New Jersey (BB 62) - Naval Cruise Book

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Qmise ff MEN-X l6?Xi'7f0 Q Modern Dreadnought 'GA battleship is truly an engineering feat that is nothing less than a man-made marvel. But a battleship is much more than that which was just described. Any man who has ever walked her decks has a secure feeling for her endurance under punishing at- tack, felt the rumble of her engines propelling the massive vessel through the worst of sea storms and feeling a pride unequalled in other naval services, has truly lived an ex- citing lifef' 'fHour of Dreadnoughts in the Pacific War by Ed- ward J. Colina, Copyright 1983, Develle Publishing House Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio Pre-Dreadnoughts The use of armored ships can be tracedto the Korean navy's 'ftortoise ships which defeated the Japanese invasion fleet of 1592. But the era of the battleship as we know it has lasted less than a century. Once con- sidered the most powerful ships afloat, hundreds of them plied the seas freely, conducting bombard- ments and anti-ship ac- tions as the capital ships of naval warfare. When NEW JERSEY CBB-621 was launched, she repre- sented the apex of the evo- lutionary cycle of these battleships. Sadly, she was also one of the last. As submarines and naval air- craft also evolved, the be- hemoth battleships began to fade away. The beginnings of the dreadnoughts can be . found in the advent of iron 1 I plate armor and finally, 2 iron hulls prior to the I U. S. Civil War. During the war, naval rifles were developed which could penetrate the armor. Engineers, in turn would make armor thicker to withstand hits by the largest guns fthis required using rough- ly a one-to-one ratio between inches of armor thickness and shell diameterj. The armor would require larger hulls to keep it all afloat. Consequently, bigger guns were developed and a cycle ensued. The equation was further complicated by the advent of the explosive shell. Meanwhile, the Civil War presented a classic engage- ment between the ironclads. The Union's NIONITOR and the Rebel VIRGINIA, or MERRIMAK, battled at New- port News for several hours at point-blank range. Little more than dents resulted and shore batteries were entirely ineffec- tive in turning away the VIRGINIA, which had earlier sunk USS NEW JERSEY QBB-16, 2 I Modern Dreadnought a wooden Union ship-of-the-line Cwhere the term battleship comes fromj. A new respect for these iron ships began an inter- national race to acquire them. As was sail for steam, wood was traded for iron, cannon for long-bored rifles.', Dreadnoughts Guns, armor and hulls were much larger by the turn of the century. At about this time a British warship of revolution- ary design, incorporating the latest features, was launched with a name taken from the family motto of British Fleet Admiral John Fisher of Kilverstone, which was Fear God and Dread Noughtf' Shortened to HMS DREADNOUGHT, it was the first battleship to carry only the largest guns shattering a previ- ous standard that ships carry several sizes of guns, not necessar- ily in turrets on the centerline. It was believed to be the most powerful battleship and so excited the world that its name be- came a synonym for battleship. It even inspired one American congressman to suggest changing the I name of one of the U. S. battleships to USS SKEERED-O-NOTHINJ' The first encounter between batt- i leships was at Tsushima Straits in 1905, when Japan destroyed Russia's Baltic Fleet. Later, in one of the most memora- ble naval battles ever, 58 battleships, dreadnoughts and pre-dreadnoughts, slugged it out in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. USS NEW JERSEY CBB-161 The first New Jersey, the United States, 16th battleship, was built by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Mass. Her keel was laid April 2, 1902. She was launched Nov. 10, 1904 and placed in commission May 12, 1906. She was one of 16 white-painted battleships that sailed out of Hampton Roads on the morning of Dec. 16, 1907 on a world cruise as part of President Theodore Roosevelt's bully Great White Fleet. The successful cruise proved to the world that the United States was emerging from former isolationism and able to project and sus- tain power overseas, giving Teddy the ability to speak softly, but carry a big stick, while conducting international diploma- cy. ieiiiv Fi hoto Ironically, NEW JERSEY and other battleships were sunk in experimental bombing runs by aircraft serving under General Billy Mitchell, who used these tests to support his ideas that the battleships were obsolete in the face of air power. NEW JERSEY sank off Cape Hattaras, N. C., Sept. 5, 1922. While many agreed with General Mitchell, some impor- tant facts were overlooked in his argument. First, these were dead ships which could not maneuver, put up no anti-aircraft fire and had no crew to exercise damage control, often the dif- ference between life and death for a crippled warship. In addi- 51 r. 5 ii il li l

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tion, the ships had been previously pounded by naval gunfire. USS NEW JERSEY CBB-621 The present NEW JERSEY was authorized by an act of Congress May 17, 1938 and the contract was awarded to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in July, 1939. Previous battleships of the five prevailing naval superpow- ers were limited by a 1922 Washington treaty to stop the mad- dening gunsfarmorfhull cycle of increasing size and thickness to 35,000 ton hulls and 16-inch guns. An additional 10,000 tons took the shape of NEW J ERSEY,s long, graceful bow. This made her much faster than her predecessors, giving her the classification 'ifast battleship? She was built forjust S1 10 mil- lion. Launched Dec. 7, 1942 Cexactly one year after the bomb- ing of Pearl Harborj, the ship was commissioned May 23, 1943. She was fitted out at Philadelphia and departed on her shake- down cruise Aug 9, 1943 in preparation for her part in World War II. World War II NEW JERSEY took to sea Jan. 2, 1944 bound for the Pacific. She participated in operations in Truk in the Marshall Islands, Western New Guinea, the Marianas Turkey Shoot, the battle of the Philippine Sea, the Caroline Islands, the battle of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, Formosa, the battle of Cape Engano, Iwo Jima and finally Okinawa, earning a total of nine battle stars. The ship operated with both the Third and Fifth Fleets and was flagship for Admirals William F. fBullJ Halsey and Raymond A. Spruance. Even so, her World War II career was somewhat disap- pointing. Already, strategy had changed to favor the aircraft carriers. The battleships escorted them, serving as anti-aircraft platforms. NEW JERSEY never had the chance to prove her- self against the Japanese fleet, which was rapidly being sunk by American ships, planes and submarines by the time she en- tered the Pacific. At one time, during the American invasion of Leyte, she narrowly missed a confrontation with the Japa- nese 70,000-ton super-dreadnought YAMATO. NEW JER- SEY was detached from amphibious escort duties to pursue an unloaded carrier decoy force. The YAMATO's group advanced, then retreated from a miraculously effective, albeit mismatched defensive force before NEW JERSEY could re- turn at top speed to join the fray. YAMATO, one of two of A postcard depicts NEW JERSEY upon commissioning. HING Fine Copy E U BATTLESHIP ' S' S N . EW 1 R NAVY y-AR ' 1942 E-A-li ADBIIRAL 17, IA -4. J. C p U.S.1v zz., -. zvrnxf. Jn., U.S.1:i?,L31:nANT S AGER ARLE S EDI HQN- WIFE 0 C ovleklvon DISON 'Pura Sz-ATE 0:11-NEW JERSEY PHIL ANN0 the l3fgCSTDELPHIA Navy YUNCED BY battleships ever built, ARD DEvEL0 was sunk by successive waves of PMENT ASS unopposed air attacks by more planes than at- N tacked Pearl Harbor. One Japanese battleship, the MU- SASHI, was sunk by at least 16 bomb and 21 torpedo hits. The last real battleship-to-battleship confrontation took place in the Atlantic breakout of the famous Voss-built Ger- man battleship BISMARK which sunk the HMS HOOD. BISMARK was disabled by a lucky aircraft torpedo shot and was subsequently engaged by massive naval artillery strikes 12,876 5- and 16-inch shellsj and torpedo C601 attacks. Brit- ish Rear Admiral Tovey, as he left the scene with his battle force signalled cannot get her to sink with guns? Whether she sank or was scuttled by her crew remains unclear. One other fact remains, however. While the ARIZONA and OKLAHOMA were sunk in Pearl Harbor, no U. S. bat- tleship was sunk in action at sea in World War II, despite massive damage to several. In fact, the ships proved so hardy that in the Bikini atom bomb tests, the USS PENNSYLVA- NIA was still afloat after surviving two nuclear blasts. In 1947, NEW JERSEY was attached to the Atlantic H 1 Fleet and on June 30, 1948 was A decommissioned and joined the A reserve fleet at Bayonne, N. J. She and her sister IOWA-class battleships - IOWA and WIS- CONSIN - were put to rest , with the exception of the USS MISSOURI, named for the i I home state of President Harry 'W M Truman, who probably favored 1 . her. Korean Conflict NEW JERSEY didn't sleep long. She was recommis- sioned in November 1950 to as- sist United Nations forces in the Korean Conflict. During the time the ship was in Far Eastern waters ffirst Korean tour from April 1951 to November 1951, l!l.....nuu! A .. ...Y