Crossing the T
Crossing the T is a combat tactic on artillery- equipped ships of the line that can fire forward or rearward with many guns to the side, but only a few. Since the development of modern guided missile cruisers and aircraft carriers , this technology is no longer relevant for modern naval warfare .
description
The blue fleet in the illustration has managed to cross the direction of travel of the red fleet through higher speed or a better starting position. With that she pulled the line across the T.
This gives the blue fleet several advantages:
- She can concentrate her fire on the top ship of the red fleet.
- It can use all guns (here: eight), while the enemy fleet can only use the front guns (here: four) due to the hindrance caused by the superstructure.
- The view of the red ships moving further behind is severely obstructed by smoke and the superstructures of the ships ahead.
- The firing range of the guns is usually less precise (inaccurate distance measurement, meteorological influences) than the side scatter, which is also beneficial to the blue ships, as the ships of the red fleet can be hit over their entire length, the blue only across their width.
history
This maneuver led to the complete destruction of the Russian fleet by the Japanese fleet in the 1905 naval battle of Tsushima . At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, however, succeeded the German fleet through a planned, new and previously unknown counter-maneuvers, the battle-face , twice from the crossing-the-T to escape the British fleet.
At the end of May 1941, an English association consisting of the battleships Hood and Prince of Wales tried to intercept the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen with a crossing-the-T maneuver on their breakthrough into the North Atlantic. However, the English formation was too slow, so that when they met in the Denmark Strait, the German ships were in a favorable position and the Hood was sunk within minutes.
Also in the Pacific War during the Battle of Surigao Strait the end of October 1944 south of Leyte in the Philippines that played Crossing-the-T maneuver an important role. The Americans covered the passage of the Strait of Surigao with a fleet line , and the Japanese Fleet Association ran towards this line.
With the replacement of artillery as the main weapon of ships by guided weapons , the relative position of ships to one another during the battle became meaningless, since these weapons can be fired at an enemy in any position.
Other meanings
In addition to the naval combat tactics described above, Crossing the T is an English phrase for perfect work and perfectionism: "He crossed all the T's and dotted all the I's" (in German: "He drew all the T-lines and set all the I-points." ).
literature
- George Bruce: Naval Battles of the 20th Century . Flechsig, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-88189-506-X .
