Details, schmetails, they all look alike to you. To my eye, the
South Dakotas look very different, while the
North Carolinas and
Iowas look similar to each other. I think that the
North Carolinas were the most beautiful battleships ever built.
If I were Bull Halsey, for one thing, I would try not to run my fleet through typhoons twice in the same summer. But, for another thing, I would want an advantage in numbers if it came down to a surface action against
Yamato or
Musashi. I think I'd want a night action, where my radar gunnery would have an advantage.
Those 18.1"/45 guns were not to be sneezed at, but they weren't quite as powerful as one might expect. They fired a lighter shell than the 18" guns that the Brits had on their two
Courageous-class "large light cruisers" in WWI. They had an advantage over the 16"/50 guns on the
Iowas, but not much of one.
Interesting article
here.