USS Indiana (BB-58)

USS Indiana (BB-58)

USS Indiana in January 1944

Ship data flag  United States Ship type Battleship class South Dakota class Shipyard Newport News Shipbuilding Keel laying November 20, 1939 Launch November 21, 1941 Commissioning April 30, 1942 Decommissioning September 11, 1947 Whereabouts Wrecked in 1964

Ship dimensions and crew length 210 m ( Lüa ) width 32.7 m Draft Max. 8.9 m displacement 37,970  ts   crew 1,793

Machine system machine 4 steam turbines Machine performance 130,000 SHP Top speed 27.5 kn (51 km / h) propeller 4 propellers

Armament 1942: 9 × 16 "guns (16 cm) (3 triplet turrets) 20 × 5 "guns (12.7 cm) (10 twin turrets) 12 × 1.1 "guns Armor Belt armor: 310 mm Deck: 135 mm Main turrets Front: 457 mm

Furnishing Aircraft capacity 3 Vought OS2U

The USS Indiana was the second South Dakota-class battleship . It was built from 1939 onwards at the Newport News Shipbuilding yard in the US state of Virginia . The USS Indiana was mainly used by the US Navy in the Pacific War, transferred to the reserve in 1947 and finally scrapped in 1964.

history

The USS Indiana had its first service as a replacement for its sister ship the USS South Dakota , which was badly damaged in the naval battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942 and was sent to the shipyard for repair.

The ship's orders were primarily limited to artillery support during the landing operations, which became known as " island hopping ", and to escort the American aircraft carriers . There were no battles with Japanese warships.

collision

The USS Indiana after the collision with the USS Washington . The first makeshift repairs to the damaged area are clearly visible.

The USS Indiana bombarded land targets near Kamaishi in 1945

On February 1, 1944 at half past four in the morning, the battleship USS Washington rammed the USS Indiana . Both ships were darkened to avoid being spotted by Japanese observers. The USS Washington met the USS Indiana on the starboard side at frame 107, a point just beyond the citadel that a study had identified as the weak point of all ships in the class. Thirteen compartments of the USS Indiana overflowed, several fuel tanks and the starboard outer drive shaft destroyed. Several anti-aircraft guns became unusable, an airplane and a catapult were lost, and three sailors died. The repair that followed was the largest single job of the war carried out in the workshops on Pearl Harbor .

Further missions

During the Battle of the Philippine Sea in the summer of 1944, it was the target of various air raids, with a Kamikaze aircraft breaking through the anti-aircraft fire and hitting the USS Indiana in the stern. Several sailors were wounded, but the ship remained fully operational.

In the last phase of the war she again supported landing companies of US troops and shot at land targets. On August 30, 1945, she covered the landing of US troops in the Japanese naval base Yokosuka. It returned to the United States in September 1945, was placed in reserve in 1947, sold for scrapping in 1963, and demolished in 1964.

literature

• William H. Garzke, Robert O. Dulin: Battleships: United States battleships. 1935-1992, US Naval Institute Press, Revised Edition, 1995, ISBN 1-55750-174-2 .
• Norman Friedman: US battleships: an illustrated design history. US Naval Institute Press, 1986, ISBN 0-87021-715-1 .

Web links

Commons : USS Indiana (BB-58)  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• USS Indiana (BB-58) at NavSource.org (English)
• Photo album at maritimequest.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ William H. Garzke, Robert O. Dulin: Battleships: United States battleships. P. 82.