>>4575
>Considering how far robotics have come, I imagine a modern battleship would have a fully-automated turret.
Theoretically speaking, yes, such things could be designed. I don't personally think
fully automating the design is a wise choice, given the number of minute things that could go wrong, but it is entirely possible given modern technology and definitely sounds like something the Military-Congressional-Industrial-Complex would try.
>Did they came up with this idea right after the 24" designs, or a bit later when it looked like that they won't get the funding?
The Grand Unions were a result of the US Navy's in-house design exercises back in the day, where they tried to push what was
possible with then-modern technology without regard to practicality. These design exercises were done in part to keep them from getting rusty and to hopefully push the envelope on naval architecture. That type of thing was, of course, canceled by Congress as a 'wasteful expense' because 'the commercial market could do it better'.
That and closing the State Shipyards were probably the two most major things which killed the US Navy from an industrial standpoint. Tactical and doctrinal is another story.
>Was it a sound decision on their part, or just that 300 years of tradition at work?
I would honestly say it was a sound decision backed up by tactical and strategic realities of fighting on the North Sea.
Since they didn't have the advantage of vertically stable guns, long range gunnery was basically impossible to conduct in the harsh north-sea weather; so getting in the enemy's face was basically the only practical way of engaging.
As a result, their Battleships were generally some of the best 'White Water' Battleships ever designed, but they fell short on 'Blue Water' and everyone aboard would get seasick due to how aggressively the ship would attempt to correct the open ocean's calm and gentle rolls.
Comparatively, the Iowas were poor White Water Battleships - where they would try to become submarines - but on Blue Water handled absolutely superior to the nearest RN Battleship, what with their long, calm, and stable (meaning highly predictable) rocking with the waves.
It really depended on where the ships were designed to fight and what they were designed to do.
>I take it happened in Korea. But I'm quite the autist, so please clarify it if he said that ad verbatim.
I believe it actually happened off Iwo Jima, although I'm not entirely certain what landing it was. I know it was a WW2 event, at the least; by Korea most of the BB Captains were being extremely aggressive with their ships as if they had a point to prove, which got the Iowa, New Jersey, and Wisconsin hit by 6in shellfire, costing lives.
And yes, the Captain literally told the Admiral "With all due respect, sir, go fuck yourself." To further show how deep the resistance to breaking range ran, despite losing the argument the Captain
was not punished for insubordination.
>Was it due to the combination of both the radar and the stabilized guns?
It was a combination of the stabilized guns and having a
fire control system designed from the onset to handle and keep up with it. The Radar was just a component of the whole and no more important than any of the other parts, including the Optics.
>Did they find out about some experimental (or even just theoretical) technology and they panicked...
As far as I know, that one was actually just their institutional pessimism at work.
Of course, back then they viewed their own pessimistic outlook as a challenge and threw everything that had at overcoming that perceived challenge. So, in a sense, it was less pessimism and more an internal systematic form of combating institutional complacency. But that also led into things such as the Alaskas, which were solutions that had no actual problems to solve.
>Or am I misunderstanding something?
Their various propulsion systems could handle that type of operation (the Bismarcks' diesels gave near instant response to power shifts and the American/French heavy powerplants could employ reserve steam and overpressure effect to massively decrease the response time at the cost of slowly melting the boilers)
and their steering systems and aftquarters were designed sufficiently strong.
So, you were understanding correctly.
>could I ask for your assessment of that ship? (Yamato)
The truth lies somewhere between the two, yes.
The Yamatos were really fine ships,
easily marvels of engineering the world over, and the Japanese put a lot of attention into fine details that even left the US Navy lamenting the lack of a chance to learn from them post-war; but the Japanese industrial/technological deficiencies virtually crippled the ships in crucial areas which made them drastically less effective than required.
Despite downplaying them against the likes of the Iowas, I actually hold them to be easily one of the best Battleship designs actually built in history, if only they could have been taken as far as the designs deserved.