Why were the Iowa class battleships so powerful??
Because the Iowa -class were built to slug it out with other ships at close range, just their armor plates weigh more than many ships do these days and they could handle much more punishment than other modern ships. For example, the USS Cole was nearly sunk by a small suicide boat. The Iowa -class battleships can and did shrug off worse than that.
When did the Iowa class battleship come out??
Work on what would eventually become the Iowa-class battleship began on the first studies in early 1938, at the direction of Admiral Thomas C. Hart, head of the General Board, following the planned invocation of the "escalator clause" that would permit maximum standard capital ship displacement of 45,000 long tons (45,700 t).
What is the best book on the USS Iowa??
Battleship New Jersey: An Illustrated History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870210297. Sumrall, Robert F. (1988). Iowa Class Battleships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870212982. Thompson, Charles C., II (1999). A Glimpse of Hell: The Explosion on the USS Iowa and Its Cover-Up. New York: W. W. Norton.
What were the hull numbers of the Iowa class of ships??
Initially, the Iowa class was to consist of only four battleships with hull numbers BB-61 to BB-64: Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
