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The length to beam ratio of this class was simply too low to make them anything but slow. South Dakota was actually fortunate to survive its' fight with Kirishima as the Washington stepped in to save her. The Japanese BB knocked out S.D.'s electrical power making her a sitting duck. With no radar though to see what was around her the Kirishima was pulverized at close range by the much more modern and powerful US ship. It would have been an embarrassing moment is U.S. naval history had S. D. Been lost to a WW1 battle cruisers 2/3 It's size.
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