back to the topic
lets settle this whole thing this way
armor
Yamato hands down.yamato`s armor is nearly twice as thick as iowa`s and is designed to hold multiple capital ship engagements at once. it would take a long long time for iowa to kill this monster.A true test of this was at okinawa 300 aircraft took 4 hours to down this thing after getting hit by 11 torpedoes and 7 1000 lbs bombs (stadard battleships are downed by 3 torpedoes)
The Yamato’s armor
weights twice as much as the Iowa’s, it was not twice as thick. The reason is that the Yamato’s belt armor ran the full length of the ship, whereas the Iowa used a more modern ‘all-or-nothing’ design that stopped when it got past the magazines, reducing the overall coverage by 1/3. Actual protection values for the belt armor of the Yamato were only about 30% greater than the Iowa.
In deck armor the ships are equal, neither can stop the other’s shells in plunging fire.
A concept to become familiar with in battleship combat is the ‘immunity zone’. This is the distance between where an opponent’s guns can no longer penetrate the belt armor and where plunging fire will penetrate the deck armor.
But such is the power of the main battery on these 2 vessels that neither has an immunity zone.
guns
yamato has gigantic 460 mm guns with heavy and big projectiles with slightly higher muzzle velocity way better charge and longer barrel length with obviously superior armor penetrating capability than iowa`s 16 inch guns but at a cost of slightly reduced accuracy and increased loading time loading time. however if yamato`s captain decides to go close to iowa then iowa is kicked in the ass. Bismarck should not join this part or its dead
The velocity difference is only slightly more than 2%, i.e. not significant.
The Yamato’s guns have less than 10% more penetration than the Iowa’s except at very short range. The main reason for this was the superior design of the Iowa’s 2700lb ‘super heavy’ Mk.8 AP shell (previous 16” guns had fired 2240lb shells) concentrated 80% of the energy of the Yamato’s shells on only 78% of the area. The Mk.8 also had less drag and retained proportionally more energy at longer range.
Another thing to consider is that probably every battleship in WWI and WWI that was sunk by gunfire has been killed by plunging fire. This includes the Bismarck, the crew claimed that her belt and engines were intact when she was scuttled to prevent capture. Recent subsea investigations have confirmed this claim.
speed
iowa wins hands down by a few knots
Since the Iowa is 5 knots faster, how can you always assuming that the Yamato can dictate the range? It should be the other way around. The Yamato has to fight at whatever range the Iowa wants.
FC
yamato can fight at night and has best optics of the 3 classes
for radar clear win for iowa but still if the captain and crew(unfortunately this never happened) is smart enough to use his radar to find the location then use superior optics to pummel iowa with its death guns.Bismark also has good optics but why it didnt work against Rodney was because the crew was very very stressed out thou they did KO Hood in 3 hits 1 at magazine(Yamato has the firepower to do this to iowa since its not as armored as yamato).
The Yamato’s range finders are only equal to the Iowa’s radar out to about 20,000 yards on a clear day, beyond that accuracy decreases rapidly. In inclement weather their range is substantially reduced. In fog they are worthless. And at night they are limited to the range of the Yamato’s search lights, which is less than 10,000 yards. Iowa’s radar is unaffected by night or fog, and slightly effected by inclement weather.
But range finders are the least part of Fire Control, achieving and implementing an accurate firing solution based on the data they supply in order to actually hit the target is the critical part.
And here wi where the Iowa has a massive advantage, in any conditions other than during the daylight hours with good weather and calm seas, in the form of the Mk.38 Gun Fire Control System, a fully automated fire control system that directly controlled the main battery and included direct electrical links to all inputs, gyroscopic stabilization, and a feedback system to the fire directors that continuously refined the targets course and speed. The system was so good that except for updates to the radar range finders it remained the standard for engaging surface targets well into the 1970s!
The Japanese fire control system consisted of a large highly trained transferring data by hand from one subsystem, including manual plotting of vessel positions. The range, bearing, and calculated adjustments were then passed to the turrets which aimed and fired under local control. There is no stabilization for the guns. The system worked because the Japanese crews were highly trained, but errors tended to happen in prolonged engagements due to fatigue. It also imposed a significant time delay between when the information was passed from the fire directors/range finders and when the firing solutions were passed to the turrets. This seriously reduces the accuracy against a opponent using radical maneuvers or chasing salvoes. See the Battle off Samar for an example of this where the task group ‘Taffy 3’ (3 destroyers and 4 destroyer escorts) managed to survive in intense combat with the Japanese Center Force (4 battleships
including Yamato, 6 heavy and 2 light cruisers, and 11 destroyers), for over 90 minutes and sunk 3 of the cruisers before finally succumbing. :nutkick
crew
yamato has dumb crew iowa has good crew bismarck has stressed crew
All three had good crews. The Iowa’s crew had the most combat experience of the three so they were the best.
aa
dont join this bismarck you cant down a simple swordfish.yamato and iowa are a tie in this
The Bismarck’s problem with the Fairey Swordfish were that the designers had not designed the automatic fire control system and the fuse setters to work on targets that slow. The Fairey Swordfish was so obsolete that the Germans lacked an adequate defense against them! :lol3
So who is the winner? none yamato is slow but deadly like a sherman vs a tiger if it engages iowa, iowa gets pummeled down (only if good not goof crew man yamato)(iowa cant win because its guns are too inferior to destroy yamato) by hellish rain of huge shells each shot disabling something like a gun or 2 and its fc (yes possible just like bismarck)
but if iowa lives through the onslaught it can use its speed to run away from yamato and quickly get support.if iowa engages bismarck, bismarck should rather scuttle their ship instead it saves time and ammo.
(for all who dont believe ive got links so boohoo to you)
Nope, the Iowa wins. Her superior speed allows Iowa to stay out of range till nightfall, bad weather, or preferably both. Then they can engage from beyond 20,000 yards due to their superior fire control, under conditions where the Yamato cannot effectively return fire, and hit Yamato with plunging fire until she is crippled or destroyed. :sniper
