Cool though they are, battleships are very expensive to operate compared to their capabilities. I believe the impracticality of installing clusters of missile tubes turned the balance against them. We have plenty of other ways to put 2000 Lbs of HE accurately on a target, or bust an armored bunker. The attack on the USS Cole showed that our thin-skinned warships can handle considerable damage.
Yamato, the 'ultimate' battleship, contributed almost nothing. It spent most of the war in port where the sailors jokingly called it Hotel Yamato. In its one battle, Leyte Gulf, it was chased out of the fight by a bracketing spread of torpedos probably fired by the incredibly heroic destroyer Johnston. To the south the destroyer USS Melvin single-handedly sank the battleship Fuso.
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Johnston, Hoel and Roberts were lost so we don't know exactly what happened to them. Apparently the battleship Kongo's AP shells punched through like cannonballs rather than exploding. The Japanese didn't believe these four little ships attacking the major part of their navy could be only destroyers and reported them as cruisers.
I still haven't gotten down to see her, and it's only an hour's drive. I did visit the USS Intrepid in New York, though, and that was quite an experience.
My wife and I visited the Missouri in Pearl on our way to Maui a couple years ago. There wasn't a lot of the ship open, restorations having just gotten started. I mainly wanted to see the surrender spot. The conning station or whatever they called it was something to see, a little room with at least foot thick armor.
If you can see the USS Texas in Houston sometime. It was most likely a hellhole in WWII. It had twice as many men as it was built for back in WWI and they had to hang everywhere to sleep. It is the last of the original dreadnaught class, it seems tiny compaired to the Alabama.
I as well with the USS Texas. It is a couple hundred miles from here - and not much time for play. Hope to do so soon. She was an older version with 12" guns. I want to say my great cousin had here in his navy :-) He was Pacific in his last active days.
Mart>> I meant to say the USS Missouri is in Pearl.
Texas?s main battery consisted of ten 14"/45 caliber (356 mm) Mark 8 guns, which could hurl 1,500-pound (680 kg) armor piercing shells some
13 miles (21 km). Her secondary battery consisted of 21 5"/51 caliber (130 mm) guns.[9] She originally also mounted four 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each side forward at frame 31, with a magazine of
12 torpedoes.
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And the OTHER U.S.S. Texas - SSN 775... Virginia Class.
The Texas was my first and favorite. We used to do almost an annual field trip when I was in school as we were only an hour south. I took my sons when they were young as well. For a Texan, San Jacinto is a special place. I'd guess I've been there about a dozen times.
I've been to the Alabama in Mobile on the way to Disney World. My godfather served on her. One of these days I'd like to spend a long weekend in Norfolk to visit the Wisconsin and the museums around there.
I agree about San Jacinto site. That is one of the issues. They, the San Jacinto committee is trying to kick out the Texas so they can put something on the bank area where it is tied up. It is a shame on the short sighted logic on their behalf.
Reading on some of this - the Texas was re-fitted after D-Day and went into the Pacific to help near the end and did.
Perhaps the first set - more reading ... - was a 12 set and the larger 14's were retro post D-Day - and before treaty limited the re-fitting or the smaller class.
I suspect the 14's were like the 16's using powder bags and a big bullet. The 12 shell I had was like a monster 38 caliber being brass straight side (not bottle nose).
Mart> We had a shell at school - Physics lab. I didn't think it was 14
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