Inside the USS IOWA (BB-61) — “The Big Stick”

Описание: Step aboard the legendary USS Iowa (BB-61)—the lead ship of the Iowa-class, widely regarded as the most powerful battleship class ever built for the United States Navy. From her construction at the New York Navy Yard in 1940 to her final days as a preserved museum ship, Iowa’s story captures the peak of American battleship design: massive 16-inch/50-caliber guns, heavy armor, and a top speed of 33 knots built to run with fast aircraft carriers.

In this video, we trace Iowa’s full operational career across three major eras of naval warfare.
You’ll learn how treaty limits shaped (and eventually stopped shaping) battleship design, why the Iowa-class became the ultimate “fast battleship,” and how this steel giant served in the Atlantic and Pacific during World War II—including operations in the Marshalls, the Marianas, the Palaus, Leyte, and the great carrier battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. Iowa was even present in Tokyo Bay during Japan’s surrender, anchored near her sister ship USS Missouri.

We also cover Iowa’s return to combat during the Korean War, where her big guns delivered devastating shore bombardment, and her Cold War resurrection in the 1980s—modernized with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and Phalanx CIWS, while still carrying the iconic triple 16-inch turrets. Finally, we examine the 1989 tragedy in Turret Two, Iowa’s last deployments, and her lasting significance as the culmination of the U.S. battleship era.

If you’re into naval history, warship engineering, or WWII and Cold War military technology, this is the complete story of a ship built for one age—and adapted to survive into another.

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