When the U.S. was attacked at Pearl Harbor, many of her battle ships were sunk or damaged. Even though those behemoths were knocked out of commission, they were not the backbone of the U.S. naval force, it was the carriers and submarines that were our most powerful weapons. Many of the battleships were considered obsolete even for battlewagons, as they were sometimes called and the Japanese had failed to even block the harbor as they had hoped, leaving the facilities at Pearl Harbor, still useful. The most famous of the battleships to be damaged or sunk on that day was, the USS Arizona which was designated BB39. It had been begun in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York in 1914 and finished in 1917. It was essentially a World War I battleship. It was a large ship for the time being about 600 feet long and having a displacement of over 34,000 tons under normal conditions. Its top speed was slightly under 21 knots. Battleships had an armored belt that extended around the entire ship. The one on the Arizona's was 14 inches thick amidships, but tapered to only 8 inches on the ends. It extended about 9 feet above the water line. The ship was armed with twelve 14 inch rifled guns that could shoot to a maximum range of 45,000 yards. It had many other guns such as twelve 5 inch guns, eight anti aircraft 5 inch guns and eight 60 caliber machine guns.

All of the above may sound impressive but you have to compare it to another battleship, a Japanese one, to see how far behind we really were in battleship technology. The most powerful battleship the Japanese had in World War II was the Yamato. The Yamato was first began in 1937 and completed on 16 December 1941, although it had been launched on 8 August 1940. The Yamato was the biggest battleship of the war. It was 862 feet long and displaced 65,027 tones empty and when it was full, it displaced 72,800 tons. It was truly a goliath. It was 121 feet wide and contained over 21,000 tons of armor. It was able to travel at over 27 knots. and could travel almost 7,000 miles on a tank of fuel. It had nine 18.1 inch guns with a range of over 45,000 yards, twelve 6.1 inch guns, twelve 5 inch guns, twenty four anti aircraft guns of 25 mm and four more of 13 mm. The guns had been changed by 1945 at which time she had nine 18.1 inch, six 6.1 inch, twenty four 5 inch, One hundred sixty two 25mm anti aircraft and four 13mm anti aircraft, The ship carried seven planes and had two catapults making it a mini aircraft carrier. A 1/10 model of this ship exists in a museum in Japan. The Yamato had a sister ship named the Musashi.

The Japanese had intended to build a larger class of battle ship as the war began. Some refer to this class as the super Yamato class of battleship. It was to have at least six 20 inch guns. The Yamato class was to also be rearmed with the new and larger guns. The Japanese plan was for Japan to have at least eleven battleships with 20 inch guns in service by 1946. The Japanese army threw a monkey wrench into these plans by starting the war five years early, much in the same manner as the Germans had done. The Japanese never took into account in their plans the aircraft carriers under construction by the U.S. It is ironic, the main Japanese weapon for bombing Pearl Harbor by the Japanese was their carrier fleet and yet they never went after ours or even considered how our carrier building program might contribute to their downfall. A battle ship design was submitted to the Japanese government that called for a battleship with twelve 20 inch guns and was 951+ feet long with a beam of 124+ feet. The ship had a power plant that could drive it at over 30 knots and a range of over 12,000 miles. The plan was called the Fujimoto Battleship Design. It was never adopted. By the way it would have carried 12 aircraft and had three catapults, Ouch!

Battleship Iowa

The U.S. didn't stand still on battleship construction in World War II. It is said that if you take all the characteristics of the Iowa class battleship into consideration, it was the most powerful battleship afloat. The ships were 888 feet long and displaced 43,944 tons light or 57,216 tons full. They had a beam of 109 feet and could speed along at over 35 knots. The engines put out 212,000 horsepower. The belt of armor was 12.1 inches thick and inclined 19 degrees to deflect hits. They had nine 16 inch guns, twenty 5 inch guns, eighty 40mm anti aircraft guns and forty nine 20mm anti aircraft guns. Over the years some of this was changed and in 1983 they had nine 16 in guns, twelve 5 inch guns, four 20mm anti aircraft guns, thirty two Tomahawk Cruise Missiles and sixteen Harpoon anti ship missiles. The range of the ships was 18,000 miles at a speed of 12 knots. The range of the guns in this class of battleship was almost 24 miles, only about 1.5 miles less than the 18 inch guns of the Yamato. This would be neutralized by their superior speed and the difficulty of hitting a ship at this extreme distance.

Battleship Bismarck

The Germans had the Bismarck class battleships. They weighed in with a displacement of about 35,000 tons. The program was begun in 1932 and referred to as the 'F' design. They were the largest European battleships, but many in the German navy were not happy with them. In 1937 a new 'H' class of battleship was purposed. When it came to ships, Hitler wanted all battleships that would be constructed to have at least 18 inch guns and preferred 20 inch ones. It took a lot of convincing to dissuade him, but he finally agreed to 16 inch guns. The problem was that the German ports would have to be redesigned to accommodate the bigger ships required by the larger guns and this was just not practical. The new design was mostly an enlargement of the Bismarck class battleship. The new type of battleship that the Germans wanted to build would have been 872 feet long, have a 122 foot beam, have a 12 inch belt of armor along with torpedo detonation plating at key sections. It would have had eight 16 inch guns, twelve 5.9 inch guns, sixteen 105mm anti aircraft guns, sixteen 37mm anti aircraft guns, twenty four 20mm anti aircraft guns and six torpedo tubes. A formidable ship indeed. It was lucky for us that these ships were never put into production.

The plans for 'Das Fuehrer' or as some call it, ' Das Fuhrer" battleship were awesome but many considered them fool hardy, but no one wanted to tell this to Hitler. He wanted the biggest battleship in the world and indeed the design was drawn up for this monster. It was to displace 122,000 tons, have eight 21 inch guns and travel at about 30 knots. The problem was that this ship would have been almost twice the size of the Yamato and no docking facility was big enough for it. It would also be very hard to maneuver. Worst of all was the fact that the steel it needed for its construction would have meant that nothing else could have been built during its construction. As the war neared its end, Hitler finally gave up on its construction.