WWII Battleship gun info

[Ns1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Surigao_Strait#The_Battle_of_Surigao_Strait_.2825_October.29

thanks for wasting 20 minutes of my time

 

[0roo0roo]

thanks for wasting 20 minutes of my time

just look at the load out on each side..the japanese were f***ed from the get go

 

[Perknose]

The last time a battleship did jack shit was 1941 when the Bismarck sunk the Hood and was then sunk herself less than a week later.

Not exactly true. In night action in the Surigao Strait during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in 1944, a group of old-line BB's, most of which had been "sunk" at Pearl Harbor and then resurrected, classically crossed the "T" of the onrushing Japanese and clobbered the living hell out of them.

It wasn't really a "fair" fight, as the Japanese were coming up a narrow strait and had to run a gauntlet of torpedo attacks from US PT boats and destroyers before they ever reached the big boys, but those BB's did get their 14" and 16" licks in, this cannot be denied.

However, the gist of your post is quite true in that battleships were essentially obsolete before WWll even started. They did play a critically important role as AA support for the carriers in fast carrier attack groups, though.

Edit: Ok, I see that dennil already cited this. But, speaking of the Battle(s) for Leyte Gulf, the Battle of Samar is, imho, THE FINEST AND MOST HEROIC HOUR of the United States Navy. It is stirring, it is legend, it was magnificent! It was the naval equivalent of the charge of the light brigade!

To protect a group of baby flat tops, it's puny escorting screen of four destroyers and destroyer escorts turned and sortied into the teeth of a gargantuan Japanese main battle fleet that consisted of a large group of battleships and heavy cruisers including the mighty Yamato!

The heroism of these men was breathtaking!

I read about this as a kid from a book called the Battle for Leyte Gulf, but get and read a book that came out just a couple of years ago called Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. It is the BEST written war book I've ever read, and highlights the story of this not to be believed battle, a tale of valor and unsurpassed bravery that makes me weep to think of it!

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Tin.../dp/0553802577
'

 

[foghorn67]

Not exactly true. In night action in the Surigao Strait during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in 1944, a group of old-line BB's, most of which had been "sunk" at Pearl Harbor and then resurrected, classically crossed the "T" of the onrushing Japanese and clobbered the living hell out of them.

It wasn't really a "fair" fight, as the Japanese were coming up a narrow strait and had to run a gauntlet of torpedo attacks from US PT boats and destroyers before they ever reached the big boys, but those BB's did get their 14" and 16" licks in, this cannot be denied.

However, the gist of your post is quite true in that battleships were essentially obsolete before WWll even started. They did play a critically important role as AA support for the carriers in fast carrier attack groups, though.

Edit: Ok, I see that dennil already cited this. But, speaking of the Battle(s) for Leyte Gulf, the Battle of Samar is, imho, THE FINEST AND MOST HEROIC HOUR of the United States Navy. It is stirring, it is legend, it was magnificent! It was the naval equivalent of the charge of the light brigade!

To protect a group of baby flat tops, it's puny escorting screen of four destroyers and destroyer escorts turned and sortied into the teeth of a gargantuan Japanese main battle fleet that consisted of a large group of battleships and heavy cruisers including the mighty Yamato!

The heroism of these men was breathtaking!

I read about this as a kid from a book called the Battle for Leyte Gulf, but get and read a book that came out just a couple of years ago called Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. It is the BEST written war book I've ever read, and highlights the story of this not to be believed battle, a tale of valor and unsurpassed bravery that makes me weep to think of it!

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Tin.../dp/0553802577
'

Excellent post! I have read just about everything about the Pacific Theater from 4th grade all the way until HS. I seriously considered brushing up and finding new stuff on it. Thanks for the motivation.

 

[ichy]

Not exactly true. In night action in the Surigao Strait during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in 1944, a group of old-line BB's, most of which had been "sunk" at Pearl Harbor and then resurrected, classically crossed the "T" of the onrushing Japanese and clobbered the living hell out of them.

There was also the fight between the US battleships Washington & South Dakota against the IJN Kirishima off of Guadalcanal. That was a much closer-run thing than the one-sided slaughter at the Suriago Strait.

 

[Merithynos]

Edit: Ok, I see that dennil already cited this. But, speaking of the Battle(s) for Leyte Gulf, the Battle of Samar is, imho, THE FINEST AND MOST HEROIC HOUR of the United States Navy. It is stirring, it is legend, it was magnificent! It was the naval equivalent of the charge of the light brigade!
'

Yeah, that is one hell of a story, both the desperate defense by the tin cans and by the pilots off the jeep carriers. The fact that the Japanese didn't manage to sink all of Taffy 3 is a huge testament to the crews of the escort ships and pilots that sacrificed themselves to drive off the enemy force. My grandfather was one of the pilots on the Gambier Bay at Leyte Gulf, and was cited for continuing to mock strafe the Japanese ships after he ran out of ammo.

In terms of the influence of the Axis fleet in the Atlantic, the huge disparity in relative strength forced Germany (and to some extent Italy) to limit their actions to commerce raiding and acting as a "fleet in being". The Allies' reliance on convoys to prop up Great Britain and the USSR in the early years of the war allowed the relatively small German surface fleet to take on an importance completely disproportionate to it's weight in ships, and compared to the actual success of it's commerce raiding. Great Britain was forced to to commit its battleships and cruisers to convoy duty, and to keep a large reserve on hand in the Atlantic and Mediterranean in case the Axis fleets sortied in force, preventing those ships from being used elsewhere.

 

[Perknose]

Yeah, that is one hell of a story, both the desperate defense by the tin cans and by the pilots off the jeep carriers. The fact that the Japanese didn't manage to sink all of Taffy 3 is a huge testament to the crews of the escort ships and pilots that sacrificed themselves to drive off the enemy force. My grandfather was one of the pilots on the Gambier Bay at Leyte Gulf, and was cited for continuing to mock strafe the Japanese ships after he ran out of ammo.

:respect:

You can say a lot of negative things about my country, the United States of America, but no one can ever diminish what it's citizen-soldiers and sailors did in defense of Western Civilization itself in World War II.

You can point to all the flaws in Western Civilization as well, if you wish, but if you remain, on the whole, ungrateful for the opportunities afforded you and your parents here, I heartily invite you to reconsider as to exactly why your parents or grand-parents or beyond washed up here on these shores in the first place.

Whatever you wish to criticize about colonialism, that is exactly, only in ten times more brutal form, what Japan and Germany aimed for in their conquered countries, and what the Soviet Union in fact did in Eastern Europe and their other satellite states.

If we had lost this war, the world would be a darker, uglier, even more brutal place unto today.

I hope we never forget the unbelievable heroism of all the regular, ordinary Joes like your grandfather who went to war and were willing to give that last full measure of devotion, their lives, in defense of their country, kith and kin, and the democratic ideal.

When asked to, they fought like lions, these men, with a valor and bravery we can only hope lies in our hearts. May they never be forgotten. :thumbsup:

Really. Go read The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. I defy you not to be stirred.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uss_iowa_bb-61_pr.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BB61_USS_Iowa_BB61_broadside_USN.jpg

Damn, you can see people watching this from a deck. How freaking loud was that?? The sonic waves can be seen far beyond the flames. YIKES, and those ships are lean and mean. Cut really thin. Nice pics, thanks.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Bigs guns went to the same place as dumb bombs, the graveyard of superior technology. We don't need 16" broadsides anymore, we do more damage with a couple of precisely targeted cruise missiles. Battleships were WAY cool, but even in their heyday they were not a very effective weapon and now they're just big, slow easily sunk targets.

As a capitalist and follower of the total war philosophy, I think there is still a place for dumb bombs and dumb artillery.

Besides, we entered a war when we lost an armed cruiser, imagine a "peaceful" battleship just off the coast of whatever nation was suddenly sunk. We would go to war in a heartbeat.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Not exactly true. In night action in the Surigao Strait during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in 1944, a group of old-line BB's, most of which had been "sunk" at Pearl Harbor and then resurrected, classically crossed the "T" of the onrushing Japanese and clobbered the living hell out of them.

It wasn't really a "fair" fight, as the Japanese were coming up a narrow strait and had to run a gauntlet of torpedo attacks from US PT boats and destroyers before they ever reached the big boys, but those BB's did get their 14" and 16" licks in, this cannot be denied.

However, the gist of your post is quite true in that battleships were essentially obsolete before WWll even started. They did play a critically important role as AA support for the carriers in fast carrier attack groups, though.

Edit: Ok, I see that dennil already cited this. But, speaking of the Battle(s) for Leyte Gulf, the Battle of Samar is, imho, THE FINEST AND MOST HEROIC HOUR of the United States Navy. It is stirring, it is legend, it was magnificent! It was the naval equivalent of the charge of the light brigade!

To protect a group of baby flat tops, it's puny escorting screen of four destroyers and destroyer escorts turned and sortied into the teeth of a gargantuan Japanese main battle fleet that consisted of a large group of battleships and heavy cruisers including the mighty Yamato!

The heroism of these men was breathtaking!

I read about this as a kid from a book called the Battle for Leyte Gulf, but get and read a book that came out just a couple of years ago called Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. It is the BEST written war book I've ever read, and highlights the story of this not to be believed battle, a tale of valor and unsurpassed bravery that makes me weep to think of it!

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Tin.../dp/0553802577
'

Yes, from the article Dennifloss cited:

The Battle of Surigao Strait was the last battleship-versus-battleship action in history. It was also the last battle in which one force (the Americans, in this case) was able to "cross the T" of its opponent. However, by the time the battleship action was joined the Japanese line was very ragged and consisted of only one battleship (Yamashiro), one heavy cruiser and one destroyer, so that the "crossing of the T" was notional and had little effect on the outcome of the battle.[3][7]

The fight had been won by the destroyers, the battleships mopped up against an enemy that couldn't fight back. And even then:

At 03:16, West Virginia's radar picked up the surviving ships of Nishimura's force at a range of 42,000 yd (38,000 m) and had achieved a firing solution at 30,000 yd (27,000 m). West Virginia tracked them as they approached in the pitch black night. At 03:53, she fired the eight 16 in (406 mm) guns of her main battery at a range of 22,800 yd (20,800 m), striking Yamashiro with her first salvo. She went on to fire a total of 93 shells. At 03:55, California and Tennessee joined in, firing a total of 63 and 69 14 in (356 mm) shells, respectively. Radar fire control allowed these American battleships to hit targets from a distance at which the Japanese battleships, with their inferior fire control systems, could not return fire.[3][7]

The other three US battleships, equipped with less advanced gunnery radar, had difficulty arriving at a firing solution. Maryland eventually succeeded in visually ranging on the splashes of the other battleships' shells, and then fired a total of 48 16 in (406 mm) projectiles. Pennsylvania was unable to find a target and her guns remained silent.[3]

Lots of flames, lots of noise, lots of effort, little effect. I count nearly 300 shells expended against a defenseless target, hardly a ringing endorsement of the power of the battleship. The fight was over before the battleships got involved. By that point the US fleet could have sent out two assistant cooks in a dinghy with a small mine and sunk the remaining Japanese ships.

Even all the other examples that Dennifloss cited only prove my point.

The Scharnhorst engaged British surface ships multiple times, scored a few hits, took a few in return and settled nothing. That fight was won by cruisers and destroyers sinking a battleship that despite the size of her guns was ineffectively shooting back and hitting little.

In Cape Matapan the Italian battleship force engaged surface ships of the British Navy and accomplished nothing. Eventually she was hit and crippled by air strikes and the battleships finished her off. Again, it was mop up duty and ANY surface ships could have done it.

In Mers-el-Kébir most of the damage was done by smaller ships, subs, mines and the French scuttling their ships. The British battleships had little effect on the victory and the French battleships all got sunk, mostly by smaller ships.

And those are the examples used to demonstrate the role of the battleship. The role of the battleship has almost always been as a target. The greatest victory every scored by a battleship was a one-hit kill of the Bismarck over the Hood because the Hood had outdated armor and the shell hit a powder magazine. And how was the unsinkable Bismarck taken out? Crippled by air attack from biplanes and eventually finished off with a torpedo from a tiny destroyer.

 

[Terzo]

So were battleships ever useful? I've always associated them with the 20th century but from what you tell it sounds like they've been worthless for the entire 100 years. Were battleships produced in the 1800's? How did they come about if they were practically useless?

 

[Gibsons]

So were battleships ever useful? I've always associated them with the 20th century but from what you tell it sounds like they've been worthless for the entire 100 years. Were battleships produced in the 1800's? How did they come about if they were practically useless?

They got built due to brinkmanship, saber rattling, showing the flag, etc. And I guess a failure to realized the true strength of airplanes and subs.

In actual combat they could provide gunfire support for troops on land, and could put up a good amount of anti aircraft fire. Both roles are sort of secondary though, and could be achieved by cruisers and destroyers at much less cost. Nevermind what an extra aircraft carrier could do.

 

[bteeter]

We don't even have battleships anymore. All those big guns are in mothballs. They brought the BB's back out to play for a short bit during Gulf War I, but then packed em back away. If theres ever a big war now we'll need to build em again methinks.

I live on Maui but I have toured the USS Missouri twice on Oahu in the past year. Its a fucking amazing ship, but it is _really old_. Did I say really? I mean REALLY OLD. And it was the greatest BB we ever made.

All over the ship there are wires snaked everywhere. Imagine walking through it and looking up and seeing a 12" round bundle of hundreds of cables and wires snaking everywhere. That's what its like. In the command center there sits ancient computers and equipment. Its archaic.

Sure, we could modernize it and replace all the ancient equipment, etc. But the cost is huge. And, for most uses missles / bombers are more effective than 16" shells. About the only thing the guns can do that missles cannot is to pound ground defenses. We don't need to do a whole lot of that as we typically just bomb the shit out of them with our planes.

I'm not making that up either because I had a long discussion with a retired navy officer on the Missouri last time I was there. I asked him why we don't keep the BB's in service and he basically said they are outmoded and the only thing they excel at we don't do anymore.

Not to mention that a BB is a huge target and is rather easily disabled / destroyed by torpedoes and missiles. That is why the navy stopped making them. If you read up on WW2 history, BB's were pretty ineffective and played a very small part in most battles. Carriers and submarines were the deciding factors. I don't think this is changed.

 

[BeauJangles]

So were battleships ever useful? I've always associated them with the 20th century but from what you tell it sounds like they've been worthless for the entire 100 years. Were battleships produced in the 1800's? How did they come about if they were practically useless?

Battleships really can trace their origins to the ships of the line of the 18th century. Like the early 20th century BB, they were slow, vulnerable, and packed an enormous punch. Politically, they were an easy magnet for money and controversy. Politicians didn't like the idea of another country having a bigger or better warship, so they kept growing in tonnage and in firepower. As they grew in physical size and sophistication, they also grew in costs and maintenance and, by the First World War, many countries were unwilling to risk their capitol ships in direct combat operations.

Unfortunately for the battleship, it was quickly followed by the airplane and the aircraft carrier, two inventions which changed the game in naval warfare. Yes, the submarine was also a high-impact weapon, but submarines were at least a problem that could be addressed by surface fleet centered around battleships.

Aircraft stretched the battlefield from measures of 2-20 miles to 50-100 miles, well beyond the horizon and the range of the 16 inch guns on a battleship. Hence, their greatest strength -- firepower -- was neutralized and, due to their large size, were even more susceptible to torpedo plane attacks than other surface ships.

It's unfair, and disingenuous, however, to say the battleship was a waste of money. The first half of the 20th century saw dramatic changes on the battlefield which came in rapid succession. There was the first wide deployment of submarines, the first combat aircraft, the first tanks, the first widespread use of machine guns, the first widespread use of sub-machine guns, the telescoping artillery barrel, the truck, trenches, helicopters, jet engines, and missiles (just to touch on a few). We shouldn't be surprised that, time and again, combatants were caught with the weapons of yesterday as opposed to the weapons of today. That story is repeated time and again in World War I and in World War II -- it shouldn't be surprising that it repeats itself in naval warfare, too.

And those are the examples used to demonstrate the role of the battleship. The role of the battleship has almost always been as a target. The greatest victory every scored by a battleship was a one-hit kill of the Bismarck over the Hood because the Hood had outdated armor and the shell hit a powder magazine. And how was the unsinkable Bismarck taken out? Crippled by air attack from biplanes and eventually finished off with a torpedo from a tiny destroyer.

The battleship was one of the first naval vessels capable of meaningful force projection. The battleship was, and is, a vestige of the same mentality that gave rise to the Maginot line and represents a complete misunderstanding of the forces at work and the direction of future combat operations.

 

[0roo0roo]

So were battleships ever useful? I've always associated them with the 20th century but from what you tell it sounds like they've been worthless for the entire 100 years. Were battleships produced in the 1800's? How did they come about if they were practically useless?

shelling the natives when they got uppity was always teh win.

 

[TheStu]

To sum up, pre aircraft carriers, battleships were a country's naval wang.

Though, the psychological impact of a full broadside from the Iowa is probably much larger than that of most over ships. Nimitz launching 4 (I think that is how many cats it has) planes at once must also be pretty awe inspiring, especially with how quick they can cycle the fighters.

 

[0roo0roo]

how long does it take to launch fightesr on a carrier?

 

[AMCRambler]

The last time a battleship did jack shit was 1941 when the Bismarck sunk the Hood and was then sunk herself less than a week later. The Tirpitz was sunk before getting out of the harbor, Yamato and Mushashi went down with a whimper rather than a bang. The US Iowa class was little more than a shore bombardment gunner through 3 wars because even the admirals couldn't figure out anything else to do with them. The aircraft carrier rendered them obsolete and even before the carriers came along submarines did far more damage for a far smaller investment. In WWII US subs accounted for 55% of Japanese ships sunk while accounting for less than 2% of the navy manpower in the Pacific. In the Atlantic where aircraft carriers played a smaller role subs were an ever bigger killer. The most effective surface killer in the Atlantic theater was the Graf Spee which sunk about 50,000 tons of allied shipping. There were about 75 German subs that each did more than that while at least 30 did more than double that. And in WWI it was even worse, the subs kicked the major ass and the battleships sailed around aimlessly, fired their guns once in a while and missed a lot. What do you think battleships EVER accomplished?

Our battleships were pretty key to the island hopping campaign waged during WWII against the Japanese in the Pacific. In the case of ship to ship warfare, carriers were way more important offensively. Defensively the battleships in the task force mounted some of the biggest and impressive AAA weaponry to protect the carriers. I don't think there was ever a WWII battle between the US and Japanese task forces where ships were firing directly at ships though. At sea battles were all mostly fought by air.

 

[Merithynos]

The Scharnhorst engaged British surface ships multiple times, scored a few hits, took a few in return and settled nothing.

You wouldn't happen to be a formal naval aviator, or scion of one would you?

While the battleships and battle cruisers of WW2 didn't have the preeminent role of earlier conflicts, I am pretty sure the 1200 sailors lost on the HMS Glorious (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Glorious#The_Sinking) would disagree with your assertions about the efficacy of the guns of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

WW2 was clearly the twilight of the "big gun" navy, but the battleships of WW2 were the ultimate refinement of a naval tradition that went back hundreds of years, starting with the replacement of oars by sails (for military craft), and the revolution in ship design that followed. The heyday of the battleship was the first third of the century, and if you want to look for battles where they played major roles you'll have to go back farther - look up the Battle of Jutland, or more decisively, the Battle of Tsushima.

The primary role of the European Axis fleets was to tie up resources the Allies could have spent profitably elsewhere, as neither of them could challenge the much more powerful British fleet in the in their own right. Look at the enormous amount of resources expended to sink the Bismarck, or even more noticeably, the Tirpitz.

I count more than a dozen discrete air or naval operations targeting the Tirpitz, across the majority of the war, all to contain a battleship that never managed to fire its guns in anger at an enemy ship. You could also look at the story of the destruction of convoy PQ17, which was ordered to scatter due to just the rumor that the Tirpitz was at sea, and lost 21 of 35 ships after the order to scatter. It wasn't until 1944 that the Tirpitz was finally sunk, and only then that "(t)he destruction of Tirpitz removed the last major surface threat to allied control of the North Atlantic. This freed the capital ships—battleships and aircraft carriers—that had been retained in the Home Fleet as a precaution, allowing Britain to reinforce the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean, establish the British Pacific Fleet, and take a much more aggressive posture against the Japanese in the Far East. (quote from the wikipedia article; too lazy to find a primary source).

I count nearly 300 shells expended against a defenseless target, hardly a ringing endorsement of the power of the battleship.

I think you underestimate the difficulty of hitting an object moving in three dimensions, from a platform moving in three dimensions, with only basic mechanical computation (at best!), from 30 kilometers away (18.6 miles), with unguided projectiles, at night. While the Japanese battleships were not able to fire back, they were certainly attempting to evade. The roughly 10% hit rate from the primary batteries of the battleships was actually pretty good.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Not exactly true. In night action in the Surigao Strait during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in 1944, a group of old-line BB's, most of which had been "sunk" at Pearl Harbor and then resurrected, classically crossed the "T" of the onrushing Japanese and clobbered the living hell out of them.

It wasn't really a "fair" fight, as the Japanese were coming up a narrow strait and had to run a gauntlet of torpedo attacks from US PT boats and destroyers before they ever reached the big boys, but those BB's did get their 14" and 16" licks in, this cannot be denied.

However, the gist of your post is quite true in that battleships were essentially obsolete before WWll even started. They did play a critically important role as AA support for the carriers in fast carrier attack groups, though.

Edit: Ok, I see that dennil already cited this. But, speaking of the Battle(s) for Leyte Gulf, the Battle of Samar is, imho, THE FINEST AND MOST HEROIC HOUR of the United States Navy. It is stirring, it is legend, it was magnificent! It was the naval equivalent of the charge of the light brigade!

To protect a group of baby flat tops, it's puny escorting screen of four destroyers and destroyer escorts turned and sortied into the teeth of a gargantuan Japanese main battle fleet that consisted of a large group of battleships and heavy cruisers including the mighty Yamato!

The heroism of these men was breathtaking!

I read about this as a kid from a book called the Battle for Leyte Gulf, but get and read a book that came out just a couple of years ago called Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. It is the BEST written war book I've ever read, and highlights the story of this not to be believed battle, a tale of valor and unsurpassed bravery that makes me weep to think of it!

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Tin.../dp/0553802577
'

This is a fantastic book. It also talks about the engagement in the Surigao straight. Sure, the flattops could project their power much farther than a battleship, but I'd much rather face a squadron of bombers than be in the sweet spot for a couple battleships' guns (you're also much more likely to face the bombers, which is why the flattops were better weapons).

Also, lots of people are knocking the battleships for being slow. They were in fact among the fastest vessels on the sea.

 

[marvdmartian]

What did a battleship ever accomplish? Ask the guy sitting in the foxhole, getting ready to defend the beach, who's hearing shells that weigh as much as a Volkswagen go overhead, sounding like a freight train coming through!

When Ronald Reagan directed the 4 battleships to be refurbished and brought back into the fleet, during the 80's, they were updated with better fire control systems (allowing the big guns to be MUCH more accurate), as well as Tomahawk cruise missile tubes. Quite a few of the Tomahawks that were launched at Iraq in 91 were sub launched, but there were definitely a bunch that came from the battlewagons.

Mostly what they were, were big ass gun platforms designed to intimidate the hell out of the enemy. The Japanese Imperial Navy had limited success with them during the first part of the war in the Pacific.

But I cannot believe that no one has mentioned the most bad ass battleship that has ever existed!!

 

[Gibsons]

What did a battleship ever accomplish? Ask the guy sitting in the foxhole, getting ready to defend the beach, who's hearing shells that weigh as much as a Volkswagen go overhead, sounding like a freight train coming through!

When Ronald Reagan directed the 4 battleships to be refurbished and brought back into the fleet, during the 80's, they were updated with better fire control systems (allowing the big guns to be MUCH more accurate), as well as Tomahawk cruise missile tubes. Quite a few of the Tomahawks that were launched at Iraq in 91 were sub launched, but there were definitely a bunch that came from the battlewagons.

Mostly what they were, were big ass gun platforms designed to intimidate the hell out of the enemy. The Japanese Imperial Navy had limited success with them during the first part of the war in the Pacific.

But I cannot believe that no one has mentioned the most bad ass battleship that has ever existed!!

Airplanes were far more effective at providing support than battleships. More firepower, more range and much much cheaper. The most important naval gunfire support on D Day came from destroyers. Operation Torch was fully successful and was backed by two cruisers.

For air defense, I'd rather have another carrier launching fighters plus five destroyers than a battleship. The destroyers can help defend against subs, too.

The money to resurrect the Iowas should never have been spent. A couple of tomahawk launchers doesn't justify that big/expensive of a ship, nor should you have to haul a set of 16 inch guns across the globe to do it. A cruiser, destroyer or an airplane can do the same thing, again for a much much cheaper price.