Nelson, North Carolina, and Russian battleships

They remained in Batdiv 2 during the whole of 1944 and were under Kurita's command during the time they operated in training. They were the least capable of the IJN battleships except for the Kongos, but there was never a shortage of work for the Kongos. It was the Fuso class that was nominated for a suicide attack on Saipan after the Turkey Shoot.

 

Please tell more, I've never heard of this bright idea by the IJN.

 

I don't know too much about it. Fuso and Yamashiro were nominated to mount an augmented AA outfit and several landing barges for a counter-landing on Saipan. Adm Toyoda recognized at as a ridiculous suggestion guaranteed to acomplish nothing but suicide for those involved. I can't help seeing it as a kind of rough draft for the final Yamato sortie. Too bad no one recognized that one as pointless suicide.
And yet it's possible that the Fusos actually were fitted to carry landing barges at some point before the following October. They did get more AA guns--but so did most ships. They also received several new radar sets, which looks to me more like preparing the ships for frontline duty again.
Fuso was inferior to Ise; the modernized deck protection in the latter is much more impressive. I don't know why the Ises were picked for carrier conversion when the Fusos were worth less as battleships.

 

The IJN High Command on drugs again?

Some within the IJN, Admiral Kusaka for one, did recognize YAMATO's last sortie for the prime piece of idiocy it was, but none of them were senior enough to get the really big brass to listen to them.