Thou Shall Not Shoot at the Battleship. You won't hurt it and you might piss it off.

[Chantry]

I've been on the USS New Jersey & the USS Wisconsin

 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

Thou Shall Not Shoot at the Battleship. You won't hurt it and you might piss it off.

 ..... didn't the British try this on a German Battleship with a Swordfish biplane and a torpedo ? .....   

[Pat Riot]

I have visited the USS Iowa in Long Beach, CA. Very impressive. 

[Buckshot Bear]

These days in the missile age what protection does a naval ship have from multiple incoming missiles? Can they put up enough metal in the air to hit them all before they impact?

[Badlands Bob #61228]

I visited the USS Alabama last weekend down in Mobile Bay.  They also have a WWII submarine that you can climb around in.  Very cool.  Best $15 I've spent in a long time.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

49 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I have visited the USS Iowa in Long Beach, CA. Very impressive. 

We went down to see it and you are right, it is very impressive.  I might also add that  there are 700,550 steps on that ship and on our tour I put a foot on every one.  

Never been so tired in my life.  

[DeaconKC]

Visited the Alabama, North Carolina and Missouri, they are indeed breathtaking.

[WOLFY]

they’re an old school level of cool… yet they still look ready to fight

 

I was aboard both the Iowa and Missouri

 

incoming cruise missiles stand no chance

 

 

[Ozark Huckleberry]

NCOIC looking through binoculars: "Comrades, I see the imperialist American battleship! Send a message! Tell headquar . . . ."

 

* NCOIC freezes as he hears the howitzer behind him launch four quick shots

 

NCOIC turning, "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!!???!!!"

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I’m sure they saw the broadside. Wonder if they tried to take cover, not that it would have done them any good.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Also stolen from the internet:

 

A single high capacity (HC) MK13 shell (1,900 lbs) fired from a 16" naval cannon could deliver a devastating blow to a land target, making a crater 50 feet across and 20 feet deep and defoliating trees within 500 yards of the point of impact. Interestingly in Vietnam the battleship USS New Jersey fired HC rounds to create instant helicopter landing zones.

[Chantry]

13 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

These days in the missile age what protection does a naval ship have from multiple incoming missiles? Can they put up enough metal in the air to hit them all before they impact?

 

Partly the escorting destroyers and/or cruisers with their missiles, partly the CIWS (Close in Weapon System) and partly the armor.  Most anti ship missiles were never designed to deal with an armored warship, especially one as big as an Iowa class battleship.   The very obsolescence  of a battleship is what makes it so hard to sink.

[Chantry]

14 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

Thou Shall Not Shoot at the Battleship. You won't hurt it and you might piss it off.

 ..... didn't the British try this on a German Battleship with a Swordfish biplane and a torpedo ? .....   

 

In the end it was the British battleship HMS Rodney which killed the KMS Bismarck.

 

During the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the HMS Prince of Wales scored a hit on the forward fuel tank of the KMS Bismarck causing the fuel to vent into the sea.  The loss of fuel forced KMS Bismarck to return to France.   During the second Swordfish attack* by HMS Ark Royal, a lucky hit damaged the steering of the KMS Bismark.  After a night of skirmishing with four Royal Navy destroyers by dawn the German crew were exhausted.  The HMS King George V and HMS Rodney engaged the KMS Bismarck the following day.  The HMS King George V stayed at a distance in an effort to get penetration on the deck armor of the KMS Bismarck.  Firing as she closed the  distance  HMS Rodney ended within 3,000 yards and destroyed everything on the main deck and above.

 

Even now there is an ongoing argument who "sunk" the KMS Bismarck, but in the end when HMS Rodney left the scene of the battle KMS Bismarck was a floating wreck.

 

*The light cruiser HMS Sheffield was shadowing KMS Bismarck and the first Swordfish attack, using magnetic torpedoes, mistook the HMS Sheffield for the KMS Bismark.  This mistaken attack led to the torpedoes being set for contact for the second, successful attack.