The battleship, moreso than any kind of warship–excepting perhaps the man O’ war–was often the visual representation of a country’s military might. Vast in expense, and finally rendered (mostly) irrelevant by air power, the last battleships in service were decommissioned in the early 90’s. Today, our own Marine Corps has lamented the loss of the battleship, which always made a terrific fire-support platform for assisting amphibious landings — you know, that function Marines make a fine art.

So having such admiration for these steel dragons, I’m going to give you four of the very best battleships of WWII, each of which embodied their country’s design strategy, and we’re going to unleash them against each other. And before anyone complains, I excluded ships that were commissioned after the war. So, no HMS Vanguard. Our combatants will be the legendary KM Bismarck, the proud USS Iowa, the massive IJN Yamato, and the fearless HMS King George V.

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