Largest naval battle in history

• Salamis, September 480 BC. A fleet of 371 Greek ships defeated 600–900 Persian ships in this decisive battle off the coast of Athens. Greek triremes typically had crews of about 200 men, and the smaller penteconters were each crewed by 50 oarsmen, yet the total number of personnel involved in the battle is uncertain.
• Cape Ecnomus, 256 BC. One of Ancient Rome's first major naval victories over its rival, the city of Carthage, during the First Punic War, the battle involved around 680 ships and 300,000 personnel from both sides. Total casualties were about 40,000–50,000, of which roughly 10,000 were on the Roman side and the rest from the Carthaginian side.
• Battle of Actium, September 31 BC. This was the crucial battle of the final war of the Roman Republic, between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian, and one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Somewhere between 780 and 800 ships were involved; Antony had 350 quinqueremes (larger galleys) and 30–50 transports, while Octavian had at least 400 ships, a combination of smaller biremes and triremes. Octavian's fleet won the battle, after which he was established as the first Roman emperor, Augustus.
• Red Cliffs, winter of AD 208. A decisive naval engagement between the forces of Cao Cao and the allied forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, the battle resulted in the defeat of Cao Cao and confirmed the separation of China into northern and southern halves, with the Yangtze River Valley as the border. As many as 250,000 personnel are believed to have participated in the battle.
• Battle of the Masts, AD 654. This engagement was fought between the Byzantine Empire, with 500 ships led personally by Emperor Constans II, and the newly formed navy of the Rashidun Caliphate, with 200 ships commanded by Admiral Abu'l-Awar. The Byzantines hastily attacked, resulting in a decisive victory for the Arabs. Emperor Constans II barely escaped with his life, and the battle marked the emergence of Arabic navies on the Mediterranean.
• Yamen, 19 March 1279. This battle completed the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty's conquest of the Southern Song Dynasty. It is claimed that more than 1,000 Song dynasty warships were destroyed by the Yuan dynasty fleet near Yamen, Guangdong, China.
• Lake Poyang, 30 August – 4 October 1363. It is claimed to be the largest naval battle in terms of personnel, with a reported 850,000 sailors and soldiers involved. A Ming dynasty rebel force, said to be 200,000 strong, commanded by Zhu Yuanzhang, met a Han rebel force, claimed to be 650,000 strong, commanded by Chen Youliang, on Lake Poyang, China's largest freshwater lake.
• Lepanto, 7 October 1571. A fleet of the Holy League, led by the Spanish Empire and the Venetian Republic, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras. More than 150,000 people in 490 ships were involved, resulting in 50,000 deaths and more than 240 ships lost.
• Jutland, 31 May – 1 June 1916. The Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer and the British Grand Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe engaged in battle near Jutland, Denmark, during World War I. The German fleet consisted of 16 dreadnought and 6 pre-dreadnought battleships, 5 battle cruisers, 11 light cruisers, and 61 fleet torpedo boats, while the British fleet was composed of 28 battleships, 9 battle cruisers, 8 armoured cruisers, 26 light cruisers, 78 destroyers, 1 minelayer, and 1 seaplane carrier. Britain suffered more casualties and lost more ships than Germany but the outcome was a strategic success for the British since it resulted in the successful containment of the German fleet. In terms of total displacement of ships involved, it was the largest surface battle.[2]
• Philippine Sea, 19–20 June 1944. This was the largest aircraft carrier battle in history, involving fifteen American fleet and light carriers, nine Japanese carriers, 170 other warships, and some 1,700 aircraft. In terms of displacement, the US Fifth Fleet's Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 58) is the largest single naval formation ever to give battle.
• Leyte Gulf, 23–26 October 1944. The largest in terms of displacement of ships in the combined orders of battle, if not necessarily in terms of displacement of the ships engaged, was also the largest in terms of the displacement of ships sunk and in terms of the size of the area within which the component battles took place. The United States Third and Seventh Fleets (in total, Task Forces 38, 77, 78, and 79) including some Australian warships, comprised 8 large aircraft carriers, 8 light carriers, 18 escort carriers, 12 battleships, 24 cruisers, 141 destroyers and destroyer escorts, and many other ships, as well as about 1,500 aircraft. The Allies won a decisive victory over Japanese forces, which consisted of 1 large aircraft carrier, 3 light carriers, 9 battleships, 19 cruisers, 34 destroyers, and several hundred aircraft. The opposing fleets carried a combined total of about 200,000 personnel. Leyte Gulf consisted of four major subsidiary battles: the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Battle off Samar, and the Battle off Cape Engaño, along with other actions. They are counted together by virtue of all being a result of the Japanese operation Sho-Go, which was aimed at destroying the Allied amphibious forces involved in the invasion of Leyte. However, the individual battles were separated by distances as great as two hundred miles, as well as several days time, from the first submarine action to the Japanese withdrawal.

Notes

Bibliography

General

• Fuller, J.F.C. The Decisive Battles of the Western World and their Influence upon History, 3 vols. (Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1954-6)
  • Volume 1: From the earliest times to the battle of Lepanto
  • Volume 2: From the defeat of the Spanish Armada to the battle of Waterloo
  • Volume 3: From the American Civil War to the end of the Second World War
    • A source for entries on Salamis, Actium, Sluys, Lepanto, the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Trafalgar, Midway and Leyte Gulf.