Another good summer read is Moonglow by Michael Chabon, a different take of the rush to get Wernher von Braun and his V2 rocket technology before the Russians did. Apparently the Russians are now our trusted pals and the Europeans are our foes.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/10/moonglow-michael-chabon-review

"The grandfather’s war is beautifully rendered. Just as Kavalier & Clay was both about the writing of superhero comics and a kind of superhero comic itself (albeit in prose form), here we have a rollicking story within a story full of doodlebugs and desperate raids that never descends into pastiche. The scenes of the rocket-obsessed grandfather racing through ruined, defeated Germany in search of Wernher von Braun and V2 rockets and V2 technology are compelling."

Great shots! I really love the old battle wagons; from such an incredible era of sea warfare. But, by the time WWII cranked up, the allied and axis powers were beginning to understand that they were gigantic floating targets. As early as the Battle of Midway, PacCom was realizing that carriers were the way to project power over great distances. In the Battle of Denmark Strait, the Germans sank the HMS Hood in a matter of minutes losing almost the entire crew and then the Brits found the Bismarck a few days later, damaged a bit during the encounter with the Hood and heading for dry dock, and sunk her, as well. This was May of 1941, six months before the U.S. was attacked at Pearl, here by air power launched from carriers hundreds of miles away by the Japanese. And, everyone knows the outcome of that battle, including the sinking of the Arizona. Few realize that all nine battleships in Pearl that day were destroyed or heavily damaged. Fortunately, all but the AZ and the Utah were salvaged and repaired.
The Tirpitz, Bismarck's larger brother, brought fear to the allies just by its existence, although it spent most of the war not far from Norway. Occasionally suffering mild damage and incessantly short of fuel, the Tirpitz hid in the fjords. Even so, the allies sent a battle force in March of 1944 to attack it, thinking that the Tirpitz was about to go to sea again. This force included six carriers, two battleships and two cruisers, and 16 destroyers! Scoring 15 direct hits from carrier-launched dive bombers, the Tirpitz was only out of duty for two months. Finally, in November 1944, the Brits found it at sea and, dropping 12,000 Tallboys, hit one of the ships magazines, and capsized it in ten minutes. For all of this, the Tirpitz fired its main guns only once in warfare.
The largest battle ship ever constructed was the Mushashi (72,000 tons) commissioned in mid-1942 and only saw limited sea warfare. It was sunk by the allies on 24 October 1944 in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the South Pacific. It took 19 torpedo and 17 bomb hits from carrier-launched aircraft to sink it.
The USS Missouri, in 1944, became the last battleship commissioned by the Navy and the last to be decommissioned in 1992. Its last appearance was in the movie Battleship (2012) and had to be towed around in order to get the proper shots because it had not moved under its own power since decommissioning two decades prior. The era of the battleship is long gone. The only question that remains is who is older, the Missouri or Liam Neeson? Answer: Neeson was born in 1952.
The Missouri is seaworthy, but it would take probably $1B to convert to modern electronic and rocket-based warfare. It's 15" guns on its deck are worthless. And, it would take a fleet of cruisers and destroyers to protect it from a modern assault.
I hope some would enjoy a bit of sea warfare history.