The Death of Battleships.

Yamato under construction.  

I think this is a story worth telling because I often find that people are unaware that battleships are obsolete (meaning they're basically useless for navies around the world in the event of war).  Yep, it's true.  With very few exceptions, they've been obsolete round the world since since World War II.  The reason for this goes back to the story of this bad boy seen in the picture below, Battleship Yamato.  

Whoa, and was it ever a bad boy.  Yamato was the largest battleship ever built, the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy.  It was originally designed to be an aircraft carrier and was actually BIGGER than the aircraft carrier in the United States Navy at the time.  To give you a picture of just how big it was... the largest U.S. Battleships ever built displaced 45,000 tons (roughly the size of the Titanic of sinking and Hollywood fame).  The Yamato displaced 73,000 tons.  It's guns were bigger and better than anything else in naval history before or since.  They were 18.1 inches and capable of shooting shells that were the equivalent of explosive Volkswagon Beetles at targets 30 miles away!

Yamato undergoing sea trials.

On top of that, Yamato, at the time of its death, had over 160 anti-aircraft guns.  AA guns (as we shall affectionately call them) were needed on ships in WWII because pesky airplanes were taking off from aircraft carriers and causing all sorts of trouble.  However, there had never really been a battle, a serious battle, to prove whether or not carrier-borne aircraft were indeed superior to battleships or not.  

If any battleship could prove or disprove the superiority of battleships when it came to a fight between battleships and aircraft carriers, it was going to be Yamato.  To begin with, remember that she had 160 guns that were meant to kill planes!  What I didn't yet say was that she also had huge shells that went into her 18.1 inch guns that were the equivalent of BUCKSHOT.  (Such ingenuity was typical of the Imperial Japanese warfare btw).  Yessir, dem big guns would aim upward and farr a sprayd of hellfire at doze incomin' planes - jest lik an ol' fashund turkey shoot!  

Yamato exploding.  Note the size of the ships to the left.

So... the real test for Yamato, and really all battleships, came when 280+ U.S. planes came to attack the biggest, baddest mamma-jamma that ever sailed the seven seas.

 It was basically no contest.  Yamato and her crew fought back valiantly, but she got toasted with loads of torpedos and bombs (at least 15 of them!) 
Losses for the U.S., however, were minimal, and afterwards the battleship was considered obsolete by navies worldwide.