[Eltabaco]

Battleships I think actually saw their best service in the pacific theater in WW2. There were numerous clashes between surface ships during the fighting for Gaudalcanal because the limited range of the available aircraft allowed combatant fleets to dart in at night, land a few blows then dart right back out. Both the Americans and the Japanese used battleships in these night battles.

Battleships also played a major role in the reconquest of the Phillipines. While the allies were establishing a beachead the IJN split into 3 seperate assault forces. In night action an American battle group met the southern Japanese battle group and destroyed it. The norhtern Japanese task forces was chased off by an American carrier group. The central group managed to get within firing range of the American landing convoys, but was scared off by planes from American Jeep carriers and also by reports that the southern task group had been easily destroyed, raising the specter that the American battleship group might be headed back towards the landing zones.

Finally American battleships also played a major role supplying heavy artillery support for American forces landing on enemy held islands. High explosive shells fired from 16 inch guns were much more efficient at destroying concrete air strips than were 500 pound bombs typically used by Army and Navy bombers.