Editing Battleship (section)

== World War I ==
[[File:British 4th Battle Squadron 1915 (NH 2712).tiff|thumb|The 4th Battle Squadron in 1915; the closest vessel is either {{HMS|Benbow|1913|6}} or {{HMS|Emperor of India||2}}]]
{{See also|Naval warfare of World War I}}

By the start of [[World War I]] in July 1914, the Royal Navy's [[Grand Fleet]] outnumbered the German [[High Seas Fleet]] by 21 to 13 in numbers of dreadnought battleships and 4 to 3 in battlecruisers. And over the course of the war, Britain would add another 14 dreadnoughts, while Germany completed another 6.{{sfn|Herwig|1987|pp=144–145}}{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|pp=145–149}}{{efn|Curiously, Herwig states that "Germany [added] 2 Dreadnoughts to [its]...fleet",{{sfn|Herwig|1987|p=144}} seemingly referring to the two {{sclass|Bayern|battleship|1}}s completed in 1916, but omitting the four {{sclass|König|battleship|1}}s that entered service in the first months of the war.{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|pp=147–149}}}} German strategy presumed that Britain would launch an immediate offensive into the southern [[North Sea]], but the British preferred to establish a distant blockade, which very quickly stopped German maritime trade.{{sfn|Herwig|1987|pp=148–149}}{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|p=136}} Both sides were aware that, because of the greater number of British dreadnoughts, a full fleet engagement would be likely to result in a British victory. The German strategy was therefore to try to provoke an engagement on their terms: either to induce a part of the Grand Fleet to enter battle alone, or to fight a pitched battle near the German coastline, where friendly minefields, torpedo-boats and submarines could be used to even the odds.{{sfn|Keegan|1999|p=289}} The British fleet commander, Admiral [[John Jellicoe]], refused to be drawn into unfavorable conditions and enforced the blockade at the [[English Channel]] and between Scotland and Norway.{{sfn|Massie|2005|pp=73–76}}

In the [[Baltic Sea]], Germany found itself in the reverse situation, in an even more lopsided fashion versus its Russian opponent. The Russian [[Baltic Fleet]] had only four dreadnoughts at the start of the war, so they adopted a purely defensive approach to guard the capital at [[Petrograd]] and the northern flank of the Russian army units fighting on the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]].{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|pp=291–292}} In the [[Mediterranean Sea]], Italy initially remained neutral, despite being a member of the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]] with Germany and Austria-Hungary, leaving the latter to face the French Navy and British [[Mediterranean Fleet]] alone. After ensuring the French army units in [[French North Africa]] were safely convoyed to France, the French fleet sailed to the Adriatic Sea to blockade the Austro-Hungarian fleet, which refused to leave their fortified bases. The French, like the other major European naval commanders, had failed to consider that their opponents would not concede to engaging in battle on terms unfavorable to them. The Adriatic quickly turned into another stalemate as the threat of Austro-Hungarian mines and [[submarine]]s prevented a more aggressive employment of the French fleet.{{sfn|Halpern|2005|pp=52–61}}

[[File:Konig-class battleship at Jutland, Claus Bergen.jpg|thumb|left|Painting of a {{lang|de|König}}-class ship under fire at Jutland by [[Claus Bergen]]]]

The Germans embarked on a number of sweeps into the North Sea and raids on British coastal towns to draw out part of the Grand Fleet, which would be isolated and destroyed. These included the [[raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby]], where the Germans nearly caught an isolated British battle squadron, but turned away, thinking that it was the entire Grand Fleet. This strategy ultimately led to the [[Battle of Jutland]] on 31 May – 1 June 1916, the largest clash of battleship fleets. The first stage of the battle was fought largely by the two sides' battlecruiser squadrons, though the British were supported by four of the ''Queen Elizabeth''-class battleships. After both battleship fleets engaged, the British [[Crossing the T|crossed the Germans' "T"]] twice, but the latter managed to extricate themselves from the action as darkness fell. Early on 1 June, the High Seas Fleet had reached port. In the course of the fighting, three British battlecruisers were destroyed, as was one German battlecruiser and the old pre-dreadnought {{SMS|Pommern||2}}. Numerous cruisers and destroyers were lost on both sides as well.{{sfn|Herwig|1987|pp=149–150, 178–188}}{{sfn|Tarrant|1995|pp=31–33, 153, 165, 177–181}}

The Germans made two further offensive operations in the months after Jutland. The first, which led to the inconclusive [[action of 19 August 1916|action of 19 August]], saw one German battleship torpedoed by a British submarine and two British cruisers sunk by German [[U-boat]]s. This incident convinced the British that the risks posed by submarines were too great to send the Grand Fleet into the southern North Sea, barring exceptional circumstances like a German invasion of Britain. In the second German operation, which took place on 18–19 October, a German cruiser was damaged by a submarine and the Grand Fleet remained in port. By this time, the Germans were similarly convinced of the futility of their attempts to isolate part of the British fleet, and discontinued such raids. They instead turned to [[unrestricted submarine warfare]], which resulted in their battleships being reduced to a supporting force that guarded the U-boat bases.{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|p=136}}{{sfn|Massie|2005|pp=683–684}}

In the Baltic, the Germans made two attempts to capture the islands in the [[Gulf of Riga]]. The first came in August 1915, and in the ensuing [[Battle of the Gulf of Riga]], a pair of German dreadnoughts engaged in an artillery duel at long range with the Russian pre-dreadnought {{ship|Russian battleship|Slava||2}} guarding the minefields that protected the gulf. The Germans were drove off the Russian ship, cleared the minefield, but by the time they entered the gulf, submarines had reportedly arrived. Unwilling to risk the battleships in the shallow, confined waters of the gulf, the Germans retreated. The second attempt—[[Operation Albion]]—took place in October 1917. During the [[Battle of Moon Sound]], another pair of German dreadnoughts damaged ''Slava'' so badly that she had to be [[scuttling|scuttled]], and the Germans completed their [[Amphibious warfare|amphibious assault]] on the islands.{{sfn|Halpern|2005|pp=196–198, 214–218}}

The modern units of the French and British fleets in the Mediterranean spent much of the war guarding the entrance to the Adriatic, first based at [[Malta]] and later moving to [[Corfu]]. They saw very little action through the war.{{sfn|Jordan|Caresse|2017|pp=257–260, 274–279}} In May 1915, Italy entered the war on the side of the [[Triple Entente]], declaring war on their former allies; the Austro-Hungarians, who were prepared for the betrayal, sailed with the bulk of their fleet to raid the Italian coast on the first hours of the war on 24 May; the battleships were sent to [[Bombardment of Ancona|bombard Ancona]], but there were no heavy Italian or French units close enough to intervene. For their part, the Italians were content to reinforce the blockading force guarding the Adriatic, as they, too, were unwilling to risk their capital ships in the mine and submarine infested waters of the [[Austrian Littoral]]. Instead, light forces carried out most of the operations.{{sfn|Halpern|2005|pp=144–147}} Meanwhile, several French and British pre-dreadnoughts were sent to attack the Ottoman defenses guarding the [[Dardanelles]]. In the ensuing [[Naval operations in the Dardanelles campaign|naval operations from February to March 1915]], several battleships were sunk or damaged by mines and torpedoes. When the fleets failed to break through the defenses, the British and French decided to [[Gallipoli campaign|land at Gallipoli]] to try to take the fortifications by land; the remaining battleships were thereafter used to provide [[naval gunfire support]]. This, too, ultimately failed and by January 1916, the British and French withdrew their troops.{{sfn|Jordan|Caresse|2017|pp=260–268}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 134-C2280, Szent István, Sinkendes Linienschiff.jpg|thumb|The sinking of {{SMS|Szent István}}, after being torpedoed by [[Regia Marina|Italian]] [[motor torpedo boats|motor boats]]]]

Russian battleships saw more action in the [[Black Sea]] against their Ottoman opponents. The Ottomans had the battlecruiser [[SMS Goeben|''Yavuz Sultan Selim]] (formerly the German ''Goeben''), which the Russians attempted to destroy in a series of short engagements, including the [[Battle of Cape Sarych]] in November 1914, the [[Action of 10 May 1915]], and the [[Action of 8 January 1916]], though they were unsuccessful in all three attempts, primarily because the faster ''Yavuz Sultan Selim'' could easily escape from the more numerous but slow Russian pre-dreadnoughts. By 1916, the Russians had completed a pair of dreadnoughts in the Black Sea, which severely curtailed Ottoman freedom of maneuver.{{sfn|Halpern|2005|pp=226–227, 232, 236–237}}

In the course of the war, older pre-dreadnoughts proved to be highly vulnerable to underwater damage, whether by naval mine or ship-launched or submarine-delivered torpedoes. {{HMS|Formidable|1898|6}} was sunk by a German U-boat in the English Channel in 1915.{{sfn|Burt|2013|p=202}} At the Dardanelles, {{HMS|Majestic|1895|6}} was sunk by a German U-boat, {{HMS|Goliath|1898|6}} was sunk by the Ottoman destroyer {{ship|Ottoman destroyer|Muavenet-i Milliye||2}}. The British {{HMS|Ocean|1898|2}} and {{HMS|Irresistible|1898|2}} and the French {{ship|French battleship|Bouvet||2}} were all sunk by mines.{{sfn|Burt|2013|pp=131, 156–159, 174}}{{sfn|Jordan|Caresse|2017|p=263}} {{HMS|Russell|1901|6}} and {{HMS|Cornwallis|1901|6}} were both sunk by mines in the Mediterranean in 1916 and 1917, respectively. {{HMS|King Edward VII||6}} was similarly mined and sunk off the British coast in 1916, and {{HMS|Britannia|1904|6}} was sunk by a U-boat in the final days of the war.{{sfn|Burt|2013|pp=245–246, 287–290}} The French {{ship|French battleship|Gaulois||2}} {{ship|French battleship|Suffren||2}} were sunk by U-boats in 1916, and {{ship|French battleship|Danton||2}} was torpedoed and sunk by a U-boat in 1917{{sfn|Jordan|Caresse|2017|pp=271–272, 275}} At Jutland, the only battleship lost was the old pre-dreadnought ''Pommern'', which was torpedoed by a destroyer.{{sfn|Chesneau|Kolesnik|1979|p=249}}

In contrast, dreadnoughts proved to be much more resilient to underwater attack. {{HMS|Marlborough|1912|6}} was damaged by a torpedo at Jutland, but nevertheless returned to port.{{sfn|Campbell|1998|pp=179–180}} The German {{SMS|Westfalen}} was torpedoed at the action of 19 August 1916,{{sfn|Massie|2005|p=683}} and {{SMS|Grosser Kurfürst|1913|6}} and {{SMS|Kronprinz|1914|2}} were torpedoed by the same submarine in November 1917; all three survived.{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|pp=145, 148}} {{SMS|Bayern}} was mined during Operation Albion and remained in action against Russian artillery batteries for some time thereafter.{{sfn|Halpern|2005|p=215}} Dreadnoughts lost to underwater attack were rare. {{HMS|Audacious|1912|6}} was sunk by a mine in October 1914,{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|p=30}} the Austro-Hungarian {{SMS|Szent Istvan}} was sunk by Italian [[MAS (motorboat)|MAS boats]] in June 1918, and five months later, Italian frogmen sank {{SMS|Viribus Unitis||2}} using a powerful [[limpet mine]].{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|p=332}}