Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Tillman Battleships - Guide 073 (Extended Special - NB)" video.

  1. There were only two important considerations for a battleship - speed and fire control. Speed because escorting fast carriers was going to be their main role and fire control, because accurate shooting with the main and secondary batteries was the most important job they had. Whether they had 16", 18", or 20" guns was relatively unimportant. Superior radar fire control that allowed the first salvo to be on target was the most important. If your opponent had bigger guns but took five or six salvos to get your rain. the 16" gun battleships would have already destroyed all your upper works and fire control equipment and put some pretty big holes in your hull. As an example, the Japanese battleship Kirishima was reduced to a flaming wreck by the USS Washington in seven minutes because of superior radar and fire control. Accurate main battery fire control allowed you to destroy shore targets with a single salvo. There were many occasions when onshore fire control teams called in targets like gun emplacements that were totally destroyed with a single salvo. Our battleships and cruisers were able to offer accurate suppressive fir only 300 to 400 yards ahead of advancing Marines, and were able walk that fire ahead the same distance and they advanced. Lastly, and most importantly, it was the battleship's ability to put a huge volume of controlled antiaircraft fire that saved many battleships and the ships they were escorting from aerial destruction. Your armor doesn't matter unless you can fight off enemy bombers and torpedo planes. Radar and director control of the 5" and 40mm batteries was the difference between shooting down those aircraft or being sunk yourself. Of course, designers in 1913 would have no idea about radar, fire control, or any kind of antiaircraft battery beyond a couple of uncontrolled 3" guns. Instead of turret mounted dual purpose secondary guns, we would have been stuck with yet more battleships with the secondary battery being single purpose and in casemates.Thank goodness none of those ships were built. It would have taken money away from the construction of the fast battleships and carriers that actually won the war for the US.
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