Iowa and S. Dakota best BBs of them all

[Angus]

Checked out Barham. QE class indeed.
And the Warspite's hit was lucky, yes. Yet the Admiral's ships were renowned for having elite crews, and the RN capital ships trained extensively.
The Bismarck's "lucky" hit when HMS Hood exploded was at 14K, - at that range The Prince of Wales was already scoring as well.
There is one engagement that sticks out nicely. British cruiser HMS Belfast of 11000 tonnes with 12x6" guns vs. the 31000 tonne  with 9x11" guns Battleship Scharnhorst. In poor visibility the Brits picked her up on radar at 30K and opened fire at 12K. Belfast scored several hits while the Scharnhorst failed to. Scharnhorst disengaged, tried again, disengaged and ran,  - but into a trap setup by the British, - they had a battleship waiting.  Belfast positioned itself nicely to "illuminate" the Scharnhorst while DOY (HMS Duke of York) opened fire at 11K. The Scharnhorst got hit soon enough and ran again (very fast ship). When the distance was some 18K the Brits were still scoring, and finally managed to damage her engines.  As she slowed, she was surrounded and torpedoed untill she sank.
Anyway, at full speed in very little visibility, the Brits scored on a 30 kts evading target at up to 18K many times, even with the 6 inch guns.

[joeblogs]

The difference is that capital ships were a pretty mature technology, so advances didn't come as rapidly as with aircraft at that time.

Gun design was pretty much worked out before WW1. The metallurgy of armor did progress in the 20's and 30's but not by a lot. Powerplants increased in performance, but at a steady rate.

Bigger gains came from aircraft used for spotting and scouting, AA armament, development of night fighting equipment & doctrine, and later radar gunnery.

-blogs

Originally posted by Kweassa
Sikboy, think of the changes and advancements in aircraft performance between 1940 and 1943.

 Hurricane Is, SpitIs, Bf109Es against P-47Cs, 109Gs, Fw190s, Spit9s, La-5FNs and Yak-9s.

 I'm unfamiliar with the evolutionary table of heavy ships, but should we expect anything different?

[OIO]

thanks for the link sikboi. my dates were off but my memory on the spot.

The iowas were built (or upgraded during construction) taking into account the lessons learned during most of the war.

aka, antiaircraft defense, submarine defense, radar, improved fire control , etc.

Too bad they didnt rate the US ships that were sunk and repaired after Pearl into that comparison, it wouldve been interesting.

The way I see that comparison is like putting a spitfire 1, hurri1, 109F4, P38F, F4F wildcat and then plug in a P51D and claim it as the best of the bunch (duh!).