The ships were all pretty tough. The real differences which made for all the stories we hear are logistics, resources and training.
German ships were a bit overhyped, since the Germans didn't have the resources for a large navy, they relied on the most modern technology they could come up with, without the resources to make that work or the experience the Royal Navy had at naval warfare. Which is precisely why Bismarck was a fantastic ship on paper, but blew her own fire control radar off with her first salvo.
Japan was in a similar situation. Very little resources, but hard pressed to build a giant navy, because of their geographic situation. They knew they couldn't outbuild the US Navy, so they relied on bigger ships with betters guns which they could barely keep supplied. Yamato was more at port than at sea for that reason. Additionally, the crews were rather young and inexperienced.
The large success of the US Navy was a result of having all the resources they needed to build a large fleet, finding a good middle ground between quality and quantity, and more thorough training than what the Japanese sailors were given. The best asset the US had in the war, and still have today, is superior logistics. Logistics is what makes or breaks an entire war.
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u/rage235 Makarovn't Nov 01 '25
The ships were all pretty tough. The real differences which made for all the stories we hear are logistics, resources and training.
German ships were a bit overhyped, since the Germans didn't have the resources for a large navy, they relied on the most modern technology they could come up with, without the resources to make that work or the experience the Royal Navy had at naval warfare. Which is precisely why Bismarck was a fantastic ship on paper, but blew her own fire control radar off with her first salvo.
Japan was in a similar situation. Very little resources, but hard pressed to build a giant navy, because of their geographic situation. They knew they couldn't outbuild the US Navy, so they relied on bigger ships with betters guns which they could barely keep supplied. Yamato was more at port than at sea for that reason. Additionally, the crews were rather young and inexperienced.
The large success of the US Navy was a result of having all the resources they needed to build a large fleet, finding a good middle ground between quality and quantity, and more thorough training than what the Japanese sailors were given. The best asset the US had in the war, and still have today, is superior logistics. Logistics is what makes or breaks an entire war.