"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:

HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION
BEST ALL-AROUND SHIP, and
BEST ALL-AROUND TREATY BATTLESHIP

The HEAVYWEIGHT 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.

MIDDLEWEIGHT 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.

BEST 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.

BEST 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:

Heavyweight Champion Middlweight Champion Best All-Around Battleship Best All-Around Treaty Battleship
Guns
Armor
Underwater Protection
Fire-Control
Tactical Factors 		Guns
Armor
Underwater Protection
Fire-Control
Tactical Factors 		Guns
Armor
Underwater Protection
Fire-Control
Tactical Factors
Secondary Armament: Anti-ship
Total Anti-Aircraft Suite
Operational Factors
 		Guns
Armor
Underwater Protection
Fire-Control
Tactical Factors
Secondary Armament: Anti-ship
Total Anti-Aircraft Suite
Operational Factors

To see the scoring system and I'm going to be using throughout this comparison, click here. To see the FAQ, disclaimers, information sources, and other miscellaneous comments about this feature, please click here.

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!

All right, then. Let's start with:


Guns

Big Guns. They make every serious battleship fan feel that certain rush of excitement. They're what battleships 'Are All About'. So it is fitting that we start with an examination of main armament. Here are my ratings:

Main Armament
Overall Rating 10 10 9 9 8 7.5 8.5

Detailed Information


Armor

Armor. Ya gotta have it if you're gonna play with the Big Boys. The numbers provided below give some indication of the quality of the armor on these seven ships. Bear in mind that 'calculating' the effectiveness of one ship's protective scheme over another's is a very complex and subjective task. Here are my ratings:

Armor
Overall Rating 10 9.5 6.5 9 8.5 7 9.5

Detailed Information


Underwater Protection

You're probably asking yourself, who cares about underwater protection when you're slinging big shells at each other? Answer, sometimes those shells miss, and if they miss short of their intended target, they still stand a very good chance of diving into the side of the target below her waterline. Here, then, are my rankings of who is best able to shrug off the effects of an underwater hit:

Underwater Protection
Overall Rating 9 9 7 10 5 8 9

Detailed Information


Fire-Control

This is a very interesting topic (for geeks like me), and one which is often overlooked. While not as glamorous (or obvious) as guns, it is crucially important. Here's how I rate things:

Fire Control
Overall Rating 5 10 5 7.5 8 5 10

Detailed Information


Tactical Factors

This section is very subjective, but examines such qualities as speed, survivability, damage control, and other factors pertaining to the tactical qualities of the vessel. Here are my ratings:

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

GENERAL 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 were an important part of any battleship's armament. I'm going to segregate secondary armament into two categories: anti-ship and anti-aircraft.

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

As the war progressed, anti-aircraft protection became both a means and an end in itself, as battleships were forced into escort roles with carrier battle groups. We'll take a look at each ship's final medium/light AA suite for comparison. And again, throw weight will be supremely important for these short-range weapons systems.

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

Detailed Information


Total Anti-Aircraft Suite

The complete anti-aircraft suite is the sum of both DP secondaries and automatic guns:

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

Detailed Information


Operational Factors

Finally, we have a sort of catch-all category. What I am trying to capture here is how useful the ship was in conducting a naval campaign -- what was her radius of action, how easy was she to keep on station, and so on.

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

GENERAL 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.


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