Before construction could get underway, however, the US suffered a devastating blow that completely changed the course of their plans. Two years before the United States was drawn into World War II, two Montana-class battleships were approved by Congress. Yamato-class Battleships anchored at Chuuk Atoll, 1943 Without the restrictions of the Second London Naval Treaty, the US Navy was free to build the most heavily-armed battleship in its history. The idea of the Montana-class was that it would be a slower, but much stronger and more heavily armored battleship that could stand up to Japan’s Yamato. This was an increase from Iowa’s three-by-three, 16”-gun configuration. The History of the Battleship That Never WasĪ successor of the Iowa class of battleships, Montana was planned to have twelve, 16” Mark 7 guns mounted in four turrets holding three guns apiece. Over the course of the War in the Pacific, however, the value of this mighty battleship diminished, which resulted in five planned ships being canceled before construction even began.Īs history has shown, though, scrapping these ships wasn’t a great loss for the Americans, as aircraft carriers had already begun to play a much more important role in modern naval warfare. Almost immediately, the United States started planning the Montana-class battleship. Little was known about the new class of battleship, though it was rumored to have battery configurations that violated the Second London Naval Treaty, which Japan refused to join.īritain, France, and the United States saw the Yamato-class battleship as a major threat in the Pacific, causing them to invoke what was known as the “Escalator Clause” to allow for an increase in the size and armament of their warships. As tensions rose across the Pacific in the run-up to the outbreak of war, the Imperial Japanese Navy tried to intimidate the United States with the massive Yamato-class battleship.
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