Today, the battleship is a remnant of another age when sea war was a match against the big guns and crew proficiency on one side against the same traits on the other. Probably the last major big gun naval battle was 1916 at Jutland. Even at the end of WWI, it was thought that the battleship was still the most powerful and capable ship on the seas.

The airplane and the ship designed to carry them, the aircraft carrier, soon put that idea very much to rest during the next World War. Despite its loss of ascendency, the battleship proved to be a superlative littoral combatant, with its huge guns able to reach miles inland to destroy enemy guns and positions harassing invading troops. This was proved time and again at invasion beaches in both the Pacific and Atlantic during World War II. However, one prepares for what is going on at the time and not what might be, and so with the warring powers, that meant battleships.

Working on the lessons learned from the previous classes of battleships, the North Carolina and even newer South Dakota class, the four Iowa class battleships were the only ones to survive into the latter part of the 20th century, offering service in Korea, and Vietnam. Offering services against Syrian positions in Lebanon and in Desert Storm against Iraqi troops and emplacements. Able to be upgraded with modern technology, it was the 1930s technology of their 16 inch naval rifles that made these ships so valuable. Now all are either museum pieces or looking for a home. With the emphasis on littoral combat ships with small guns, perhaps it is time to revise the battleship with its long reach.

Author Lawrence Burr looks at the design, deployment, operation and upgrading of the Iowa class ships as well as the various combat actions in which they were participants. Rarely able to perform their main function, that of sinking other ships, they were still quite valuable as floating gun platforms and will be missed. Peter Bull offers some of his superlative art work to enhance an equally excellent selection of period photos of these massive and majestic ships.

It makes for a book that I can most easily recommend to you and one that I know you will find to be a fascinating read.

December 2010

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