Key Points and Summary - The Iowa-class battleships—Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin—were built as fast battleships to escort carrier task forces and overmatch enemy capital ships. -Drawing ...

Designers of the Yamato intended for this monster battleship to defeat any counterpart from the United States Navy. But the advent of aircraft carriers ensured that no such battle would ever occur.

Although battleships were replaced by aircraft carriers by the end of World War II, they remain a testament to a bygone era of warfare—and a symbol of their nations’ might. For nearly half a century, ...