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All or nothing is a method of naval warship armor, best known for its employment on
dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
s. The concept involves heavily armoring the areas most important to a ship while the rest of the ship receives no armor. The "all or nothing" concept avoided light or moderate thicknesses of armor: armor was used in the greatest practicable thickness or not at all, thereby providing "either total or negligible protection". Compared to previous armoring systems, "all or nothing" ships had thicker armor covering a smaller proportion of the hull. The ironclad battleship launched in 1876 had featured a heavily armored central citadel, with relatively unarmored ends; however, by the era of , battleships were armored over the length of the ship with varying zones of heavy, moderate or light armor. The U.S. Navy adopted what was formally called "all or nothing" armor in the Standard-type battleships, starting with the laid down in 1912. The
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
soon implemented the system in its battleships starting in 1917, and "All or Nothing" armor was later adopted by other navies after the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, beginning with the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
in its .


Rationale

Traditionally, a warship's armor system was designed both separately from, and after, the design layout. The design and location of various component subsystems (propulsion, steering, fuel storage & management, communications, range-finding, etc.) were laid out and designed in a manner that presented the most efficient and economical utilization of the hull's
displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
. Then, armorers would attempt to design the application of barriers and deflectors which would protect vital areas of the hull, the
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
, and its interior compartments from enemy shellfire, underwater mines, and
torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...
attacks. There would also be attention paid to the limiting of sympathetic damage to hull compartments and spaces, caused as a consequence of primary damage to those hull compartments that directly received shellfire or underwater explosions. The result of this approach was that armorers were "decorating" a warship's hull, interior compartments, and spaces with armor, not according to any overall scheme or protective design. Taken collectively, the total weight of armor yielded by this absence of an overall plan for protection was, in total, far greater than what a realistic hull displacement could float. Consequently, naval architects of the hull and its propulsion system would demand a reduction in the weight of armor applied until the hull displacement and the deadweight of the hull returned the ship's hull form to the range, speed, and stability of the original design performance as specified. However, the continuing advances of larger caliber guns, greater muzzle velocities, more accurate fire at longer ranges, and more energetic explosive fills of the shells demanded drastic improvements in armor protection. Some means had to be found to integrate armor protection into the total design of the warship at its inception. The rational application of armor had to achieve the most efficient use of the hull's displacement to provide buoyancy to the deadweight of the ship's armor. "All or nothing" was the design solution. The "all-or-nothing" philosophy of armor design required the complete rethinking of battleship design, armor systems and the integration of the ship's design architecture with the armor protection system. With the rethinking of design, naval architects had to examine every system and function of a warship, and determine the functions and systems that were critical. The systems were assessed as to priority, relationships, and location within the hull and superstructure. The design was intended to ensure that battleships could (a) survive against the heaviest armor-piercing shells in use in the early part of the 20th century, (b) be able to carry powerful armament, and (c) retain useful speed and endurance. That was made possible by dispensing with the large areas of relatively light armor used in previous battleship designs. The weight saved was used to strengthen the armor protecting the vital areas of the ship, centralized within a compact space. The logic of the design was simple: if the ship were hit in vital areas (the ammunition and propellant magazines; the propulsion plant; the fire-control, command and communications sections), her survival was in jeopardy. On the other hand, if the ship were hit in non-vital areas (non-explosive stores, crew berthing and rest areas, offices and administrative areas), it would most likely not result in the ship's destruction. The armor also strengthened the hull. In the ideal form of the system, all of a battleship's armor is concentrated to form an armored "citadel" around the ship's magazine spaces. The citadel is an armoured box of uniform thickness designed to defend against the largest enemy guns. The propulsion plant, communications systems, weapons, ammunition stores, and command and control of the ship were located in a single area within and beneath the armored citadel. By stripping away the armor from all other parts of the ship, the armor of the citadel could be made thicker. Save for the turrets, the ammunition hoists, the
conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...
and part of the steering gear, nothing in the way of armor protected the remainder of the ship. When
battle stations General quarters, battle stations, or action stations is an announcement made aboard a naval warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the arme ...
were called, the whole crew retreated into this area behind armored bulkheads and armored, watertight doors. The citadel can be visualized as an open-bottomed (closed top) rectangular armored raft with sloped sides sitting within the hull of the ship. From the box, shafts known as
barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...
s would lead upwards to the ship's main gun turrets and conning tower. Although it was desirable for the citadel to be as small as possible, the space enclosed was an important source of
reserve buoyancy The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...
and helped prevent the ship from foundering when other compartments had flooded. Through compartmentalization and the redundancy of key systems, any damage done to the ship outside this armored box would likely be survivable. As long as those systems within the box remained intact, the ship could continue to fight. In effect, the scheme accepted vulnerability to medium-caliber and high-explosive shells striking the unarmored sections of the hull, in order to improve resistance against large-caliber armor-piercing shells without increasing the overall weight of armor. The unarmored parts of the ship would not offer enough resistance to armor-piercing shells to trigger their firing mechanisms (designed to explode after penetrating armor) so the shells would pass through without exploding, while the vital parts could have armor thick enough to resist the heaviest shells. To maximize the thickness of armor available for a given weight, it was desirable that the citadel be as small as possible. One way to achieve this was to concentrate the main battery in three turrets of triple or even two turrets of quadruple (quad) gun mountings, as opposed to four twin turrets typical during the First World War. In some cases, the turrets had an all-forward layout, such as the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
's and the
French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
's . Another way is more compact and efficient machinery such as the French navy's use of "supercharged" ''Indret'' boilers for the ''Dunkerque'' class or the
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
's decision to combine double-reduction gear turbines with extreme steam conditions (ultra high heat and pressure) in the , and .


Evolution

The majority of the battleships up through
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
vintage had armor disposed in belts of varying thickness around the hull, concentrating the main thickness at the point where the majority of the enemy shells would impact. The result of long years of experience, these bands of armor were effective protection when ships fought at close range. As the caliber of guns grew and
fire-control system A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a ...
s improved, engagement ranges increased, so that a greater number of hits would result from plunging fire against the ship's thin deck armor rather than its well-protected sides. Although the US Navy had begun work on the first all-or-nothing ship in 1911, with the , the Royal Navy did not believe that long-range gunnery would be important or that the ship's magazine spaces were vulnerable. However, experiences in the First World War, particularly the
Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland (german: Skagerrakschlacht, the Battle of the Skagerrak) was a naval battle fought between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy ...
, showed that a ship could survive extensive damage as long as it was outside their magazine spaces but any shell that breached the defenses of those spaces had catastrophic effects. The logical conclusion was that there was no point in having armor that could not stop a shell penetrating into the magazine spaces, and that any armor that did not contribute to this goal was wasted armor. The most important finding of the gunnery trials on was that the thick medium armor was completely useless against large-caliber shells. As a result, the Royal Navy adopted in the ''Nelson'' class the "all or nothing" armor pioneered by the US Navy. The end of World War I and the Washington Treaty put a temporary halt in the construction of new battleships. The hiatus was used to refine the protection for the next generation of battleships.At that time airplanes and aerial bombs began to make an impact on naval warfare. With the signing of the Washington Treaty the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
had an excess of old battleships, especially from the former
Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...
, which were expended in gunnery and bombing trials. As a result of these experiments
armor-piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...
ordinance employed against enemy battleships, shells fired by a battleship's main guns and aerial bombs delivered by dive bombers, would have delay-action
fuses Fuse or FUSE may refer to: Devices * Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current ** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles * Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems to protec ...
to explode only after penetrating into a ship's vitals. If on its way through the ship there was nothing to activate the fuse, then the shell or bomb could pass through the ship without detonating, or if it did detonate, the blast would be outside its armor. The ship would not sink unless its own magazines were penetrated; thus, the maximum thickness of armor would be around the magazine area, leading to the final manifestation of the ‘all or nothing’ scheme.


In practice

No navy built pure "all or nothing" battleships although most navies put the theory into use to some degree. Even Japan's giant was armored along all-or-nothing principles as there simply was no other way to provide the heroic scale of protection they required. Of the battleships designed and built within the full constraints of the Washington Treaty, the Royal Navy's ''Nelson'' class and the French Navy's ''Dunkerque'' class came closest to the ideal. Even in these ships some degree of "splinter protection" was included to protect key systems and personnel from fragmentation damage. From the on to its ''Iowa'' class the United States Navy pioneered the all or nothing approach without taking it to its logical conclusion. For example, the US designed its battleships to give the crew additional protection instead of relying only on the armored deck of the citadel. These vessels had three armored decks: a sacrificial armored top deck to decap and set off bombs and shells; a splinter deck between the top and citadel decks to protect the majority of the crew from shell and bomb fragments; and a heavy armor citadel deck protecting the machinery and magazines. On the ''Iowa''-class ships, the splinter deck is below the citadel deck. In World War II-era fast battleships and modernized Standard-type battleships, the secondary armament was also in armored turrets, the same type of mounts also found in newer fleet carriers and cruisers, since this was a vital defense against enemy aircraft (particularly ''
kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
''s). The US could also afford to construct large portions of their battleships using
Special Treatment Steel Special treatment steel (STS), also known as protective deck plate, was a type of warship armor developed by Carnegie Steel around 1910. History STS is a homogeneous Krupp-type steel developed around 1910. The development of such homogeneous st ...
(STS), a ductile armor which provided both structure and splinter protection. The misgivings of building a pure "all or nothing" ship were that they had areas still vulnerable to guns of even modest warships, small arms fire, blast damage from a ship's own guns, bombs,
strafing Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such ...
, and torpedoes. For instance, blast damage was to plague the careers of the ''Nelson''-class ships, a situation aggravated by the positioning of their guns. The superstructure, for instance, housed crucial command stations, communications, and radar equipment. Regardless of armoring scheme used, many critical areas such as the rudder, propellers, and bow could not be protected, so damage to these areas could reduce a ship's maneuverability and buoyancy. For instance, and were lost due to rudder damage; the relatively large and "soft" unarmored bow structures of Japanese superbattleships and proved to be their Achilles' heel as flooding there rendered them unstable and unmaneuverable long before they were actually in danger of sinking. The superstructure housing command facilities, communications, and radar also remained vulnerable; for example, ''Hiei'' was rendered ineffective by a saturation bombardment of small projectiles which set her superstructure afire, suffered extensive topside damage in
Operation Tungsten Operation Tungsten was a Second World War Royal Navy air raid that targeted the German battleship ''Tirpitz''. The operation sought to damage or destroy ''Tirpitz'' at her base in Kaafjord in the far north of Norway before she could become ...
, and was forced to withdraw from a night battle when relatively superficial damage to her superstructure knocked out her radars and disrupted her already-compromised electrical systems, and killed 58 and wounded 60 crew members. The secondary batteries (including dual-purpose guns and heavy anti-aircraft guns) had less protection being outside the main armor citadel, and the light anti-aircraft gun were on exposed mounts with little or no armor (especially the extra AA guns added in the 1944 refit of the ''Yamato'' class), so dive bombing and fighter strafing attacks on ''Tirpitz'' (Operation Tungsten) and ''Yamato'' (
Operation Ten-Go , also known as Operation Heaven One (or Ten-ichi-gō 天一号), was the last major Japanese naval operation in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The resulting engagement is also known as the Battle of the East China Sea. In April 1945, t ...
) caused heavy casualties among anti-aircraft gunners. Such are the trade-offs with "all or nothing" armor, that some vulnerabilities are accepted in exchange for greater protection elsewhere.


In action

The battleship fleet versus battleship fleet showdown that all sides had anticipated never came about, so the benefits of the all-or-nothing ship's design in such a battle were never fully tested. However, at
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
the resilience of the American Standard-type battleship to survive damage was demonstrated, though they would have been lost in open seas. Although all eight American battleships were hit and damaged and four were sunk, it was possible to return six of the ships back into service, due to being in shallow water. was lost due to a catastrophic explosion of her magazine spaces. Competing theories exist as to how this occurred, but ultimately no practical thickness of deck armor could protect any battleship from a vertical bombing attack. Few battleship-to-battleship encounters took place in the Second World War. In the Atlantic these included the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940,
Battle of Dakar The Battle of Dakar, also known as Operation Menace, was an unsuccessful attempt in September 1940 by the Allies to capture the strategic port of Dakar in French West Africa (modern-day Senegal). It was hoped that the success of the operation cou ...
in September 1940, the
Battle of the Denmark Strait The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement in the Second World War, which took place on 24 May 1941 between ships of the Royal Navy and the ''Kriegsmarine''. The British battleship and the battlecruiser fought the German battlesh ...
and the last battle of the ''Bismarck'' in May 1941, the Battle of Casablanca in November 1942, and the
Battle of North Cape The Battle of the North Cape was a Second World War naval battle that occurred on 26 December 1943, as part of the Arctic campaign. The , on an operation to attack Arctic Convoys of war materiel from the Western Allies to the Soviet Union, was ...
in 1943. In the Pacific, there was the Second
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, sometimes referred to as the Third and Fourth Battles of Savo Island, the Battle of the Solomons, the Battle of Friday the 13th, or, in Japanese sources, the , took place from 12 to 15 November 1942, and was t ...
in November 1942 and the
Battle of Surigao Strait The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...
in October 1944, part of the larger
Battle of Leyte Gulf The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...
. In the Battle of the Denmark Strait, was hit repeatedly by 15 in (38 cm) AP shells, causing damage without seriously endangering the ship, however one 15-inch shell about a foot above the starboard bilge keel did not explode. An 8-inch shell from the cruiser penetrated on the starboard side of the stern below the waterline. Splinter damage from this hit caused some flooding in the interior. Another 8" shell eventually penetrated 5.25-inch gun P3's casemate but did not detonate. The fact a cruiser shell could make their way in to those places shows the weakness of "all or nothing" armor scheme. , built using the earlier concept of banded armor, was most likely lost when an AP shell from ''Bismarck'' passed through a thinner upper belt into her magazine, Though also built using the older banded armor design, vessels of the
Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
's proved difficult to sink, largely because they were well-built and highly compartmentalized. ''Bismarck'' withstood tremendous punishment during her last battle. Though an expedition verified that few if any British heavy shells penetrated the ''Bismarck''s citadel, some main-turret barbettes were penetrated, and the ship was virtually destroyed above the armored deck by AP shells detonated by a medium thickness upper belt that did not prevent them from penetrating. ''Bismarck''s
sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
''Tirpitz'' suffered extensive topside damage from Royal Navy aerial strikes during Operation Tungsten but her vitals were relatively unharmed. ''Tirpitz'' was ultimately sunk by a high-altitude bombing attack involving massive
Tallboy bomb Tallboy or Bomb, Medium Capacity, 12,000 lb was an earthquake bomb developed by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis and used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War."Medium capacity" refers to the ratio of bomb ...
s that no practical amount of armor could have ameliorated; in particular, the Tallboy hit amidships between the aircraft catapult and the funnel blew a very large hole into the ship's side and bottom while completely destroying the entire section of belt armor abreast of the bomb impact, which contributed to the battleship's rapid capsizing. Another direct demonstration of the benefits—and the limits—of an all-or-nothing armoring scheme in comparison to banded armoring occurred in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. On the first night (13 November 1942) a US cruiser-destroyer formation charged directly through a superior Japanese force at point-blank range, unintentionally offsetting the advantage of the heavy Japanese battleship guns with their advantage in fire volume. ''Hiei'', built using an incremental armoring scheme, was fatally damaged by fires caused by 8-inch AP shells from USS ''San Francisco'' that penetrated secondary battery casemates protected by a medium thickness upper belt similar to ''Bismarck''. As in ''Bismarck'' the upper belt proved sufficient to detonate the projectiles but not sufficient to exclude them, and a fatal hit that disabled her steering gear allowed ''Hiei'' to be sunk by air attack the following day. On the second night, (14–15 November 1942) the USS ''South Dakota'' was hit at close range by 27 common, HE, and AP shells of various calibers, most of which passed through her unarmored superstructure without detonating and caused relatively little damage. Both projectiles that struck ''South Dakota''s armor shattered, including a 14 in (36 cm)
armor-piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...
round from the Japanese battleship , which struck the heavily armored barbette of main battery turret III. No projectiles penetrated ''South Dakota's'' armor and the ship's hull strength, buoyancy, stability, steering and propulsion were not materially affected.William Garzke and Robert Dulin, ''Battleships: United States Battleships in World War II'', p.76 Though ''South Dakota'' was in no danger of sinking, she was put out of action by the damage the smaller-caliber fire wreaked upon her radars and electronic systems, which rendered her ineffective for night combat. The Battle of Surigao Strait was the last battleship-versus-battleship encounter. Once the Japanese forces (after first being decimated by US destroyer torpedoes) reached the main US line, the deciding factor was the much greater numbers of the American force, plus their superior radar, so the armor schemes of US battleships were not tested.


See also

* Pre-dreadnought protection * *
G3 battlecruiser The G3 battlecruisers were a class of battlecruisers planned by the Royal Navy after the end of World War I in response to naval expansion programmes by the United States and Japan. The four ships of this class would have been larger, faster ...


Notes


References

* * An illustrated guide to battleships and battlecruisers, John Jordan, 1985, Salamander Books. * *


External links


"All or Nothing" Protection
article at The Naval Technical Board.

a comparison of American standard type battleships against those of other nations, at The Naval Technical Board.

site. * Analysis of Damage: USS South Dakota at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
Introduction
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008182455/http://www.navweaps.com/index_lundgren/South_Dakota_Damage_Analysis_Introduction.pdf , date=October 8, 2018 an
Summary
article at www,NavWeaps.com Battleships Naval armour