Yamato had bigger guns and more armor. Would have easily sunk the Bismark.
Well that's a generous statement. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have serious doubts that WW2 Japan would have extended such grace to the enemy.
German naval officers were superior, the Japanese ship was far superior.
Based on the Japanese naval performance in World War I, the Japanese would have probably run after they rendered the German ship a wreck.
The value of the Bismarck was that it took the entire British fleet to locate them. A relatively modest number of aircraft cut her speed before surface ships caught up with her.
The location of the Yamato was never in doubt. We had complete air superiority and lost visual contact with the Yamato only at brief intervals from when it left port at Tokuyama.
It was under continuous attack from three carrier groups whereas the Bismarck was merely slown down by attacks from a single carrier, the Ark Royal which allowed surface ships led by the Battleship King George V to finally overtake the Bismarck and finish it off.
A better use of resources would have been to build 2,054 20.3 ton Mark III tanks instead of the 41,700 ton Bismarck. England may have shifted there resources had Germany done this but the extra tanks would have been more useful to Germany at the start of the war than the Bismarck was.
Bismarck had better fire control than the Yamato.
Yamato had bigger guns, heavier armor, and longer ranges.
It would be closer to a ‘fair’ fight than either side would like.
Both of ‘em would have been in deep trouble if they ran into an Iowa.
Bismarck:
8 - 15” main guns Max effective range 38,880 yds
1.8 rounds per minute per gun on average.
projectile weight 1,764 lb
Armor 12.6” belt and 3.9 to 4.7” deck
Speed 30 knots
9 - 18” main guns Max effective range 40,000 yds
1.5 rounds per minute per gun on average,
Projectile weight 3,306 lb
Armor 16” belt and 8 to 9 “ deck
Speed 27 knots
Bismarck’s guns could penetrate Yamato’s deck and belt armor out to 20,000 yards. While Yamato’s guns could penetrate Bismarck’s deck and belt armor out to 35,000 yards.
In essence Bismarck was built as a commerce raider and not to fight battle ships, on the other hand Yamato was and could conceivably sit at maximum range and beat the Bismark to death.
Dumbest match up ever. One volley from the Yamato would have finished the Bismark.
IMO a more interesting contest would have been one of our Iowa Class battleships v. Bismarck or Tirpitz.
If Germany had won WW1 and avoided the Versailles treaty then they would have avoided the Washington Treaty and German battleships would have entered the 1940’s as at least equal to and likely superior to anything the Japanese could put in the water. They’d have also developed superiority in submarines and the battle between the German navy and the Japanese navy would have included Japanese ships getting slaughtered by long range U boats and then getting shelled by super battleships mounting naval versions of the Gustav guns.
It would not have been pretty.
One must consider more than the ships for a hypothetical naval engagement. America beat Japan because of our sailors...
dabbling in Kantai Collection every now and again, I find this conversation absolutely hilarious
later
