Naval gun

Naval bombardment

Naval gunfire could reach as far as 20 miles (32 km) inland, and was often used to supplement land-based artillery. Shore bombardment was heavily utilized by U.S. naval forces ahead of landings at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Peleliu, Tarawa, and Saipan in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. In the European Theatre, the heavy-calibre guns of some eighteen battleships and cruisers were used to stop German Panzer counterattack at Salerno. Naval gunfire was used extensively throughout the Normandy invasion, although initially the surprise nature of the landings themselves precluded a drawn-out bombardment which could have reduced the Atlantic Wall defences sufficiently, a challenge that fell to specialist armoured vehicles instead.