Iowa-Class Battleships on Deck

Squadron/Signal On Deck #7

by David Doyle

88 pages. 270 color photos, carefully chosen to show the subtle differences between these four near-identical ships. The Iowa-class battleships were America's - and the world's - last active battleships, serving as recently as 1995. Back in the World War II era, six of the class were ordered, and four completed: Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri and Wisconsin. The Missouri rose to fame as the site of the Japanese surrender ending WWII. Each armed with nine 16-inch rifles able to hurl 2,700-lb shells more than 23 miles, the Iowas were capable of combating formidable sea-going foes. In actuality, however, their huge main guns were used instead to shell enemy land positions during WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. In later years their original arrays of 16-inch and five-inch guns were augmented with missiles, including the Harpoon as well as the Tomahawk cruise missiles.

88 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would have been nice if there had been more interior photos of these mighty vessels. My Dad severed as a hospital corpsman (pharmacist mate) on the battleship USS Nevada in WWII and on the USS Iowa in the ‘50’s. I have a vague memory of spending a day on the Iowa on a Navy family celebration day around 1955.