Isn't Iowa's radar basically "I know where you are exactly" and not the "I know where you are exactly and I know what type you are"?
That's a good question...I'm guessing you could probably find the target's length if you knew its angle-on-bow but I don't think it was detailed enough to pick out features like masts and funnels. That's just outta my head, though.
I do recall that they can guess the length which made them guess if it's a destroyer,cruiser etc not an exact type of a ship lol
Radar of the age would let you know there is a target present, where it is, and give enough sizing to reasonably hit it, but the target still needed to be visually identified to be sure what they were shooting at. After they had that, they could fire at night, in fog, smoke screens, whatever.
Yeah... silhoutte spotting could be that hilariously bad at the time. Mistaking BBs for CAs and vice-versa, doing the same with CLs and DDs, heck there were numerous occasions where American forces sighted a Fusou-class battleship at the Battle off Samar.
Must have been one of those "ghost ships" I keep hearing about.
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