The United States Navy in World War II by Mark E. Stille

Author:Mark E. Stille
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

It is generally thought that the older USN battleships played little part in the war. This was probably for two reasons. These ships lacked the speed to escort the fast carriers, leaving this duty to the North Carolina, South Dakota and Iowa classes. Perhaps, more importantly, the attack on Pearl Harbor gave the mistaken impression that the Pacific Fleet’s battle line had been wiped out, a perception reinforced by the fact that the older battleships were not employed in the forward areas through 1942. The lightly damaged survivors of Pearl Harbor, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Maryland, were joined by the undamaged Colorado and the three ships of the New Mexico class to form a powerful battle line in early 1942. This force, known as Task Force 1, was not employed in the forward areas despite the constant prodding by Admiral King to Admiral Nimitz to find active employment for them. Nimitz declined to use the ships primarily for logistical concerns, but the real reason was probably more to do with his assessment of the ability of the ships to withstand the Japanese torpedo threat. This speaks volumes of how the older battleships were viewed by the USN. Not fast enough to escort carriers, and not capable enough to operate as front-line units in the face of a major IJN threat, they were judged to be suitable only for support to amphibious forces and for dealing with the odd Japanese unit which might penetrate to the invasion area.

PART 2: THE FAST BATTLESHIPS

The USN placed ten “fast” battleships in commission from 1941 to 1944. These possessed the requisite speed to operate with the new battle fleet – the carrier task forces. The six ships of the North Carolina and South Dakota classes were directly affected by the Washington Naval Treaty, having been designed to adhere to the treaty’s 35,000-ton limit for battleships. The Iowa class was the USN’s last battleship class but was still impacted by treaty restrictions.

North Carolina Class

The North Carolina class battleships were the first USN battleships to be built since West Virginia was commissioned on December 1, 1923. The design process for the North Carolina class was prolonged and was greatly restricted by the 35,000-ton treaty limit and the requirement to keep the beam under the limit of the Panama Canal. The General Board, responsible for approving design specifications, wanted a battleship capable of 30 knots with a main battery of nine 14in guns. Such a ship could act as part of the “fast wing” of the battle fleet to catch the IJN’s Kongo-class fast battleships and be fast enough to hunt down and destroy Axis commerce raiders. The design that was finally approved constituted a shift in USN battleship design priorities. The approved version provided for a ship capable of only 27 knots, but with maximum firepower of 12 14in guns in quadruple turrets. The ship was to be protected against 14in shellfire. The design was changed after construction began because of concerns that Japan would not commit to the restrictions of the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.