USS Nevada (BB-36)

USS Nevada (BB-36), the third United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two s. Launched in 1914, Nevada was a leap forward in dreadnought technology; four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets, oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the "all or nothing" armor principle. These features made Nevada, alongside her sister ship , the first US Navy "standard-type" battleships.

Nevada served in both World Wars. During the last few months of World War I, Nevada was based in Bantry Bay, Ireland, to protect supply convoys that were sailing to and from Great Britain. In World War II, she was one of the battleships trapped when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Nevada was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, making the ship "the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal and depressing morning" for the United States. Still, the ship was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs while steaming away from Battleship Row, forcing the crew to beach the stricken ship on a coral ledge. The ship continued to flood and eventually slid off the ledge and sank to the harbor floor. Nevada was subsequently salvaged and modernized at Puget Sound Navy Yard, allowing her to serve as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and as a fire-support ship in five amphibious assaults (the invasions of Attu, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa).

At the end of World War II, the Navy decided that, due to age, Nevada would not be retained as part of the active fleet and she was instead assigned as a target ship for the atomic experiments at Bikini Atoll in July 1946 (Operation Crossroads). The ship was hit by the blast from atomic bomb Able, and was left heavily damaged and radioactive. Unfit for further service, Nevada was decommissioned on 29 August 1946, and sunk for naval gunfire practice on 31 July 1948.

Design

thumb|left|Profile of Nevada before her 1927 refit

thumb|left|Division of Naval Intelligence identification sheet depicting Nevada after her 1942 repair and modernization

As the first second-generation battleship in the US Navy, Nevada has been described as "revolutionary" and "as radical as was in her day" by present-day historians. At the time of the ship's completion in 1916, The New York Times remarked that the new warship was "the greatest [battleship] afloat" because she was so much larger than other contemporary American battleships: her displacement was nearly three times that of the obsolete 1890 pre-dreadnought , almost twice that of the 1904 battleship , and almost greater than that of one of the first American dreadnoughts, —built just seven years prior to Nevada.

Nevada was the first battleship in the US Navy to have triple gun turrets, a single funnel, and an oil-fired steam power plant. In particular, the use of the more-efficient oil gave the ship an advantage over earlier coal-fired plants. Nevada was also the first US battleship with geared turbines, which also helped increase fuel economy and thus range compared to earlier direct drive turbines. The ability to steam great distances without refueling was a major concern of the General Board at that time. In 1903, the Board felt all American battleships should have a minimum steaming radius of  so that the US could enforce the Monroe Doctrine. One of the main purposes of the Great White Fleet, which sailed around the world in 1907–1908, was to prove to Japan that the US Navy could "carry any naval conflict into Japanese home waters". Possibly as a result of this, battleships after 1908 were mainly designed to "steam 8,000 miles at cruising speeds"; given the distance between San Pedro, where the fleet would be based, and Manila, where the Fleet was expected to have to fight under War Plan Orange, was , endurance was obviously a major concern for the U.S. Navy. Also, oil allowed for the boiler-room crew to be reduced—the engineer on Delaware estimated that 100 firemen (stokers) and 112 coal passers could be adequately replaced by just 24 men, which would allow some crew's quarters to be eliminated; this would save weight and also reduce the amount of fresh water and provisions that the ship would have to carry.

In addition to all of this, Nevada had maximum armor over critical areas, such as the magazines and engines, and none over less important places, even though previous battleships had armor of varying thickness depending on the importance of the area it was protecting. This radical change became known as the "all or nothing" principle, which most major navies later adopted for their own battleships. With this new armor scheme, the armor on the battleship was increased to 41.1% of the displacement.

As a result of all of these design modifications from previous battleships, Nevada was the first of the US Navy's "Standard" type battleships. "Standards" were characterized by the use of oil fuel, the "all or nothing" armor scheme, and the arrangement of the main armament in four triple or twin turrets without any turrets located in the middle of the ship. The Navy was to create a fleet of modern battleships similar in long-range gunnery, speed, turning radius, and protection. Nevada was followed by 11 other battleships of this type, although significant improvements were made in subsequent designs as naval technology rapidly progressed. An additional seven standard type battleships ( and the six of the ) were never completed due to the Washington Naval Treaty.

The two battleships of the Nevada class were virtually identical except in their propulsion. Nevada and her sister were fitted with different engines to compare the two, putting them 'head-to-head': Oklahoma received older vertical triple expansion engines, which had proven more fuel-efficient and reliable than the direct drive turbines of some earlier battleships, while Nevada received geared Curtis steam turbines.

Construction and trials

thumb|Nevada during her [[Shakedown cruise|running trials in early 1916]]

Nevadas construction was authorized by an Act of Congress on 4 March 1911. The contract went to Fore River Shipbuilding Company on 22 January 1912, for a total of $5,895,000 (not including the armor and armament), and the time of construction was originally to be 36 months. A secondary contract was signed on 31 July 1912, for $50,000 to cover the additional cost of a geared cruising unit on each propeller shaft; this also extended the planned construction time by five months. Her keel was laid down on 4 November 1912, and by 12 August 1914, the ship was 72.4% complete. Nevada was launched on 11 July 1914; she was sponsored by Miss Eleanor Anne Seibert, niece of Governor Tasker Oddie of Nevada and a descendant of the first Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert. The launch was attended by several prominent members of the government, including Governor Oddie, Governor David I. Walsh of Massachusetts, Senator Key Pittman of Nevada, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, who would later become the 32nd President of the United States.

Nevada then had to undergo many different tests and trials prior to her commissioning to ensure that she met the terms of the original contract. These began on 4 November 1915, when the ship conducted a twelve-hour endurance run "up and down the New England coast", reaching a top speed of . Though her "acceptance trials" were interrupted on 5 November, because of a gale and rough seas, they were continued on the 6th with a test of her fuel economy; this consisted of a 24-hour run where Nevada steamed at . The test results were positive: the oil consumption of the battlewagon was 6 lb per knot lower than the contract had demanded. Another test was conducted for 12 hours at , with an even better result of 10 lb per knot lower than the contract specifications. After completing all of these tests and running trials off Rockland, Maine, Nevada sailed to the Boston and New York Navy Yards for equipment, torpedo tubes, and ammunition hoists. When all of the preliminaries were completed, Nevada was commissioned on 11 March 1916, at the Charlestown Navy Yard, and William S. Sims was the first captain of the new ship, followed by Joseph Strauss on 30 December 1916.

World War I

thumb|The stern of Nevada during WWI

After fitting out in the Boston and New York Navy Yards, Nevada joined the Atlantic Fleet in Newport, Rhode Island on 26 May 1916. Prior to the United States' entry into World War I, she conducted many training cruises and underwent many exercises out of her base in Norfolk, Virginia, sailing as far south as the Caribbean on these cruises. The US entered the war in April 1917, but Nevada was not sent to the other side of the Atlantic because of a shortage of fuel oil in Britain. Instead, four coal-fired battleships of Battleship Division 9 (BatDiv 9) (, , , and ) departed the US to join the British Grand Fleet on 25 November 1917. They arrived on 7 December and were designated as the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. joined them after damage from a grounding on Block Island was repaired; she departed on 30 January, and arrived in Scotland on 11 February. It was not until 13 August 1918, that Nevada, then under command of Andrew T. Long , Additionally, many different adaptations and additions were made: her main guns' elevation was increased to 30° (which upped the range of the guns from to ), anti-torpedo bulges were added, her 12 original Yarrow boilers were replaced with 6 more efficient Bureau Express boilers in a new arrangement to accommodate those bulges, two catapults were added for three Vought O2U-3 Corsair biplane spotter aircraft, eight /25 cal AA guns were added, a new superstructure was installed, and her 5-inch (127 mm) 51 cal secondary battery was relocated above the hull in an arrangement similar to that of the . Nevada then served in the Pacific Fleet for the next eleven years. During this time, she was commanded by John J. Hyland ,

Aft of Arizona during the attack, Nevada was not moored alongside another battleship off Ford Island, and therefore was able to maneuver, unlike the other seven battleships present. Commanding officer Francis W. Scanland ,

thumb|Nevada beached

As bomb damage became evident, Nevada was ordered to proceed to the west side of Ford Island to prevent her from sinking in deeper water. Instead, she was grounded off Waipio Point, with the help of and , though she managed to force down three more planes before she struck the shore. Gasoline fires prevented damage control parties from containing flooding forward of the main torpedo defense system. Flooding the main magazine and counterflooding to keep the ship stable lowered the bow allowing water to enter the ship at the second deck level. Lack of watertight subdivision between the second and main decks from frame 30 to frame 115 allowed water entering through bomb holes in the forecastle to flow aft through the ship's ventilation system to flood the dynamo and boiler rooms.

Over the course of the morning, Nevada suffered a total of 60 killed and 109 wounded. Two more men died aboard during salvage operations on 7 February 1942, when they were overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas from decomposing paper and meat. The ship suffered a minimum of six bomb hits and one torpedo hit, but "it is possible that as many as ten bomb hits may have been received, [...] as certain damaged areas [were] of sufficient size to indicate that they were struck by more than one bomb."

Attu

On 12 February 1942, now with Captain Harry L. Thompson commanding,

Her 5"/51s and 5"/25s were replaced with sixteen 5"/38 caliber guns in new twin mounts. Nevada, with Captain Willard A. Kitts

She was chosen as Rear Admiral Morton Deyo's flagship for the operation. During the invasion, Nevada supported forces ashore from 6–17 June, and again on 25 June; during this time, she employed her guns against shore defenses on the Cherbourg Peninsula, "[seeming] to lean back as [she] hurled salvo after salvo at the shore batteries." Shells from her guns ranged as far as inland in attempts to break up German concentrations and counterattacks, even though she was straddled by counterbattery fire 27 times (though never hit).

Nevada was later praised for her "incredibly accurate" fire in support of beleaguered troops, as some of the targets she hit were just from the front line. Nevada was the only battleship present at both Pearl Harbor and the Normandy landings.

Southern France

thumb|Nevada bombarding shore targets in Southern France during Operation Dragoon

After D-Day, the Allies headed to Toulon for another amphibious assault, codenamed Operation Dragoon. To support this, many ships were sent from the beaches of Normandy to the Mediterranean, including five battleships (the United States' Nevada, , , the British , and the Free French ), three US heavy cruisers (, and ), and many destroyers and landing craft were transferred south.

Nevada supported this operation from 15 August – 25 September 1944, "dueling" with "Big Willie": a heavily reinforced fortress with four 340 mm (13.4 in) guns in two twin turrets. These guns had been salvaged from the French battleship Provence after the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon; the guns had a range of nearly 19 nautical miles (35 km) and they commanded every approach to the port of Toulon. In addition, they were fortified with heavy armor plate embedded into the rocky sides of the island of Saint Mandrier. Due to these dangers, the fire-support ships assigned to the operation were ordered to level the fortress. Beginning on 19 August, and continuing on subsequent days, one or more heavy warships bombarded it in conjunction with low-level bomber strikes. On the 23rd, a bombardment force headed by Nevada struck the "most damaging" blow to the fort during a 6½ hour battle, which saw 354 salvos fired by Nevada. Toulon fell on the 25th, but the fort, though it was "coming apart at the seams", held out for three more days.

Nevada then headed to New York to have her gun barrels relined. In addition, the three 14"/45 caliber guns (356 mm) of Turret 1 were replaced with Mark 8 guns formerly on and in the relining process at the time of Pearl Harbor; these new guns were relined to Mark 12 specifications.

Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan

thumb|right|Nevada bombarding Iwo Jima, 19 February 1945

After re-fitting, and with Captain Homer L. Grosskopf The wreck lies upside down, with the main hull carrying the scars of shell fire and torpedo hits. Nearby is a large debris field with the turrets, which fell off the ship as she capsized, and the bow and stern, both of which were torn free. Archaeologists also documented the two tripod masts, portions of the bridge, sections of deck and superstructure, and one of four tanks, an M26 Pershing, placed on the deck for the atomic bomb tests. The hull was still painted and the number "36" was visible on the stern.

One of the former Arizona guns mounted on Nevada is paired with a gun formerly on Missouri at the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza just east of the Arizona State Capitol complex in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. It is part of a memorial representing the start and end of the Pacific War for the United States.

Notes

References

Bibliography

Print sources

Online sources

The New York Times

External links

– 1912–1919
Navy photos of Nevada (BB-36)
Navy photos of Nevada during the Pearl Harbor attack
MaritimeQuest USS Nevada BB-36 Photo Gallery
Nevada Damage Report following the Pearl Harbor Attack
Citations of articles, books, and websites about USS Nevada from ShipIndex.org
Overview of "Operation Crossroads"
USS Nevada Collection at the Nevada State Museum