W. Virginia 1941

USS West Virginia sailing past Hawaii, 1935.

History

USS West Virginia (BB-48), a Colorado-class battleship, was the second United States Navy ship named in honor of the country's 35th state. She was laid down on 12 April 1920, at Newport News, Virginia, launched on 19 November 1921, and commissioned on 1 December 1923. She was sponsored by Alice Wright Mann, daughter of noted West Virginian T. Mann, and her first captain was Thomas J. Senn. After her shakedown and crew training were finished, she was overhauled at Hampton Roads, and later ran aground in Lynnhaven Channel.
Following repairs, she participated in exercises and engineering and gunnery courses, winning four medals in the latter. She participated in other fleet tactical development operations until 1939. In 1940, she was transferred to Pearl Harbor, to guard against potential Japanese attack, and was sunk by six torpedoes and two bombs during the attack on Pearl Harbor. On 17 May 1942, she was salvaged from the seabed by draining the water from her hull.
After repairs in Pearl Harbor, she sailed to the Puget Sound Navy Yard. There she received an extensive refit, including the replacement of her 5-inch (127 mm)/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns and single-purpose 5-inch/51 caliber guns with dual-purpose 5-inch/38 caliber anti-aircraft guns. She left Puget Sound in July 1944, for Leyte Gulf.
She bombarded Leyte in November 1944, becoming part of a successful American plan to destroy the portion of the Japanese fleet trying to sail through the Surigao Strait, and later attacked Iwo Jima and Okinawa. At the end of the Pacific War she entered Tokyo Bay, for the Japanese surrender, and became part of Operation Magic Carpet, making three runs to Hawaii to transport veterans home. She was deactivated on 9 January 1947, and laid up at Bremerton, Washington, until sold for scrap on 24 August 1959.

Design

The Colorado-class Battleships were in most ways repeats of the preceding Tennessee-class, with the biggest exception being the main armament.

In 1916 the US Navy ordered a class of four new Battleships, which would be an improvement in firepower over the older classes, while keeping the characteristics of the hull. This order included sixteen ships of various classes and types, however only the three ships of the Colorado-class would be completed as the ships they were intended to be. Aside from two Lexington-class ships, which would be converted into Aircraft Carriers however.

Under the Washington Naval Treaty, the Colorado-class became known as the “Big Seven”, the seven Battleships across all Navies permitted to carry guns of a caliber of 406-410mm. The other four ships were HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney, and the Japanese Nagato and Mutsu.

With a 190.2m long and 29.7m wide hull, the compact design of the Standard-Type Battleships was continued. The maximum displacement reached 40,400 tons when fully loaded, and the draft would increase to 10.8m. Eight boilers producing steam for two turbo generators, these ships would reach 21kn at a power output of 28,900shp over four shafts. Fuel supplies on board would permit a Cruising Range of up to 9700 nautical miles.

The protection scheme was a continuation of the All-or-Nothing scheme, which placed a lot of emphasis on protecting the vital compartments and main armament of the ship, while leaving the rest of the ship unprotected. The main belt was 343mm thick, and would thin down to 203mm at it's lower edge. The forward and rear bulkhead were protected by 343mm bulkheads. At the upper edge of the armored belt the main armor deck started, and would cover the entire machinery and magazines with a thickness of 89mm. The barbettes for the main armament were 320mm thick, and the turrets had 457mm faces, 229-254mm sides and a 127mm strong roof. The conning tower had 406mm sides and a 203mm strong roof.

The main battery was carried in four twin turrets, the caliber being 406mm. The Secondary Armament at completion consisted of fourteen or twelve (Maryland carrying fourteen) single mounted 127mm guns, and four or eight (Maryland carrying four) 76.2mm guns which would also be able to engage aircraft. Two underwater Torpedo tubes were installed, but would get removed during refits.

As the Anti-Aircraft armament would be insufficient, various modernizations would address that issue. These would result in Colorado carrying eight single mounted 127mm/25 guns, while her two classmates would receive eight 127mm/38 twins in enclosed turrets. Up to 52 barrels of 40mm Bofors in quad and twin mounts and up to 64 20mm Oerlikons in single, twin or even quad mountings.

In the late 1920s all three ships received at least one catapult, and the ability to carry up to three seaplanes.

Service

Laid down on the 12th of April 1920 at Newport News, launched on the 19th of November 1921 and commissioned into the United States Navy as the final “standard-type battleship” on the 1st of December 1943, USS West Virginia (BB-48) would be the last American battleship commissioned into the USN until USS North Carolina (BB-55) joined the navy 18 years later. In her early life, West Virginia suffered technological issues that lead to her becoming grounded in the Lynnhaven Channel when her engine room lost power. After these issues were resolved, West Virginia became the flagship of the USN by October 1924. West Virginia was present in every annual ‘Fleet Problem’ (military exercises carried out by the USN) from 1925 through to mid-1940, while participating in several goodwill voyages across the Pacific. In the final months of 1941, West Virginia underwent intensive training alongside the fleet based out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. She was moored at Berth F-6 when Japanese planes crossed the horizon.

The first wave of Japanese planes struck West Virginia hard. Seven aerial torpedoes struck her port side at a shallow depth, with one dislodging her rudder, three to five hitting her belt and tearing holes in her side, with the final torpedoes exploding inside her armored second deck by entering the holes torn by previous torpedoes. Two improvised armor-piercing bombs made from 16” AP shells fitted with aerial fins struck her deck and destroyed her floatplane and penetrated the roof of Turret #3, but neither detonated. Her port side was filling with seawater, and her crew raced to counter-flood her starboard side to prevent her from capsizing in the harbor. Fires from USS Arizona (BB-39) spread to West Virginia’s upper decks. Her captain, Captain Mervyn S. Bennion was mortally wounded on the bridge but continued to give orders to keep his ship from sinking. The ship’s executive officer abandoned ship during the first attack, and Lt. Commander John S. Harper was now the commanding officer. He countermanded the captain’s dying order for all hands to abandon ship, ordering repair parties to fight the fires broken out on her decks. By the end of the day, West Virginia was a half-sunken wreck, but she was not lost.

By May 1942, West Virginia was finally being repaired, having a patch applied to her hull, the water pumped out and the ship refloated, and moved to drydock Number One by June. Despite the monumental task of repairing the serious damage to her port side, West Virginia sailed under her own steam from Pearl Harbor to the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington State for a complete rebuild. She remained in the Navy Yard until mid-1944, when her extensive refit and repairs were complete. She was back in Pearl Harbor by late September 1944, then sailing to Manus Island to join up with and become the flagship of Battleship Division 4. She sailed north to join Task Force Group 77.2, participating in the Invasion of the Philippines. West Virginia had sat idly by long enough, crippled the moment the war began, and now she would avenge herself.

West Virginia provided gunnery support for the initial landing forces, silencing Japanese coastal installations with her 16” and modern 5” guns. Her first real engagement came when the Imperial Japanese Navy carried out their plan. At 03:16 in the early morning of the 25th of October 1944, West Virginia’s radar picked up a Japanese fleet, with West Virginia herself leading a battle line of five other ‘standard-type’ battleships. This engagement would come to be the Battle of Surigao Strait, the second and last battleship-versus-battleship engagement in the Pacific War, and the last such engagement in history. The Japanese fleet under Admiral Shoji Nishimura consisted of the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro, the heavy cruiser Mogami and four destroyers. The seven ships sailed into a deadly trap of half a dozen US battleships – lead by West Virginia – supported by eight cruisers and over 60 smaller combat vessels. West Virginia opened fire with her eight 16” guns at 3:52 am at a distance of nearly 21km, with her first salvo striking true on Yamashiro. Her sixteen salvos fired as she crossed the T of the surviving Japanese fleet utterly decimated it, with the battle between battleships being over just over 20 minutes after it begun. She returned to Vanuatu for repairs by October 29th.

She returned to the Philippines by late November, resuming patrols in Leyte Gulf to screen against enemy aircraft, where she began to encounter kamikaze aircraft. West Virginia herself avoided being struck by one in 1944, but she recovered survivors from vessels sunk by such attacks during her tenure that continued into early 1945. On the 17th of February 1945, she sailed to assist US Marines in the attack on the Japanese island fortress of Iwo Jima. She joined the ring of ships surrounding the island on the 19th, opening fire with her 16” guns that wreaked havoc on the Japanese island garrison. She departed for the Caroline Islands on the 4th of March, although the fighting on the island continued until late March. Her next deployment was to Okinawa, arriving off the coast of the island on the 25th of March, where she began to bombard the shoreline ahead of the American landings planned for the 1st of April. On the 1st of April, West Virginia was struck by a kamikaze which crashed into her superstructure, killing or wounding almost 30 men, but the damage was reported as “fixable” and she carried on. By the 8th of April, West Virginia was prowling the waters in preparation to intercept Japanese superbattleship Yamato, who was headed to Okinawa on a suicide mission. That morning, West Virginia received news that Yamato had been sunk by US Aircraft.

West Virginia would remain off the coast of Okinawa until the Japanese government agreed to surrender on the 10th of August. She sailed to Tokyo Bay on the 24th of August, being present on the 2nd of September for the signature of the formal surrender. She remained in Tokyo Bay until mid-September, returning to the US West Coast via Okinawa, Pearl Harbor where she received a fresh coat of paint, and then on to San Diego, California, arriving at her destination on the 22nd of October to take part in Navy Day, where over 25,000 visitors boarded the ship. After the celebrations, she did three runs between Pearl Harbor and the West Coast as a part of Operation Magic Carpet, debarking her final load of passengers over Christmas in San Pedro. Afterwards, she sailed north to Washington State, moored in Seattle alongside her sister ship Colorado on the 16th of January 1946. A year later, she was decommissioned, becoming part of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Here she remained until March 1959, where West Virginia alongside many WW2-era vessels were sold to the scrappers, slowly disappearing from the world piece-by-piece.

Historical Inaccuracies

• Dazzle camouflage resembles the Measure 32/7D scheme, which was actually applied to West Virginia after her reconstruction in 1944.
• Overall sea blue hull is missing. A similar paint scheme can be found on Arizona.

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  USS West Virginia (BB-48) in San Francisco Bay, c. 1934.

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  West Virginia after her reconstruction at Puget Sound, Bremerton WA, 1944.

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  West Virginia from the bow at Puget Sound, 1944.

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  A pic of USS Maryland (BB-46) from under West Virginia's rear guns.