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by oohrah
Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:25 am
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: USS IOWA VS Japan's Yamato battleship
Replies: 8
Views: 2885

Re: USS IOWA VS Japan's Yamato battleship

der Teufel wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:17 am An interesting book: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_ ... an_Sailors

It describes a naval battle off the Philippines in which the Japanese attacked a US group of escort carriers (Taffy 3) defended only by a few DDs and DEs. One interesting part is the description of the fire control on the American ships. By that time, even the little DDs and DEs had fire control radar, and were able to close and score hits on Japanese cruisers & other ships. Eventually the US ships got pretty much blown away, but they managed to stall the Japanese until most of the CVEs were able to flee.

If I recall correctly, the fire control radar was built by Ford. It was all analog (no digital stuff back then) and even compensated for the curvature of the earth between shooter and target.

SO, I'd say the Iowa class battleships would have a very distinct advantage…
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An interesting footnote to that battle regarding the USS Johnston, commanded by LCdr Ernest Evans, who got the fight diverted from the carriers. "Not waiting for orders, Commander Evans broke formation and went on the offensive by ordering Johnston to speed directly toward the enemy". Evans was the first Native American to attend the Naval Academy, Class of '31, and the first Native American to command a ship. He was awarded the MOH posthumously, and there was a destroyer named after him.

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