"Japan's Yamato vs USS Iowa - Which Would Win? " Topic

Battleship Comparison

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Amicalement
Armand

I think a more interesting discussion would be Deyo's slow battle line vs Yamato.

There have been numerous studies done on this. Overall, they are pretty evenly matched. It would probably come down to which one got that crucial lucky hit first.

I see this argument in forums all the time.

Everyone wants to see who would have won, but there are so many items to factor in. What's the weather? Is it day or night? Escorts? Or straight up 1v1 fight?

As amusing as these discussions are, the real issue is the historical matchups- 'BB vs. Aircraft' or 'BB vs Submarine.' We all want to know who has the toughest, baddest 'IT' on the block, but in the end, wars are are about winning, not 1v1 matchups.

Follow on video was rather well done.

Although I really doubt that the historical Yamato would have employed the tactic of steaming away initially to keep the range open – not in keeping with bushido. She would close to what was presumed to be her effective range as quickly as possible.

Iowa – moored in Long Beach and gets lots of visitors. Yamato is less accessible and doesn't get many tourists.

My understanding of evaluations of pretty much all BB vs BB engagements was that the first hit(s) almost always decided the engagement.

Bigger guns? Thicker armor? The core issue was, once you got past about 12-inch guns, any hit would do significant damage.

Warships then, as now, do not tend to have unused dead space to absorb hits. Even projectiles which failed to detonate tended to put critical systems out of action. So one hit, and your staying power, or your fighting power, or both, are meaningfully degraded.

The Yamato had bigger, more damaging guns. The Iowas had better fire control. I give the edge to the Iowas. And the Iowa advantage grows as conditions tilt away from clear blue skies and calm winds. But if it had actually happened, the results would still have depended on the dice. Better fire control does not mean you get the first hit. Only that you get a better to-hit number. You still gotta roll 'em.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Speed is more important than most realize because the fastest ship picks the range of the fight. Being faster and with an huge advantage in radar and fire control gotto give it to the Iowa.

Mark I, I give you a thumbs up.

And being faster by about 5-6 knots (not accounting for conditions) is a big advantage in speed.

There were four Iowa class battleships verses only two Yamato class ships. I'll take the Iowa's

IIRC, the heavy 2700lb shells of the Iowas were about equal to the armor-piercing capabilities of the Yamato's 460mm guns.

The Iowas had a better rate of fire, plus better fire controls (including automatically incorporating radar range data) so were more likely to get that all-important first hit.

Probably the bigger critical failure of the Yamatos is their poor AA protection (at best 24x 127mm AA, 162x 25mm), while the Iowas packed an incredible AA defense (20x 5"/38 DP guns, 80x Bofors 40mm, and 59x Oerlikon 20mm). For whatever reason, the Japanese didn't go in on medium-caliber AA guns like the Bofors 40mm.

Better fire control, higher speed allowing control of the engagement and much better fire control radar. Iowa for the win

The 5-knot speed advantage would, in theory, make the Iowas a bit harder to hit at long ranges. I did some very wild-ass-guess calculations based on speed of ship, and flight time of the shells and if you are just looking at how big an area the target could be in, the Iowas have a 25% advantage at maximum range.

I would have said Iowa class for all the usual reasons until I watched the last episode of The Last Ship.

If an Iowa, even one being run by the Cubans (and no, I don't know how that came about, the show didn't say), can be forced to withdraw by an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with only a 5" gun and her ASW torpedoes… ;)

Japanese with better optics, in a night fight, if radar isn't being used?

Worked earlier in the war for them.

Early war US radars weren't as good as later. Also they didn't know how to use their radars most effectively. After the Guadalcanal campaign The Japanese didn't have the advantage at night.