"Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Who's the Baddest of Them All?"

With these prophetic words, I present my new, updated answer to the age-old question: which battleship was the best one out there?

Just What the Heck Does 'Best' Mean?

That's a really good question. For the purposes of this discussion, we're going to actually award not one, but four prizes:

H EAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION

M IDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION

B EST ALL-AROUND SHIP , and

B EST ALL-AROUND TREATY BATTLESHIP The H EAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION title goes to the ship who can step into the ring and go toe-to-toe, one-on-one with any other guy, at whatever range, and have the best chance of winning. In other words, anti-aircraft and secondary armament and all that foo-foo stuff will be considered irrelevant. In principle, any ship of the seven presented here are candidates, however, the smart money is on either Yamato or Iowa.

M IDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION is pretty much the same, except that it goes to a battleship which at least pretended to pay lip service to the provisions of the Washington and London Naval Treaties.

B EST ALL-AROUND BATTLESHIP gets awarded to the battleship which has the best blend of speed, firepower, armor, secondary and anti-aircraft armament, fire-control, and the whole ball of wax.

B EST ALL-AROUND TREATY BATTLESHIP is awarded to the best all-around vessel which roughly conforms to the naval treaties cited above. This rules out Yamato and Iowa.



A tabular layout of the scoring categories is given below:

It should be noted right off the bat that just because one ship or another ends up being proclaimed 'Best Whatever' doesn't necessarily mean that it would always win a fight against a lower rated ship. See the scoring system page for a more detailed discussion of this question.

Anyway, we'll start with an examination of three vital areas: who's got the most powerful guns, the best designed protective armor scheme, and the most accurate fire control. First, though, we have to introduce...

The 'Contenduhs'

(Battleship images scanned from Gibbons, "The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships.")

As some of you may recall, the first edition of this page featured a three-way race between Bismarck, Yamato and Iowa. I received quite a volume of e-mail from overseas (including some from Germany, surprise, surprise...) debating various points of contention. And I have to admit, I learned a ton in the process. So I figure, hey, why stop there? Why not try and foment an 'International Incident' with every possible member of the European Community? And so, armed with new reference books, back-issues of Warship International, and unpublished source works, I proceed to stick my neck way out by introducing three more players to the game: Richelieu, King George V, Vittorio Veneto, and South Dakota! If this doesn't keep my e-mail In-Box full, nothing will!





Guns

Main Armament Overall Rating 10 10 9 9 8 7.5 8.5 Detailed Information





Armor

Armor Overall Rating 10 9.5 6.5 9 8.5 7 9.5 Detailed Information





Underwater Protection

Underwater Protection Overall Rating 9 9 7 10 5 8 9 Detailed Information





Fire-Control

Fire Control Overall Rating 5 10 5 7.5 8 5 10 Detailed Information





Tactical Factors

Tactical Factors Overall Rating 9.5 10 9 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 Detailed Information

And the Heavyweight Champion is...

All right, it's time to add up the points and see who comes out on top for both the Heavy and Middleweight categories. Judges, your scorecards please...

Score:

148 Score:

166 Score:

121 Score:

147.5 Score:

131.5 Score:

117.5 Score:

155.5 Detailed Information





And in the Middleweight Category...

Score:

121 Score:

147.5 Score:

131.5 Score:

117.5 Score:

155.5 Detailed Information

G ENERAL COMMENTS : In the battle of the heavyweights, Iowa edges Yamato, largely because of her awesome fire-control. SoDak, Yamato and Richelieu are practically in a dead heat, which is surprising on the face of it, until South Dakota's and Richelieu's very respectable fire control, and excellent protection is considered. In the Middleweight category, South Dakota comes out as the winner, though Richelieu is also a very strong contender, and has some slight advantages in terms of speed and underwater protection. She is clearly superior to either of her likely Axis antagonists, both of whom suffered from inadequate protection, and inferior fire-control (at least during the latter half of the war).

All right, then, now that we have the Heavy- and Middleweight Champion prizes awarded, let's take a look at the other categories that go into the Best All-Around competition.

Secondary Armament

Secondary Batteries Overall Rating: Anti-Ship 9.5 10 10 8 5 6 10 Overall Rating: Anti-Aircraft 4.5 10 4 1.5 4.5 1 10 Detailed Information





Light Anti-Aircraft Armament

Light Anti-aircraft Overall Rating 2.5 10 3.5 7 8 1.5 10 Detailed Information





Total Anti-Aircraft Suite

Total Anti-aircraft suite Overall Rating 3 10 3 5 7 1 10 Detailed Information





Operational Factors

Operational Factors Overall Rating 8 10 8.5 9 5.5 7.5 9 Detailed Information

And the Best All-Around Performers Are...

And now the moment we'e all been waiting for. Again, judges; your scorecards...

Score:

170 Score:

206 Score:

146 Score:

174 Score:

152 Score:

130.5 Score:

196 Detailed Information

G ENERAL COMMENTS : Not surprisingly, Iowa is the winner in the Best All-Around competition. American secondaries and AAA were awesomely effective. The Axis ships, particularly Vittorio Veneto, were horribly outclassed in this department. In the Middleweight category, South Dakota comes out on top again, followed again (though more distantly this time) by Richelieu.

Well, that sort of wraps it up. A very complex topic, all in all, and one which is impossible to answer conclusively. After all, as in all things having to do with combat, luck would have more than a little to do with determining the outcome in a clash between any of these steel monsters. And yet, it is certainly true that certain of these vessels were better equipped to operate in the combat environment of World War II. I hope this study has brought out some of the strengths and weaknesses of these magnificent vessels.



