The Iowa-class
battleships were America's-and the world's-last active
battleships, serving as recently as 1995. Back in the World War II era, six of
the class were ordered, and four completed; Iowa, New Jersey,
Missouri and Wisconsin. The Missouri rose to fame as the site of the
Japanese surrender ending WWII. Each armed with nine 16-inch rifles able to hurl
2,700-lb shells more than 23 miles, the Iowa’s were capable of combating formidable
sea-going foes. In actuality, however, their huge main guns were used instead to
shell enemy land positions during WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. In later
years their original arrays of 16-inch and five-inch guns were augmented with
missiles, including the Harpoon as well as the Tomahawk cruise missiles. Explore
the decks and depths of these mighty warships, once home to thousands of sailors
through more than 270 colour photos, carefully chosen to show the subtle
differences between these four near-identical ships.
