So impressive were the dreadnoughts in this role that five were maintained in the U.S. Six of these veteran warships won at Surigao Strait during the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 25 October 1944, the last action between big‐gun warships but their most significant contribution was artillery support for amphibious assaults from Attu and Tarawa to Normandy and Okinawa. Except for the Arizona and the Oklahoma, both sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor, all were modernized, and some were virtually reconstructed with the most modern antiaircraft armament, radar, and fire control equipment. Eight served in British waters during 1918 fifteen were on hand in 1941. The “dreadnoughts” of the World War I era played a much more active role in the nation's defense. By 1923, all had been retired from active duty. During World War I, the obsolete vessels of the Great White Fleet were relegated to training and convoy duty. Dispensing with all medium‐caliber guns in favor of ten 12‐inch rifles, the Dread‐nought gained weight of fire and long‐range accuracy through simplified fire control. Sixteen of these warships flexed America's muscles during the cruise of the Great White Fleet (1907–09), but returned home already outmoded by the revolution in battleship design wrought by HMS Dreadnought. Although not seriously tested, their performance at Santiago was judged impressive enough to justify an accelerated program of battleship construction. Aside from the Maine, which exploded (probably accidentally) in February 1898, only five had been completed in time for the Spanish‐American War. Operationally, the early mixed‐battery ships saw little combat as a type. Later, the ten fast battleships were in advance of their foreign contemporaries in mounting dual‐purpose secondary batteries effective against both antisurface and antiaircraft targets. Light armor plating, which would serve only to detonate armor‐piercing shells, was deleted, and the weight saved used for thicker protection of vital areas. Technically, American battleship designers pioneered the “all‐or‐nothing” scheme for armor protection with the Nevada class of 1912. In addition to these vessels, Congress authorized seven dreadnoughts in 1916 and seven fast battleships in 1940, none of which was finished. battleships fell into three distinct subtypes: the twenty‐seven mixed‐battery ships (typically with four 12‐inch and eight 8‐inch guns, 18 knots speed), constructed between 18 the twenty‐two all‐big‐gun “dreadnoughts” (with armaments from eight 12‐inch to eight 16‐inch guns, 18 to 21 knots) completed between 19 and the ten fast battleships (nine 16‐inch guns, 27 to 33 knots) built in 1937 to 1944. Denounced for decades as obsolete, the battleship ultimately survived in the navy until 1995 by adapting to other roles. Although initially ordered by Congress for coastal defense in the 1890s, battleships soon took on the mission of control of the seas, which they held until eclipsed by aircraft carriers during World War II. Navy was usually distinguished from its foreign counterparts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by its heavy gun armament, sturdy protection, and relatively slow speed. Descended from the wooden ship of the line in the age of sailing warships, the steel battleship in the U.S.
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