 Agent Orange: Friendly fire that keeps on burning. | Battleships and tanks are very vulnerable to air attacks. Japan had the largest battleship with the largest guns. The Yamato wielded 9 18.1 inch guns as compared to the 16 inchers on our largest ships. She was sent to the bottom by bombs and torpedoes launched by our planes as she raced towards Okinawa in an effort to beach herself and be used as a stationary gun platform for the defense of Okinawa. They had more of similar class in their production pipelines but the last of them was converted to an aircraft carriers and sunk too. Germany's Bismark was a huge battleship and it was disabled by Swordfish planes that were agonizingly slow, fabric covered bi-planes. I think their day is long past. |