With this article I will be looking at the largest battleship of World War One (the Bayern class) and the largest battleship of World War Two (the Yamato class). One thing to keep in mind that many people misunderstand is that a battleship is a type of warship and that it is not synonymous with the word 'warship'.
The Bayern class (32,000 tonne displacement)
The Bayern class of the Imperial German Navy was to consist of four ships but only two were built by the time the First World War came to a conclusion. The first of the class entered service in 1916 but just after a month of when the famous Battle of Jutland occurred and thus did not participate. Both the Bayern and the Baden were scuttled at Scapa Flow when the High Seas Fleet of the German Navy was scuttled to prevent capture. These ships had up to 350mm of armour, 380mm guns (eight of them in double mount turrets, and could do a speed of 21 knots.
The Yamato class (72,000 tonne displacement)
The largest battleship ever built and the largest guns ever mounted on a warship, these are titles claimed by this class of warship that served the Imperial Japanese Navy during the second world war. The Yamato class is an incredibly famous class of warship due to the sheer magnitude of their size and power that they possessed. Three ships of the Yamato class were built (Yamato, Musashi and Shinano) however one was completed as an aircraft carrier (the Shinano), all ships were lost during the war with not seeing much action due to their importance. These ships had monstrous 460mm guns (nine of them in triple mount turrets) but also had countless secondary guns and AA guns, up to 600mm of armour and could do a speed of 27 knots. Compared to the Bayern class she is faster, has not only bigger guns but also more of them, much thicker armour and is even faster. seeing these two warships and comparing them really gives an incredible idea as to how much naval technology changed between the two world wars.
Index
AA guns: anti-aircraft guns.
Scuttled: when a ship is sunk on purpose by her crew, usually to prevent capture.
Secondary guns: the secondary armament of a warship, cannons that are relatively smaller than the primary weapons.
Turret: an armoured and rotating mounting for a weapon
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