Posted on 10/08/2021 7:52:36 AM PDT by Onthebrink
The Project B tests were held in the Chesapeake Bay in July 1921. Airplanes of the First Brigade sank a captured German destroyer and then a an armored light cruiser. Next was the German battleship Ostfriesland, considered “unsinkable” due to its extensive compartmentalization. After a day of 230- and 600-pound bombs dropped by Marine, Navy, and Army aircraft, the battleship settled three feet by the stern with a five-degree list to port. Ostfriesland, it turned out, was not unsinkable from the air.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
No not totally obsolete, just unable to operate without aircover.
Battleships did good work as mobile artillery support for amphibious landings as well as massive AA platforms to protect fleets from air attack. They also were excellent protection for aircraft carries against potential surface to surface engagements.
They dropped a LOT of bombs on her while she sat in one spot.
The demonstration wasn’t all that convincing. In fact, it may have had the opposite effect as naval planners concluded that maneuvering ships were unlikely to be destroyed by aerial attacks.
Unfortunately for the Prince of Wales and Repulse, technology advanced in the next 20 years.
These days it looks like flying Tic-Tacs will render our current military obsolete.
That’s all true but the author put “Fact:” in the headline and that’s all that matters :-)
Yeah, sure...until the aliens attack,
and you have to pull the USS Missouri out of dry-dock,
and then they get Thunderstruck!
Rest assured that Russia, China and Iran are doing exactly the same thing right now to our equipment, which was left behind in Afghanistan.
Destructive tests...
> No not totally obsolete, just unable to operate without aircover. <
Right. Battleships were on the way out even in the 1920s. But that sunken battleship had no air cover, and no manned AA guns.
“Unfortunately for the Prince of Wales and Repulse, technology advanced in the next 20 years.”
The same could be said of Pearl Harbor and the battleships, cruisers, and destroyers either sunk or damaged in a ‘safe’ harbor.
Fun flick.
To your point, battleships were so obsolete that a couple were taken out of mothballs for both the Vietnam war and the Gulf War.
People like to overstate things. Battleships could be destroyed by subs, aircraft, and other battleships but they had their role. The big guns could prep a beach for a landing with shells larger than typical aerial bombs. The big Mo had the honor of accepting the Japanese surrender.
Two hundred-thirty(230) six hundred pound(600) bombs on a non moving ship that doesn’t shoot back? How many missed? Okayyyyyy
Fact is in this modern technological era virtually all surface combatants are obsolete. However many brave young sailors will have to die before America’s political ,pole climbing battleship admirals are purged from positions of power and influence.
FACT: Despite the alleged fact, US had 23/24 BBs in WWII.
Added to the fact that a modern super carrier has become too expensive to lose, which will govern how they are deployed.
Right, the idea is the same as the idea that a weedy highschooler can KO a pro boxer...as long as the boxer can’t block, dodge, or hit back. Certainly at that point, I don’t believe that the battleship, fully manned, maneuvering and fighting back could have been sunk by aircraft at that time...and any antiaircraft artillery at the time was small arms, a few 3” guns and whatever invective could be thrown.
Battleships had a role. Aircraft have a role. In the near future, space based weapons and non-kinetic weapons will have a role.
But being able to shoot a huge 3 projectiles 20 miles with decent accuracy certainly had an impact. (Pun intended)
That's why President Reagan brought them back in the '80's.
Loved that game
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.