Text 18381, 71 rader
Skriven 2011-05-06 06:52:52 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
  Kommentar till text 18219 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Guantanamo
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Replying to a message of Ward Dossche to Bob Ackley:

 WD> Bob,

 BA>> The Iowa class battleships were designed in the late 1930s and the
 BA>> first two, Iowa and New Jersey, were laid down in early 1941 and
 BA>> completed in 1943.

 WD> OK, so you can Google. So what?

Actually I have a book, "The Iowa Class Battleships," by Malcolm Muir.  It
contains
the complete history of all four (plus the two never completed) from laying
down the
keels through the New Jersey's activation during Vietnam.  It includes LOTS of
photos.

 WD> I've been following the Iowa's whenever I had the chance for over 2
 WD> decades now. Together with the Bimarck I considered them
 WD> esthetically nice designs (compard to HMS Nelson, HMS Rodney and
 WD> the complete King George V class which all look like abortions).

The Nelson and Rodney WERE abortions.  A really bad compromise having mostly
to do with armor protection for te ship's vital areas.

The only problem I had with the KGV (KGV, Anson, Howe, Prince of Wales, Duke of
York) class of battleships was those four barrelled turrets, they were just too
cramped to work efficiently.  And rather stupid, IMO,  because they could have
used two 3 gun turrets instead of a 4 and a 2 and accomplished the same thing. 
The last British battleship, Vanguard, 
was completed just after WW II ended and didn't outlive the KGV class by much,
all have
been scrapped; somewhere around here I have a picture of Anson being towed off
to the
breakers..

 WD> So far I've visited 2 Iowa's plus the North Carolina.

It's a shame that the state of Washington didn't claim their namesake - but
they had
the Missouri at Bremerton and assumed (obviously incorrectly) that it would
stay there
forever.

IFYI the Alabama is on display at Mobila, AL, and the Massachusetts is on
display at
Fall River, MA (where she was built).  I don't think any of the earlier
battleships were
saved except for Texas (vintage about 1910), and she's set in concrete at
Houston.

Idaho, New Mexico, Tennessee, Colorado, California, Maryland, West Virginia,
Mississippi,
Arkansas, Nevada, Indiana, South Dakota, Washington and New York - all
scrapped.  Oklahoma was raised and sold for scrap but sank while under tow
between Hawaii and California.
Atizona is theoretically still in commission - but her turrets and
superstructure were all
removed and sold for scrap.

The very heavy cruiser Alaska was also sold for scrap.

 WD> So you're trying to tell me "what" exactly?

Somebody noted that they were designed in 1941, the design was pretty much
complete two years prior to that and materials were being collected.  As I
noted,
the Iowa and New Jersey were both laid down in 1941 - before Pearl Harbor.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)