History UsefulNotes / TypesOfNavalShips

* The British ''Nelson'' and ''King George V''-class battleships. The Nelsons were the first treaty battleships built as an allowance to let Britain have some ships on the same level as the American ''Colorado''-class and Japanese ''Nagato''. Determined to get the most out of the 35,000 ton displacement limit, Britain used an unorthodox design with 16-inch guns in three triple turrets, all mounted forward of the superstructure, for one gun more than their American and Japanese counterparts.[[note]]This was an evolution of the two turrets forward, one amidships layout of the planned N3 battleship and G3 battlecruiser designs which were cancelled because of the treaty. The intention was to make the armored citadel (which surrounds the vital spaces: the machinery and ammunition storage) as compact as possible, thus maximizing the percentage of the ship's weight that could be devoted to armor.[[/note]] The two ''Nelson''s, three ''Colorado''s, and two ''Nagato''s would be collectively known as the Big Seven due to being the seven ships in the world permitted to carry 16-inch guns. The ''King George V''-class would be built with a battery of 14-inch guns in an unorthodox layout of two quadruple turrets and one twin turret to comply with the limits of the Second London Naval Treaty.[[note]]The 14-inch gun was chosen over the objections of the Admiralty, who favored an alternate design with 15-inch guns in three triple turrets, but Parliament was pushing hard for Second London Naval Treaty to include a reduction in maximum gun caliber to 14-inch. The chosen design originally called for all three turrets to be quadruple, but this was calculated to bring the ships about 500 tons over the treaty limit. Given the choice between reducing the armor thickness or reducing the number of main guns, the Royal Navy chose the latter. And when the "escalator clause" of the treaty was triggered (by Japan and Italy refusing to sign), bringing the maximum allowed gun size back to 16-inch and the maximum displacement to 45,000 tons, Britain chose not to make use of it because this would have delayed the ships' completion.[[/note]]

* The Italian ''Littorio''-class, sometimes called the ''Vittorio Veneto'' due to ambiguity about which was the first ship.[[note]]''Vittorio Veneto'' was launched 31 days ahead of ''Littorio'' and completed 8 days sooner. But while they were laid down on ''the same day'', it seems that ''Littorio'' was laid down about an hour earlier.[[/note]] The were armed with 15-inch guns in three triple turrets, that were noted for both firing relatively heavy shell for the caliber ''and'' at exceptionally high muzzle velocity, resulting in high penetration and long maximum range. However, the accuracy of the guns was extremely inconsistent, and barrel life was very low.[[note]]The latter was disregarded by the Regia Marina as unimportant, because the relatively small size of the Mediterranean meant that the ships would never be very far away from an Italian naval base where worn-out guns could have new rifled linings installed. And the former seems to have been because of very poor quality control in Italian ammunition factories. Sometimes the ''Littorio''s would fire exceptionally accurate salvos with British ships surviving only by sheer luck (due to shells landing ''less than a hundred feet'' short or long of the target) while other times shells from the ''same turret'' would land almost a mile apart.[[/note]] One member of the class, ''Roma'', was sunk by a German Fritz-X guided bomb, the first ship in the world to be sunk by such a weapon. While one ''Littorio'' would have been permissible under the Washington Naval Treaty, two was a flagrant violation of their 70,000 ton allowance to modernize their relatively old fleet, and three was just right out, and none of them would have been permissible under the 35,000 ton limit of the Second London Naval Treaty, which Italy declined to sign.[[note]]All three ships were in the range of 40,500 to 41,000 tons standard displacement, well above the treaty limit. So in what had become a time-honored tradition for the Regia Marina by that point, they simply lied and claimed the ships were 35,000 tons.[[/note]] A fourth ship of the class, ''Impero'', was never completed.[[note]]''Impero'' was laid down 4 months ahead of ''Roma'', but was launched prematurely when war broke out because Genoa was within range of French bombers, and was towed to Brindisi for installation of the machinery. The intention was that once ''Roma'' was completed at Trieste, ''Impero'' would go there for completion. But it was soon deemed more important to build destroyers to meet Italy's need for convoy escorts, so the only 28% complete ''Impero'' instead sailed to Venice just to get her out of the way.[[/note]]
* The French ''Richelieu''-class. Like the Italian ''Littorio''s they were built to counter, one ''Richelieu'' could fit within the 70,000 ton limit France was given for modernizing their relatively old battleship fleet, but two was right out. To build more, had the treaties remained in force France would've been required to scrap some of their remaining dreadnoughts. The second ship, ''Jean Bart'', would be the last battleship ever commissioned in 1949, following a long and troubled production that was understandably hindered by the German occupation and the aftermath of the war casting doubt on the value of even finishing her.[[note]]While ''Richelieu'' as built was (barely) compliant with the 35,000 ton limit, ''Jean Bart'' was extensively upgraded with a much larger and more modern anti-aircraft suite, and so many radars that there was a 22% increase in displacement.[[/note]] Like the British ''Nelson''-class and the preceding ''Dunkerque''-class, the ''Richelieu''-class had a gun arrangement that placed the entire main battery in front of the superstructure (in two quadruple turrets in the case of the French battleships and three triple turrets in the case of the British battleships), which reduced the weight of the ship by allowing a shorter armored citadel. The third ''Richelieu''-class ordered and laid down, ''Clemenceau'', was a slightly modified design, but work halted when France surrendered. While the planned fourth ship, ''Gascogne'', would have returned to a more conventional layout had she ever been built.

* The British ''Nelson'' and ''King George V''-class battleships. The Nelsons were the first treaty battleships built as an allowance to let Britain have some ships on the same level as the American ''Colorado''-class and Japanese ''Nagato''. Determined to get the most out of the 35,000 ton displacement limit, Britain used an unorthodox design with 16-inch guns in three triple turrets, all mounted forward of the superstructure, for one gun more than their American and Japanese counterparts.[[note]]This was an evolution of the two turrets forward, one amidships layout of the planned N3 battleship and G3 battlecruiser designs which were cancelled because of the treaty. The intention was to make the armored citadel (which surrounds the vital spaces: the machinery and ammunition storage) as compact as possible, thus maximizing the percentage of the ship's weight that could be devoted to armor.[[/note]] The two ''Nelson''s, three ''Colorado''s, and two ''Nagato''s would be collectively known as the Big Seven due to being the seven ships in the world permitted to carry 16-inch guns. The ''King George V''-class would be built with a battery of 14-inch guns in an unorthodox layout of two quadruple turrets and one twin turret to comply with the limits of the Second London Naval Treaty.[[note]]The 14-inch gun was chosen over the objections of the Admiralty, who favored an alternate design with 15-inch guns in three triple turrets, but Parliament was pushing hard for Second London Naval Treaty to include a reduction in maximum gun caliber to 14-inch. The chosen design originally called for all three turrets to be quadruple, but this was calculated to bring the ships about 500 tons over the treaty limit. Given the choice between reducing the armor thickness or reducing the number of main guns, the Royal Navy chose the latter. And when the "escalator clause" of the treaty was triggered (by Japan and Italy refusing to sign), bringing the maximum allowed gun size back to 16-inch and the maximum displacement to 45,000 tons, Britain chose not to make use of it because this would have delayed the ships' completion.[[/note]]

* The Italian ''Littorio''-class, sometimes called the ''Vittorio Veneto'' due to ambiguity about which was the first ship.[[note]]''Vittorio Veneto'' was launched 31 days ahead of ''Littorio'' and completed 8 days sooner. But while they were laid down on ''the same day'', it seems that ''Littorio'' was laid down about an hour earlier.[[/note]] The were armed with 15-inch guns in three triple turrets, that were noted for both firing relatively heavy shell for the caliber ''and'' at exceptionally high muzzle velocity, resulting in high penetration and long maximum range. However, the accuracy of the guns was extremely inconsistent, and barrel life was very low.[[note]]The latter was disregarded by the Regia Marina as unimportant, because the relatively small size of the Mediterranean meant that the ships would never be very far away from an Italian naval base where worn-out guns could have new rifled linings installed. And the former seems to have been because of very poor quality control in Italian ammunition factories. Sometimes the ''Littorio''s would fire exceptionally accurate salvos with British ships surviving only by sheer luck (due to shells landing ''less than a hundred feet'' short or long of the target) while other times shells from the ''same turret'' would land almost a mile apart.[[/note]] One member of the class, ''Roma'', was sunk by a German Fritz-X guided bomb, the first ship in the world to be sunk by such a weapon. While one ''Littorio'' would have been permissible under the Washington Naval Treaty, two was a flagrant violation of their 70,000 ton allowance to modernize their relatively old fleet, and three was just right out, and none of them would have been permissible under the 35,000 ton limit of the Second London Naval Treaty, which Italy declined to sign.[[note]]All three ships were in the range of 40,500 to 41,000 tons standard displacement, well above the treaty limit. So in what had become a time-honored tradition for the Regia Marina by that point, they simply lied and claimed the ships were 35,000 tons.[[/note]] A fourth ship of the class, ''Impero'', was never completed.[[note]]''Impero'' was laid down 4 months ahead of ''Roma'', but was launched prematurely when war broke out because Genoa was within range of French bombers, and was towed to Brindisi for installation of the machinery. The intention was that once ''Roma'' was completed at Trieste, ''Impero'' would go there for completion. But it was soon deemed more important to build destroyers to meet Italy's need for convoy escorts, so the only 28% complete ''Impero'' instead sailed to Venice just to get her out of the way.[[/note]]
* The French ''Richelieu''-class. Like the Italian ''Littorio''s they were built to counter, one ''Richelieu'' could fit within the 70,000 ton limit France was given for modernizing their relatively old battleship fleet, but two was right out. To build more, had the treaties remained in force France would've been required to scrap some of their remaining dreadnoughts. The second ship, ''Jean Bart'', would be the last battleship ever commissioned in 1949, following a long and troubled production that was understandably hindered by the German occupation and the aftermath of the war casting doubt on the value of even finishing her.[[note]]While ''Richelieu'' as built was (barely) compliant with the 35,000 ton limit, ''Jean Bart'' was extensively upgraded with a much larger and more modern anti-aircraft suite, and so many radars that there was a 22% increase in displacement.[[/note]] Like the British ''Nelson''-class and the preceding ''Dunkerque''-class, the ''Richelieu''-class had a gun arrangement that placed the entire main battery in front of the superstructure (in two quadruple turrets in the case of the French battleships and three triple turrets in the case of the British battleships), which reduced the weight of the ship by allowing a shorter armored citadel. The third ''Richelieu''-class ordered and laid down, ''Clemenceau'', was a slightly modified design, but work halted when France surrendered. While the planned fourth ship, ''Gascogne'', would have returned to a more conventional layout had she ever been built.

* The USS ''South Carolina'' was designed before the ''Dreadnought'' and the ''Satsuma'', and had a far more efficient gun layout, being the first battleship to have all of its turrets mounted on the centerline and the first to use superfiring turrets (that is, one turret mounted to fire directly above another). This meant that despite being smaller than the ''Dreadnought'', the ''South Carolina'' was just as well-armored and had the same 8-gun broadside. But construction was slow, and she wasn't even laid down until two weeks after the ''Dreadnought'' entered service.
* However, both the ''Satsuma'' and the ''South Carolina'' lacked the other, less famous innovation of the ''Dreadnought'': the use of steam turbines instead of triple-expansion steam engines. This was actually the more enduring innovation, as the concept of an all big gun armament couldn't be completely adhered to given that a battleship often had to defend itself against smaller ships. HMS ''Dreadnought'' herself ultimately was completed with a secondary armament of 27 3-inch guns to fend off the dreaded torpedo boats, and by the time of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII battleships were invariably equipped with secondary guns designed primarily for anti-aircraft use.
* Thanks to the slow construction of ''South Carolina'' and Japan's money problems, both the Americans and Japanese were beat to punch in fielding dreadnoughts not only by Germany but also by Brazil. This spurred [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_American_dreadnought_race a relatively little-known naval arms race in South America]], since if Brazil had dreadnoughts, the other South American naval powers had to have their own. Since Brazil wanted to have dreadnoughts just for the sake of having them[[note]]Due to booming worldwide demand for coffee and rubber (and Brazil at the time being by far the biggest supplier of both), they had rapidly become a ''very'' wealthy nation. As such Brazilians saw themselves as the next great power, and dreadnoughts were seen as the perfect prestige item to show off their new status. Cynics will note that a century later Brazil is in much the same situation (this time driven by export of petroleum and mineral resources), and once again trying to assert their "next great power" status by building a nuclear-powered submarine and desiring to build a large aircraft carrier. This time however, Chile and Argentina are uninterested in following suit, and Argentina in particular can no longer afford to.[[/note]], and Argentina and Chile just to keep pace with their neighbor[[note]]Just 5 years earlier another naval arms race had brought Argentina and Chile to the brink of war, until Britain stepped in and convinced them to stop (to the dismay of Britain's shipbuilders, who were selling most of the warships to both sides) in order to avoid the disruption of trade that a war would create. But then Brazil's new dreadnoughts meant they were a sudden and unexpected threat to Argentina (less so to Chile since they share no border and are on opposite sides of the continent). And Argentina's response of buying 2 dreadnoughts of their own was in turn a potential threat to Chile, even though Argentina and Chile were probably on the friendliest terms they'd ever been in the wake of the British-sponsored peace treaty.[[/note]], this all turned out to be just a colossal waste of money. And very nearly became an even bigger waste, had World War I not put a halt to British export of battleships; Brazil had just purchased what would've been a super-dreadnought and among the most powerful in the world, meaning Argentina and Chile would've again felt compelled to respond in kind. Fortunately, construction never even started on that ship when the outbreak of war led to Brazil's down payment being refunded.
* Some British officials at the time lamented that since ''Dreadnought'' rendered all existing battleships obsolete, '''including Britain's own''', this actually nullified the Royal Navy's quite large numerical advantage over any potential adversary. However, given that Britain was already demonstrably not the only nation to have come up with the idea, going first allowed them to take a head start in building dreadnoughts. Britain didn't just build the first dreadnought battleship, they built first '''four of them'''. By the time Germany had completed their first class of four dreadnoughts, Britain had built three different classes for a total of seven. All of them (even HMS ''Dreadnought'' herself) superior to their German counterparts. And by the time Germany was able to build a dreadnought that was unquestionably superior to these ships, Britain had already built the first super-dreadnought (armed with 10 13.5-inch main guns, all capable of firing broadside, whose heavier shells produced '''double''' weight of broadside that a first-generation dreadnought's 12-inch guns could manage).

* The British ''Nelson'' and ''King George V''-class battleships. The Nelsons were the first treaty battleships built as an allowance to let Britain have some ships on the same level as the American ''Colorado''-class and Japanese ''Nagato''. The two ''Nelson''s, three ''Colorado''s, and two ''Nagato''s would be collectively known as the Big Seven due to being the seven ships in the world permitted to carry 16-inch guns. The ''King George V''-class would be built with a battery of 14-inch guns in an unorthodox layout of two quadruple turrets and one twin turret to comply with the limits of the Second London Naval Treaty.
* The American ''North Carolina'' and ''South-Dakota''-class battleships, the latter of which was considered the best treaty battleships built. One ''North Carolina''-class ship (''North Carolina'') is preserved as a museum ship, while two ''South Dakota''s (''Alabama'' and ''Massachusetts'') are preserved.
* The Italian ''Littorio''-class. One member of the class, ''Roma'', was sunk by a German Fritz-X guided bomb, the first ship in the world to be sunk by such a weapon. While one ''Littorio'' would have been permissible under the Washington Naval Treaty, two was a flagrant violation of their 70,000 ton allowance to modernize their relatively old fleet, and three was just right out, and none of them would have been permissible under the 35,000 ton limit of the Second London Naval Treaty, which Italy declined to sign.
* The French ''Richelieu''-class. Like the Italian ''Littorio''s they were built to counter, one ''Richelieu'' could fit within the 70,000 ton limit France was given for modernizing their relatively old battleship fleet, but two was right out. The second ship, ''Jean Bart'', would be the last battleship ever commissioned in 1949, following a long and troubled production that was understandably hindered by the German occupation and the aftermath of the war casting doubt on the value of even finishing her. Like the British ''Nelson''-class and the preceding ''Dunkerque''-class, the ''Richelieu''-class had a gun arrangement that placed the entire main battery in front of the superstructure (in two quadruple turrets in the case of the French battleships and three triple turrets in the case of the British battleships), which reduced the weight of the ship by allowing a shorter armored citadel. The third ''Richelieu''-class ordered and laid down, ''Gascogne'', would have returned to a more conventional layout had she ever been finished.

* The ''Iowa''-class (completed 1944, after various retirements and re-commissioning of the class, were finally retired "for good" 1998-1999) from the United States, probably the best overall design of battleships built. You can still see all four of the class as museum ships; USS ''Missouri'' is at Pearl Harbor (her home port during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, which ended on her deck), while USS ''New Jersey'' is in the Delaware River in [[{{Gangsterland}} Camden]], UsefulNotes/NewJersey (right across from UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, where she was built). USS ''Iowa'' is on display in the Port of Los Angeles at San Pedro, and USS ''Wisconsin'' is part of the Nauticus Museum Complex in Norfolk Virgina.

* The ''Yamato''-class from Japan (completed 1941/1942, sunk 1944/1945) were the largest battleships ever constructed, weighing in at over 65,000 tons and thus 20,000 tons larger than the ''Iowa''-class. They were armed with nine enormous 18.1" guns, a secondary armament of twelve (later reduced to six) 6.1" guns,[[note]]the turrets that had been removed from the ''Mogami'' class "light" cruisers when they were converted to heavy cruisers[[/note]] a tertiary armament of twelve (later increased to twenty-four) 5" guns, and eventually [[MoreDakka one hundred sixty-two]] 25mm anti-aircraft cannons. They also had an excellent armor scheme with the thickest belt armor and thickest turret faces of any battleship ever built - although they had a serious defect in the way their torpedo protection was designed and Japanese armor was not the best quality, these flaws were mostly compensated for by the sheer size of the armor. In practice, though, they epitomized AwesomeButImpractical and accomplished little other than soaking up large numbers of bombs and torpedoes before sinking. The second ship of the class, ''Musashi'', was sunk without ever firing a shot against an enemy warship. ''Yamato'' had slightly more luck, contributing to the sinking of two destroyers and one escort carrier in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar Battle off Samar]], but still ended up retreating when her commander lost his nerve due to the dogged fighting of the enemy fleet-even though ''Yamato'' herself outweighed (and outgunned) ''all of the enemy ships combined''.

* HMS ''Vanguard'' was both the last British battleship ever built and the last battleship launched by any country[[note]]''Jean Bart'', sister ship of ''Richelieu'', however, would be the last battleship ever commissioned in 1949[[/note]], commissioned in 1946 and retired in 1960.

* The USS ''South Carolina'' was designed before the ''Dreadnought'' and the ''Satsuma'', and had a far more efficient gun layout, being the first battleship to have all of its turrets mounted on the centerline and the first to use superfiring turrets (that is, one turret mounted to fire directly above another). This meant that despite being smaller than the ''Dreadnought'', the ''South Carolina'' was just as well-armored and had the same 8-gun broadside. But construction was slow, and she wasn't even laid down until two weeks after the ''Dreadnought'' entered service.
* However, both the ''Satsuma'' and the ''South Carolina'' lacked the other, less famous innovation of the ''Dreadnought'': the use of steam turbines instead of triple-expansion steam engines. This was actually the more enduring innovation, as the concept of an all big gun armament couldn't be completely adhered to given that a battleship often had to defend itself against smaller ships. HMS ''Dreadnought'' herself ultimately was completed with a secondary armament of 27 3-inch guns to fend off the dreaded torpedo boats, and by the time of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII battleships were invariably equipped with secondary guns designed primarily for anti-aircraft use.
* Thanks to the slow construction of ''South Carolina'' and Japan's money problems, both the Americans and Japanese were beat to punch in fielding dreadnoughts not only by Germany but also by Brazil. This spurred [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_American_dreadnought_race a relatively little-known naval arms race in South America]], since if Brazil had dreadnoughts, the other South American naval powers had to have their own. Since Brazil wanted to have dreadnoughts just for the sake of having them[[note]]Due to booming worldwide demand for coffee and rubber (and Brazil at the time being by far the biggest supplier of both), they had rapidly become a ''very'' wealthy nation. As such Brazilians saw themselves as the next great power, and dreadnoughts were seen as the perfect prestige item to show off their new status. Cynics will note that a century later Brazil is in much the same situation (this time driven by export of petroleum and mineral resources), and once again trying to assert their "next great power" status by building a nuclear-powered submarine and desiring to build a large aircraft carrier. This time however, Chile and Argentina are uninterested in following suit, and Argentina in particular can no longer afford to.[[/note]], and Argentina and Chile just to keep pace with their neighbor[[note]]Just 5 years earlier another naval arms race had brought Argentina and Chile to the brink of war, until Britain stepped in and convinced them to stop (to the dismay of Britain's shipbuilders, who were selling most of the warships to both sides) in order to avoid the disruption of trade that a war would create. But then Brazil's new dreadnoughts meant they were a sudden and unexpected threat to Argentina (less so to Chile since they share no border and are on opposite sides of the continent). And Argentina's response of buying 2 dreadnoughts of their own was in turn a potential threat to Chile, even though Argentina and Chile were probably on the friendliest terms they'd ever been in the wake of the British-sponsored peace treaty.[[/note]], this all turned out to be just a colossal waste of money. And very nearly became an even bigger waste, had World War I not put a halt to British export of battleships; Brazil had just purchased what would've been a super-dreadnought and among the most powerful in the world, meaning Argentina and Chile would've again felt compelled to respond in kind. Fortunately, construction never even started on that ship when the outbreak of war led to Brazil's down payment being refunded.
* Some British officials at the time lamented that since ''Dreadnought'' rendered all existing battleships obsolete, '''including Britain's own''', this actually nullified the Royal Navy's quite large numerical advantage over any potential adversary. However, given that Britain was already demonstrably not the only nation to have come up with the idea, going first allowed them to take a head start in building dreadnoughts. Britain didn't just build the first dreadnought battleship, they built first '''four of them'''. By the time Germany had completed their first class of four dreadnoughts, Britain had built three different classes for a total of seven. All of them (even HMS ''Dreadnought'' herself) superior to their German counterparts. And by the time Germany was able to build a dreadnought that was unquestionably superior to these ships, Britain had already built the first super-dreadnought (armed with 10 13.5-inch main guns, all capable of firing broadside, whose heavier shells produced '''double''' weight of broadside that a first-generation dreadnought's 12-inch guns could manage).

* The British ''Nelson'' and ''King George V''-class battleships. The Nelsons were the first treaty battleships built as an allowance to let Britain have some ships on the same level as the American ''Colorado''-class and Japanese ''Nagato''. The two ''Nelson''s, three ''Colorado''s, and two ''Nagato''s would be collectively known as the Big Seven due to being the seven ships in the world permitted to carry 16-inch guns. The ''King George V''-class would be built with a battery of 14-inch guns in an unorthodox layout of two quadruple turrets and one twin turret to comply with the limits of the Second London Naval Treaty.
* The American ''North Carolina'' and ''South-Dakota''-class battleships, the latter of which was considered the best treaty battleships built. One ''North Carolina''-class ship (''North Carolina'') is preserved as a museum ship, while two ''South Dakota''s (''Alabama'' and ''Massachusetts'') are preserved.
* The Italian ''Littorio''-class. One member of the class, ''Roma'', was sunk by a German Fritz-X guided bomb, the first ship in the world to be sunk by such a weapon. While one ''Littorio'' would have been permissible under the Washington Naval Treaty, two was a flagrant violation of their 70,000 ton allowance to modernize their relatively old fleet, and three was just right out, and none of them would have been permissible under the 35,000 ton limit of the Second London Naval Treaty, which Italy declined to sign.
* The French ''Richelieu''-class. Like the Italian ''Littorio''s they were built to counter, one ''Richelieu'' could fit within the 70,000 ton limit France was given for modernizing their relatively old battleship fleet, but two was right out. The second ship, ''Jean Bart'', would be the last battleship ever commissioned in 1949, following a long and troubled production that was understandably hindered by the German occupation and the aftermath of the war casting doubt on the value of even finishing her. Like the British ''Nelson''-class and the preceding ''Dunkerque''-class, the ''Richelieu''-class had a gun arrangement that placed the entire main battery in front of the superstructure (in two quadruple turrets in the case of the French battleships and three triple turrets in the case of the British battleships), which reduced the weight of the ship by allowing a shorter armored citadel. The third ''Richelieu''-class ordered and laid down, ''Gascogne'', would have returned to a more conventional layout had she ever been finished.

* The ''Iowa''-class (completed 1944, after various retirements and re-commissioning of the class, were finally retired "for good" 1998-1999) from the United States, probably the best overall design of battleships built. You can still see all four of the class as museum ships; USS ''Missouri'' is at Pearl Harbor (her home port during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, which ended on her deck), while USS ''New Jersey'' is in the Delaware River in [[{{Gangsterland}} Camden]], UsefulNotes/NewJersey (right across from UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, where she was built). USS ''Iowa'' is on display in the Port of Los Angeles at San Pedro, and USS ''Wisconsin'' is part of the Nauticus Museum Complex in Norfolk Virgina.

* The ''Yamato''-class from Japan (completed 1941/1942, sunk 1944/1945) were the largest battleships ever constructed, weighing in at over 65,000 tons and thus 20,000 tons larger than the ''Iowa''-class. They were armed with nine enormous 18.1" guns, a secondary armament of twelve (later reduced to six) 6.1" guns,[[note]]the turrets that had been removed from the ''Mogami'' class "light" cruisers when they were converted to heavy cruisers[[/note]] a tertiary armament of twelve (later increased to twenty-four) 5" guns, and eventually [[MoreDakka one hundred sixty-two]] 25mm anti-aircraft cannons. They also had an excellent armor scheme with the thickest belt armor and thickest turret faces of any battleship ever built - although they had a serious defect in the way their torpedo protection was designed and Japanese armor was not the best quality, these flaws were mostly compensated for by the sheer size of the armor. In practice, though, they epitomized AwesomeButImpractical and accomplished little other than soaking up large numbers of bombs and torpedoes before sinking. The second ship of the class, ''Musashi'', was sunk without ever firing a shot against an enemy warship. ''Yamato'' had slightly more luck, contributing to the sinking of two destroyers and one escort carrier in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar Battle off Samar]], but still ended up retreating when her commander lost his nerve due to the dogged fighting of the enemy fleet-even though ''Yamato'' herself outweighed (and outgunned) ''all of the enemy ships combined''.

* HMS ''Vanguard'' was both the last British battleship ever built and the last battleship launched by any country[[note]]''Jean Bart'', sister ship of ''Richelieu'', however, would be the last battleship ever commissioned in 1949[[/note]], commissioned in 1946 and retired in 1960.

A contraction of "light armored cruiser", light cruisers are fully armored like armored cruisers, but much smaller, and typically armed with smaller guns, almost always 6 to 6.1 inch (152 to 155 mm) main guns but sometimes in the 5.5 inch (140 mm) range. Throughout their history, they served primarily as escorts, scouts, and support vessels. \\\

** In fact, other nations (e.g. the United States) were working on the same concept at the same time, and she has been called "a ship whose time had come" (DK Brown, "Warrior to Dreadnought"). And Italian naval architect Vittorio Cuniberti had presented his design for an "ideal battleship" (a fast 17,000 ton battleship armed solely with 12-inch guns, in other words very similar to ''Dreadnought'') in '''1903'''.[[note]]Italy couldn't even begin to afford such ships, so Cuniberti published an article in ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' recommending that Britain (not yet a formal ally of Italy, but much friendlier to Italy than to their arch-rival Austria-Hungary.[[/note]] But being first has kudos, and going from laying of keel to a ship which could steam, if not quite yet fight, in ''a year and a day'' shocked the world, and is a capital-ship building record that has never been beaten.[[note]]In order to meet this production schedule, the Royal Navy took the 4 main turrets originally intended for ''Lord Nelson'' and ''Agamemnon'' for installation on ''Dreadnought'', thus resulting in their last pair of pre-dreadnoughts completing nearly 2 years after ''Dreadnought'' had rendered them obsolete.[[/note]]

[[AC:Electric:]] The advent of electric batteries made submarines more practical. Electric-powered submarines were developed throughout the latter half of the 19th century. Batteries were convenient and did not use oxygenn, but limited the submarine's range and endurance since they couldn't be charged in the field. Soon, however, another solution would appear in the form of: \\\

[[AC:Hybrid-Electric:]] The end of the 19th century was a pivotal point in submarine development. New submarines now had either a gasoline or (more commonly) a diesel engine in addition to their electric engine. Early submarines used the diesel engine to run on the surface, and the electric engine when underwater. Nowadays, the diesel engine is used to either drive the submarine's propeller, or charge electrical systems and batteries. In some respects, diesel-electric subs are more useful than nuclear-powered subs. Since they're smaller, they can operate better in shallow waters, and are harder to detect. They are also quieter, since they don't have a reactor and its cooling system running. Under the right conditions, they can be even more dangerous than a theoretically more powerful nuclear submarine, because of the lack of noise. However, they are slower, have shorter ranges and are generally not capable of spending weeks below periscope depth. \\\

* APA - Attack Transport; oceangoing troopships that carry their own landing craft, allowing them to land their troops without needing a dock or tenders.