Adventure, historical, documentaries showing naval battles are always breathtaking. It doesn't matter if it's white-sailed frigates near Haiti or huge aircraft carriers abeam Pearl Harbor.
The spirit of wandering haunts human imagination. Read on and you will briefly get acquainted with the largest and most ambitious naval battles in the new history of the world.
Navy in military history
The history of the Russian fleet begins with the time of Peter I.
Naval battle tactics changed depending on the design of ships and guns. From galleys and frigates to dreadnoughts and beyond to modern powerful and computerized aircraft carriers.
States often defend their interests in wars. Battles are both land and sea. We will talk about the latter in this article.
Chesme battle
Major naval battles are known in the history of Russia, starting from the era of Peter the Great. The emperor played a crucial role in the creation of the navy.
One of the biggest battles of the eighteenth century took place during the Russo-Turkish War. victory inthis battle was so impressive that since 1770 July 7 has been celebrated as a day of military glory.
Let's take a closer look at what happened in the Chesme Bay from July 5 to July 7, 1770.
Two squadrons were sent to the Black Sea from the B altic, which united into one on the spot. The command of the new fleet was entrusted to Count Alexei, brother of Grigory Orlov, favorite of Catherine II.
The squadron included thirteen capital ships (nine battleships, one scorer and three frigates), as well as nineteen small support vessels. In total, they had about six and a half thousand crew members.
During the transition, a part of the Turkish fleet standing on the roadstead was discovered. Among the ships there were quite large vessels. For example, the Burj u Zafer had eighty-four guns on board, while the Rhodes had sixty. In total, there were seventy-three ships (of which sixteen battleships and six frigates) and more than fifteen thousand sailors.
With the help of the skillful actions of Russian sailors, the squadron of Alexei Orlov managed to win. Among the trophies was the Turkish Rhodes. The Turks lost more than eleven thousand people killed, and the Russians lost about seven hundred sailors.
Second Battle of Rochensalm
Sea battles in the eighteenth century were not always victorious. This is due to the deplorable state of the fleet. After all, after the death of Emperor Peter I, no one cared about him properly.
Twenty years after the stunning victory over the Turksthe Russian fleet suffered a resounding defeat from the Swedes.
In 1790, the Swedish and Russian fleets met near the Finnish town of Kotka (formerly called Rochensalm). The first was personally commanded by King Gustav III, and the admiral in the latter was the Frenchman Nissau-Singen.
176 Swedish ships with 12,500 crew and 145 Russian ships with 18,500 sailors met in the Gulf of Finland.
Hasty action on the part of the young Frenchman led to a crushing defeat. The Russians lost over 7,500 men, as opposed to 300 Swedish sailors.
Scientists say that this is the second battle in terms of the number of ships in modern and recent history. We will talk about the most grandiose battle at the end of the article.
Tsushima
The reason for the defeats were often various shortcomings and excessive zeal. For example, if we talk about the Battle of Tsushima, it happened exactly when the Japanese fleet was superior in all respects.
Russian sailors were extremely tired after many months of transition from the B altic to the Pacific Ocean. And the ships were inferior to the Japanese in terms of fire power, armor and speed.
As a result of the rash act of the admiral, the Russian Empire lost its fleet and any significance in this region. In exchange for a hundred wounded Japanese and three drowned destroyers, the Russians lost more than five thousand people killed, and more than six thousand were captured. In addition, nineteen of the thirty-eight ships were sunk.
Battle of Jutland
Battle of Jutlandconsidered the largest battle at sea during the First World War. During the battle, 149 British and 99 German ships met. In addition, several airships were used.
But the beauty of the events was not in the huge displacement of equipment or the number of wounded and killed. Not even in the aftermath of the battle. The main feature that only the Battle of Jutland can boast of was surprise.
Both fleets accidentally collided in the Skagerrak Strait, near the Jutland Peninsula. Due to an intelligence error, the British marched very slowly and slowly towards Norway. The Germans were moving in the opposite direction.
The meeting turned out to be completely unexpected. When the English cruiser "Galatea" decided to inspect the Danish ship, which accidentally ended up in these waters, the German ship, which had already checked it, was just leaving the "At the Fiord".
The British opened fire on the enemy. Then the rest of the ships pulled up. The battle of Jutland was crowned with a tactical victory for the Germans, but a strategic defeat for Germany.
Pearl Harbor
Listing the naval battles of World War II, one should especially dwell on the battle near the Pearl Harbor. The Americans called it the "Attack on Pearl Harbor", and the Japanese - the Hawaiian operation.
The purpose of this campaign, the Japanese set pre-emptive gaining superiority in the Pacific region. The United States expected to go to war with the Empire of the Rising Sun, so military bases were created in the Philippines.
The American government's mistake turned out to be that they did not seriously consider Pearl Harbor as a target for the Japanese. They expected an attack on Manila and the troops based there.
The Japanese wanted to destroy the enemy's fleet and with the help of this at the same time conquer the airspace over the Pacific Ocean.
Americans were saved only by chance. The new aircraft carriers were in a different location during the attack. About three hundred aircraft were damaged and only eight old battleships.
Thus, the successful Japanese operation played a cruel joke in the future for this country. We will talk about her devastating defeat later.
Midway Atoll
As you have already seen, many great naval battles are distinguished by the suddenness of the beginning of the battle. Usually one or both parties don't expect any catch anytime soon.
If we talk about Midway Atoll, then the Japanese wanted to repeat Pearl Harbor again in six months. But they set their sights on a second powerful American base. Everything could have happened according to plan, and the empire would have become the only power in the Pacific region, but US intelligence intercepted the message.
Japanese attack failed. They were able to sink one aircraft carrier and destroy about one and a half hundred aircraft. They themselves lost more than two hundred and fifty aircraft, two and a half thousand people and five large ships.
The planned superiority turned into a crushing defeat overnight.
Leyte Gulf
Now let's talk about the biggestnaval battle of war. Except for the ancient battles near the island of Salamanca, this is the most epic battle at sea in the history of mankind.
It lasted four days. Here again the Americans and the Japanese clashed. The expected attack on the Philippines in 1941 (instead of Pearl Harbor) did happen three years later. During this battle, the Japanese used the kamikaze tactic for the first time.
The loss of the world's largest battleship Musashi and the damage to the Yamato put an end to the empire's ability to dominate the region.
So, during the battle, the Americans lost about three and a half thousand people and six ships. The Japanese lost twenty-seven ships and more than ten thousand crew.
Thus, in this article we briefly got acquainted with the largest naval battles in Russian and world history.
