USS Arizona (BB-39)
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Arizona in the 1920s
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The USS Arizona (named after the US state of Arizona ) was an American battleship of the Pennsylvania class and one of the most powerful ships of their time. The commissioning took place on October 17, 1916, the sinking during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
period of service
The Arizona was built by the New York Naval Shipyard in 1914 and 1915 . After its commissioning, the Arizona was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. But she stayed on the American east coast because the fuel supply for her oil-fired boilers was not guaranteed in Europe. In 1921 it was transferred to the Pacific Fleet . From July 15, 1929 to March 1, 1931, the ship was subjected to an extensive conversion at the Norfolk Navy Yard . The casemates with the 127 mm L / 51 Sk battery were moved one deck higher so that no more water could penetrate them when the sea was rough. In addition, these guns now had a greater fire height. The most obvious change was the replacement of the previous lattice masts with tripod masts , which now carried heavy platforms from which the artillery officers directed the gunfire. After the end of the shipyard stay, the Arizona was reassigned to the Pacific fleet.
Downfall
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The Arizona was sunk by Nakajima B5N bombers during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and became a symbol of American humiliation. The Arizona sank in just nine minutes after being hit by an armor-piercing 800 kg bomb at 8:06 a.m., which penetrated the upper deck between the front turrets of the main armament and detonated the two ammunition chambers. In the explosion and the subsequent sinking, 1,177 men of the crew were killed. Today it is still the final resting place for 1102 crew members at a depth of 12 meters. The Arizona had never fired a shot in a war prior to this attack.
The Arizona was registered as a war grave on December 29, 1941, and removed from the fleet list on December 1, 1942. Most of the superstructures were removed and scrapped. The two aft turrets were recovered, handed over to the army and integrated into the coastal artillery in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor .
Across the wreckage , a donation-financed, 56-meter-long white building was erected as a memorial in 1962 , the USS Arizona Memorial by architect Alfred Preis from Honolulu. Since the wreck is only a few meters below the water surface (position 21 ° 21 ′ 53.57 ″ N , 157 ° 56 ′ 59.92 ″ W ), it can be clearly seen on aerial and satellite images. When the water level is normal, parts of the gun substructure and the remaining superstructure protrude from the sea. The wreck has been a National Historic Landmark since May 5, 1989 .
Commemoration
On December 28, 2016, Shinzō Abe , a Japanese prime minister - together with the then- US President Barack Obama , who was not far from home - commemorated the dead in the course of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and laid wreaths at the memorial.
literature
- Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970 . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 , p. 233-234 .
Web links
- USS Arizona Memorial (Engl.)
- Picture collection for the USS Arizona
- USS Arizona at navsource.org (Eng.)
Footnotes
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Hawaii. National Park Service , accessed July 21, 2019.
- ↑ Obama and Abe on Pearl Harbor: Signal of Peace. spiegel.de, December 28, 2016 (1:38 am), accessed December 28, 2016.