[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

Admiral Spruance, commander of US naval forces at Midway, wanted to prove that the IOWA class US battleships were superior the the Japanese battleships Yamato and Musashi in a surface battle. No such combat ever occurred. Despite the fact that the Yamato had bigger guns, Iowa class battleships had radar controlled fire control systems which enabled them to target and hit ships outside visual range. Japanese ships sever had that capability.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

More WW2 stories

[balch3]

American battleships could fire with accuracy while maneuvering at full speed. The Japanese had to choose between accuracy or evasive action.

[Jonty30]

It would have been awesome to be on that ship when it fired.

[shoff]

battleship firing 16 inch guns https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_ZyQ6WTT3A8

[where's_the_Outrage?]

I seem to recall 2 stories from the Pacific:

1. A US Seaman thought it was funny to make the smokestack belch black smoke. Despite being ordered not too, he did it anyway. A Jap ship seeing the black smoke fired and sank the US ship.

2. The US captain did not trust that the new fangled radar was providing the right information, so he sailed his ship within visual range and got his ass kicked by the Japs.

[Hot Tabasco]

Fascinating video...thanks

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Too many ads on links everywhere. I’ve never seen so many people so desperate to sell something not needed before.

[blitz128]

Question, were any American battleships sunk by enemy fire of any kind after Pearl Harbor?

[bert]

——overwhelming air superiority ——

The article clearly indicates that the Battleship crowd is not dead but rather still alive and well.

The carrier air forces were at work long before the Battleships arrived into the safety of total air supremacy. If Truk wasn’t already dead, the Battleships would never have been permitted to come shoot the dead horse

[Theophilus]

I’ve seen where tbey tested these mighty guns at Dahlgren, firing down the Potomac river.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks DDDfD!

Radar ranging was on some US ships quite early; Admiral Willis Lee used them to great effect off Guadalcanal late 1942.

Note the Kirishima near the left edge:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironbottom_Sound#/media/File:Wrecks_in_the_Ironbottom_Sound.jpg

[dfwgator]

Damn shame we had to do all that to defeat Japan, only to wind up with Mao Tse-Tung in China.