The concept of a line of battle ship is really old -depends maybe on how you define weaponry. There were big ships with slingshots and trebuchets in ancient times. The first one matching the modern type was HMS Dreadnought in 1905, and the last was HMS Vanguard in 1945.

Development was really about deterrence more than anything, but then the planes came.

As for accuracy, the record for a hit at longest range is shared by Warspite and Scharnhorst, both hitting a target at 15 miles, also while steaming at high speed.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Against a naval target.

New jersey functioned as a marine artillery position and would routinely shell targets around 20 miles. They don't need to be accurate but they are still technically on target hits.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I've read stories from marines in Vietnam calling in artillery strikes which were sometimes delivered by New Jersey. "We don't target coordinates; we target grid squares."

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah they did bombardment, point then at an area and the area will be removed from play. They destroyed like 300 caves and 200 bunkers between Wisconsin and New Jersey.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

Wisconsin famously deleted a Korean gun emplacement and the hill it sat on.