Throughout WWI and WWII you hear about these massive dreadnaughts being built (IJN Yamato, USS Missouri, KM Bismark come mind) with massive firepower; however, you never really hear much them being used in ship to ship combat. IIRC the USS Alabama only ever fired her main batteries during a shore bombardment in the Pacific Theater in WWII. The only effective use of these large batteries I know of was when either the Bismark or Tirpitz (memory escapes me atm) hit the HMS Hood's magazine room which destroyed the ship almost instantly. It just seems with the implementation of aircraft carriers and guided missile technology that these types of naval guns have gone the way of the dodo.
Thanks in advance for your answers.
There were a number of ship to ship gun engagements that you're missing.
The battleship night action off Guadalcanal pitted the Washington and South Dakota against the IJN's Kirishima. South Dakota took a lot of superficial damage from Japanese cruiser fire and was rendered combat ineffective, but she was never in any danger of being disabled or sinking. Kirishima was torn apart by the Washington's big guns and eventually sank. Exactly how many large-caliber hits she took is a matter of some debate. The traditional answer is that nine 16-inch shells sent her to the bottom, but there have been others who have argued that she took around 20 hits.
The only other battleship vs. battleship fight in the Pacific was the night action in the Suriago Strait during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Japanese force in this fight was totally outclassed and was nearly annihilated, while the USN big ships didn't take a hit. There is some debate about how much damage was done by the big guns of the battleships vs destroyer torpedo attacks, but the USN's old dreadnoughts got in some hits. I believe it was the West Virginia which scored a hit on her first salvo at over 20,000 yards, which shows how good USN fire control was by that point.
Over in Europe there were some other battleship vs battleship actions. During the Battle of the North Cape the German Scharnhorst was sunk by a combination of gunfire from HMS Duke of York and destroyer torpedo attacks. Since you mentioned the Bismarck, she was crippled by gunfire from HMS King George V and Rodney a few days after the sinking of the hood. What actually sank the Bismarck isn't 100% clear, she may have been scuttled or sunk by torpedoes from a Royal Navy cruisers.
There were a number of surface engagements involving battleships in the Mediterranean. Cape Matapan saw three Italian cruisers slaughtered in a short range night action against a trio of Royal Navy battleships. There was the Royal Navy's attack against the French fleet at Mers-El-Kebir, not really a fair fight but it was a battleship vs battleship gun action. A couple of years later the USS Massachusetts attacked and damaged the Jean Bart at Casablanca although again the Jean Bart was in port and not at sea.
I know there are some other battles I'm forgetting, and there a number of additional instances where battleships fought against smaller ships (Friday the 13th night action off of Guadalcanal, the battle off Samar during Leyte Gulf, the sinking of HMS Glorious by the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau).