The “Dreadnought” turned all older warships into floating scrap metal

Battleship
The “Dreadnought” turned all older warships into floating scrap metal

When HMS Dreadnought was launched on February 10, 1906, she outclassed all older battleships. The massive ship led to a massive arms race, and yet the Navy made a mistake with it.

The name “Dreadnought” means “Fear nothing” and that’s what the battleship looked like when it was built in 1906. It was a steel colossus in battle gray. A superstructure supported the bridge – otherwise five huge gun turrets with double barrels dominated the view. From then on, the shape of the “dreadnought” dominated the construction of the massive battleships until the class went under after the Second World War. In some respects the ships evolved, but they remained true to the basic idea of ​​the “Dreadnought”: all that mattered were the big guns and the armor.

The appearance of the gloomy ship had nothing in common with the pennant-adorned navy of the previous century. The “Dreadnought” looked as if it had anticipated the bunkers of the First World War and transported them to sea. The superstructure was reduced to the bare essentials; the inner workings of the ship took place in the protected hull wherever possible.

Only big guns

But what was special was the armament. The “Dreadnought” had five turrets, each with two 30.5 cm caliber barrels, three of which were amidships and one each on the side of the superstructure. She had no medium artillery, but had 22 7.6 cm guns to defend against torpedo boats. This set the design apart from the ships before it. Although these had one or two heavy caliber turrets, the main armament consisted of medium caliber cannons.

The reason: It was not possible to aim at long distances in the 19th century. If you wanted to hit your opponent, you had to get close. This had two consequences: The much faster firing sequence and the larger number of medium-caliber cannons made it possible to concentrate far more “fire” on the enemy – thus achieving a greater effect. The second consequence: the classic sea battle was determined from the broadside. In a sideways arrangement, the fire from the front and rear turrets and the guns on one side could be concentrated on the enemy.

The “Dreadnought,” however, revolutionized the idea of ​​sea battles. Advances in optical target detection devices enabled their heavy guns to damage or sink the enemy at long range. The actual battle would then be decided in the approach phase. There would no longer be an encounter side by side at a medium distance. Any older battleship would have been shot to pieces in a battle with the “Dreadnought” long before it could land any effective hits.

First World War
Scapa Flow – the suicide of the German Navy

And so all of a sudden all the older ships were just floating scrap. Paradox for England: The devaluation of the old units hit the country with the most powerful fleet – namely Great Britain – hardest. Even though the “Dreadnought” was a British ship, rival Germany now had the chance to catch up with British naval power if only ships of the new type were built quickly enough. The launch then triggered the unprecedented arms race between the German Empire and Great Britain. One of the moments that led to the First World War.

A dying species

The second paradox of the “Dreadnought”: its design was ingenious and revolutionary and yet it initiated an undesirable maritime development. Although countless battleships and battlecruisers were built after her, none of them decided a single important sea battle. There were some naval battles in the First World War, but there was not the decisive battle that the admirals dreamed of. Such a confrontation almost occurred in the Battle of the Skagerrak, but this battle was broken off and did not lead to a decisive result. In the interwar period there were no wars between major maritime powers. When World War II began, times had changed: small aircraft dominated the seas, and capital ships had to hide from them.

Over time, the big guns of the battleships became much larger than in the days of the “Dreadnought”, but in World War II the major naval battles were decided by the aircraft of the carriers. The biggest cannon was no longer the deadliest weapon. Planes attacked the giants with bombs and torpedoes, while the carriers operated well out of gun range. This is how the “Bismarck” sank – which was then considered to be the most modern battleship in the world – and later the “Yamato”, the largest battleship in the world. Their big guns – nine 46 centimeter caliber tubes – were unable to land a hit before the massive ship sank.

Also read:

– Better than the Enterprise – British are planning the battleship of the future

– 40 missing shipwrecks – the largest grave robbery in history

– China’s new laser satellite will become a “Death Star” for US submarines

– Beijing – Silent killer submarine is supposed to take out Trump’s aircraft carrier

– Supercavitation – when submarines dive faster than fighter jets can fly

– All submarines are broken – Germany’s fleet is on forced vacation

– Aircraft Carrier Type 001A – This is how China’s small aircraft carrier challenges the USA

– Mega submarine deal – Australia buys twelve attack submarines for more than 30 billion euros