Date: 2025-04-03 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00017989 | |||||||||
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Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | |||||||||
| From Your Digest Who had the best battleships of WWII, the U.S. or Britain? And as an academic question since they had so few ships, how good were the German battleships? Matt Bowden Matt Bowden, Read lots and lots of books Updated Thu The “best” ship of a given type of obsolete warship is almost invariably the last ship of that obsolete type. The last US Navy battleships were the Iowas. They were essentially stretched South Dakotas designed for more speed. They were very fast and had an impressively powerful main armament on nine 16″ 50 calibre guns, but in terms of armour they were nothing special for their era. The ultimate Royal Navy battleships were the Lions class of 1938. In broad strokes they were similar to the Iowas, only a little slower and with more armour. The first two Lions were laid down but first suspended and then cancelled in 1941 because it was not considered possible to complete them in time for the war and there was a more pressing need for aircraft carriers and escort ships. However, it was decided that by using some old 15″ gun mounts they had in storage it would be possible to complete a modern battleship quickly and “on the cheap.” That ship ended up being HMS Vanguard. HMS Vanguard was based on the Lion design, but substituted nine 16″ guns for eight 15″ guns in modified WW1 gun mounts. In every other respect she was throughly modern. Comparing Vanguard with USS Iowa, it should be obvious that the main difference between them is the armament. Vanguard has slightly better armour. Iowa is three knots faster. Whilst operating together in the North Atlantic, Vanguard proved herself to be a significantly better sea boat. Both have highly advanced radar directed fire control systems based on shared technology. As completed in 1946, Vanguard has an extremely advanced radar directed AA battery consisting of sixteen 5.25″ dual purpose guns in the improved Mk 1* mount and 73 40mm bofors guns. At the end of the war the Iowas had twenty 5″ dual purpose guns and a variable number of 40mm bofors guns depending on which ship in particular we’re looking at, but usually at least as many as Vanguard and all controlled by the best visual direction system in the world (which the Vanguard also used as a backup system) - the Iowas also carried huge numbers of 20mm Oerlikon guns, but they were quickly removed post war as ineffective against the latest threats. What I’m getting at here is that the ships were very equivalent in nearly all respects, however, the Iowas indisputably had a much superior main armament. So, there is no question that the Iowas were the “better” ships, but Royal Navy was certainly capable of building a ship every bit as good. However, circumstances instead determined that their last and best battleship would be armed with 30 year old guns. 9.4k views · View Upvoters | |||||||||