Yamato BB.

[cajun]

If we get bismark, we need fairey SwordFish to torpedo it

[Sachs]

Originally posted by Angus
Well, the Japanese built the ultimately large battleships. However, the Americans were the ones with the second largest.
Germany's Bismarck and Tirpitz were excellent ships as well, and so was the British King-George class.
In an engagement betwen giants of these types the sheer size does not say all, for the first salvo to score a hit is often crucial.
The Bismarck had about the equal firepower with its 15 inch guns as HMS Hood, but Hood receving a direct hit into its magazines went up in one BOOM. However, HMS Nelson(or was it Rodney?) was the first one to score against Bismarck, knocking out its fire control with a single 16 inch shell, - Bismarck failing to score any hits after that.
If we were to get some of these giants into AH one day, I guess the damage model would have to be reviewed;)

Lets not forget the Prinz Eugen was the one that started the fires on the Hood first.  Eugen landing several 8 inch shells.  The hood was lightly armored and even the 8 inch shells were doing damage to the Hood.  Eugen also was taking the brunt of the direct fire in the beginning of the engagement as the british thought it was a battleship!!  Bismarck in the final engagement was against overwhelming odds.  She was a tank of a ship

[iwojima]

How bout the U.S. battleship Missouri BB63
The ship the Japanese signed the surrender agrrement on


Musashi and Ymamato 18" shells hittin a field oh my

[GRUNHERZ]

Iowa class BB would most likely defeat Yamato in a 1v1. The 18.1 inchers werent that much more powerful in armor penetration than the US 16 inchers plus the Iowas had a far superior radar fire control system. The Iowas were faster and more manuverable. They could change course and range, rapidly reacquire target, and fire accurately much more effectivley than Yamato.

However the Yamato is a much cooler ship than the Iowa class, so I'd rather see it in AH.

[DarkglamJG52]

Originally posted by whgates3
i would like to see a  Yamato vs. Bismark fight

 The Bismark would not have any opportunity against Yamato.

[Angus]

Wonder what kind of fire control the Yamato had.
I know that the Germans had a good system aided by radar, somewhat better than the British had, however the Brits trained extensively at sea, and managed to keep an excellent record at hitting things far out.
The Bismarck did not have so bad odds when it faced Rodney/Nelson. While the Bismarck was damaged and thereby not able to maneuver, the british ship was a lot slower. They approached roughly head on, both firing, and this time the Brits were the ones to score the first hit. The British ship was a lot smaller and not so well armoured, however armed with 9 16 inch gun all on the foredeck, so posing quite a threat. The Germans therefore directed their fire onto it, trying to knock it out as soon as possible.
The Bismarck was tough, - it was estimated that it took more than 700 hits of various calibers:eek:
Another engagement was HMS Belfast vs Scharnhorst (or was it Gneisenau). While Belfast was only a cruiser armed with 6 inch guns, the Brits were the first to score hits and totally fix their aim on their target while the Germans did not. The battleship had to evade against the enemy who was only about 1/4th of their size!!
The world record against a moving target was scored by the HMS Warspite at cape Matapan in an engagement against the Italian navy. The WWI veteran managed to slam one of its 15 inch shells into one of the italian ships at the stunning range of 26 km!!!!
I wonder if the 18 inch guns were any better. The Americans were happy about their 16 inch guns, the British and Germans mostly kept to the 15 inch guns, and the King George class only had 13 inch guns, - Scharnhorst/Gneisenau 11 inch guns, as well as the three "pocket" battleships of the Krigsmarine.
The smaller calibre meant lighter projectiles of course, but a greater rate of fire. The 11 inch guns were quite fast!
And in an engagement of battleships, the one who manages to get a fix on his target sooner is most usually the winner.
In a slugout between Yamato/Bismarck/King George/Iowa I would not necessarily put my money on the Yamato. Depends on aim, luck and tactics. But shelling a field in AH, I'd sure wanna have it:D
Come to think of it, - AH could do with a little more navy stuff. Would be heaps of fun!

[Pongo]

Karnak..
I stand corrected..only the broadside 6" guns were removed..

[Pongo]

Angus.
In the case of the Brits and Germans the guns used where for economic reasons. The warspite used guns they had handy..
The Japanese designed Yamamoto in total disregard of treaty while others tried to at least keep a pretence of keeping within the limits.  Had the waring nations wanted and valued a line of battle the ships would have been yamoto sized and packing 18-20 inch guns. But such ships were of course dinosaurs by the mid war.
Anyone remember Action Stations!. I think I still have that arround somewhere...

[BGBMAW]

Ok im not gonna play who would win what..but i would love to be able to Take my "Musashi " out and go on patrol.....I dont think i would beach it like the japanese did..lolo

It would be sweet to use ur GV perk points for buying your own Musashi....sweettt

100 points or so to take ur ship out on soem attaks...control it just like cv...u could fly around..and when u get close...MAN your ......150...anti aircraft guns!!!! sweeeeeeetttttt

Love, BiGB
xoxo

[Epsilon 5]

The Americans had alot of different caliber main guns... but the 16in is surely the most known of them. they did tried to make bigger (click on "guns" and  select the 18inches)

A few quotes to note :

The prototype for this weapon was about halfway completed when the Washington Naval Limitation Treaty of 1922 outlawed guns larger than 16" (40.6 cm).  As a result of that treaty, it was decided to complete the prototype as an extra-long 16" (40.6 cm) weapon.

Tests with this weapon in the 1920s and 1930s convinced BuOrd that the 18" (45.7 cm) shells of the time had only marginally better armor penetration than 16" (40.6 cm) shells.

as the 18" (45.7 cm) gun was a much heavier weapon, the studies showed that the same size battleship could carry a maximum of six or seven 18" (45.7 cm) guns vs. nine 16" (40.6 cm) guns, even if the armor protection remained the same.

I wonder if a BB holding 12 main guns would have been possible... but we'll never know, since cruisers equipped with Tomahawks and other missiles can surely do more damage in less time

[GRUNHERZ]

The Montana class BB was planned in 1940-41 with 12  16 inch guns in four turrets, two forward and two aft.  It was basically an enlarged Iowa class. It was never built with the whole project and inital construction of BB-67 Montana being canceled in mid 1943.

They were 925 feet long and would have weighed some 60,000-70,000 tons.

Here's a good link:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/67.htm

[whgates3]

Originally posted by DarkglamJG52


 The Bismark would not have any opportunity against Yamato.

actually i thought the Bismark's superior fire control radar might give it an edge.  i figured thats why it was able to dispatch The Hood so easily

[Karnak]

The Hood was a battlecruiser with some very, very poor design decisions by the RN.  Yamato is a full fledged battleship with massive amounts of armor.

Another thing to note is that a ship's ability to take punishment is greatly affected by its size and the 70,000 ton Yamato will take far, far more than the 45,000 ton Bismark.

I think the late war Yamato had radar fire control, but I'm not sure of that.

[GRUNHERZ]

It had radar IIRC but Japanese radar was exceptionally poor.

[mauser]

Nihon Kaigun
http://www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm

I'd love to see some destroyers... get a squadron of them to launch a spread of long lances from long range, cross fingers, then watch the fireworks.  

I used to love watching "Battlecruiser Yamato" anime on TV when I was a lot younger.  But yeah, the Yamato/Musashi would be something out of the ordinary for AH.  A Japanese TG like in Karnak's sig would be nice.  Imagine working on the sound packs for the big guns

mauser