The Dreadnought - British Pride or the Beginning of a Nightmare?
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Dreadnought is an unprecedented revolutionary warship that integrates all the latest technology and military technology, not only the fastest, most durable, most sturdy, and most destructive. It is a milestone warship, a destined ship Armament weapons written in textbooks. Nonetheless, the Dreadnought, while achieving a technological breakthrough, also had a devastating impact on humanity—and thus began the First World War. The appearance of the Dreadnought caused countries to launch a fierce arms race, allowing the world's navies to scramble to build better warships to compete for sea power, and the United Kingdom was the leader of this war. However, this armament turmoil was almost endless. To consolidate their strength, the authorities of various countries were forced to be involved in the arms race, which finally led to the outbreak of the First World War and even planted the seeds for the Second World War. Britain suffered heavy losses. Not only did it lose many territories, but the British government consumed 40% of the national budget just by paying interest and at once became the country with the most significant debt in the world. The tragedy of the British on the Western Front and the Gallipoli campaign left a deep scar on the chest of the British people, who never imagined that in twenty-three years, there would be another world war that would destroy the former glory of the British Empire, and this war will make Britain no longer strong; the sun never sets the empire finally fell. Is the Dreadnought the pride of Britain or the beginning of a nightmare? Is it when the stars of science and technology shine, or is it the burden of human civilization? Perhaps, the answer is hidden in history; we can only peel the cocoon and find clues from the context of history.
Rewind time first. On August 10, 1904, Japan and Russia fought a 13-kilometer long-range artillery battle on the Yellow Sea; It was the furthest battle in history. This war is significant because it marks the trend of future naval warfare for humanity: the distance between naval fighting will only get longer and longer. And whoever can take the lead in mastering the technology of long-range artillery will be the winner in the future. Since then, the navies of various countries have begun to compete and eagerly build warships that can perform long-range artillery bombardment. As the battle distance increases, artillery fire's hit rate, and penetrating power have also become the most severe challenges for warship design. This challenge tests the country's financial and military strength and technological development that plays a decisive role. However, history tells us that Britain eventually became the winner of this naval arms race - in 1906, the Dreadnought came out; Britain and the Dreadnought dominated the world's navies for the next 35 years.
The birth of the Dreadnought is of revolutionary significance. It has the advantages of strength, speed, protection, and durability in combat. The ship established the essential characteristics of modern warships and an indicator of the industrialization of modern ships; later generations even used "Dreadnought" to distinguish new and old warships. Ships before its birth were called "Former Dreadnought.” The so-called "pre-Dreadnought" basically followed a standard design pattern: two main turrets, each with two cannons and a mix of small-caliber secondary and tertiary guns. However, this design has a fatal disadvantage. The rate of fire and the hit rate will be reduced because different calibers have different rates of fire and ballistic trajectories, which increases the difficulty of bullet impact observation and makes firepower control more complicated. The Dreadnought is alien from the traditional battleship. It adopts the latest firepower system and a large caliber of 12 inches for its muzzle, significantly reducing air resistance and making the Dreadnought's long-range more penetrating and destructive. Dreadnought‘s defense is also excellent. The ship's armor surface, both inside and outside, is hardened, and the thickness of essential parts is as high as 11 inches, making it difficult for enemy attacks to break through. Secondly, the speed of the Dreadnought is beyond that of any existing warship, and it can travel at high speed for a long time, even in bad weather. Although the tonnage of the Dreadnought is more than 50% heavier than previous warships, it subverts the traditional warship configuration. It uses four steam turbine engines to replace the old reciprocating steam engine for the first time, which significantly increases its power and is very close to thermodynamics, An ideal reversible process. The improvement of these technologies allowed the British army to pursue or avoid the enemy flexibly, and the ship's stability improved the living conditions of the British military; the morale and combat effectiveness were also enhanced.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, under the rules of naval warfare under the leadership of British hegemony, warships with mixed calibers gradually became outdated, large-caliber muzzles became the mainstream of warships. A new round of maritime arms race was repeated and launched again relaunched. Some inferior naval countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, Ottoman Turkey, and Chile, even commissioned British shipyards to build “dreadnoughts," which to some extent reflects Britain's international reputation and prestige. Although Germany's industrial development level has slightly surpassed that of the United Kingdom at this moment, the United Kingdom has the advantages of naval scale and heavy shipbuilding. Germany's maritime armament cannot be compared in a short period. For example, the United Kingdom can build eight Dreadnoughts in the same year, while Germany can only make four at most. Not only that, the United Kingdom launched the enormous dreadnought ever in World War I, the Elizabeth, the main battleship that uses diesel fuel entirely, and smashed the dreadnoughts that other countries have built and will build; recalibrated again for the latest specifications of the warship. It seems safe to say that the UK is the rule-setter for this war, and every time they introduce a new Dreadnought, they re-upscale their warships, and navies are forced to catch up.
However, all this looks good on the surface, and the British nightmare is just about to begin. Let’s first look at the impact of the two world wars on the United Kingdom: Although the United Kingdom achieved little victories in World War I and World War II, the two world wars significantly damaged Britain’s financial and national strength. In addition to the pressure of war, Britain had to spend a lot of energy and cost to manage the British colonies. For example, the German territories acquired by Britain after World War I increased the colony area and population by 3.88 million square kilometers and 35 million people, respectively; this has added much extra burden to the UK, and it is simply a "curse of resources.” The UK spends much more on weapons than other countries to consolidate its strength in terms of weapons. For instance, the cost of the Dreadnought built by the UK was as high as 1,785,000 pounds, which is approximately equal to the current 188 million; and the HMS Queen Elizabeth cost £2,300,000, it is about £222m in modern times, which was a considerable sum for military spending. At the same time, the post-war United States rose rapidly, and its economy kept catching up with Britain. In 1928, the industrial production of the United States accounted for almost half of the capitalist world, and its catching-up speed had already posed a severe threat to Britain. By 1931, the United Kingdom had a fiscal deficit of 104 million pounds for the first time in its history. The United Kingdom was forced to abandon the gold standard, the pound was devalued, and New York finally replaced the position of the world financial center of London. The British Empire, which was once brilliant, is worn and depressed. Of course, the British colonies also saw that Britain was in danger at this moment; they achieved independence through the rise of nationalism after World War II. The territory of the British Empire was shrinking, and the United Kingdom finally declined.
Back to the original question: Was the Dreadnought the pride of Britain or the beginning of a nightmare? To answer this question, we must understand from what point of view we are looking at this issue, whether it is from a military point of view to assess whether the Dreadnought is good or bad, or from a current point of view, to analyze its long-term impact on the UK? If it is the former, the problem is much simpler: Intrepid indeed cemented the devastating power of the British navy, whose presence made Britain the most naval power in the world at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, the problem may not be so simple when we put the Dreadnought in the context of history to judge whether its impact on Britain was good or bad. You can say that the Dreadnought has consolidated the position of the British navy in the world and won numerous wars; the world has therefore looked at the British navy, so the Dreadnought had a positive impact on the United Kingdom, but you can also say that it was the appearance of the Dreadnought that brought the world into an arms race; the United Kingdom spent a lot of resources and money in response to this competition and lost countless lives. After two world wars, the United Kingdom has never recovered, so the appearance of the Dreadnought had a bad influence on the UK. History has never been simple, and we cannot expect to use one explanation to answer the cause and effect of history, but the result of the interweaving and interaction of many factors. Therefore, the Dreadnought may have established the British sea power militarily. Still, if we place the Dreadnought in the torrent of British time, space, and history, it is also likely to be the cause of the decline of the British Empire.
Reference:
無畏號戰艦：維基百科，自由的百科全書
Ross, Angus (April 2010). "HMS Dreadnought (1906)—A Naval Revolution Misinterpreted or Mishandled?" The Northern Mariner
江泓 (2015) 英國戰列艦全史 1906-1914
Breyer, Siegfried（1973） Battleships and Battlecruisers of the World, 1905-1970. London: Macdonald and Jane's
頭條歷史（2022）「歐洲病夫」大英帝國的衰落與沒落
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