Naval History Forums

Gentlemen,
Just having a look at the list of US battleships that were available in WW2, it seems that with the exception of the South Dakota,North Carolina and iowa class, most were fairly elderly but heavily armed with either 10 or 12 14"" or 8 or 9 16", which is pretty powerful armament, but were they rather
poorly protected rather like some of the older RN ships and therefore incapable of standing up to either the Bismarck or Japanese battleships?

A small nitpick in that none of the older USN BBs had nine guns.

I think they were pretty well protected, but they were slow. Do keep in mind that the Japanese battleships were also old with the exception of Yamato and Musashi. I'm pretty sure they were the only modern IJN BBs. Now, a number of their older ships had received rebuilds, but their AA suites were never really very good. I suppose that goes for most IJN ships, though.

The old USN BBs were pretty much relegated to shore bombardment, with the notable exception of the Surigao Strait battle, where the extensively updated West Virginia did most of the effective shooting among the USN BBs that were there. That was because she had a modern radar.

Bismarck would obviously have the advantage in 1941, but remember PoW did significant damge to her with 14" guns, so don't count the older US ships out. Their low speed probably means they would never be in a battle with Bismarck, though.

Never say never.

The main armored deck of the West Virginia class was only 1.5" of STS laid directly on 1.5" of mild steel.

Thanks for your replies,
Looking at the weight of some of the US ships, its interesting to note that some of the more heavily armed ships 8x16" and 12 x14" ship were built around the 350000 ton mark long before the Treaty limits were imposed, but the RN apparently could not do so later on.

paul.mercer wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:00 am Thanks for your replies,
Looking at the weight of some of the US ships, its interesting to note that some of the more heavily armed ships 8x16" and 12 x14" ship were built around the 350000 ton mark long before the Treaty limits were imposed, but the RN apparently could not do so later on.

350,000 tons is quite a battleship.

Oops, yes it certainly would!
Of course I meant 35000 tons, but as i said, I wonder why the RN seemed to have difficulty in putting 12 x14 or 8x16" in the KGv's when the US managed it, was it because the KG's had more and heavier armour and were built to be faster?

paul.mercer wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2020 9:20 am Oops, yes it certainly would!
Of course I meant 35000 tons, but as i said, I wonder why the RN seemed to have difficulty in putting 12 x14 or 8x16" in the KGv's when the US managed it, was it because the KG's had more and heavier armour and were built to be faster?

Speed. West Virginia was about 35,000 tons with less than 30k shp. KGV was about 42K tons with about 125K shp.

USBattleships protection characteristics

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