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* ''']''' September 28, 1538. 122 ] galleys and ]s against 302 ] ships. * ''']''' September 28, 1538. 122 ] galleys and ]s against 302 ] ships.


* ''']''', 1588. In a series of engagements in the English Channel, a Spanish invasion fleet of 130 ships was driven north by English forces numbering nearly 200 ships. Rounding the ] into the ], the Armada was destroyed by powerful gales on its return to Spain. * ''']''', 1588. In a series of engagements in the English Channel, a Spanish invasion fleet of 130 ships was driven north by English forces numbering nearly 200 ships. Rounding ] into the ], the Armada was destroyed by powerful gales on its return to Spain.


* ], 1597. A large Japanese assault on ]'s remaining 13 ships. The Japanese attacked with 333, but were routed by the smaller force. * ], 1597. A large Japanese assault on ]'s remaining 13 ships. The Japanese attacked with 333, but were routed by the smaller force.

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The title of "largest naval battle in history" may be conferred according to criteria which might include the numbers of personnel and/or vessels involved in the battle, the total tonnage of the vessels involved, the damage sustained, or the casualties inflicted. There are three other related – but not identical – titles which might be contended: those of "the largest sea battle", "the largest naval action", and "the largest sea action".

Contention

Below is a list of nine candidates, each said to have involved 150,000 or more personnel: Ecnomus, Jutland, Lake Poyang, Lepanto, Leyte Gulf, Philippine Sea, Red Cliffs, Salamis and Yamen. However, it is open to question whether all of these can or should be regarded as serious candidates for the title of "largest naval battle in history".

Two (Salamis in 480 BC and Ecnomus in 256 BC) occurred in the Classical Era, when ancient sources frequently exaggerated the numbers involved in warfare. These include Herodotus, a key source for information on Salamis. Figures for Cape Ecnomus are similarly dubious. Comparable doubts may be raised about the enormous figures given in connection with the battles of Red Cliffs, Yamen and especially Lake Poyang. In contrast, battles fought in modern times are comparatively well-documented.

In pre-modern battles, large actions involved numerous small galleys, rather than larger vessels like battleships or cruisers. Two battles between the Ottoman Empire and Venice are candidates for the battle with the largest number of ships-of-the-line. In the Action of July 8, 1716, near Corfu, 87 ships were present, although most of them did not take an active part in the fighting. The following year, 85 ships took part in the Battle of Matapan.

Most larger fleet battles of the age of sail involved 20–30 ships-of-the-line, as well as smaller vessels, on each side. Several battles of the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654) as well as the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665, Beachy Head in 1690 and the La Hougue in 1692 also involved large numbers of warships (possibly well over one hundred) on each side.

The great battles of the later age of sail, such as Trafalgar (1805) and the Battle of the Saintes (1782), involved comparatively small numbers of vessels, but the majority of these were ships-of-the-line considerably larger than the vessels typical of earlier periods. Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, displaced more than 3,000 tons, and the Spanish first-rate Santísima Trinidad, the largest ship at Trafalgar, had a displacement of marginally under 5,000 tons.

The second Battle of Svensksund is the biggest naval battle ever fought in the Baltic sea: 500 ships (including supply ships and other ships not involved in combat), close to 30,000 men and several thousand cannons. In Svensksund, the Swedes boasted to have destroyed 40 percent of the Russian coastal fleet. It is even considered one of the largest naval battles in history in terms of the number of vessels involved. Only the Battle of Leyte Gulf has involved a larger number of vessels (if sources from the Classical Era regarding the Battle of Salamis and Battle of Ecnomus are disregarded).

By the time of the Battle of Jutland in 1916, battleships and battlecruisers (the capital ships of the period) typically had a displacement of more than 20,000 tons. The battlecruiser Tiger, the largest ship at Jutland, displaced more than 33,000 tons. The typical battleship of the post-Jutland era, and therefore of the Second World War, displaced more than 35,000 tons, and the Japanese Yamato and Musashi – the largest warships ever to take part in a naval battle – each displaced more than 70,000 tons. Thus, although no surface naval action of the Second World War involved more than 8 battleships (Surigao Strait in 1944) the heavy engagements of that war are not as 'small' as one might therefore suppose.
(N.B. the figures given in the above paragraph are for full load displacement.)

There follows the list of nine candidates. It needs to be stressed that it is only for the last four of these that the figures given can be considered reliable.

The candidates

  • ? Salamis, September (28?) 480 BC. 371 Greek ships defeated 1,271 Persian ships in this decisive battle. Greek triremes had a crew of about 200 while their small penteconters had 50 oarsmen. With 1,642 ships altogether, it is thought possible that 200,000 sailors, soldiers and marines took part.
  • ? Cape Ecnomus, (exact date and duration unknown) 256 BC. Like Salamis, Ecnomus was also a single engagement where 680 ships were fighting in a very small area. Some historians accept Roman claims that Rome had about 100,000 personnel. If this were true, which is unlikely, it would make it probable that at least 200,000 Roman and Carthaginian sailors and soldiers were involved.
  • ? Red Cliffs, (exact date and duration unknown) northern winter 208, the battle between Cao Cao and Sun Quan on China's Yangtze River – the exact location is debated – during the late Han Dynasty. Cao Cao's forces are said to have numbered 220,000–240,000 while Sun Quan's fleet is said to have had 50,000 marines, the total claimed therefore being some 270,000 or 290,000 in all.
  • ? Yamen, March 19, 1279. The battle which ended the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty's conquest of Southern Song Dynasty. It is claimed that more than 1,000 Song Dynasty warships were destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty near Yamen, Guangdong, China.
  • ? Lake Poyang, August 30–October 4, 1363. Claimed to be the largest battle in terms of personnel. Sailors of the Ming rebel force, said to be 200,000 strong, commanded by Zhu Yuanzhang, met a Han rebel force, claimed to be 650,000-strong, commanded by Chen Youliang, on Lake Poyang, China's largest freshwater lake.
  • Lepanto, 7 October 1571. 212 Holy League galleys and galleasses against 272 or more Ottoman galleys, galliots etc (484+ total). The forces of the Holy League inflicted a crushing defeat on the Ottoman fleet. This was the last major naval battle, at least in the Western world, to be fought entirely or almost entirely between rowing vessels. Around 150,000 personnel took part in the battle. The Turkish fleet lost more than 200 vessels and suffered at least 20,000 casualties.
  • Jutland, May 31–June 1, 1916. The largest battle in terms tonnage of ships engaged and in terms of the total tonnage of ships involved in a single action. Possibly the largest battle-line action, in terms of numbers of ships engaged 250 in total. The largest surface action and the largest ship-to-ship action, in terms of the tonnage of the ships engaged. The largest gun action in terms of the weight of fire of the guns involved, and the largest single action – surface or otherwise – in terms of the numbers of torpedoes launched. The Imperial German Navy's battle fleet (the High Seas Fleet) commanded by Reinhard Scheer comprising of 16 Battleships, 5 Battle Cruisers, 11 Light Cruisers, 5 Pre- Dreadnoughts was engaged by the numerically superior British main battle fleet (the Grand Fleet) under Jellicoe. Comprising of 28 Battleships, 9 Battle Cruisers, 8 Armoured Cruisers, 28 Light Cruisers and 78 Destroyers. Material losses were heavier on the British side, but the High Seas Fleet only narrowly escaped destruction and was thereafter not prepared to risk another encounter with the Grand Fleet.
  • Philippine Sea, June 19–20, 1944. The largest aircraft carrier battle in history, involving 15 US fleet and light carriers, nine Japanese carriers, 170 other warships and some 1,700 aircraft. Leyte Gulf is generally considered to be a group of several interrelated battles rather than simply one battle. If this is taken seriously, Philippine Sea therefore emerges as the largest single naval battle of World War II, and arguably the largest in history. The air-sea action fought on 19 June 1944 is unquestionably the largest of its kind. The US Fifth Fleet's Task Force 58 is (in terms of tonnage) the largest single naval formation ever to give battle, with the possible exception of the British Grand Fleet at Jutland. Task Force 58 alone was manned by nearly 99,000 personnel, and was in all respects larger and more powerful than any formation to give battle at Leyte Gulf. Likewise, the action on 19 June 1944 is, with the possible exception of Jutland, the largest single fleet action, in terms of tonnage, in history.
  • Leyte Gulf, October 23–26, 1944. The largest in terms of tonnage of ships in the combined orders of battle, if not necessarily in terms of tonnage of the ships engaged. Also the largest in terms of the tonnage of ships sunk, and in terms of the size of the area within which the component battles took place. The United States 3rd and 7th Fleets, including some Australian warships, comprised 8 large aircraft carriers, 24 light/escort carriers, 12 battleships, 24 cruisers, 141 destroyers, many other ships, and around 1,500 aircraft. They won a decisive victory over Japanese forces, which consisted of four aircraft carriers, nine battleships, 19 cruisers, 34 destroyers and several hundred aircraft. The opposing fleets carried a total of about 200,000 men. Leyte Gulf was also a major air battle. Leyte Gulf consisted of four major subsidiary battles: Battle of Sibuyan Sea, Battle of Surigao Strait, Battle off Samar and Battle of Cape Engano, along with other actions. These are counted together by virtue of their all being caused by the Japanese operation Sho-Go, which was aimed at destroying the Allied amphibious forces involved in the invasion of Leyte. However, the individual battles were separated by distances as great as two hundred miles.

Other very large naval battles / operations

  • Sluys, 1340. An English Fleet of about 250 vessels destroyed a French fleet of nearly 200. A decisive battle of the Hundred Years' War, it ended the threat of a French invasion of England.
  • Spanish Armada, 1588. In a series of engagements in the English Channel, a Spanish invasion fleet of 130 ships was driven north by English forces numbering nearly 200 ships. Rounding Ireland into the Atlantic, the Armada was destroyed by powerful gales on its return to Spain.
  • Cartagena de Indias, 1741. 186 British ships attacked Spanish fortifications and six warships in Cartagena de Indias (present-day Colombia), resulting in a major defeat and heavy losses for the British: 50 ships lost and 18,000 casualties. The battle is thought to be the largest military action in maritime history (in terms of tonnage) until the Battles of Normandy and Leyte Gulf surpassed it in 1944.
  • Vyborg Bay, 1790. 257 Russian vs 241 Swedish sailing ships and rowing vessels (498 total) (neva.ru).
  • Trafalgar, 1805. A British fleet of 27 ships-of-the-line and six other vessels, commanded by Vice-Admiral The Right Honourable The Viscount Nelson KB, attacked and destroyed a combined French and Spanish fleet of 41 ships, including 33 ships-of-the-line, ultimately capturing 21 ships of the line and destroying another. Almost certainly the largest battle, at least until Jutland, in terms of the damage and/or casualties inflicted by gunfire alone. One of the most decisive battles in history.
  • Battle of Tsushima, 27–28 May 1905. This was naval history's only decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets. The Imperial Japanese Navy, commanded by Tōgō Heihachirō, with 4 battleship, 27 cruisers, 21 destroyers and 37 torpedo boats and auxiliary vessels, defeated the Imperial Russian Navy, with 8 battleships, 3 coastal battleships, 8 cruisers and 9 destroyers. Russia's prestige in the eyes of the world was badly damaged and it was a severe blow to the Romanov dynasty.
  • Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. Six large Japanese aircraft carriers, the most powerful carrier force assembled up to that time, commanded by Chuichi Nagumo, made a surprise attack, with 353 aircraft in all, on the US Pacific Fleet's base of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. This raid was effectively the start of the Pacific War. Five US battleships were sunk at their moorings. Three of these were subsequently raised and recommissioned, but two (Arizona and Oklahoma) were total losses. Other US warships were sunk or damaged, and nearly 200 US aircraft destroyed (mostly on the ground). 2,400 US military/naval personnel and civilians were killed and 1,280 wounded. However, this event is not usually referred to as a "battle".
  • Midway, 4–6 June 1942. The most decisive battle of the Pacific War. Brought about by the largest Japanese naval operation in history (involving 11 battleships, 7 aircraft carriers and some 200 other ships), it resulted in the destruction of 4 large Japanese carriers and one large American carrier – the heaviest ever aircraft carrier losses in a single battle. Midway was a crushing defeat for the Japanese navy, reversing the course of the Pacific War.
  • Guadalcanal, 12–15 November 1942. A series of surface and air-sea battles in which 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 10 destroyers and 11 transports were sunk. The decisive battle of the Solomons campaign, it ended the Japanese endeavour to drive US forces from the island of Guadalcanal.
  • Ten-gō sakusen ("Operation Ten-go"), 7 April 1945. The sinking of the Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest warship in the world, and five of her escorts by aircraft of the US Navy's Task Force 58 commanded by Marc Mitscher. Not normally thought of as an exceptionally large naval battle, it is nonetheless, by virtue of the immense displacement of Yamato, and thus in terms of the tonnage sunk, one of the six largest in history (along with Jutland, Operation Rheinübung, Midway, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, and Leyte Gulf) – or seven if one counts the attack on Pearl Harbor as a battle.

There may as well be the question of the identity of the largest sea battle in history. Usually one would tend to assume that "largest naval battle" and "largest sea battle" are synonymous, but if the Battle of Red Cliffs (for example) – which was fought on the Yangtze River – were to be adjudged the largest naval battle in history, it would not resolve the question of the largest sea battle – Leyte Gulf, Jutland, Salamis or Cape Ecnomus might still qualify for that title.

Footnotes

  1. For example, Herodotus claimed in The Histories that Xerxes invaded Greece with some 2,600,000 soldiers, but it is commonly believed that only 100,000–200,000 troops actually participated. Since Herodotus is one of the key sources for information on the Battle of Salamis, it is likely that it involved far fewer than the claimed 200,000 sailors and 1,642 vessels.

References

General

  • Fuller, J.F.C. The Decisive Battles of the Western World and their Influence upon History, 3 vols. (Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1954-6)
    • Volume 1: From the earliest times to the battle of Lepanto
    • Volume 2: From the defeat of the Spanish Armada to the battle of Waterloo
    • Volume 3: From the American Civil War to the end of the Second World War

A source for entries on Salamis, Actium, Sluys, Lepanto, the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Trafalgar, Midway and Leyte Gulf.

Midway

The Battle for Leyte Gulf

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