"The Battleship (Final Round)" Topic

Who would win a fair fight?
Missouri.

Yeah, probably.

The Missouri never fought an enemy ship though. Yeah, famous, but joined the war late (1944) and shelled a few islands. The Japanese surrendered on her decks.

The Bismarck at least fought enemy ships. She caused a great deal of grief to England, thus leading to the campaign to specifically find and sink her. The Bismarck had an impressive reputation.

Love the Might Mo, don't get me wrong. But to me, for a ship to win a contest, it needs to do something significant in a naval role, and shelling an island isn't all that note worthy.

Despite your cogent argument, SeattleGamer, I'm going with emotion and patriotism over naval operation and logic-based assertion. In short, no way on God's Green Earth is this descendant of two US WWII vets gonna vote for a ship that bore either a Nazi swastika or a Rising Sun. Stars and Stripes and freedom all the way. THE Battleship Missouri is my answer. (Plus, she ain't been sunk by anybody.)

All the Bismark did was sail out and get sunk. I would have voted for the Missouri (because it was a member of the best battleship class if nothing else) if the Warspite was not on this poll but since it was, I voted for the Warspite.

Warspite fought other battleships at Jutland in WW1 and Calabria and Matapan in WW2 and represents more actual combat service (The Med throughout 40-41, Sicily, D-Day) than all the others combined. From a historical accomplishment perspective, she stands alone.

Yes, if you're going to pick an Iowa (which is hardly a bad choice!), the Missouri is dead last.

Warspite is my default.

Why not the BB-65 Illinois?

What? Potempkin isn't on the list?

The mighty Yamato ran away from 4 Destroyers.
Ok. Ok. There were a few Destroyer Escorts and some jeep carriers too. But not that many.

Did it actually get to fire any shots in anger?

Good point about Missouri. Both Iowa and New Jersey saw more combat than Missouri which was late to the dance and didn't do much more than sail into Tokyo Bay for a party.

On Yamato, other than a miserable performance at Leyte and getting torpedoed to put her in the shop for a while by a US sub, she mostly sat at anchor in Truk or Kure as her fuel consumption and lack of HE ammunition made her unsuitable for troop support missions. I believe I've read that destroyers sailors referred to her as the "Yamato Palace" in homage to her inertia.