This may be a dumb question, but why didn't the British use their Battleships to shell the German trenches near the Coast like say near Nieuport, in order to try and turn the German right flank after the Race to the Sea? I'm curious just how far the trenches went? Right on the beaches? I can't imagine it so. Thanks.
I've often wondered this myself when trying to look at ways the allies could have outflanked the German trench system. The only thing I can think of was that the German may have laid mines off the coast which made it too hazardous. The other reason would be that ship guns were not as powerful as later design so they may have had to come within range of shore-based enemy artillery.
I just looked it up on Wikipedia... The Queen Elizabeth class battleships that fought at Jutland had 15 inch guns (a range of 29 kms or 18 miles)... Didn't think of mines before, so maybe.. but then again, the Allies were getting desperate by 1916, so surely they would have tried to risk running mines in order for a chance to get the war of movement again started again...
The race to the coast as it was called was a fluid battlefield , and it would have extremely foolhardy to have lobbed heavy calibre naval shells into the area , communications were primitive to say the least as radio and telegraphy were in its infancy . Interservice co operation was unheard of at the time .
