Kantai Kessen

Common card · No. 349352

The Decisive Battle Doctrine (艦隊決戦, Kantai Kessen; "decisive fleet battle") was a naval strategy adopted by the Imperial Japanese Navy prior to the Second World War. The theory was derived from the writings of American naval historian Alfred Thayer Mahan. In the Decisive Battle Doctrine, the Japanese navy would win a war by fighting and winning a single, decisive naval action. The idea gained broad acceptance following the Russo-Japanese War, where a well-trained, smaller Japanese naval force first fought the local Russian Pacific Fleet, then gained a decisive victory in the Sea of Japan at the Battle of Tsushima, defeating also the Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet and their rival, the Russian Empire. Operational plans thereafter were influenced by the effective naval gunnery Japan demonstrated at Tsushima. From the turn of the century up through the start of the Second World War Japanese planners believed achieving victory in such a battle would be dependent upon the effective use...

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