Nazi Germany's Battleship Bismarck vs. America's Iowa Class: Who Wins?

National Interest ^ | July 28, 2016 | Kyle Mizokami

[C19fan]

Military history geeks bar fight. Bismarck has a fearsome reputation but it was just an updated version of the WW II Bayern Class battleship. The Iowas were an more up to date design, being bigger, faster, more turret and deck armor, with heavier guns.

[Mouton]

I think the Iowa class also had radar something the Bismark did not have. Hands down the Iowa class destroys it unless it runs away IMO.

[DarthVader]

Iowa by a bunch.

[kearnyirish2]

IIRC the Bismarck was technically a heavy cruiser; not sure what the distinction is.

[NohSpinZone]

The Bismark barely beat the HMS Hood, a cruiser. Granted, the Hood had help but it was vastly overrated, especially in the tight quarters of the North Sea. In the open waters, who knows.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The never built “Montana Class” of BBs would have been something to see...

[DCBryan1]

Iowa. Unless she had her radar taken out AND she had to manually traverse her turrets....then Bismark could just run around her.

[DarthVader]

Yes they would have been. The biggest and most powerful battleships of all time. My uncle served on the USS Wisconsin in the Korean War. I have been on her and she is still a grand ship.

[Henchster]

Biskmark: 15 inch guns - Effective range = 38,880 yards = 20.9 miles

Iowa Class: 16 inch guns - Effective range = 42,345 yards = 22.8 miles

The Iowa class, by a mile. Make that almost TWO miles. {;^)

[ConorMacNessa]

Questions?

"Riamh nár dhruid ó sbairn lann!"

[knittnmom]

I can never hear that name without thinking of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KecIdlEAKhU

[HamiltonJay]

Bismark was sunk on its first outing, design flaw allowed a single torpedo hit to disable its ability to maneuver leaving it a sitting duck... its kind of hard to argue that the Bismark would win, given history of the Bismark...

But lets play this out, Iowa, faster speed, Better fire control, and Radar etc.... Bismark would have been at a vast disadvantage not only against an Iowa class but against South Dakota class as well.

The design “flaw” that cost the Bismark its life, is one that a nation more experienced with ship building and naval warfare would not have made.. Germany did not have vast experience compared to other naval powers, so there were fatal weak points in the Bismark’s design, that the designers probably never even thought about.

[PAR35]

Iowa class, easily, given equal crews.

16 inch vs. 15 inch main guns
9 vs. 8 main guns
deck armor almost twice as thick.
top speed almost twice as fast (38 mph v. 22 mph)

[GreyFriar]

The North Carolina class of battleships would be a better comparison as they preceded the Iowa class, being launched in 19441 and were the successors of the 1932 Colorado class

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina-class_battleship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado-class_battleship

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Wife and I visited the Missouri at Pearl several years back. She had just come out of dry dock and looked brand new with fresh paint, except for a small dent on one of the decks where a kamikaze had hit and bounced off.

We stood where MacArthur sat to take the Japanese surrender, walked the entire ship, except for the boiler room which was accessible via near vertical ladder.

[Broker]

Yamato vs NJ?

[butlerweave]

Bismark - Zunk

Iowa - All still afloat

Hmm hard choice D’oh

[Rockingham]

In addition, the Iowa had better fire control and damage control. It would have hit the Bismark hard and likely would have been able to withstand any hits that it might have suffered.

[PAR35]

Bismark had radar.

[tophat9000]

The biggest and most powerful battleships of all time

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The Iowa class and not even the planned Montana class wouild be the biggest by long shot.....The biggest and most powerful would the Japanese Yamato class

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato-class_battleship