Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

This webpage is highly recommended for any BB vs BB analysis

http://www.combinedfleet.com/baddest.htm

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

But if an Iowa gun could fire twice per minute and the Yamato only 1.5 to 2.0 times per minute, that's actually a fairly significant difference.

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

I think what he is suggesting is that 1.5 rpm vs 2 rpm is a 25% difference ... which is a lot.

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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40 miles NW of Truk. IOWA engages KATORI and fires forty-six 16-inch high capacity (non-armor piercing) rounds and 124 five-inch shells. She straddles KATORI with all eight salvos. KATORI launches a salvo of torpedoes at the Americans. Just after the IOWA's fourth salvo, KATORI starts to list to port. After being under fire for 11 minutes, the cruiser sinks stern first at 07-45N, 151-20E. Reportedly, a large group of survivors is seen where she sinks, but none are picked up. Later, Captain Oda is promoted Rear Admiral, posthumously.

Cdr (Rear Admiral, posthumously) Moriya Setsuji's (former CO of SUZUKAZE) destroyer NOWAKI flees the onslaught. Both American battleships - the fastest in the world - give chase at 32.5 knots. At 35,000 yards, NEW JERSEY and IOWA open fire and straddle NOWAKI with their first salvos. NOWAKI flees into the sun's glare, so at 38,000 yards both battleships fire under radar control. At 22 miles, these are the longest range shots ever fired by American battleships against an enemy vessel. At 39,000 yards, Admiral Spruance orders Cease Fire. NOWAKI escapes and eventually makes her way back to Yokosuka.

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ORIGINAL: spence

From the TROM of HIJMS KATORI at Combined Fleet.com

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40 miles NW of Truk. IOWA engages KATORI and fires forty-six 16-inch high capacity (non-armor piercing) rounds and 124 five-inch shells. She straddles KATORI with all eight salvos. KATORI launches a salvo of torpedoes at the Americans. Just after the IOWA's fourth salvo, KATORI starts to list to port. After being under fire for 11 minutes, the cruiser sinks stern first at 07-45N, 151-20E. Reportedly, a large group of survivors is seen where she sinks, but none are picked up. Later, Captain Oda is promoted Rear Admiral, posthumously.

Cdr (Rear Admiral, posthumously) Moriya Setsuji's (former CO of SUZUKAZE) destroyer NOWAKI flees the onslaught. Both American battleships - the fastest in the world - give chase at 32.5 knots. At 35,000 yards, NEW JERSEY and IOWA open fire and straddle NOWAKI with their first salvos. NOWAKI flees into the sun's glare, so at 38,000 yards both battleships fire under radar control. At 22 miles, these are the longest range shots ever fired by American battleships against an enemy vessel. At 39,000 yards, Admiral Spruance orders Cease Fire. NOWAKI escapes and eventually makes her way back to Yokosuka.

IOWA appears to have done pretty well firing on Katori: straddles the target with the first salvo, apparently hitting with the 2nd or 3rd salvo. The range may have been fairly short I suspect since earlier they had engaged Maikaze at 7000 yards (sunk by US cruisers) accompanying the BBs.

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Possibly electing to disengage in the hopes of opening the distance between his ship and the American Battleships for another torpedo salvo, Katori’s Captain brought his ship around and exposed much of his Starboard side to the USS Iowa, which continued to bark 16-inch fire at the Cruiser. Though not one of the forty-six main battery shells fired by Iowa were seen to strike the Katori above the waterline, at least seven had struck the Cruiser below the waterline and likely caused massive damage to her engine and boiler rooms. Less than ten minutes after the firing had started, the Katori went dead in the water and took a heavy list to Port, revealing her underside which showed all seven hits in her hull, along with several 5-inch shell impacts. Having absorbed a torpedo and gone through a broadside engagement with a Battleship in the same day, the Katori’s hull had endured as much punishment as it could, and 11 minutes after Iowa’s first shot the Katori sank Stern-first at this location at approximately 1330hrs on February 17th, 1944. Though many survivors were seen in the water after her sinking, none of Katori’s 315-man crew or any survivors from the Akagi Maru survived her loss.

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ORIGINAL: spence
Though I'm not betting the ranch on anything I find on the web this seems to dispute the claim that Katori was not hit by 16" gunfire from either Iowa or New Jersey. Seems more like 7 out of 46 to me: not bad shooting.

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ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

This webpage is highly recommended for any BB vs BB analysis

http://www.combinedfleet.com/baddest.htm

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ORIGINAL: spence

Looking at the original question and the statistics originally quoted it appears to me that the IOWA had the higher rate of fire at 2r/min vs 1.75r/min (average of 1.5 and 2) for the YAMATO. Since the two BBs never met in combat a review of their performance in different engagements might prove useful. Yamato fought in the Battle Off Samar in Oct 44: can't say that I've ever heard its performance was all that great (along the line of hits obtained/rounds fired). One of the Iowa's fired on IJN ships off of Truk in Feb 44: can't say that I've ever heard of any assessment of its performance either (hits obtained/rounds fired). Might be interesting to find out if anyone can find the stats.