"By the last year of the Second World War US fast battleships had become largely, if not principally, gigantic anti-aircraft platforms. The Iowas for example were festooned with 20x 40 mm quad mounts and 10 x 5″ twin mounts, not counting the innumerable 20 mm Oerlikon mounts installed on any available desk space. This reflected the fact that the principal threat to the Fleet came from above.
Less obvious but equally important were the corresponding improvements in the Fleet’s range of sight. The sailors of the 1940s improvised AWACS, pushed out radar picket ships and controlled their thousands of guns with radar fire control and lead computing sites. Not content with that, they equipped the 5 inch shells with the first proximity fuses so that they would burst when passing near a Japanese aircraft. Britain’s Royal Navy may have had a longer tradition, and the IJN might have had a better grasp of surface torpedo warfare, but when it came to shooting aerial threats down the late-war USN was literally an order of magnitude better than anyone else.
"..................
