85 years ago today: Bismarck claims the Hood

For all the hype, manpower, money and material that went into them, we really didn't get much Battle out of the Battleship era...relatively.

Sure we’re badass though….

I suppose it's due to the ascendence of aircraft mostly, but we have thousands of years of naval combat, thousands of records of naval battles, down to the maneuvers, munitions and minutiae...

The gunpowder era of naval combat is seriously cool. Crossing the T, broadsides, etc.


But once naval warships had reached their most deadly, their most powerful...


It's like they became too powerful to risk and so we don't have many of those huge naval set battles.

Handful from the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese wars,
Few from WW1

WW2 saw more, sure, but after that? All aircraft and carriers.

Battleship era lasted less time than pike and shot

quote:

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For all the hype, manpower, money and material that went into them, we really didn't get much Battle out of the Battleship era...relatively.

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Several weeks ago, I posed this query to the elves at Grok:

Were there any major engagements between large surface ships (battleships and cruisers) during WWII? It seems that most of the major engagements, e.g. Coral Sea, Midway, Philippine Sea, involved carriers and the large surface ships played only supporting roles?

Here is their response:

Yes, there were several major engagements where large surface ships—battleships (BBs), battlecruisers (BCs), and cruisers—fought each other directly with gunfire and torpedoes, rather than just supporting carriers or operating in secondary roles. Your observation is spot-on for the big Pacific carrier clashes like Coral Sea, Midway, and the Philippine Sea (and later parts of Leyte Gulf), where aircraft carriers decided the outcome and battleships/cruisers often screened carriers, provided anti-aircraft fire, or handled shore bombardment. However, surface actions were far from rare, especially early in the war, at night (when air power was limited), in confined waters, or in theaters like the Mediterranean and Arctic where carriers were fewer or less decisive.



These gun duels often involved radar (a game-changer for the Allies at night), close-range night fighting, or classic "crossing the T" maneuvers. Here's a breakdown of the most notable ones involving BBs, BCs, or heavy cruisers as the primary combatants:European/Mediterranean Theater (more traditional surface actions)Battle of the Denmark Strait (24 May 1941): German battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen engaged British battlecruiser HMS Hood and battleship Prince of Wales. Hood was sunk in one of the war's most famous (and lopsided) duels after a catastrophic magazine explosion.



Battle of Cape Matapan (27–29 March 1941): British battleships Warspite, Valiant, and Barham (with carrier Formidable support) ambushed an Italian force at night. They devastated Italian heavy cruisers Zara, Fiume, and Pola (plus destroyers) at close range (~3,800 yards) using radar and searchlights. The Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto was damaged earlier by air attack but escaped the main gun action.



Battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943): British battleship HMS Duke of York (with cruisers and destroyers) intercepted and sank the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in Arctic waters during a convoy attack. Radar gave the British a decisive edge in poor visibility.



Other examples include the Battle of the River Plate (1939: British cruisers vs. German "pocket battleship" Graf Spee), Battle of Calabria (1940: British and Italian battleships), and various actions off Norway or in the Atlantic where German raiders tangled with British surface forces.



Pacific Theater
Carrier dominance came later, but surface fights were fierce, especially during the Guadalcanal campaign (the "Slot" night battles) and Leyte Gulf:Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (12–15 November 1942): The second night featured the rare direct BB-vs-BB clash in the Pacific. U.S. fast battleships Washington and South Dakota (with destroyers) engaged Japanese Kirishima (and earlier-damaged Hiei). Radar-directed fire from Washington sank Kirishima; this was one of only two true American-Japanese battleship gun duels of the war.



Battle of Surigao Strait (25 October 1944, part of Leyte Gulf): The last battleship-vs-battleship action in history. Six older U.S. battleships (many Pearl Harbor "revenge" ships like West Virginia, Tennessee, California, etc., under Rear Adm. Jesse Oldendorf) crossed the T against a Japanese force including battleships Yamashiro and Fuso (plus cruisers and destroyers). U.S. battleships, cruisers, and destroyers annihilated the Japanese in a classic line-ahead gun line at night—Yamashiro and Fuso were sunk with heavy losses. No U.S. capital ships were lost.



There were also many cruiser-heavy night actions in the Solomons (e.g., Battle of Savo Island, Cape Esperance, Tassafaronga), where heavy cruisers slugged it out at close range with devastating torpedo and gunfire losses on both sides. These weren't always "large" BB-focused but involved significant surface combatants.



Why fewer than in WWI?
Carrier aviation (and radar) shifted naval warfare; fleets avoided gun-range duels when possible.
Japanese doctrine favored night torpedo attacks and avoided decisive fleet actions after early losses.
Geography and strategy: Pacific island-hopping favored carriers for long-range strikes; European ops had more confined waters and fewer carriers.

In short, your examples highlight the carrier era's rise, but surface ships still delivered some of WWII's most dramatic (and often decisive) gun battles—especially when air power couldn't intervene. Leyte Gulf marked the effective end of the battleship era as a p