Shipcraft 17 - Iowa Class Battleships.pdf

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S
HIP
C
RAFT
17
IOWA class BATTLESHIPS
Lester Abbey
Plans and colour artwork by George Richardson
The publishers would like to thank A D Baker III for help with
photographs.
The four
Iowa
class battleships operating together. In their whole careers they
were only together operationally for this one day, 7 June 1954. Even though they
comprised a squadron, one was always either building or refitting. The Iowa is in
the foreground, then the Wisconsin, Missouri and New Jersey.
CONTENTS
Design
Careers
Model Products
Modelmakers’ Showcase
Camouflage Schemes
Appearance
Selected References
Copyright © Seaforth Publishing 2012
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Seaforth Publishing,
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 47 Church Street, Barnsley,
S Yorkshire S70 2AS
www.seaforthpublishing.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP data record for this title is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-84832-111-3
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any
information storage and retrieval system, without either prior
permission in writing from the publisher or a licence permitting
restricted copying.
Typeset and designed by Stephen Dent
Printed and bound in China
Design
f the 59 battleships commissioned by the US Navy 55 followed the same
design principle: heavy armament and protection at the expense of speed.
The last four, the Iowa class, did not; they were very fast. They also had the
longest and most active service life of any class of battleship. The
Iowas were
also well armed and well protected, but no more so than their immediate
predecessors, the South Dakota class.
Like all battleships built just prior to the Second World War, these classes had
their genesis in the Washington Naval Treaty. In 1922 all the major naval powers
signed this treaty that was intended to stop competitive naval building programs
where each great power tried to outbuild the others with more and larger ships of
each category. The treaty limited the number of battleships and total naval
tonnage that each country could build, and also set a maximum tonnage for new
battleships. Furthermore, a battleship ‘holiday’ was declared – no new
battleships could be built until the 1930s.
Therefore, when it came to replacing the oldest battleships in the US Navy, the
General Board had plenty of time to decide what was important for the next
generation of battleships. The following issues were considered – armament,
speed and protection. With regard to armament the General Board of
Construction favoured the 16in gun, which it had used successfully in the
Maryland
class built in the early 1920s. However, the London Treaty of 1930
limited displacement to 35,000 tons and 14in weapons. Their first designs
(which were to become the
North Carolina
class) were for a ship armed with
twelve 14in guns (in quadruple turrets) and protection against 14in gunfire. The
speed was set at 27kts – 6kts faster than the Maryland class but slower than most
of the other battleships building abroad. The speed of 27kts was decided upon to
counter the Japanese battlecruisers of the
Kongo
class, which were thought to
have a speed of 26.5kts. Actually the
Kongos
had been rebuilt and were now
classed as battleships but could achieve 30kts. At the last moment, the General
Board took advantage of a get-out clause in the London treaty and upgraded the
armament to nine 16in guns in three triple turrets. It was too late to increase the
protection so the
North Carolinas
were a bit under-protected considering their
O

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