What is the world's largest battleship?

Answer 1

The largest battleship in the world, in terms of weight and armament, is the Japanese Yamato class battleship. She was 263 metres long and had nine 18.1" (460 millimetre) main guns, along with six 157 millimetre (6.1 inch) guns and about 20 127mm (3.9 inch) DP guns. Her main guns were the largest naval rifles ever mounted on a warship, each weighing about 3000 tonnes, which is the size of an average WWII destroyer. The class displaced 72,800 tonnes, which made her twice the weight of any allied battleship.

The reason for such a huge size is because during pre-war planning Japan figured out that they did not have enough resources to build a huge battleship armada against the US, so they saved their resources by building gigantic battleships that could take on multiple ships at once. They were designed with an armour belt that was 16 inches (406 millimetre) thick, which made them almost impervious to British battleships in a close range fight (British battleships use a light 15 inch shell), and can still withstand American shells. Five were laid down, three were built, one was converted to an aircraft carrier after the disastrous Battle of Midway, and the two others were scrapped after said battle.

Yamato was sunk in 1945 by a massive wave of over 300 aircraft during Operation: Ten-Go,where she capsized and exploded. Her sister ship, Musashi, was sunk by aircraft in 1944 during the Battle of Sibuyan Sea, Shinano was turned into a large auxiliary carrier, in fact the largest aircraft carrier of WWII, but sunk by the submarine USS Archer-Fish, 10 days after her commisioning.

The US were the only country that had a battleship which could match the Yamato's: The Iowa class. The Iowas were longer and had better fire control systems, but the obvioud disadvantage was the lighter armament which could potentially spell her doom if she had ever fought Yamato in combat. However, to battle this problem, the Americans developed a new shell, called the Mk II, that was excellent at piercing armour, enough so that "it is as good as, if not better, than, the Japanese 18.1" shell." The US were also planning the Montana class, which would have had Twelve 16"/50 MkII guns, but they were cancelled in favour of the Essex class carriers. If they had been completed, they would have been the "True" rivals of the Yamato class, as they were built for the purpose of rivalling the Japanese titans.

Answer 2

The largest battleship ever built was the Japanese Yamato-class battleships, Yamato and Musashi, which were commissioned during World War II. They were over 800 feet long and weighed over 70,000 tons.