Jonathan_S wrote:tlb wrote:I am quite certain that the Battle of Jutland did not signify the end of the battleship. The battleship's dominance was ended by air power, which was not in evidence at Jutland; it was not until after the war that Gen. Billy Mitchell demonstrated that a bomber could sink a battleship.
And even then only in very artificial circumstances. An airplane, especially a carrier launched airplane, didn't become a mortal threat to a battleship until about 1934 -- nearly 2 decades after the Battle of Jutland. That's when the modern torpedo bombers starting coming into service.
Level bombers were only a real threat to battleships when stationary (such as while in port) or after the advent of guided armor piercing bombs like Germany's 1943 Fritz X. Dive bombers simply lacked bombs with the velocity to penetrate the deck or turret armor of a battleship. They could knock out its AA guns, wreck its bridge and upperworks, and potentially knock out its fire control directors (all useful in preparation for follow up strikes or surface combat; but were extremely unlikely to sink it, or even impair its speed or maneuverability)
If anything Jutland reinforced that to stop a a fleet of battleships you needed at least as large and capable fleet of your own battleships.
(And even in the mid-30's torpedo bombers were mostly fair weather assets -- they weren't much use at night or in bad weather. And having torpedo bombers aboard didn't save poor HMS Glorious when she was surprised by the German Scharnhorst-class battleships during the Norway campaign of WWII. So in the long nights, bad weather, and poor visibility of the North Atlantic winter its not even clear that torpedo bombers would be able to counter battleships even by the midwar period. There's a reason that convoys were normally escorted by an old battleship -- as even in the '40s the only thing you could count on to stand up to a battleship in any conditions, and even if caught by surprise, is another battleship)
And even after WWII the battleship didn't go away because it was vulnerable to aircraft. It was far less vulnerable than a carrier, cruiser, or any other warship. It went away because a carrier could strike at over 10 times the range of a battleship.
sigh
I don't recall saying anything about planes. Nor did the narrator. His point is that at Jutland many battleships were lost. And you can't keep fighting an attritional war with battleships. Yet, in WWII the order was put in for more and bigger battleships. Which led to his conclusion that ...
Jonathan_S wrote:And even after WWII the battleship didn't go away because it was vulnerable to aircraft. It was far less vulnerable than a carrier, cruiser, or any other warship. It went away because a carrier could strike at over 10 times the range of a battleship.
Hence, the title of the documentary. HE CLAIMED the writing on the wall was Jutland.