Battleships Are Powerful Surface Combatants But Are Invulnerable

In any Navy, these battleships are powerful surface combatants but there are limitations to their invincibility. Despite all its bristling weapons at its disposal, it will sink if a hole is placed in its hull.

Call them floating battlewagons with armored hulls made to duke it out with large guns, or other kinds of weaponry to destroy other ships.

Even those touted as the most powerful ships have been sunk or destroyed due to various causes. These giant battlewagons of the sea are rare but a few are in service. Now, destroyers or frigates, subs, and aircraft carriers are the emphasizes of navies today.

Many ways to kill a Man-O-War (battleship)

Seen in five historical examples and applicable to all ships, these methods of killing them are presented. These examples vary how these ships were overcome like the Bismarck that was done in by a torpedo. When the Royal Navy came, it was open season on the damaged ship, reported the Nationalist Interest.

Combat aircraft

When planes were first used in 1939 they have been sinking battleships. In 1940, the Swordfish torpedo bomber was used in an attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto harbor. This bombing was able to sink one ship and damage three more.

The might of the American fleet was laid low by an air sneak attack in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy bomber and fighters. Japanese planes were able to sink the Prince of Wales and the Repulse that were great losses for the Royal Navy. Battleships are powerful surface combatants but proved useless in these circumstances.

Other ships can sink them

Battleships are tough weapons for slugging it out broadsides, hitting other ships to sink or disable them. In Tsushima, Russian battlewagons were destroyed with skilled bombardment by the Japanese Navy, noted Yahoo News.

An encounter at Jutland in sea battle led to scrapping three British battlecruisers cause by German firepower, while the US got revenge by sinking two Jap battleships in the Surigao Strait in 1944.

Death by submarine torpedo

Submarines have notoriously sunk these ships without being detected most of the time by using a torpedo. In 1914, in December when a UK submarine sunk the Turkish ship Mesudiye, also in 1915 May, a German U-boat U-21 scrapped the HMS Majestic was sunk in Gallipoli.

The use of subs on each side had them sinking each other's ships. They proved to be effective as anti-shipping weapons.

Explosive mines

Mines are simple and deadly that took out several battleships in World War I. One of them is the Russian ship Petropavlovsk that hit a mine in April 1904 in the Russo-Japanese War. In 1915, there were three Allied ships destroyed the same way while supporting the Gallipoli landing operations, cited Flipboard.

Unlucky accidents

Sometimes, a battleship becomes a victim due to bad luck. Liberte, a French ship blew up in 1911 because of explosives going off in its magazine. The Japanese had one ship blow up in 1943 due to an intentionally detonated magazine, said to be done by one crew member.

All Battleships are powerful surface combatants but they were brought down for these reasons. The best armor or weapons are not a guarantee. Modern combat makes them a liability.