Battleships were the most heavily armed and armored warships in a navy. By the start of the Pacific War, they were typically armed with, and armored against, 16” guns, and were capable of speeds in excess of 20 knots. The United States later launched battleships capable of 33 knots. The Japanese built superbattleships with 18” guns and up to 27” of armor that were capable of 27 knots.
At the start of the war, battleships were widely considered the ultimate arbiters of naval power; by its end, they were widely considered dinosaurs without a future. The truth lay somewhere in between. Battleships did not have the reach of aircraft carriers, the new queens of the fleet, but they were much harder to destroy than the carriers, and the faster battleships carried an awesome antiaircraft battery with which to protect the carrier task forces. Battleships also remained useful for night operations and for shore bombardment during amphibious assaults. No carrier stood a chance against a battleship in a surface engagement; but battleship guns had a range of just 20 to 30 miles, while carrier aircraft could strike at distances of two to three hundred miles.
The last U.S. battleships were still seeing combat service as late as 1990, but it is now the view of the Navy that they are simply not cost effective, and none are currently in commission.
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia (c) 2007 by Kent G. Budge. Index