Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:30:35-2:31:20

Could a 20-inch-gun ship exhaust its main battery?

Low hit rates make ammunition endurance a real concern, but a giant fast warship can carry deep magazines and defend itself with more than its main battery.

20-inch GunsAmmunitionHMS IncomparableMagazine CapacityNaval GunnerySecondary ArmamentTorpedoes
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Question

Could a 20-inch-gun battleship run out of shells and then be sunk by smaller-gun ships?

Short answer

It could exhaust its main battery, but it would carry many rounds and still use speed, secondary guns and torpedoes against smaller pursuers.

Notes

A 20-inch-gun ship could expend its main battery and then face opponents carrying more small-calibre ammunition. Ammunition exhaustion is a risk, though the enormous hull would carry a large magazine partly because of its size. Royal Navy heavy-gun ships were also reasonably accurate for their period. Smaller attackers would first have to catch the fast capital ship and would still face its secondary guns and torpedoes. Magazine endurance is therefore one constraint among speed, accuracy and layered armament rather than an automatic defeat.