General History: South Dakota 1920 

Will say, once again: everything in here is well-researched. Either direct from the Friedman’s in the description, from other Friedman’s (like British Battleships) or from NavWeaps, or from various books in the case of Tosa. Japan and Britain being at risk of economic implosion? Well accepted historic fact. Why the Washington Conference ever worked. USN and Congress sparring over funding? Historical truth. USN preferring more barrels? Just look at ship design docs. And, of course, I went through NavWeaps to look at shell weights and math it out. There’s only about a thousand pounds of difference between N3 and SoDak.

If the British stuck to their WW1 doctrine of gun and shell designs with the N3 the difference would have been significant. 1.5 tons. 9 of these guns and the South Dakota would have stood little chance. But post WW1 the British took the wrong lessons from German naval gunnery resulting in turning their guns in something akin to a sniper rifle in concept. So the British 18 inch shell went from 1.5 tons to 1.3 tons. (The G3's shells went from 1 ton to 0.9 tons). This decision was a disaster and the result was shells that were crippled when punching through deck plating at long ranges. This why HMS Rodney (armed with G3's guns and shells) was ordered to go in close and personal during the final battle of Bismarck because the British knew that the deck punching power of the Mark 1 16" guns were weak. So HMS Rodney ended up using guns designed based on WW1 German naval gunnery methodology to finishing off a German ship.

It does leave me with the question why those 16 inch guns weren't used on the Norh Carolina and later South Dakota classes.

That group shot at 10:02. What do you think it cost (in 2022 dollars) to fully fuel that battle line?

I would love to see what the modern 21st century USN would put together if battleships were still standard capitol ships with the current budget. Imagine what a $2B all big guns boat could be haha

Very good. Very informative. Good job.

Great vid, nice to learn the design history of the South Dakota (1920) aka the Kansas in WoWs.

likingandcommenting there, tube of you duty done! (keep on keeping on, please)

Good content.