According to an American report produced after World War II, the British 15 inch Mk I was the most reliable and accurate battleship main armament of the war, though other guns and mountings had superior individual features.
Bismarck (The Infamous)
The eight 15inch guns of Bismarck were the most modern and accurate of any naval fleet and this would play out not long after entering the Denmark Straight.
Even with a talented gunner the accuracy of the ship's main guns was only about 32 percent at nine miles against a battleship-size target, according to a Naval War College study during World War II. For ground targets that could shells striking hundreds of yards away from the intended point of impact.
The result was the Iowa class, the most powerful and best-designed battleships ever built. USS Missouri, the third laid down but last completed of the Iowa class, carried a slightly heavier main armament than the South Dakotas and could make five extra knots.
The Bismarck was the most feared battleship in the German Kriegsmarine (War Navy) and, at over 250 metres in length, the biggest. Yet, despite its presence, it would sink only one ship in its only battle. So what exactly made the Bismarck so famous?
The only warships that would exceed the Bismarck in size were the non-treaty U.S. Iowa-class battleships, which were built in 1943 and had a standard displacement of 48,425 tons, and the two even larger Japanese battleships of the Yamato class.
The US Iowa-class battleships were powered by eight fuel oil boilers and four propellers, delivering 212,000 shaft horsepower. In 1968, during a shakedown cruise, the Iowa-class USS New Jersey achieved a top speed of 35.2 knots (65.2 km/h) which it sustained for six hours.
Yamato settled on the seafloor 1,200 feet down and about 50 miles southwest of Kyushu, Japan. Experts believe that a fire raging in the battleship's aft secondary magazine caused tons of ammunition to ignite almost simultaneously, producing the blasts that tore the ship in half and sank her.
Yamato fought Allied ships only once, in the Battle of Samar Gulf, where she sank one American escort carrier and one destroyer.
USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy. Naval officers and crew still serve aboard the ship today. The USS Constitution is operated by the United States Navy, a partner to the National Parks of Boston.
During the war, Tang was credited with sinking 31 ships in her five patrols, totaling 227,800 tons, and damaging two for 4,100 tons.
Several other battleships have been sunk as targets, and USS Utah, demilitarized and converted into a target and training ship, was permanently destroyed at Pearl Harbor. The hulk of Oklahoma was salvaged and was lost at sea while being towed to the mainland for scrapping.
Why the USS Missouri has been described as the most famous battleship ever built - USS Missouri (en)
With 116,454 tons sunk, the USS Tang sank the most tonnage of shipping in World War II for the United States. Its tonnage was revised from the Joint Army–Navy Assessment Committee (JANAC) report, which initially credited Tang with fewer sinkings.
USS New Jersey (BB-62) is the most decorated battleship in Navy history, earning distinction in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and conflicts in the Middle East.
The Imperial Japanese Navy's Yamato, along with her sister ship Musashi, were the largest battleships ever constructed. Her nine 46cm (18.1-inch) Type 94 main guns employed were the largest ever mounted on a battle wagon, and as a result, she was the most powerfully armed battleship ever constructed.
Yamato sank rapidly, losing an estimated 3,055 of her 3,332 crew, including fleet commander Vice-Admiral Seiichi Itō. The few survivors were recovered by the four surviving destroyers, which withdrew to Japan. From the first attack at 12:37 to the explosion at 14:23, Yamato was hit by at least 11 torpedoes and 6 bombs.
Although accounts vary about how many crewmen were on Yamato, the most definitive appears to be that 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen were lost. According to Morison, there were only 23 officers and 246 enlisted sailors who survived, which doesn't exactly match, but is close.
USS Nevada (BB-36)
On the morning of May 27 the King George V and the Rodney, in an hour-long attack, incapacitated the Bismarck, and an hour and a half later it sank after being hit by three torpedoes from the cruiser Dorsetshire.
That the sinking of Hood was due to a hit from Bismarck's 15-inch shell in or adjacent to Hood's 4-inch or 15-inch magazines, causing them all to explode and wreck the after part of the ship. The probability is that the 4-inch magazines exploded first.
First, the Bismarck would have had to elude detection—an unlikely possibility. Second, the warship would have had to escape damage in the Battle of the Denmark Strait—a possibility, since historically the Bismarck had damage minor enough that Admiral Lütjens could have continued the mission.