USS Nevada (BB-36)

USS Nevada (BB-36), the second United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was a World War I-era battleship and the lead ship of her class of two; her sister ship was the USS Oklahoma (BB-37).

The Nevada served in both World Wars: in World War I, she served with the British Grand Fleet until the end of the war; in World War II, she was one of the battleships moored in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. She was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, which was "the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal and depressing morning." After being hit by at least six bombs while steaming away from Battleship Row, she was beached at Hospital Point to avoid sinking and blocking the one channel that leads out of Pearl Harbor. After being salvaged and subsequently modernized, she served as a fire-support ship for the Normandy Landings and the invasions of Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The only battleship to have seen both the attack on Pearl Harbor and the invasion of Normandy, she was described as "... steaming majestically [off Normandy] with all of [her] battle flags flying, [even though] the Japanese had sunk and written [her] off at Pearl Harbor.

At the end of World War II, the Nevada was too old to be retained by the navy, so she was designated to be used in the Bikini atomic experiments of 1946. She was not sunk by the two atomic bombs that were detonated, but was damaged and made radioactive. As a result, she was decommissioned on 29 August 1946 and sunk as a target ship on 31 July 1948.

Design changes from previous classes
The Nevada class was "another graduated step in the rapidly evolving American battleship". The class were the first U.S. Navy battleships to have triple gun turrets, and they were also the first battleships in the U.S. Navy to be fired with oil instead of coal, which gave them a "huge engineering advantage." Also, while previous battleships had armor of various thickness, depending on the importance of the area it was protecting, the Nevada class had maximum armor over critical areas (magazines, engines, etc.) and none over less important places; this become known as the "All or Nothing" principle, which most major navies adopted for themselves in their own battleships. In addition, the Nevada class had 40% more armor by weight than the New York class battleships.

Possible design flaws
A possible design flaw in the Nevada was that she "sported heavy armor of about 18¾ thickness but was woefully lacking in deck protection" due to the prevailing belief in 1911-1913 (when she was built) that the submarine was the greatest threat to a battleship. By the time of World War II, however, the greatest threat had become airplanes &mdash;"the results of this were later...realized at Pearl Harbor, with Nevada's experience proving that the watertight integrity of older warships was unlikely to be satisfactory."

Different propulsion between the Nevada and the Oklahoma
The Nevada and her sister ship, the Oklahoma, were fitted with different engines to have them 'compete' against one another: the Oklahoma received older vertical triple expansion engines, while the Nevada received Curtis steam turbines.

Construction
The construction of the Nevada was authorized by an Act of Congress on 4 March 1911. The contract to build the vessel was given to the Fore River Shipbuilding Company on 22 January 1912. The contract was for a total of $5,895,000.00 (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 for the battleship by five months. She was laid down on 4 November 1912, and was launched on 11 July 1914; it was sponsored by Miss Eleanor Anne Seibert, who was the niece of Governor Tasker Oddie of Nevada and also a descendant of the first Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert. The Nevada was commissioned on 11 March 1916, with Capt. William S. Sims becoming the first captain of the new dreadnought.

World War I
After her running trials and conducting tests off Rockford, Maine, Nevada joined the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in Newport, Rhode Island on 26 May 1916. She operated along the east coast and in the Caribbean until the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917. After training gunners, she sailed on 13 August 1918 to serve with the British Grand Fleet. After a ten-day voyage, she arrived in Bantry Bay, Ireland on 23 August. She first made a patrol through the North Sea, and then escorted the transport George Washington, with President Woodrow Wilson embarked, during the last day of her passage into Brest, France. After the escorting duties, she sailed for home on 14 December, having not fired a shot in anger during the war.

Interwar years
In the time between the two world wars, Nevada served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. Though she was originally equipped with twenty-one 5"/51 caliber guns to defend against enemy destroyers, they were reduced to twelve in 1918, due to the overly wet positions the other nine had been occupying near the bow and stern.

Along with the Arizona, she represented the United States at the Peruvian Centennial Exposition in July 1921; a year later, she returned to South America with the Maryland to represent the United States again, this time for the Centennial of Brazilian Independence, celebrated in September 1922. Three years later, from July to September 1925, Nevada took part in the U.S. Fleet's "goodwill cruise" to Australia and New Zealand. During this cruise, the ships had only limited replenishment opportunities but still made it to Australia and back with no problem. This demonstrated to these allies and the Japanese that the U.S. had the ability to make a self-supported cruise of a distance equal to that of the Imperial Japanese Navy could do.

"This accomplishment dispelled the conventional wisdom which dictated that a force of ships from the [United States] could not operate as far from home in waters such as those near Japan. To the Japanese, the two decade old naval victory at Tsushima where the Japanese battle line had annihilated a Russian squadron was a constant reminder that an enemy fleet traveling to their waters would certainly be ripe for destruction when it arrived. The problems of resupply, crew preparedness and equipment maintenance would be insurmountable. So it was with the Russian navy, so would it be with any other aggressor navy. The great cruise of 1925 put paid to the motion. Ships like the Nevada could and would be quite capable of destroying units of the the Imperial Japanese Navy right in their home waters. ... [It] sent a blunt message to Japan - the U.S. considered the Pacific Ocean an international body of water and not a Japanese lake."

- Bonner, 103.

After the cruise, Nevada was modernized at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard between August 1927 and January 1930, with the exchanges of her "basket" masts for tripod masts and her steam turbine from the recently stricken North Dakota. Also, eight 5"/25 caliber guns were added, a new superstructure was installed, and her five-inch secondary battery was relocated. The Nevada then served in the Pacific Fleet for the next eleven years.

Pearl Harbor


During the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Nevada was not moored side-by-side with another battleship off Ford Island, and so she therefore had a "freedom of maneuver [that was] denied [to the] other eight battleships present during the attack." As her gunners opened fire and her engineers started to get steam up, one torpedo exploded against frame 41 about fourteen feet above the keel at 0810. The innermost torpedo bulkhead held, but leaking through joints caused flooding and a list of 4 to 5 degrees. Nevada corrected the list through counter-flooding and got underway at 0840, her gunners already having shot down four planes.

"...the old battleship swung majestically out in the channel and rung up 14 knots. This was over the channel speed limit, but who cared? She glided down the channel and it seemed as if everything else stood still, and only this powerful warrior was in motion. Men wept at the sight of her tattered ensign in the wind, and when the stars on the smoke-stained flag periodically came into view, grown men choked back tears of pride. Against all odds, and against the backdrop of total devastation, a lone survivor defied what seemed to be an overwhelming enemy victory. The sight inspired thousands and was forever etched in the momory of those present."

- Bonner, 105.

As she steamed past Ten-Ten Dock at about 0950, Nevada was struck by five bombs. One exploded over the crew's galley. Another struck the port director platform and exploded at the base of the stack on the upper deck. Another hit near number 1 turret inboard from the port waterway and blew large holes in the upper and main decks. Two struck the forecastle near frame 15. One of them passed out through the side of the second deck before exploding, but the other exploded within the ship near the gasoline tank. Gasoline leakage and vapors caused intense fires, though those gasoline fires around turret 1 might have caused more critical damage if the main battery powder magazines had not been empty. For several days prior to the attack, all of the 14-inch gun battleships had been replacing their standard weight main battery projectiles with a new heavier projectile that offered greater penetration and a larger explosive charge in exchange for a slight decrease in range. All of the older projectiles and powder charges had been removed from the Nevada's magazines, and the crew took a break after loading the new projectiles in anticipation of loading the new powder charges Sunday.



As bomb damage became evident, Nevada was ordered to proceed to the west side of Ford Island to prevent her from being sunk in the channel "and effectively cork the rest of the fleet in a bottle." Instead, Nevada was grounded off Hospital Point at 1030. However, the Nevada did manage to force three planes down before she grounded: "..."three enemy planes, probably dive bombers, were fired upon until a range of 200 yards was reached. Members of the crew observed these planes to crash, one in a cane field toward Ewa, one near the Naval Hospital and one in the channel."

Over the course of the morning, the Nevada suffered a total of 60 killed and 109 wounded. Two more men died aboard Nevada during salvage operations on 7 February 1942 when they were overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas from decomposing paper and meat. The ship itself suffered "...at least six (6) bomb hits and one torpedo hit. It is possible that as many as ten bomb hits may have been received by the Nevada, as certain damaged areas [were] of sufficient size to indicate that they were struck by more than one bomb."

The ordeal wasn't over quite yet for the Nevada's surviving uninjured crew, however:

"That following Monday, the strategic location of the Nevada made it imperative that she be the first line of defense against Japanese invaders who were expected at any time. Many of the Nevada's crew practiced "repel boarders" with broomsticks, baseball bats and the few small arms that were available. ... [Later,] the [surviving] crew [found themselves] virtually homeless. Many had lost all of their personal items and pay records were in a shambles. For the next few weeks, many of the crew had to convince other ships and shore stations of their legitimacy and their need for uniforms, shelter and food. They were homeless. It was an interesting paradox."

- Bonner, 105.

Attu and D-Day


The Nevada was refloated on 12 February 1942 and had temporary repairs done at Pearl Harbor so that she could get to Puget Sound Navy Yard for a complete overhaul. The overhaul took about a year and made the old battleship look similar in appearance to a South Dakota-class battleship. The overhaul also included replacing the 5"/51 caliber guns and 5"/25 caliber guns with sixteen 5"/38 caliber guns in new twin mounts. Nevada then sailed for Alaska, where she provided fire support for the capture of Attu 11 May to 18 May 1943.

Nevada then departed for the Norfolk Navy Yard in June for further modernization. After this was completed, Nevada went on Atlantic convoy duty until she set sail for the United Kingdom to prepare for the Normandy Invasion. She reached the U.K. in April 1944. She participated in the invasion from 6 June to 17 June, and again on 25 June; during this time, her guns hit permanent shore defenses on the Cherbourg Peninsula, "seem[ing] to lean back as [she] hurled salvo after salvo at the shore batteries." . Shore batteries straddled her 27 times, but did not hit her. Shells from the Nevada's guns ranged as far as 17 mi inland when she was attempting to break up German concentrations and counterattacks.

Nevada was the only battleship that was present at both Pearl Harbor and the Normandy Invasion. VCS-7, a U.S. Navy Spotter Squadron flying Supermarine Spitfire VBs and Seafire IIIs that was embarked upon the Nevada and other ships, was one of the units which provided targeting coordinates and fire control.

Southern France and Iwo Jima


Nevada supported Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France, between 15 August and 25 September 1944, "dueling" at Toulon with shore batteries of 13.4 in guns that had been taken from French battleships that had been scuttled early in the war. She then headed to New York to have her gun barrels relined and to have her #1 turret's guns replaced with the guns that had been removed from turret #2 on the Arizona. After that was completed she sailed for the Pacific, arriving off Iwo Jima on 16 February 1945 to "[prepare] the island for invasion with heavy bombardment." She did that through 7 March.

Okinawa and Japan
On 24 March 1945, Nevada joined the "mightiest naval force ever seen in the Pacific" when it was off Okinawa as pre-invasion bombardment began. During the bombardment, she shelled Japanese airfields, shore defenses, supply dumps, and troop concentrations. Eleven men were killed and one of her main battery turrets was damaged when she was struck by a kamikaze suicide plane on 27 March. Another two men were lost to fire from a shore battery on 5 April. Until 30 June, she served off Okinawa; she then departed to join with the 3rd Fleet from 10 July to 7 August, allowing the Nevada's guns to hit the Japanese home islands during the closing days of the war.

After the War
Returning to Pearl Harbor after a brief occupation duty in Tokyo Bay, Nevada was surveyed and was found to be "too old for retention in the post-war fleet." As a result, she was assigned to be a target ship for the Bikini atomic experiments of July 1946, where two atomic bombs were dropped to test their effectiveness against ships. She was designated to be "ground zero" for the first test, which was codenamed 'Able'. Nevada was painted an "ugly" reddish-orange for the test to "facilitate the bombers' aim". When the bomb was dropped, however, the bomb was off by about 1,700 yards, with the bomb actually exploding above the light carrier Independence. The "old" battleship survived the second test as well, but the bombs left her damaged and radioactive. As a result, she was returned to Pearl Harbor to be decommissioned on 29 August 1946.

After she was thoroughly examined at Pearl Harbor, her final sortie came on 31 July 1948, when she was used as a target for gunfire from the Iowa, a heavy cruiser and a destroyer, and then was finished off by an aerial torpedo hit amidships; she sank 65 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor. As of 2008, the wreck of the Nevada has not yet been discovered.