The surviving U.S. Navy battleships are remnants of the ancient types of naval warfare but have still served as lasting symbols of American naval heritage and valor. These ships, namely the USS Texas, USS North Carolina, USS Massachusetts, USS Alabama, USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, USS Missouri, and USS Wisconsin, represent the technological advancement, strategic importance, and simple power of the U.S. Navy throughout the 20th century.
USS Massachusetts, the “Big Mamie”: This South Dakota-class battleship is famous for firing the first and last 16-inch shells in World War II. Measuring 680 feet in length and containing the power of four steam turbines, she could reach almost 28 knots while carrying three Kingfisher floatplanes. Massachusetts, armed with nine 16-inch 45-caliber guns, 20 5-inch 38-caliber dual-purpose guns, and an antiaircraft battery, made one of the longest-range gunfire hits on a moving enemy target, at a range of 28,000 yards, during the Battle of Casablanca. Decommissioned in 1947, by lucky twists of fate, the ship avoided the scrapyard and is now located at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, where she is the most unaltered battleship anywhere in the world.
USS Texas (BB-35): Once, in March 1914, she was declared to be the “most potent weapon in the world.” She is the only surviving U.S. battleship that served in both World Wars. She earned five battle stars during World War II alone. Her propulsion came from steam power through coal-fired boilers that moved two propellers. Her armament boasted ten 14″ guns, twenty-one 5″ guns, and four 21″ torpedo tubes. During WWI, Texas served in the North Sea, and then in WWII, she escorted war convoys across the Atlantic before shelling German positions in North Africa and Normandy. After the invasion of Normandy, she was shifted to the Pacific to take part in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Today it serves as a museum ship at San Jacinto, Texas, complete with fairly extensive repairs to make sure it stands the elements for generations to come.
Upon the conclusion of WWII in 1947, the USS Alabama was decommissioned, and the battleship of the South Dakota class was left at berth in Bremerton, Washington. The attempts to keep the highly decorated battleship from facing the scrapper’s torch were channeled to act as it would be preserved standing for generations to come as a memorial within the precincts of Mobile, Alabama. The park known as the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park was born in 1964 to restlessly stand as a tribute to those who served in all armed conflicts of the United States of America. The ship has been the location for several movies and was in heavy repair in the early 2000s to repair damage from hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The USS Iowa served as the lead ship in the Iowa-class battleships, serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific during World War II. She carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Tehran Conference and supported amphibious landings in the Pacific. Reactivated for actions during the Korean War and again in the 1980s, gal USS Iowa now rests as a museum ship in Los Angeles, transitioning to the future National Museum of the Surface Navy.
USS New Jersey (BB-62) Of the four Iowa class battleships the USS New Jersey was the second to be constructed and is the only ship in the class to be awarded the most number of battle stars for combat actions. She served in gunfire support duties during the Vietnam Conflict and has been a museum ship gracing the Camden, New Jersey waterfront since 2001. She will make the voyage up the Delaware River to the Philadelphia Navy Yard this summer for routine maintenance and repairs that will ensure she remains part of the Delaware Valley landscape for years to come.
These battleships were decommissioned after the end of the war but live on today as floating reminders of the technological prowess of the United States Navy and the valor and courage of those who fought aboard them.