THE SHIPS OF WWII Essays - Philippines, Battleship, Light Cruiser

THE SHIPS OF WWII World War II was the largest naval war in history. It was also the largest air war in history, but that's another story...Ships that fought in the second world war established technology, and patterns that would be used throughout the 20th century. thousands of ideas that would have never been tried on ships during peace time were applied in the then emergency state of the world. Different color writing than black indicates a link, click on it to learn more about. see picture of that topic. . Battleships. Well into the twentieth century Battleships were the most feared vessel in the sea. They were by those days standards very large, weighing in at a minimum of 20,000tons. Their armor was enormous in some cases 12 inch thick belts of steel along their sides! They were armed with 8 to 12 of the heaviest caliber cannon possible the largest of these were18.1 inchers that shot shells that weighed 3,200 lbs. To counter the threat of surface attack from light and extremely fast torpedoe boats was countered with a secondary armament, the mini gun. Which today has evolved into the phalanx gun system, which is a last resort point-defense weapon. There are three main types of battleships. The lightest of these being the battlecruiser. These were usually very light and therebye very fast. To obtain this maneuverability, they gave up a lot of armor, although they still had a deadly armament. These forms of battleships proved very unaffective. They were too light to do battle with a true battleship. and their speed mattered not against aircraft. Plus they were very expensive because of the engines, and light weight material they used. Thus, making them not only an east target, but a good one too. By the end of the war, only 1 of the 40 or so of these ships that were built was still in service. Next up from these we have the battleship battleships. These were the regular old descendents of the ship of the line, back from the day of Admiral Nelson, and John Paul Jones. They usuall weighed from 17,000 tons to 21,000. They were of medium armor, medium speed, and medium armament. But one must keep in mind that they were anything but a medium/normal ship. These ships were before the age of the carrier, the second most feared ship on the seas, as they carried roughly a dozen 12 inchers, and 1/2 a dozen 5 inchers. One step above this, and the king of all kings was the battlewagons. These were the equivelant of the 19th century Flag Ship. They were expensive, big, and could take an unbelievable amount of damage without going down. The two/three most famous of these were the USS Iowa, and the JIN(Japanese Imperial Navy)Yamato. 4 Yamato class battleships were scheduled to be made, but only 2 were, before the japanes realized that for the same price they could have 3 Shimanto class carriers including planes. The Yamato was 244 (800ft, 2 1/2)football fields meters long, had 9 18.1 inch guns! 12 6.1 inchers, for use against smaller, quicker ships, and 12 5 inchers, foruse as an Anti Aircraft, or Surface gun. Its crew was 2,500 strong. And it had 16.1 inch thick armor belting around its waterline. The Yamato class battleships are the biggest ever made. But they were not the best. The best was the USS Iowa. which was the last battleship ever to fire a shot in time of war. Doing so in the Persian Gulf as a part of Operation Desert Storm. The Uss Iowa was longer than the Yamato, went 7 knots faster (32 knots) and at the same time had roughly the same armament, and armor(a little smaller in both categories...9 16inchers, 13 inch belt). Cruisers Cruisers were and are the descendant of frigayes from the navies of past. Cruisers were much smaller than Battleships, but at the same time 2 or 3 times larger than a destroyer. Cruisers more than anything were to show the flag in places where locals needed to be impressed, as they otherwise did not have near as well defined role as the battleships, or destroyers. Their only real