Aerial image of battleship Yamato discovered

NHK Online ^ | 03 Jul 06 | Unkn

[Pilsner]

the Yamato class weighed in around 70,000 tons and mounted 9, 18-inch gins. The Iowa weighed in around 45,000 tons with 9 16-inch guns.

That said, in a one-on-one dual, I would put my money on the an Iowa except at point blank range.

The US Navy wasn't as optimistic. The Iowa Class Battleships were smaller than the Navy wanted, so that they could fit through the Panama Canal, and not as heavily armored as the Navy wanted, so that they were fast enough to keep up with Aircraft Carriers.

The Navy designed and began production on their dream ships, the Montana Class Battleships. These were cancelled before any keels were actually laid, but they would have been a sight to behold: 60,500 tons and a dozen 16" guns.

Here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_class_battleship

[Tallguy]

The Yamato was 65,027 tons displacement, with 460 mm (18.1") guns. It would have out gunned the Missouri 58,000 tons, 16" guns. The difference in caliber meant that the Yamato could have "stood off " from the Missouri and lobed shells with devastating effect.

Not so. There wasn't much difference in ballistics between the 16" (US) and 18.1" (JAP) caliber rounds. The 18-incher presumably would have hit harder, but if the IOWA got some hits in it would still have been devastating. The Washington & Tennessee proved that American radar-controlled gunnery was superior in the battleship clashes around Guadalcanal. The side that landed the first round was probably going to win. Given the radar advantage the percentages lay with the US BB's.

[Aeronaut]

Just finished up a Fletcher class destroyer last week in fact.

Which one? I have an interest in DD468.

[Gator101]

Yep, and Admiral Kurita thought he'd hit the mother load when his forces first saw US carriers off of Samar. However, they were only escort carriers and their escorts who gave him a fight that a force their size had no business doing. Truly one of the great moments in American naval history.

Actually the slow battleships were guarding Surigao strait down south which they did to great effect, sinking two Japanese BB's. Some of the old Pearl Harbor battleships got a little payback for Dec 7th.

[Antoninus]

The Graf Spee took refuge in the Plate Estuary, and there remains some question as to why he did so, since the ship wasn't that heavily damaged. She then returned to sea where the Captain scuttled his ship.

I had read that the British had fed the Germans false info saying that HMS Renown, a battlecruiser with 6 15" guns had joined Ajax and Achilles, and Luitjens, knowing that he was out-gunned, and that he couldn't outrun the Renown, decided to scuttle the ship rather than sacrifice his men. He also shot himself.

[Tallguy]

The Shinano was a lousy aircraft carrier. Being build on a BB-hull she had little hangar space or aviation-fuel bunkerage for aircraft below deck compared to a purpose-built CV. If memory serves she could only handle about 1/3rd the air wing component of an Essex-class carrier.

[Gator101]

sinking two Japanese BB's

Let me amend that. A bunch of destroyer and PT boat men might argue about who sunk what. Actually I think one of those Japanese BB's was definitely sunk before the US Battlewagons got their chance at her.

[elmer fudd]

What if Superman was a Nazi?

Well, I think Nietzche was the first to come up with the concept of "superman" and his writings were very highly thought of by the Nazis.

[new cruelty]

Wow. It's smaller than I expected.

[Tallguy]

Minor quibble: To sink any bigger battleship at sea: attack it with two or more smaller ships. Plate River (south America): 3 British cruisers took out a larger German ship.

German "pocket-battleships" like the Graf Spee were not REAL battleships. The Germans called them "Panzerschiff". It was British propaganda that coined the term "Pocket Battleship" to give the idea that they were something that they were not. Those ships had almost no armor, and only 11-inch guns. Plus they lacked the steam turbine powerplant of a true dreadnought having diesel engines instead (ie. they weren't that fast compared to a battleship).

So they were under-gunned, unarmored, and too slow. Meat on the table for a couple of heavy-cruisers -- which is how it turned out. Oh, the one thing that they did have was enormous RANGE owing to the efficiency of the diesels. One wonders why they went to the expense of 11-inch armament on ships that could only be used for commerce raiding. Fleet actions were out of the question.

[Gator101]

I have an interest in DD468.

I built her as DD448 La Valette. She would be almost identical to the USS Taylor except that I don't think that the Taylor had the raised AA fire control mount above the number 3 turret like the first few Fletcher round-bridges had.

[Reily]

Well I seem to remember the Iowa class ships having a radar fire control system. Yes it was 1940's radar technology but it probably meant that the Yamato would have been under 'somewhat accuarate' fire before it could have gotten the Iowa class its range.

[Southack]

We broke up the Yamato unmercifully...

[Defender2]

#127. I believe the ships name was FUSO. Yamashiro also took a torpedo hit but continued on into the trap laid at Surigao Strait where she was pummeled by more destroyer torpedoes as well as gunfire from the Battleships that were resurrected from Pearl Harbor, they finally got their revenge that night!!!!

[Tallguy]

Would their main battery 16-, 18- or 19-inch guns have been the primary weapon in a battleship-to-battleship slugfest, or would guns of lesser weight have been more useful?

The idea of the all-big-gun dreadnought was developed because of the superior accuracy & range of the largest caliber naval rifles. By WW2 the secondary armament began appearing, mostly to deal with high-flying aircraft, and small torpedo craft.

[Defender2]

A Truly excellently written piece on the U.S. Naval actions during WWII, Samuel Elliott Morison's(Ret. Rear Admiral) The Two Ocean War.

[COEXERJ145]

The explosion of the Yamato was said to be the greatest explosion ever witnessed by people on the Southern Japanese islands.

Well, that was true until August 6th, 1945.

[COEXERJ145]

That looks like an LPD (?)

Yep, the San Antonio class is an LPD.

[jrg]

Damn funny!

[COEXERJ145]

He also shot himself.

The interesting thing about that is he did it under the old German Imperial ensign and not the Swastika.