When I was a kid I was into water line models. I believe I had the Yamato. Damn I loved those things. My favorite was Prince of Wales ( I wasn't particular about years of operation or what hemisphere they served in...they just had to be "cool").
If I remember right the U.S. was building a battleship larger than the Iowa class to be called the Montana class, about 1/3 larger than the Iowa's...but construction was canceled due to the Montana's not fitting wartime needs.
but construction was canceled due to the Montana's not fitting wartime needs. Yep...after seeing big expensive battleships sunk by those pesky winged things at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, and off of Singapore I guess the world's admirals figured there wasn't much use in heavily investing in more targets.
The battleships still proved pretty useful in the AA and shore bombardment role however. Imagine the volume of AA fire one of them could put up. It was handy having them nearby when the kamikazes came hunting for carriers.