the best ship is again with the Americans. USA haters will instantly find a dozen reasons why the Iowa cannot be considered the most advanced battleship.

The Iowas are severely criticized for the lack of a medium caliber (150 ... 155 mm) - unlike any German, Japanese, French or Italian battleships, American ships were forced to fight off enemy destroyer attacks only with universal anti-aircraft guns (5 inches, 127 mm).

Also, among the shortcomings of "Iowa" are the lack of reloading compartments in the towers of the Civil Code, the worst seaworthiness and "surfacing on the wave" (compared to the same British "Vanguard"), the relative weakness of their PTZ in front of the Japanese "long lances", "muhlezh" with declared maximum speed (on a measured mile, the battleships could hardly accelerate to 31 knots - instead of the declared 33!).

But perhaps the most serious of all accusations - the weakness of the reservation compared to any of their peers - the Iowa's traverse bulkheads raise a lot of questions.

Of course, the defenders of American shipbuilding will now go off steam, proving that all the listed shortcomings of the Iowa are just an illusion, the ship was designed for a specific situation and ideally suited the conditions of the Pacific theater of operations.

The absence of a medium caliber became an advantage for American battleships: universal five-inch guns were enough to deal with surface and air targets - it made no sense to take on board 150 mm guns as a "ballast". And the presence of "advanced" fire control systems finally leveled the factor of the absence of a "medium caliber".

Reproaches for poor seaworthiness are a purely subjective opinion: the Iowa has always been considered an extremely stable artillery platform. As for the strong “overwhelming” of the bow of the battleship in stormy weather, this myth was already born in our time. Modern sailors were surprised by the habits of an armored monster: instead of swaying calmly on the waves, the heavy Iowa cut the waves like a knife.

The increased wear of the main gun barrels is explained by very heavy projectiles (which is not bad) - the Mk.8 armor-piercing projectile weighing 1225 kg was the heaviest ammunition of its caliber in the world.

The Iowa had no problems with the assortment of shells at all: the ship had a whole range of armor-piercing and high-explosive ammunition and charges of various capacities; after the war, "cassette" Mk.144 and Mk.146 appeared, stuffed with explosive grenades in the amount of 400 and, accordingly, 666 pieces. A little later, a special Mk.23 munition was developed with a 1 kt nuclear warhead.

As for the “shortage” of the design speed per measured mile, the Iowa tests were carried out with a limited power plant power - just like that, without a good reason, to boost the cars to the design 254,000 hp. the thrifty Yankees refused.

The overall impression of the "Iowa" can only be spoiled by their relatively low security ... however, this disadvantage is more than compensated by the many other advantages of the battleship.

The Iowas have more service than all the other WWII battleships combined - World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, Iraq ... Battleships of this type survived everyone - the modernization of the mid-1980s made it possible to extend the service life of veterans until the beginning of the 21st century - the battleships lost parts artillery weapons, in exchange for receiving 32 Tomahawk SLCMs, 16 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Sea Sparrow air defense systems, modern radars and Phalanx melee systems.

Off the coast of Iraq

However, the physical deterioration of the mechanisms and the end of the Cold War played an important role in the fate of the most famous American battleships - all four monsters left the US Navy ahead of schedule and turned into large naval museums.

Well, the favorites are determined. Now it's time to mention a number of other armored monsters - after all, each of them is worthy of its portion of surprise and admiration.

Here, for example, "Jean Bart" - one of two built battleships of the type "Richelieu". An elegant French ship with a unique silhouette: two four-gun turrets in the bow, a stylish superstructure, a famously curved chimney...

Richelieu-class battleships are considered one of the most advanced ships in their class: having a displacement of 5-10 thousand tons less than any Bismarck or Littorio, the French were practically not inferior to them in terms of armament power, and in terms of " security "- the scheme and thickness of the reservation" Richelieu "was even better than many of his larger peers. And all this was successfully combined with a speed of more than 30 knots - the "Frenchman" was the fastest of the European battleships!

The unusual fate of these battleships: the flight of unfinished ships from the shipyard to avoid capture by the Germans, the naval battle with the British and American fleets in Casablanca and Dakar, repairs in the United States, and then a long happy service under the flag of France until the second half of the 1960s.

And here is a magnificent trinity from the Apennine Peninsula - Italian battleships of the Littorio type.

These ships are usually the object of harsh criticism, but if you apply an integrated approach when evaluating them, it turns out that the Littorio battleships are not so bad compared to their British or German peers, as is commonly believed.

The project was based on the ingenious concept of the Italian fleet - to hell with great autonomy and fuel supply! - Italy is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, all the bases are nearby.
The saved load reserve was spent on armor and weapons. As a result, "Littorio" had 9 main battery guns in three rotating turrets - more than any of their European "colleagues".

"Roma"

The noble silhouette, high-quality contours, good seaworthiness and high speed are in the best traditions of the Italian school of shipbuilding.

Ingenious anti-torpedo protection based on the calculations of Umberto Pugliese.

At a minimum, the spaced booking scheme deserves attention. In general, in everything related to booking, Littorio-class battleships deserve the highest ratings.

And for the rest...
Otherwise, the Italian battleships turned out to be bad - it still remains a mystery why the Italians fired their guns so crookedly - despite excellent armor penetration, 15-inch Italian shells had surprisingly low accuracy and accuracy of fire. Reforcing gun barrels? Quality of manufacture of liners and shells? Or maybe the national characteristics of the Italian character affected?

In any case, the main problem with the Littorio-class battleships was their mediocre use. The Italian sailors never managed to enter into a general battle with Her Majesty's fleet. Instead, the lead "Litttorio" was sunk right at its anchorage, during a British raid on the Taranto naval base (cheerful slobs were too lazy to pull the anti-torpedo net).

The Vittorio Veneto raid against British convoys in the Mediterranean ended no better - the battered ship could barely return to base.

In general, nothing good came of the idea with the Italian battleships. The brightest and most tragic battleship Roma completed its battle path, disappearing in a deafening explosion of its own artillery cellars - the result of a well-aimed hit by the German Fritz-X guided bomb (air bombs? It’s hard to say. The 1360-kilogram Fritz-X ammunition was a little like regular bomb).

Epilogue.

Battleships were different. Among them were formidable and effective. There were no less formidable, but ineffective. But every time, the fact that the enemy had such ships gave the opposite side a lot of trouble and anxiety.
Battleships always remain battleships. Powerful and destructive ships with the highest combat stability.

Small ones had a displacement of 250-550 tons. Their armament consisted of two to four torpedo tubes, one 45-105-mm gun, and one or two machine guns. The boats could dive to a depth of 80-90 m, and their autonomy was 10-20 days. Small boats operated mainly on coastal sea lanes.

Medium submarines, like, had a displacement of 500-1000 tons. They were armed with 6-8 torpedo tubes, one or two 45-105-mm guns, an anti-aircraft gun, and machine guns. The immersion depth reached 100 m, autonomy - 20-30 days. The full speed on the surface under the diesels was 14-17 knots, and under water, when the electric motors were running, up to 10 knots. Their cruising range was estimated at 3000-5000 miles. The famous German submarine of the VII series could go 6100 miles.

The Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from having a submarine fleet. This explains such a small number of boats in her. But the Germans, of course, did not forget about the impressive results of the actions of their submariners in the First World War. They sank 5861 ships with a total tonnage of 13.2 million tons, which was 22 times the effect of the actions of the German cruisers.

Not passing until the mid-30s. to the open construction of submarines, the Germans did not stop work on improving the types of weapons and mechanisms with which they intended to equip their boats in the future. Traceless torpedoes, effective hydroacoustic equipment are being created, and engines are being improved. A cadre of submarine officers and underwater shipbuilding specialists is being trained. The new one will be in demand soon.

The development of means to combat magnetic mines was helped by the British in one case. Due to an inaccuracy made by German pilots when dropping mines, two of them ended up on the shallows at low tide and then fell into the hands of British engineers. The secret of mines was revealed, and the British managed to find a method of sweeping magnetic mines and find enough effective method ship degaussing. Therefore, they already felt relatively more confident on the high seas.

From the magnetic mines exposed by the Germans in the Baltic and in the Sevastopol Bay, the Soviet fleet suffered its first losses in June 1941. Mines were placed from aircraft, surface ships and submarines.

Civilian ships and boats were involved in anti-submarine defense and patrol service - mobilized according to the laws of war. In Germany, paramilitary fishing boats were specially built, which were used as patrol boats and hunters for submarines. They were armed with anti-aircraft guns and depth charges. Many of them were equipped with hydroacoustic equipment.

The escort service of the destroyers, which solved the tasks of not only anti-submarine, but also air defense, demanded that the main artillery of these ships be made universal, capable of firing not only at sea, but also at air targets. During the course of the war, the British fleet began to replenish with a series of Zambezi-class destroyers equipped with four 114-mm universal guns. Most of the American destroyers were also armed with universal main battery artillery (127 mm). The new German destroyers designed during the war also had twin universal 128-mm guns.

The lead destroyer "Ognevoy" of the new project 30, equipped with more advanced equipment, became part of the Soviet fleet only in 1945.

The displacement of destroyers is increased from 500-1000 to 1500-2500 tons. To launch an attack (lead) destroyers in the face of enemy fire as flagships, a special type (subclass) of these ships was included in the fleets - large destroyers, or leaders (table 6) . Unlike destroyers, the leaders were armed with a slightly larger number of guns, had an advantage in speed, and had a larger displacement. Separate types of leaders in terms of tactical and technical elements approached light cruisers. For example, the French leader "Mogador" in terms of firepower was not inferior to the Italian light cruiser "Attilio Regolo". Both ships had eight guns of 135-138 mm caliber. German large destroyers, laid down in 1938, had an almost "cruising" set of artillery (four 150-mm guns). The French destroyer "Fantask" developed a speed of up to 40 knots, and the Soviet leader "Leningrad" - up to 42 knots.

Under enemy cannon fire, the cruisers usually retained sufficient survivability. Ships damaged by artillery often perished as a result of the very first attacks by aircraft and submarines. The loss of speed made the wrecked ship easy prey.

As a rule, aircraft of various tactical purposes (fighters, bombers, torpedo bombers, anti-submarine aircraft) were based on aircraft carriers.

An important problem was to ensure the combat survivability of aircraft carriers. After all, these ships have become targets of priority strikes for the enemy. Therefore, shipbuilders paid great attention to the means of protecting aircraft carriers from fires and explosions as a result of the impact of bombs, torpedoes, shells and mines, as well as equipping them with powerful anti-aircraft artillery. Carrier-based fighter aircraft were used as active defense. Aircraft carriers occupy the first place among the destroyed and damaged large warships.

A real aircraft carrier was a ship that had a special flight deck, which allowed aircraft to take off and land without contact with the surface of the water. The first such aircraft carrier was the British Argus, originally built as a passenger liner. It entered the fleet in 1918. Its displacement was 14450 tons, and 15 aircraft were placed on board. In England, it was designed and built as an aircraft carrier (1922) "Hermes", also carrying 15 aircraft.

Nevertheless, the traditional importance of battleships as the most powerful warships was still taken into account in operational plans and reports, and influenced naval strategy. The notification of the appearance of an enemy battleship in any area added to the worries and anxieties of the fleet headquarters. So, despite the fact that the German battleship Tirpitz actually used its impressive artillery only once during the entire war (shelling Svalbard), information about its location and movement in the ocean always attracted the attention of the British Admiralty, made significant adjustments to the plans for using naval forces and aviation.

Battleships

In the 1930s Japan, hatching plans for an imminent collision with the United States, secretly conceived to create three of the most powerful battleships that would inspire fear in all maritime powers. The development of these superships was entrusted to the Imperial Naval Technical Committee "Kampon".

In just two and a half years of work, the indefatigable Kampon submitted 22 (!) Project options for a new type of battleship for consideration.

In March 1937, the project of the ship was approved, and already in November, the lead ship of a series of Japanese dreadnoughts of the same type, the Yamato, was laid at the military shipyard in Kure.

"Yamato" was a real giant. With a length of 263 m, it had a displacement of 72,000 tons and a steam engine with 12 boilers, which allowed the battleship to reach speeds of up to 27 knots. The ship was dressed in powerful armor, the thickness of which in some places reached 406 mm. In addition, the hull was divided into 1147 (!) waterproof compartments to ensure unsinkability. The 460 mm ship artillery fired 1,450 kg shells, each of which hit a target at a distance of up to 22.5 miles. In addition to different-caliber guns, a total of 61 ships were armed with 6 aircraft.

The trio of Japanese battleships - "Yamato", "Musashi" and "Shinano" - surpassed in displacement, speed and armament not only the ships that were available by the beginning of the 1940s. from the United States and other countries, but also everything that could be built by a potential adversary in the next decade. They seemed perfect. The Yamato was the flagship of the Japanese Navy. In one of the battles, he sank an American aircraft carrier and three destroyers. It seemed that the Yamato was invincible, but she was nevertheless sunk on April 7, 1945: it took ten torpedoes and twenty-three bombs dropped from aircraft. The same fate befell Musashi. Having received numerous holes from eleven torpedoes and twenty bombs, the colossus sank to the bottom.

Nevertheless, the battleships that entered the sea routes of World War II under the flags of America and European powers were also not small ships. Their displacement reached 50-65,000 tons. The main artillery of the battleships, "spitting out" more than 10 tons of shells in one salvo, consisted of 6-12 guns with a caliber of 356-406 mm, installed two, three or four in armored towers. The universal artillery of a battleship usually included from nine to twenty 127-152-mm guns and about a hundred anti-aircraft guns.

In 1940, the Americans laid down the first two ships of a new series of six battleships - the Iowa and the New Jersey. These powerful ships with a total displacement of 57,000 tons, which had seaplanes on board, were intended for operations as part of high-speed aircraft carrier formations. To raise the speed of the battleship to 33 knots, the side armor had to be lightened, the thickness of which was only 307 mm. The Americans hid this fact for a long time, and the enemy was convinced that these battleships had 460 mm armor. Despite their great length of 270.4 m, the American battleships were very manoeuvrable.
In December 1943, the Iowa delivered President Roosevelt to the shores of North Africa, from where he went to the famous Tehran Conference. After that, the battleship was assigned to the US Pacific Flotilla: she had to fight near the Marshall Islands and take part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and the powerful artillery of the battleship supported the final assault on Okinawa.

Before the war, the USSR also began to build its own battleships. In 1938-1940. at the largest shipyards, several warships of the type " Soviet Union". The total displacement of these vessels was 65,150 tons, and the speed was 28 knots.
"Soviet Union" was planned to be armed with 9 guns of the main caliber 406 mm. The remaining guns (31 units) had a caliber from 127 to 237 mm. In addition, the battleship was supposed to become an aircraft carrier - it was decided to install a catapult and four aircraft on board. The Great Patriotic War interrupted the construction of Soviet dreadnoughts - none of them was ever launched.

The naval strategy of the states of the anti-Hitler coalition was significantly influenced by the construction of several large German battleships. One of them was the Tirpitz, which had a displacement of 53,500 tons, a length of 250.5 m, a width of 36 m, and a crew of 1,905. The German battleship was very fast, easily reaching 31 knots.
"Tirpitz" was simply crammed with a wide variety of artillery. By 1943, at the height of the war, the battleship's armament included 132 guns, including 8 of the main 380-mm caliber, and 8 torpedo tubes. Four combat aircraft were located on board the battleship in special hangars.

Despite the awesome combat power, not all operations of this dreadnought were successful. He was too tidbit for submarines. In 1942, during an attack on an enemy convoy off the coast of Norway, the Tirpitz was attacked by the Soviet submarine K-21. Having received damage, he was forced to move to his base, but was soon located by an English submarine and escaped from her with a shameful flight.
In September 1943, the German battleship was again attacked by British submarines - small ones, like the Midget. Enemy torpedoes inflicted serious damage on him. A shell from an English bomber finished the job.
In November 1944, he landed in the aft artillery cellars of the Tirpitz. A powerful explosion shook the battleship, which immediately turned over and went to the bottom.

Cruisers

Cruisers

The beginning of the development of the class of heavy cruisers was laid by the Washington Naval Agreement of 1922, which limited the construction of super-large warships - mainly battleships and aircraft carriers. As for the cruisers, the clauses of the Agreement only spurred the arms race. Realizing that England is unlikely to scrap its newest cruisers, the Hawkeyes, the experts decided to limit the armament and displacement of all future cruisers to the characteristics of ships of this type. No one thought that countries that had not previously planned to acquire heavy cruisers would immediately begin to build them, adjusting them to the “Washington restrictions” - 10,000 tons of displacement, the maximum caliber of guns - 203 mm.

After 1922, heavy cruisers began to be built in all countries that signed the Agreement - in the USA, France, Japan and Italy. Perhaps one of the best cruisers of the "Washington type" was the French ship "Algiers". The perfect contours of its 186-meter hull made it possible to “squeeze out” the maximum possible speed of 31 knots from a relatively low-power turbine installation. Similar, but somewhat better armored cruisers were built in the States.

However, after a few years, interest in Algiers-class cruisers began to fade. The fact is that powerful, but heavy guns were completely unnecessary when performing cruising tasks. In addition, weakened armor made these ships very vulnerable during squadron combat.
In the early 1930s everyone again turned their attention to light cruisers of smaller displacement with a small caliber of guns, but very fast.
So, for example, the caliber of artillery on the 5886-ton French cruiser Emile Bertin, built in 1933, was 152 mm, but the maximum speed exceeded 39 knots.

Considering the French their main enemy in the coming war, Italy set about building light cruisers of the Condottieri type, capable, in her opinion, of defeating the fast French destroyers and leaders. With a displacement of 5200-7000 tons, the Condottieri developed a speed of 37-42 knots, carrying eight 152-mm guns, fourteen 37-100 mm guns and eight anti-aircraft guns on board. The payoff for speed was armor-"shell" no thicker than 25 mm. As a result, all the "condottieri" were destroyed in the first year of the war.

The further evolution of light cruisers took the path of strengthening armor due to some loss of speed. In 1934, the Germans built the Nuremberg light cruiser, which was intended for operations on distant ocean communications. The ship had a displacement of 6980 tons and an average speed of 32 knots. The cruiser could cover 5,700 miles in one voyage. Less than a year after the Nuremberg was launched, Germany threw off all the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles and began to build heavy cruisers at the very moment when all the maritime powers decided to send them to a landfill. The Germans carefully concealed everything that concerned their heavy cruisers, so for England the appearance in 1939 of the cruiser Admiral Hipper, armed with eight 203-mm guns, was an unpleasant surprise. Following him, Germany launched the heavy Blucher and Prince Eugene. Three heavy cruisers, coupled with six light ones - that's the entire cruising fleet of the Nazis, with which they started the Second World War.

On the first day of the Great Patriotic War The naval artillery of the cruiser Kirov, stationed on the Ust-Dvinsky roadstead, opened fire on German bombers attacking Riga. Kirov was not the only Soviet cruiser to meet the enemy fully armed. In the prewar years, the small cruising squadron of the Soviets, which consisted of only 4 ships, was replenished with ships of the same type as the Kirov - the light cruisers Maxim Gorky, Voroshilov and Slava.

Armored cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov"

The last two cruisers became part of the Black Sea Fleet. More than once they had to break through to Sevastopol, delivering troops and ammunition to the besieged port. By the way, Slava (displacement 9700 tons, length 191.2 m, speed 36.6 knots) was the first of the Soviet ships to be equipped with a radar station. In 1942, the explosion of an enemy torpedo that overtook the cruiser near Feodosia tore off the stern of the cruiser. But the sailors did not want to part with their seemingly mortally wounded ship. The repairmen managed to do the impossible: they cut off the stern from the unfinished cruiser "Frunze" and reliably "sewn" it to the injured "Glory". The cruiser continued to fight, went through the entire war with honor and remained in service right up to 1973.

But the nine German cruisers faced an inglorious fate. Many of them shamefully capitulated. The cruisers Nuremberg and Prince Eugene surrendered at Copenhagen. Priitsu Eugene was especially unlucky: he fell into the hands of the Americans and was included in the experimental squadron, which tested nuclear bomb explosions near the Bikini Atoll.

The Americans have always regarded the small displacement of the ship as an obstacle to the main task of the American fleet - to wage war away from their native shores. However, in the 1930s and they were captured by the fashion for light cruisers. Having stamped 27 Cleveland-class light cruisers at once, the Americans realized that they needed to return to the familiar and reliable heavy cruisers.
They increased the length of the Cleveland by 20 m, put nine 203-mm guns and numerous anti-aircraft guns on it. After that, it was renamed "Baltimore". She became the prototype for a huge number of new series of American cruisers - both heavy and light. The descendants of the Baltimore are also considered to be the top three heavy American cruisers that left the stocks after the war - Newport News, Salem and Des Moines. Due to heavy armor and heavy 203 mm guns, their displacement was increased to 17,000 tons.

Since 1952, large strike aircraft carriers have been laid down at American shipyards. These giants, stuffed with ammunition and aviation fuel, turned out to be so vulnerable to aerial bombs and submarine torpedoes that they needed to be protected by much more powerful ships than heavy cruisers. Thus ended the era of conventional, or artillery, cruisers, which paved the way for a new type of ship - URO cruisers (guided missile weapons).

Aircraft carriers

Aircraft carriers

The successful takeoff of aircraft from the deck of a ship was first carried out on November 14, 1910 from the American cruiser Birmingham in the Chesapeake Bay. The first aircraft carriers appeared already in 1917, first with the British, and then in the USA and Japan. But before this became possible, seaplanes and air transport ships designed specifically for them were created.

Back in 1913, the Russian engineer Shishkov designed a high-speed air transport. With the outbreak of the First World War, the Russian Black Sea Fleet was replenished with several air transporters, each of which could carry up to seven aircraft. The Almaz cruiser converted into an aircraft carrier and the Nikolai air transport showed the high efficiency of naval aviation during the shelling of the Bosphorus fortification in March 1915. Nevertheless, until 1930, aircraft carriers were created mainly from converted battleships, cruisers and passenger ships.

In 1931-1936. in all the fleets of the major maritime powers, aircraft carriers of special construction Yorktown (25,500 tons, USA), Ark Royal (27,600 tons, England) and others began to appear. Serial construction of aircraft carriers began only during the Second World War. The impetus for this was the defeat of part of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The Japanese carrier-based aviation, with unconstrained ease, launched 4 battleships that day to the bottom, and disabled 4 more. In addition, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers were badly damaged, and about 250 aircraft were destroyed at airfields.
The Japanese themselves lost only 29 aircraft out of 353 that took part in the raid.

This successful Japanese operation demonstrated the exceptional capabilities of aircraft carriers and radically changed the attitude towards them. As a result, 169 aircraft carriers were built in the USA, Japan and England alone. Eight times more than there were before the war. These vessels also changed qualitatively - they could already take on board up to 100 aircraft with a launch weight of 12-14 tons. In addition, the combat power of aircraft carriers increased due to the greater speed and altitude of fighters, the range and carrying capacity of bombers.

During the Second World War, aircraft carriers, depending on the purpose, were divided into heavy (attack), light and escort. The first were intended for carrier-based aircraft to deliver torpedo-bomb attacks on ships and coastal targets, the second escorted large formations of warships, and the third ensured the safety of convoys.

March order of four different modern aircraft carriers - USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74), Charles de Gaulle, HMS Ocean (L12) and USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) accompanied by escort ships, 2002. Ships move much closer together than they would in combat.

Most of the aircraft carriers were built in the United States - 137 units, including 23 Essex-class heavy aircraft carriers, 50 Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers, and 9 light aircraft carriers based on the Cleveland cruisers. Most of the escort aircraft carriers during the war were built on the basis of transport ships. In England, during the war, four heavy aircraft carriers, the Illustrious, the Iidomitable, and two types of the Implayable, were put into operation. The light aircraft carriers of the British, unlike the American ones, were specially built.

In Japan, in turn, 3 Unryu-class aircraft carriers and one Taiho and one Shinano were built. True, the pride and hope of the empire - the giant Shinano, which had a displacement of 71,890 tons and a speed of 27 knots, powerful 200-mm armor, 16 130-mm caliber guns, 145 anti-aircraft guns and 12 rocket launchers - was very prosaically sunk. It happened just ten days after it was launched. During the transition from the port of Yokosuka to Tokyo, it was fired by six torpedoes by an American submarine.

Destroyers and patrol ships

Destroyers and patrol ships

In the period between the two world wars, the development of destroyers went in different ways. Along with the construction of destroyers with a displacement of about 1500 tons and destroyers of small displacement - about 900 tons, ships with a displacement of 3000-3500 tons were launched, which were called leaders. The leaders were the flagships of destroyer formations and carried more powerful weapons. But during the Second World War, the combat capabilities of destroyers were constantly growing. Artillery armament was strengthened, jet bombers, sonars and radar stations were installed. The displacement also increased significantly, in connection with which the name "leader" lost its meaning.

Another class of ships, the mass construction of which began only during the Second World War, were patrol boats. Their appearance was associated with the growing role of offensive ships such as destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines.
Patrol ships of this period had a displacement of 1000-1500 tons and were multi-purpose. They were designed to protect large ships, escort transports and patrol service. They were also entrusted with the search and destruction of enemy submarines in coastal waters, as well as anti-submarine protection of convoys. Depending on the tasks performed, the "hunters" (as they were also called) were divided into large (120-450 tons) and small (20-100 tons).

For the setting of minefields, special ships were used - minelayers. Minesweepers were needed to search for mines laid by the enemy. As experience has shown, minesweepers are the only ships that had to "fight" for several more years after the end of hostilities. For the safety of navigation, they cleared fairways and entire areas of the seas from mines.