Were ships effective for sieging cities?
score:4
Ships were definitely effective in siege warfare during the gunpowder age and the industrial age - effectively from the time when cannons became small enough to install in ships until the time they were made redundant by air power.
Despite being relatively fragile, ships were extremely concentrated artillery units. Fleets often outgunned the cities they were attacking - for example the British fleet that attacked New York in 1776 had many times more guns at its disposal than the city. A moving ship, while unarmoured, is also much harder to hit with a cannon than a static city.
Ships also had the advantage of manouverability. The British set a few ships upriver of New York to cut off supplies and reinforcements. They are also faster to move than most shore-based cannons, allowing the attackers to concentrate fireon a part of the defences without warning.
Shipboard artillery was used very effectively in World War 2 - for example at Normandy and in Italy as well as much of the Pacific. Combined with air support, but able to maintain station indefinitely, they destroyed fortifications and infrastructure and suppressed the movement of reinforcements. Battleships USS Wisconsin and USS Missouri provided gunnery support during the Gulf War, 1991. Arguably they remain useful today, although planes and missiles have replaced guns as the primary weapons of choice.
Upvote:0
In addition to the answers already posted, I'll add that sieging a city without ships might not be effective, because the city can be resupplied by sea.
The siege of Acre was the first significant counterattack by Guy of Jerusalem against Saladin, leader of the Muslims in Syria and Egypt. This pivotal siege formed part of what later became known as the Third Crusade. The siege lasted from August 1189 until July 1191, in which time the city's coastal position meant the attacking Latin force were unable to fully invest the city and Saladin was unable to fully relieve it with both sides receiving supplies and resources by sea. Finally, it was a key victory for the Crusaders and a serious setback for Saladin's ambition to destroy the Crusader states.
In other words, if the Crusaders had more ships they would have been able to full invest the city and likely take it sooner. Meanwhile, if Saladin had more ships, he would have been able to keep the city supplied and therefore successfully defend the city.
Upvote:4
Yes, ships were effective in besieging cities, provided of course that the city was close to a waterline or a waterfront. You'll find below some examples of sieges of city that show advantages and difficulties when using ships against cities:
- Syracuse, 213 BC: during the siege of Syracuse by the Romans, it seems that the Romans have used their ships to attack the walls of the city, maybe using the corvus. This is controversial (corvus' existence is not even recognized by all historians), but if true this shows an usage. Also, Roman ships have faced catapults, maybe built on the advice of the famous Archimedes
- La Rochelle, 1628: Catholic fleet was used to blockade the city and to deter the English temptation to help the city with a fleet.
- Sebastopol, 1854: the Allied fleet (English, French, Turkish) tried to bomb the cities but was largely outgunned by the sheltered defense of the Russian city: the ships in woods faced earth-made fortifications and were repulsed.
- New Orleans, 1862: Unionists used heavily armed and protected ships, nearly ironclads for some of them, to attack the cities in the Mississppi, especially New Orleans.
More post
- 📝 How were years numbered on the Republican Calendar?
- 📝 Is Oskar Potiorek considered a suspect in the Archduke Ferdinand assassination?
- 📝 What percentage of the British Empire's economy was profits from the opium trade?
- 📝 Why did Icelandic begin to diverge from the Continental north Germanic languages specifically between 1050 and 1350?
- 📝 Who of the British military had access to the ULTRA messages of the Enigma in September 1944?
- 📝 When did English become a major subject in Japanese schools?
- 📝 Health precautions before going into Battle of Trafalgar and other battles
- 📝 Was there continuity in the political elite between the Confederation Congress and the US Congress?
- 📝 Nuremberg Laws - Did they affect existing marriages between Jews and Non-Jews?
- 📝 Were the ancient Israelites a caste society?
- 📝 Why Californian Indian leader Estanislao was named after Polish martyr?
- 📝 When did the current 24-hour day cycle begin?
- 📝 Did the deity "Horus" pre-date "Horus-Aha"?
- 📝 What is Adios Bruce Lee?
- 📝 Where was human history first purposely recorded?
- 📝 Was Buddha well known by western Romans in Late Antiquity?
- 📝 How long would a letter take to arrive in Geneva from Ingolstadt? (Georgian era)
- 📝 How did the white minority in South Africa see their situation in the apartheid times?
- 📝 What is the source of "the three most useless things in the world are the Great Wall, Pyramids, and the Yamato"?
- 📝 Racism through History
- 📝 In what language did Caractacus deliver his speech to the emperor Claudius?
- 📝 Easter Islands: were the Islanders starving when found?
- 📝 Can Alexander III of Macedon's success be attributed to good logistics management?
- 📝 What goods did Germany trade during World War II, and with whom?
- 📝 Did any relevant Mexican authority ever acknowledge the secession of Texas before the start of the Mexican-American War?
- 📝 How significant was the literary loss due to WWII?
- 📝 How long did it take to get news of the sighting of the Spanish Armada from Land’s End to London?
- 📝 What is the oldest road in the world that has been in continuous use?
- 📝 What prevented the Romans from naval expansion?
- 📝 Where can I find information on a Polish castle dismantled by Sweden?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Were ships effective for sieging cities?
- 📝 Were kamikaze pilots an effective strategy for Japan?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 Were any German cities spared by the Allies for personal or idiosyncratic reasons?
- 📝 Were sailing ships of the line understaffed with gunnery crews so that there were not enough for 2 broadsides?
- 📝 What were the requirements in order for a man to become a burgher (or citizen) in German cities in the middle ages?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 Were ancient ships named?
- 📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- 📝 Why were there no internment camps for German-American citizens in USA during WW2?
- 📝 What were the reasons for making Prohibition a constitutional amendment?
- 📝 Why were British ships not of the same quality as French and Spanish ships until the latter part of the 18th century?
- 📝 How were the cities of Milan and Bruges spared by the Black Death?
- 📝 Were Russians in the cold war era USA discriminated against for their ethnicity?
- 📝 Were slings used for throwing hand grenades? If not, why?
- 📝 What were sandbags used for in medieval duels?
- 📝 What kind of ink was used by medieval scribes in Iceland, given that there were no plant galls for iron-gall ink?
- 📝 Why were Royal Navy ships forbidden to attack the ARA Veinticinco de Mayo in Argentinian waters?
- 📝 Why were troops with bayonets often effective against enemy cavalry even though the bayonet was a "secondary" weapon?
- 📝 What were the criteria for class ranking at West Point prior to the Civil War?
- 📝 Were Shakespeare's plays written for "high culture" or "entertain the bawdy masses" during his time?
- 📝 Was the use of captured tanks an effective strategy for Germany?
- 📝 Were British fears of Russia using Afghanistan as a staging post for an invasion of India unfounded?
- 📝 What were Argentina's intentions for the Falkland Islanders?
- 📝 Were there punishments in the Roman Empire for not believing in the official religion?
- 📝 Were there reasons for Japan to go to war with the US aside from the US owning Philippines?
- 📝 How were taxes collected for traveling merchants in the middle ages?
- 📝 Were there concrete plans, 40-41, for Japan to attack Singapore/Indonesia, while avoiding a fight with the US?
- 📝 What were the original casualty projections for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 Were there any well known royal dynasties that did not in some way cite religious mandate for their rule?