Death of the Battleships: When These Warships Were Sunk Naval Warfare Changed Forever

Robert Farley

Security,

"The attack demonstrated conclusively that the battleship, the primary capital ship of fleets since the late 19th century, could no longer project independent of air support."

The success of the Japanese attacks made clear that even modern battleships required air cover to operate in hostile areas. Several other battleships were lost in similar circumstances (mostly Japanese ships in 1944 and 1945), as American aircraft took advantage of growing air supremacy. Battleships could certainly contribute to their own defense from air attack, and could contribute to fleet air defense, but required the support of carriers to operate during the day. These lessons pushed all three navies to de-emphasize battleship construction in favor of aircraft carriers.

Seventy five years ago, the Western Allies suffered a catastrophic defeat in the Pacific. Japanese aircraft devastated an allied naval force, sinking the most effective battleships in the fleet. Japan’s aerial victory opened much of Asia up to invasion, giving the Imperial Japanese Navy a clear field for undertaking its grand offensive. The attack demonstrated conclusively that the battleship, the primary capital ship of fleets since the late 19th century, could no longer project independent of air support.

(This first appeaed several years ago.)

This defeat came not at Pearl Harbor, where an armada of Japanese carrier aircraft devastated a U.S. battleship flotilla at anchor, but rather off Malaya, where land-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) sank HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, a pair of fast battleships that formed the core of Force Z. The loss of these ships shocked the British government, and helped change procurement and employment strategies in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Deployment: