Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
It all goes back to the Battleship race between the Germans and the English at the end of the 19th century through to the Start of WW1. Both sides believed that the move to heavily armored and armed ships with high range capability could be used to blast apart fleets. Unfortunately they really didn't learn the lesson's or WW1, and Naval Aviation was non existent.
With the approach of WW2 and the mass improvements of aircraft and their range the difference between attacking an enemy from 100's of miles away as oppossed to closing within visual site to engage, combined with the capability of planes to carry heavier ordinance doomed the battleship.
From a shore bombardment component, Battleships were really a useful platform, however they were too slow and too ranged to survive in a more modern environment. Add on that while a Battleship was pretty much invulnerable at the water level and the sides, they couldn't put heavier armor on the decks without sacrificing fuel efficiency and speed.
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Its just so interesting how obviously effect aircraft are against capital naval ships, and yet most states were somewhat blind to the effectiveness of them. An argument could be made Japan only had the carrier assets they did at the start of WWII because they were limited from building more battleships by the London Treaty. They kind of fluked onto the right path.