In 1939, German U-boat U-47, under the command of Günther Prien, embarked on a daring mission that would become legendary.

Although battleships were supplanted by aircraft carriers by the end of World War II, they remain a testament to a bygone era of warfare—and a symbol of their nations’ might.

The USS Illinois was supposed to be the fifth of the U.S. Navy's WWII-era Iowa-class battleships, but it never joined its ...