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retmil46 · #26 10-08-2006, 08:02 PM

A little correction on the Iowa class battleships -

None of the 4 Iowa class were ever in a ship-to-ship shootout with another battleship.

The Massachusetts (South Dakota class) was in a ship-to-ship with an incomplete Vichy French battleship during Operation Torch (invasion of North Africa).

The South Dakota and Washington (North Carolina class) were in a ship-to-ship with a Japanese battleship during one of the night battles around Guadalcanal.

As part of the Leyte Gulf battle, most of the old Pearl Harbor battleships got their revenge one night in Surigao Strait against the southern part of the Japanese fleet.

As far as the "modern" battleships such as the Iowa class, here are the classes and names of ships -

North Carolina class - North Carolina, Washington

South Dakota class - South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts, Alabama

Iowa class - Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, Wisconsin

There were going to be two more Iowa class, the Kentucky and Illinois, but construction was halted at the end of the war, and the incomplete hulls were eventually scrapped.

There was also going to be another class after the Iowas, the Montana class. Imagine an Iowa class battleship big enough to have four turrets and twelve 16 inch guns. They actually laid the keels for a couple of them, but it was decided by that time in the war they weren't needed.

They also built two ships of the Alaska class, the only real battlecruisers the USN ever built, the Alaska and Guam. Same basic layout as the "real" battleships, but essentially just big cruisers with nine 12 inch guns.

My friend down in TX, he was on the recommissioning crews for both the Iowa and the Wisconsin back in the 80's, rode the Wisconsin throughout the first Gulf War.