The Quest for Naval Firepower

摘要

Yet despite the destructive potential of those heavy guns, naval gunnery of that era was a hit and miss process - with more misses than hits. During one naval engagement fought more than 80 years ago, a battlecruiser armed with 28cm guns and what was probably a state-of-the-art fire-control system expended about 200 rounds but achieved only around 10 hits on its opponents. Given their growing uselessness in modern naval warfare, most battleships and bat-tlecruisers were retired by the end of the 1950s, to be followed in the 1960s and early 1970s by most of the 6 inch (155mm) and 8 inch ,(200mm) gun-armed cruisers. The age of the naval big gun and multi-turret broadside was over; their role during what were essentially twilight years having been confined to shore bombardment. Today's warships tend to have one or more single or twin-barrel guns, with calibres typically ranging from 75mm to around 130mm.