Posted by Matty
on November 1, 2009, 13:54:16, in reply to "Re: The Lindberg Arizona looks great from what I've seen... n/t"
4.254.132.76
I know exactly what you mean, Mikey - except my favorite in the "mean old BB" category is the post-Pearl Harbor West Virginia. I know she looked "modernized" after reconstruction, but not by that much - especially when viewed from ahead or astern. Meantime, she actually did "clean the clock" of HIJMS Yamashiro in the Sunda Straits, with her newly-installed fire-control radar - while Pennsy, who was also there but not yet so upgraded wasn't able to hit Yamashiro, IIRC, if she even bothered to fire at all.
The idea of trashing (most of) those battlewagons in atomic bomb tests seems now like such a collossal waste - but I guess those were very unusual days, and they had little idea what those bombs could actually do and had to find out.
Still, rather than preserving the Iowas I think that - like Enterprise CV-6 - for pure historical value the best choices of BBs would have been from among those early Pearl Harbor survivors.
Cheers,
-Matty
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