Super Battleships We Will Never See
most of these were envisioned before the reality of naval aviation sank in but the plans were kept and a few might have been laid down had the war dragged on. by 1942-onwards, they were likely envisioned to be flagships with psychological effect when used in non-combat roles (like treaty talks.) or perhaps in desperate defensive actions when the home front is threatened. the plans by both winners and losers were scrapped almost right after the war. so if hitler or tojo managed to hold on till 1948, we might have seen some of these beauties:
(mostly from the Chuck Hawks article)
super yamato - 6 20" inch guns. displacement would have been at least 20% more than yamato since the expected recoil was twice that of a 16" gun. also, japan lacked harbors deep enough so the supers would have been much wider than the yamato. the japanese believed the USN would not build BBs bigger than the iowa class, given the constraints dictated by things like the panama canal.
montana class - the japanese thought wrong. 12 16" guns with a max speed of 28 kts. really a stretched iowa, with no speed requirement for an escort battleship, but rather one intended to engage other BBs. authorized in 1940 but suspended in 1942. as a wartime expedient, a fifth and sixth iowa was ordered but neither were completed. yes, the montana might have seen daylight.
sovietskiy soyuz class - 9 16" guns, 28 kts. 4 were ordered in 1938, three were laid down but stopped in 1940. not likely to have come about, during the war but the pacific issue might have resumed construction.
the lion class - 9 16", 30 kts. different from the vanguard mainly in the tripple gun configuration. the vanguard was close in terms of expectations.
the H-series - the big question here is which actually came close to being built. envisioned to 'balance out' naval strength in the high seas. the h-38 class, namely the bismark and tirpitz, saw use. immediate series versions begun construction but halted immediately, the h-39 was to have 16" guns and these guns were actually built and converted to shore defense. the last in the series was the impossibly large h-44 displacing 120,000 tonnes, with 8 20" guns.
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