Alabama ST

History

Design

The South Dakota-class battleships were the next evolution in battleship design from the previous North Carolina-class. Still designed in the late 1930s, they remained under the limitations imposed by the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty and the subsequent 1936 London Naval Treaty. Originally conceived to be more additions to the North Carolina-class ships, it was decided to delay their design by a year in order to implement some solutions to the shortcomings discovered on the preceding “fast-battleship” class.

The South Dakotas were the first “fast-battleship” class of the US Navy to implement sloped armor plating to address the issue of high angle oncoming shells from plunging fire, especially from 406mm shells. Due to the design itself being of an advanced phase already when this decision was made, only the main armor belt — located interior of the ship — was able to be angled inwards by 19 degrees, which stretched from the main deck down to the bottom plates. Moreover, the bottom plate armor and other major longitudinal armor sections were thickened in comparison to the North Carolina-class.

As a consequence of the additional armoring to increase the survivability of the South Dakota-class ships, they had to be made shorter to meet the displacement restrictions of 35,000 tons imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty. Subsequently, whey were roughly 14 meters shorter than their predecessors of the North Carolina class. The design requirements for the South Dakotas still required them to maintain the same top speed of 27 knots as the North Carolinas; more powerful propulsion systems were required and some creative design choices were made in order to fit everything into the more compact hull as a result. The machinery compartments were re-organized in order to squeeze in all of the boilers, turbines, and accompanying evaporating and distilling equipment, as opposed to North Carolina’s more dispersed engineering arrangement. Furthermore, the machinery rooms themselves took up to two deck spaces, as the boilers were placed on a level above the rest of the machinery to allow the propeller shafts — connected to their respective turbines — to run their full length, unhampered. One interesting design feature resulted from the changes: the bottom hull ended well before the stern of the ship, and the two outer propeller shafts formed a “skeg”, or an enclosure, around the inner propeller shafts. This had the added benefit of providing additional protection from torpedo damage.

The superstructure of the South Dakota-class was taller and narrower than previous American battleships. Due to the concentration of propulsion machinery in the midsection, the design required only one funnel as opposed to the usual two, saving some deck space. From the onset the South Dakota-class were designated the role of fleet flagships, therefore a flag bridge was placed above the ship's command bridge in the conning tower specifically for this purpose.

USS Alabama (BB-60), last of the South Dakota-class battleships, was laid down at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 1 February 1940, launched 16 February 1942, and commissioned exactly 6 months later on 16 August 1942.

Service History

Alabama’s first assignment was in the Atlantic; the Royal Navy was focused on the Mediterranean Sea in a build-up effort to support the Invasion of Sicily ("Operation Husky"), and they lacked the capital ships to protect their northern convoys. Requesting help from their American allies, Alabama and her sister ship USS South Dakota sailed for the Orkney Islands to join the British Home Fleet. Her first duties were as a convoy escort, until July 1943 when she participated in “Operation Governor”: a diversion exercise executed around Southern Norway in an attempt to draw Germany’s attention away from the Allies’ true target of Sicily (the Kriegsmarine never responded to the challenge). Alabama’s and South Dakota’s service with the British Home Fleet ended on 1 August 1943, and the duo plus their screening destroyers detached from the Home Fleet and steamed for Norfolk, Virginia. Alabama would undergo ten days of refits and repairs before setting sail for the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor in the Pacific.

Following a month and a half of exercises with fast carrier task groups, Alabama moved to Fiji before setting sail again on 11 November 1943 to take part in “Operation Galvanic”, the assault on the Japanese-held Gilbert Islands. She screened the fast carriers, only opening fire with her AA guns when enemy aircraft approached her formation. Her first shelling operation, however, was on 8 December 1943, as Alabama and five other fast battleships bombarded the Japanese-held island of Nauru, causing severe damage to the vital phosphate-producing facilities. Alabama spent the rest of the year on carrier escort duty or standby, not returning to the front lines until 1944.

Alabama returned to action as a part of “Operation Forager”: the first invasion of the Marianas Islands focused on re-capturing the island of Guam. Alabama again rotated between carrier escorts and coastal bombardments, often alongside South Dakota. Later in 1944 she moved to join the screening fleet of USS Essex in “Operation Stalemate II”, serving in the Caroline Islands again before later moving to the Philippines and screening carriers striking the Japanese-held islands in the central Philippines. Between October and December 1944, Alabama was heavily invested in the Battle of the Philippines: serving as the lead ship in USS Enterprise’s screen during October; then screening the fast carrier strike forces as they attacked Japanese airfields around Luzon throughout November; and finally departing for home on 17 December 1944. Along with the rest of Task Force 38, she was battered by Typhoon Cobra on the way, and three of her destroyer escorts were lost.

Alabama returned to Pearl Harbor in early April 1945, following several months of repair and refit at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. She departed with Task Force 58 on 9 May 1945, bound for the Ryukyu Islands to support forces that had landed on Okinawa in early April that year. Screening allied carriers, Alabama served on the front lines from May through to July, her final combat operation being the coastal bombardment of industrial areas near Tokyo on mainland Japan, including the first night bombardment by battleships of Japanese industry on Japanese soil. She spent the rest of the war on standby, receiving word on 15 August of the Japanese capitulation, and she later entered Tokyo Bay in early September to receive men that had occupied Tokyo. Following her return to the United States — via Okinawa — Alabama took taking part in Navy Day celebrations in San Francisco harbor on 27 October 1945, and remained on standby until sailing for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for inactivation overhaul.

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  Alabama being launched, February 1942.

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  Alabama in Casco Bay, Maine, during sea trials. Note the Measure 12 camouflage.

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  A colorized photo of Alabama in Casco Bay, Maine.

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  A view of the forward main battery of Alabama. The snow and Measure 12 camouflage suggests this photo was taken during sea trials but before repainting in Norfolk.

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  Note the Measure 22 camouflage which has been applied.

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  USS Alabama (BB-60), 1 December 1942, in camouflage. Note trunked tower foremast and funnel, similar to that used in the design of the later Iowa-class battleships.

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  Alabama fires a salvo during exercises with the British Home Fleet in 1943.

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  Alabama escorting the Independence-class carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26) en route to the Marshall Islands.

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  Cleveland Indians All-Star pitcher Bob Feller poses by a 40 mm quadruple anti-aircraft gun mount, probably on board USS Alabama in 1943.

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  Alabama cruising with her screen of escorting destroyers in April 1944; USS Knapp (DD-653) is in the foreground.

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  Alabama in what appears to be Measure 11 camouflage. Visible radar systems suggest this photo was taken in 1943 or 1944.

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  A boiler room view inside Alabama.

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  Alabama at permanent berth.

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  Alabama as a museum ship in Mobile Bay, circa 1985.