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To: nonsporting
Outgunned (14"--360mm/45 cal guns) and outdistanced by later German 15" (38cm SK C/34) and American 16" (460mm/50cal Mark 7) designs.

Except that there weren't many ship to ship encounters among battleships in WWII. Aircraft carriers made it possible to attack battleships from hundreds of miles while putting orders of magnitude fewer lives at risk. The Japanese battleship Yamato had 18" guns that could out range the Iowa class, but that was irrelevant. It was sunk by carrier based naval planes. The main use for battleships in WWII was shore bombardment for amphibious operations. The triple expansion steam engines on the Texas were obsolete even when it was built, and made it too slow to keep up with carriers. Once WWII was over, there really wasn't any need to keep such an obsolete ship.

62 posted on 06/13/2012 4:45:44 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: Paleo Conservative
Except that there weren't many ship to ship encounters among battleships in WWII. Aircraft carriers made it possible to attack battleships from hundreds of miles while putting orders of magnitude fewer lives at risk.

I simply pointed out one flaw. I'd rather have a guided missle frigate, or a UCAV tender, phasers...

64 posted on 06/13/2012 5:04:32 PM PDT by nonsporting
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To: Paleo Conservative
The triple expansion steam engines on the Texas were obsolete even when it was built, and made it too slow to keep up with carriers.

The text I have shows the Texas limping along at 21kts. (Not the 33kts of the Iowa class). Carriers then might make 20knots. What gives?

68 posted on 06/14/2012 8:07:15 AM PDT by nonsporting
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To: Paleo Conservative

I always found it rather ironic (and appropriate) that the last battleship-on-battleship engagement of the war (Surigao Strait) involved most of the surviving battleships from the Pearl Harbor raid.


91 posted on 06/15/2012 12:50:42 PM PDT by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy... and call it progress")
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