USS Mississippi (BB-41)

history
USS Mississippi in the late 1930s
Keel laying:	April 5, 1915
Launch:	January 25, 1917
Commissioning:	December 18, 1917
Decommissioning:	17th September 1956
Removed from the register of ships:	17th September 1956
Fate:	sold for scrapping
General properties
Displacement :	Construction: 32,000 tn.l.
Length:	190.0 m
Width:	29.7 m
Draft:	9.1 m
Speed:	21 knots
Crew:	1026, of which 55
Armament:	12 × 14-inch (356 mm) guns, 14 × 5-inch (127 mm) guns, 4 × 3-inch (76 mm) guns, 2 × 21-inch torpedo tubes

The USS Mississippi (BB-41 / AG-128) was an American battleship of New Mexico-class battleship and the third ship in the history of the United States Navy , which in honor of the 20th US state was named.

The ship was on April 5, 1915 by Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News set, Virginia keel and ran on 25 January in 1917 by the stack . It entered service on December 18 of that year under the command of Captain Joseph Lee Jayne . The ship was decommissioned in 1956 and sold for dismantling.

First World War

After taking medical exams off the coast of Virginia, she set out on a training mission in the Gulf of Guacanayabo , Cuba, on March 22nd . A month later she came back to the east coast and cruised between Boston and New York City until she left the east coast of the United States on January 31, 1919 to participate in a maneuver in the Caribbean Sea .

Between the two world wars

On July 19, the ship left the Atlantic and was transferred to San Pedro , California . For the next four years the west coast of the United States was their main area of operation. Two of the original 14 5 "/ 51 caliber guns were removed in 1922.

During gunfire exercises on June 12, 1924, 48 sailors suffocated due to an explosion in the second forward turret .

On April 15, 1925, the USS Mississippi left California to take part in sea maneuvers off Hawaii and then steamed to Australia on a friendship visit . She returned to the west coast on September 26 and operated there for another four years. During this time the ship practiced regularly in the Caribbean and Atlantic Oceans during the winter months.

The Mississippi went to the Norfolk Navy Yard for an overhaul on March 30, 1931 and went on a review voyage again in September 1933. During this overhaul, the original 3-inch anti-aircraft guns were replaced by eight 5-inch guns. On October 24, 1934, she crossed the Panama Canal again and returned to her base in San Pedro. The battleship operated on the west coast for the next seven years, with the exception of winter exercises in the Caribbean.

Second World War

In June 1941, the ship was moved to Norfolk to be converted for patrol trips in the Atlantic . From Norfolk she escorted a convoy to Hvalfjörður in Iceland . After a second trip to Iceland on September 28, 1941, she was used for two months in the sea area off Iceland to protect ships.

Two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor , Mississippi left Island and headed for the Pacific Ocean. She arrived in San Francisco on January 22, 1942 . Training exercises were carried out for the next seven months and convoys were secured along the California coast. From May 1942 on, the original 5-inch guns from the second battery were removed and replaced with anti-aircraft guns.

After taking part in combat exercises off Hawaii, she took a troop carrier course for the Fiji Islands . On March 2, 1943, she returned to Pearl Harbor. On May 10, she lifted anchor and set out for the Aleutian Islands to take part in a campaign to liberate the island chain. The Mississippi shelled Kiska with grenades, from where the Japanese withdrew a few days later. After maintenance in San Francisco, she left the base in San Pedro on October 19 to participate in the invasion of the Gilbert Islands . During the bombing of Makin on November 20, 1943, there was an explosion in a gun turret that was almost exactly the same as the accident in 1924, killing 43 sailors.

On January 31, the battleship was involved in the retaking of the Marshall Islands and fired at Kwajalein . On February 20, the USS Mississippi targeted the city of Taroa in the Marshall Islands and the day after Wotje under fire. The attacks on Kavieng , New Ireland followed on March 15 . During the summer of 1943, the ship spent a few months in Puget Sound rebuilding . The number of 5-inch flak was increased from eight to fourteen.

The Mississippi then returned to the war zone and supported the landings at Peleliu on Palau on September 12th. A week later the ship went to Manus , where it stayed until October 12th. It then took part in the operations to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese occupation forces and shelled the east coast of Leyte Island on October 19. On the night of October 24th, it supported the offensive led by Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf against a powerful Japanese naval force in the battle in the Gulf of Leyte . As a result of the severe clashes in this battle, the Japanese were no longer able to carry out serious counter-attacks. The Mississippi continued to support operations in the Leyte Gulf until November 16, when it set course for the Admiralty Islands .

She entered the Bay of San Pedro on the island of Leyte on December 28th to prepare for landing on Luzon . On January 6, the battleship began bombing Japanese units in the Gulf of Lingayén . Despite the damage caused by a kamikaze plane just above the waterline , the Mississippi supported the invading forces until February 10th. After repairs at Pearl Harbor, she set course for Nakagusuku Wan in Okinawa and arrived there on May 6 to support the landing forces. With her guns she leveled the defensive lines in Shuri , which had brought the entire offensive to a standstill.

On June 5, the ship was attacked again by a kamikaze pilot who crashed his plane into the starboard side. The Mississippi continued despite the damage to the support of US troops on Okinawa continued until June 16.

After the announcement of the surrender of Japan took Mississippi heading for Honshu and met on 27 August as part of the occupation forces in the Tokyo Bay , where they attended the signing of the Japanese surrender. She lifted anchor on September 6, 1945 and headed for home.

For its services in World War II, the Mississippi was awarded a total of eight Battle Stars .

After the Second World War

USS Mississippi (AG-128) firing a Terrier missile

On November 27, 1945, the ship returned to Norfolk, where it was then converted. For the last ten years of its service with the US Navy, the Mississippi was part of the development force from February 15, 1945 as AG-128 . In doing so, she carried out investigations into problems with guns and tested new weapons. She was involved in lifting the Navy into the age of the guided missile and successfully fired a RIM-2 Terrier off Cape Cod on January 28, 1953 . The ship and its crew were also involved in the final tests of the AQM-41 Petrel in February 1956.

On September 17, 1956, the Mississippi was decommissioned. It was removed from the Navy's shipping register on November 28 of the same year and sold to Bethlehem Steel for scrapping .

literature

Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and Battle Cruisers 1905-1970 . Doubleday and Company, 1973, ISBN 0-385-07247-3 .

Web links

Commons : USS Mississippi - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Mississippi III (Battleship No. 41). In: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History and Heritage Command, February 18, 2016, accessed February 20, 2020 (American English).
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Breyer 1973, page 219

[1] Mississippi III (Battleship No. 41). In: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History and Heritage Command, February 18, 2016, accessed February 20, 2020 (American English).

[breyer219-2] Breyer 1973, page 219