re: #143 Dark_Falcon

That overlooks the useful service battleships provided in WWII, both in terms of AA protection for carriers (the South Dakota’s 40mm Bofors guns did the Kido Butai’s air group immense damage at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands) to shore bombardment. And it must also be pointed out that in the third phase of the Battle of Guadalcanal, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the USS Washington shelled the HIJMS Kirishima into a crippled wreck.

So your post is a serious oversimplification, enough of one to degrade its accuracy.

Cruisers and destroyers could not only be easily converted in AA platforms, they could be built at a blistering rate. Same with shore bombardment, though cruisers were more effective at it than destroyers. And you say Guadalcanal, I say Battle off Samar, where a group of destroyers, destroyer escorts, and escort carriers fought off a battle group lead by the Yamato herself. For the cost of 2 carriers, 2 destroyers, and 1 escort, they took out 3 heavy cruisers and did so much damage to the others that Admiral Kurita thought he’d run straight into Halsey’s fleet.