[ealgeone]

And an Iowa-class BB could go just about anywhere it wanted to with virtual impunity - making a great trip-wire that adversaries would have to respect. No small ship or ordinary planes/weapons would put one at risk. After a Burke runs its magazines dry, it can either run away (leaving the BB in control of the contested area) or wait until the BB gets close enough to sink it. For that matter, fifty Burkes would have the same effect - and result.

Let a concentrated air attack happen against the Iowas and they would have suffered the same fate as HMS Price of Wales.

[Phlyer]

same fate as HMS Price of Wales

1) At that time, the Japanese had heavy armor-piercing bombs in inventory, and very heavy air-launched, ship-killing torpedoes. Find either in anyone's current inventory. I didn't say a BB couldn't be sunk, just that no one has inventory weapons that can do it (short of nukes).

2) It was the "HMS" Prince of Wales (along with Repulse). The British have always sucked at damage control.

3) Most importantly of all - it didn't happen! The Japanese launched larger attacks against US BBs than those that took out the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse and didn't sink any of our BBs. In fact, at Philippine Sea the US BBs were placed well in advance of the US carriers as a "Gun Line" because they were so hard to sink - even though (again) the Japanese had heavy armor-piercing bombs and air-launched heavy ship-killing torpedoes. We don't even have to guess whether your statement might be true - history shows it to be false.