On 4 November 1937 the super battleship Yamato was secretly laid down at Kure Naval Arsenal. Less than three years later, on 27 June 1940, invoking the "escalator clause", the Americans laid down the first unit of their greatest battleship class, USS Iowa at the New York Naval Yard. Lacking accurate intel, both navies were convinced that their newest battleship was second to none and thus capable of overwhelming any foe in a gunnery duel. In the possession of the actual technical characteristics of the two ships, relying on primary sources and empirical data, we now take on, once again, one of the most hotly debated questions among naval analysts and enthusiasts ever since: Who was right?

• Highly technical, no-nonsense analysis based on primary sources.
• Lavishly illustrated with line drawings including armour penetration curves, immunity graphs, armour diagrams, block diagrams of fire-control systems, and more.
• Lists of tables, figures and pictures to ease navigation.
• Imperial + metric units.