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'''Battleship''' refers to a type of heavily-armored [[warship]] bearing the largest caliber of [[firearm|guns]] afloat, specifically those warships built between the 1890s through the 1940s.
'''Battleship''' refers to a type of heavily-armored [[warship]] bearing the largest caliber of [[firearm|guns]] afloat, specifically those warships built between the 1890s through the 1940s.
Thre sinking of the battleship [[Battleship Maine|U.S.S. Maine]], an American warship on a peaceful visit to Havana, Cuba, on February 15, 1898, seized American attention in the days leading to the [[Spanish-American War]], though it was never ceratin who sank it.
==World War II==
===Atlantic===
In December 1939 at the start of the war German's small ("pocket") battleship ''Graf Spee'' sank numerous merchant ships in the South Atlantic. On December 13 three British cruisers found it along the coast of Uruguay, defeated it in a running fight, and forced it into Montevideo harbor, where it was scuttled by its crew. In October 1940, the pocket battleship ''Scheer'' broke out into the Atlantic via the Danish Straits. It attacked an Allied convoy of 36 ships on November 5; the the armed merchant ship ''Jervis Bay'' defended the convoy and enabled 31 ships of the convoy to escape. On May 22, 1941, the battleship ''Bismarck'' ventured into the North Atlantic to attack British commerce. A Royal Navy (British) task force intercepted it between Iceland and Greenland. The ''Bismarck'' sank the battle cruiser ''Hood'' with one salvo and damaged the battleship ''Prince of Wales''. The ''Bosmark'' was hit too and made for home waters, pursued by a pack of British destroyers. The aircraft carrier ''Ark Royal'' gave chase, and the ''Bismarck'' was hit by torpedo planes and bombers. Finally two large British battleships joined the hunt; the ''Bismarck'' lost its rudder controls; a torpedo finally sank it, ending the era of German surface raiders in the open Atlantic. A solitary battleship undefended by air or by destroyers was proven helpless, as the British discovered when their two Asian battleships were sunk by Japanese air power in December 1941.
===End of the battleships===
===End of the battleships===
The Royal Navy sank the Italian fleet in Nov. 1940 at the Battle of Taranto using warplanes from [[aircraft carrier]]s. The Japanese took note and at the [[Battle of Pearl Harbor]] (Dec. 7. 1941), sank nearly the entire American battleship fleet using carrier planes. Immediately the carrier replaced the battleship as the capital ship of seapower. The era of big-gun battles between fleets at 30,000 yards was (almost) over. Heavy guns were useful for shore bombardment, but for combat were replaced by bombs delivered by air, and torpedoes (delivered by airplane, submarine, or destroyer) as the chief offensive weapons of naval warfare. The last battleship ever was built in 1945.
The Royal Navy sank the Italian fleet in Nov. 1940 at the Battle of Taranto using warplanes from [[aircraft carrier]]s. The Japanese took note and at the [[Battle of Pearl Harbor]] (Dec. 7. 1941), sank nearly the entire American battleship fleet using carrier planes. Immediately the carrier replaced the battleship as the capital ship of seapower. The era of big-gun battles between fleets at 30,000 yards was (almost) over. Heavy guns were useful for shore bombardment, but for combat were replaced by bombs delivered by air, and torpedoes (delivered by airplane, submarine, or destroyer) as the chief offensive weapons of naval warfare. The last battleship ever was built in 1945.
*[[Connecticut-class battle]]
*[[Connecticut-class battle]]
*[[Iowa-class battleship]]
*[[Iowa-class battleship]]
*[[Pennsylvania-class battleship]]
*[[Pennsylvania-class battleship]]
*[[Naval guns]]
*[[Naval guns]]
*[[Battleship Maine]]
*[[USS Missouri (BB-63)]]
*[[USS Missouri (BB-63)]]
*[[USS Arizona (BB-39)]]
*[[USS Arizona (BB-39)]]
*[Battleship Bismarck]]
*[[Battleship Bismarck]]
==Further reading==
==Further reading==