In land warfare there were / are often situations where a mobile force chooses to give up mobility to fight in-place for all sorts of advantages: better ground, fortifications, hull down tank deployments, spotting, logistics, fire control, placement, cover etc...
Was there ever serious consideration for 20th century battleships doctrine of (deliberately) fighting from a stopped position in the open ocean (so not a Yamato Ten-Go beaching situation, and not when the ship was already stopped by damage)?
Huge disadvantages:
- no maneuvering, likely makes both dive bombing and torpedo attacks easier, but might make higher altitude level bombing particularly effective for once
- need to have good warning of the incoming attack to get things set up - this alone probably makes this mostly impractical
- attacking force can wait around / threaten, ensuring force can't move
- attack tactics surely have all sorts of ways to evolve were this to become a thing
- if gunfire involved, much easier to be hit
Possible advantages:
- was there any realistic protection (nets, less valued ships like DDs or DEs) you could set up (and pack up) in a couple of hours around a static battleship to protect from aerial (or I guess surface launched) torpedo attacks, on the open ocean? I assume this is much more viable (but probably still not viable) when the ships are stationary, versus at full speed.
- slightly better fire solutions for the stationary ship?
- any advantages in terms of covering / obscuring with smoke, if your main aim is simply to survive the attack (e.g. against hundreds of incoming planes)? Would something like this have given Yamato or Musashi any better chance, or was maneuvering far more effective?
Was there ever serious consideration for 20th century battleships doctrine of (deliberately) fighting from a stopped position in the open ocean (so not a Yamato Ten-Go beaching situation, and not when the ship was already stopped by damage)?
Huge disadvantages:
- no maneuvering, likely makes both dive bombing and torpedo attacks easier, but might make higher altitude level bombing particularly effective for once
- need to have good warning of the incoming attack to get things set up - this alone probably makes this mostly impractical
- attacking force can wait around / threaten, ensuring force can't move
- attack tactics surely have all sorts of ways to evolve were this to become a thing
- if gunfire involved, much easier to be hit
Possible advantages:
- was there any realistic protection (nets, less valued ships like DDs or DEs) you could set up (and pack up) in a couple of hours around a static battleship to protect from aerial (or I guess surface launched) torpedo attacks, on the open ocean? I assume this is much more viable (but probably still not viable) when the ships are stationary, versus at full speed.
- slightly better fire solutions for the stationary ship?
- any advantages in terms of covering / obscuring with smoke, if your main aim is simply to survive the attack (e.g. against hundreds of incoming planes)? Would something like this have given Yamato or Musashi any better chance, or was maneuvering far more effective?
statistics: Posted by michaelmilford — 3:20 AM - 2 days ago — Replies 10 — Views 455
