USS New Jersey (BB-62)
 The New Jersey 1968 in the Pacific |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | July 1, 1939 |
| Keel laying | September 16, 1940 |
| Launch | December 7, 1942 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | May 23, 1943 |
| Decommissioning | February 8, 1991 |
| Whereabouts | Museum ship |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
approx. 45,000 ts (standard); |
| length |
270.43 meters |
| width |
32.98 meters |
| Draft |
11.6 meters |
| crew |
between 1500 and 2800 men |
| drive |
8 steam boilers, 4 steam turbines. 4 propellers with a total of 212,000 shaft horsepower (158 MW ) |
| speed |
33 knots |
| Armament |
originally 3 × triple towers 406 mm, 10 × twin mounts 127 mm flak. Later partially replaced by 32 cruise missiles and 16 anti-ship missiles |
The USS New Jersey (BB-62) is a warship of the US Navy , which today serves as a museum and belongs Iowa-class battleship of. It was named after the US state of New Jersey , entered service in 1943 and used in World War II from 1944 . In the Pacific War , she supported the island hopping strategy by protecting the aircraft carriers from attacks and shooting at Japanese-occupied islands with her guns in order to be able to storm them. The New Jersey was decommissioned for the first time in 1948, but was reactivated for the Korean War in 1950 . After it had also been used there for coastal bombardment, it was decommissioned again in 1957. As the only battleship in the US fleet, it was reactivated in 1968 for use in the Vietnam War , but only remained in service for around a year and a half. The New Jersey's last period of service began in 1982 and lasted until 1991. Overall, the New Jersey was in active service with the US Navy for 21 years between 1943 and 1991.
In 1999 she was permanently removed from the Naval Vessel Register and opened two years later as a museum ship in the Delaware River off Camden , New Jersey. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004 .
technology
- Detailed information on the technology can be found in the class article under Iowa class .
The New Jersey belongs to the Iowa class and is around 270 meters long and 33 meters wide. These dimensions were chosen according to the Panamax specification so that such battleships could fit into the locks of the Panama Canal and thus switch quickly between the Pacific and Atlantic. The displacement of the New Jersey corresponded only on paper to the upper limit of 45,000 ts set at the London Naval Conference of 1936 ; when fully loaded, it was around 58,000 ts. The battleship was propelled by four screws, which received their energy from one high and one low pressure steam turbine . At 33 knots, the Iowa-class ships were the fastest battleships ever. This was bought, however, with the renouncement of further expansion of the armor compared to the previous class , which other navies preferred.
The main artillery of the New Jersey consisted of nine guns of the caliber 16 inches (406 millimeters), which were combined in two triple turrets on the forecastle and another on the stern . With a range of up to 40 kilometers, these weapons could be used against sea and land targets. In addition, the New Jersey had five multi-purpose twin guns of 5 inches (127 millimeters) and numerous smaller anti-aircraft guns of 40 and 20 millimeters caliber on each side of the superstructure . As some of these had already proven to be ineffective against fast approaching aircraft during World War II due to their short range and penetration power, they were removed over the years. During a modernization in 1982, the New Jersey received several types of guided missiles: 32 BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles in eight Armored Box Launchers , 16 AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles and four Phalanx CIWS short-range defense systems were distributed around the superstructure. The two aircraft on board had already been replaced by helicopters after the Second World War .
history
construction
The plans for the ships of the Iowa class began in 1938, the New Jersey was the second of six items in Kiel set; only the first four were actually completed. BB-62 was commissioned in 1939 and was built by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . The keel-laying took place there on September 16, 1940. The ship was launched at the end of 1942 and was christened. Godmother was the wife of Charles Edison , then Governor of New Jersey and former United States Secretary of the Navy . The official commissioning followed in May 1943. This was followed by test and training trips in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, at the beginning of 1944 the New Jersey was declared operational and switched through the Panama Canal to the Pacific to enter the Second World War .
Second World War
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The first use of the New Jersey took place from the end of January 1944 during the Battle of the Marshall Islands , during which they escorted the aircraft carriers and bombarded the islands with their artillery to enable the landing operations. Majuro was then expanded as the starting point for further operations . On February 4, Admiral Raymond A. Spruance , commander of the 5th US Fleet, set his flag on the New Jersey , which thus served as the flagship of the fleet. Under Spruance, the battleship now took part in Operation Hailstone , during which the island of Truk was taken. In addition, the combat group sank several war and auxiliary ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy . From mid-March to mid-April, the New Jersey took part in the attacks on Mili with the USS Lexington (CV-16) and later disrupted Japanese shipping routes around Palau . In April, the shelled New Jersey the Woleai Atoll to destroy the local Japanese airfield. Subsequently, Spruance left the ship and transferred to the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) . After a short stay in Majuro, the battleship supported several landings in New Guinea and returned to Truk at the end of April, where it attacked other land and sea targets. On May 1st an artillery bombardment of the airfield on Ponape followed and one month later the participation in the invasion of the Mariana Islands . Among other things, the battleship aimed its guns on the islands of Saipan and Tinian , whereupon the Imperial Japanese Navy set their fleet in motion to attack the invading fleet. The New Jersey was part of the anti-aircraft shield that protected US aircraft carriers from Japanese aircraft. However, during the Battle of the Philippine Sea , Japan suffered a decisive defeat, and the Mariana Islands remained under siege. Subsequently, the New Jersey took part in the bombardment of Guam and Palau again and then left the war zone. On August 9th, she reached Pearl Harbor , Hawaii .
The New Jersey left Hawaii in late August as William F. Halsey's flagship . The base of operations was the Ulithi Atoll . In September it attacked targets in the Philippines . Attacks on Japanese airfields in Okinawa and Formosa followed in October in preparation for the invasion of Leyte and denying Japan the opportunity to respond. After the start of this operation, the Japanese Navy began another attempt to weaken the US fleet, for which it massaged most of its remaining forces. The New Jersey was deployed at the time to protect the porters. At the beginning of the sea and air battle in the Gulf of Leyte , the Japanese Navy succeeded in luring the majority of the American forces out of the Gulf. The group, which also included the New Jersey , left the Gulf to attack a decoy fleet in the north. Meanwhile, a much more powerful Japanese fleet came from the west through the San Bernardino Strait into the Gulf of Leyte. The New Jersey then turned in to assist the inferior American ships that remained in the Gulf. Before reaching the Gulf, however, the Japanese fleet had been defeated and withdrew to the west. In the weeks that followed, the New Jersey launched attacks on Luzon and Mindoro . While Halsey was withdrawing his combat group from the coast for refueling, they got caught in Typhoon Cobra . Due to strong winds and high waves, the smaller ships in the group rolled particularly hard, as they were very light due to the empty tanks. Three destroyers - the USS Hull (DD-350) , USS Monaghan (DD-354) and USS Spence (DD-512) - sank, but the New Jersey was largely unaffected. After the combat group carried out further attacks on Luzon, they reached Ulithi at Christmas.
Already on December 30th, the New Jersey Ulithi left again and served until the end of January 1945 the aircraft carriers called in as escorts during attacks on Formosa, Okinawa and Luzon, among others. Admiral Halsey then took down his flag - from now on Rear Admiral Oscar Badger used the New Jersey as his flagship. Under Badger, the battleship took part as escort of the USS Essex (CV-9) in the Battle of Iwo Jima and in late February in the first air raid operations on Tokyo and further attacks on Okinawa. The New Jersey stayed there until April 1945. Subsequently, the New Jersey returned to the American mainland for the first time since the beginning of 1944, so that a first overhaul could take place in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . On July 4th, the overhaul was finished and the battleship was immediately dispatched back to the Western Pacific. On arrival in Guam, Admiral Spruance hoisted his flag on the New Jersey , which then entered Tokyo Bay in September and acted as the flagship of the American naval forces in Japanese waters after Japan on September 2 on the sister ship USS Missouri (BB-63 ) had signed the unconditional surrender. At the end of January 1946, the New Jersey was replaced by her sister ship USS Iowa (BB-61) as the flagship.
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After the New Jersey had taken in around 1,000 soldiers, they started their way home with them and reached San Francisco on February 10th . The rest of the year the ship spent on the west coast, including being overtaken again in Puget Sound. In early 1947, the New Jersey was relocated back to the Atlantic. She spent the summer training trips for young officer candidates and reservists in northern European waters, including visits to Oslo and Portsmouth . In October, the New Jersey was deactivated in the New York Naval Shipyard , officially decommissioned on June 30, 1948 and mothballed in the Atlantic reserve fleet off New York. By then, the New Jersey had fired 771 rounds from its 16-inch guns. Her sister ships Iowa and USS Wisconsin (BB-64) also went out of service, only the symbolic Missouri remained active beyond the war, with a reduced manpower. The main reason for the decommissioning was the high costs that the ships and their crew of up to 3,000 men caused. Since the budget of the Navy was greatly reduced in the first years after the war, the decommissioning was inevitable. Since the New Jersey and her sister ships had only served a few years of service and were so in good condition, it was decided to keep them ready for a later reactivation.
Korean War
The New Jersey remained in reserve until 1950; on November 21, she was officially put back into service in order to use her like her sister ships in the beginning Korean War . After a refresher course for the crew in the Caribbean, the ship left Naval Station Norfolk in April 1951 and reached the coast of Korea in May. On May 20, it bombarded Korean soil for the first time with Wŏnsan - an industrial center of Korea. During this operation, the New Jersey was hit by coastal artillery, killing one man and seriously wounding two others.
In the following months, the New Jersey attacked other North Korean targets, including troop concentrations, supply depots, infrastructure and coastal artillery - mainly in the regions around Wŏnsan, Yangyang and Kansong . These missions, in which bunkers were also among the targets, claimed many victims on the Korean side. For example, 500 North Koreans died in attacks on a complex near Kansong on October 16. In some cases, the New Jersey cooperated directly with advancing South Korean and American troops by bombarding the North Koreans' artillery before an advance. The battleship carried out such coastal bombardments until November, when it was replaced by its sister ship Wisconsin .
The New Jersey returned to the Atlantic and was overhauled in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in the first half of 1952, the second she was used for training trips in European and Caribbean waters. In March 1953 she left Norfolk for a second mission to Korea, where she replaced the Missouri . On April 12th, the battleship began shooting at the coast. Until the peace agreement in July, the New Jersey carried out similar missions as on the first trip to Korea. For two days in July, for example, they fired at guns and bunkers near Wŏnsan for nine and seven hours a day, respectively. The New Jersey remained in Asian waters until October , when it was replaced by the Wisconsin and reached Norfolk in November.
The battleship spent 1954 to 1956 on training trips in the Atlantic, and in 1955 it made it to the Mediterranean for the first time. During the war and on the training drives, the New Jersey 6671 fired 16-inch projectiles, around eight times more than during the first period of use in World War II. At the end of 1956, the New Jersey was again deactivated in the New York Naval Shipyard, decommissioned in August 1957 and mothballed off New York. The same fate met her three sister ships until 1958. The main reason was again the enormous costs that the operation of the ships caused.
Vietnam War
In 1967 the US government decided to reactivate one of the battleships for the Vietnam War in order to obtain additional land attack capabilities in addition to the air strikes of the aircraft carriers. The New Jersey was chosen because she was in better shape than her sister ships. The ship was then docked in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and received modern electronics. The third official commissioning of the ship took place on April 6, 1968. This made the New Jersey the world's only active battleship. It was stationed in Long Beach , California. From there, the journey to the war zone began in early September. On September 30th, she fired the first shots along the demilitarized zone . Targets were similar to troop concentrations, bunkers, infrastructure and storage facilities as in the Korean War. On October 23, the North Vietnamese coastal artillery took the ship under fire for the first time, but missed it significantly, even when Radio Hanoi subsequently announced that the New Jersey had been hit. On November 8, the ship left the coast and spent ten days in the United States Naval Base Subic Bay , on November 23, it was back in the field. In the three months that the New Jersey had been off Vietnam in 1968, it fired over 3,000 rounds from its 16-inch guns and nearly 7,000 from its 5-inch guns. Around 350 buildings and 330 bunkers were destroyed, and over 200 other buildings and 140 bunkers were damaged. At least 136 people were killed.
After the New Jersey had been used off Vietnam over Christmas 1968 and New Year 1969, it arrived in Subic Bay on January 15 and drove from there to Yokosuka , where it resumed combat on February 10. On April 1, the New Jersey ended her mission after six months of service and entered Long Beach on May 5. In the three months before Vietnam, the New Jersey fired another 2,658 16-inch and 7851 5-inch shells, killing 24 people according to Navy estimates. After a few weeks of maintenance in Long Beach, the New Jersey spent the summer training trips in the Pacific to prepare for a second voyage to Vietnam. During this mission, 5688 16-inch projectiles were fired from board at targets in Vietnam, another 312 for training purposes.
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However, since the Navy had to save money, the then Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced in August that the New Jersey should be deactivated again. In addition, because of its firepower , the New Jersey was viewed as a drag on possible peace negotiations. After being deactivated in September, the battleship was decommissioned on December 17, but again held in reserve at the berth of the reserve fleet off Bremerton next to the Missouri .
Lebanon
The New Jersey was then mothballed in Puget Sound for twelve years. Only under President Ronald Reagan and his Secretary of the Navy John Lehman was a return to service under the Navy's 600 Ships Program considered. In fact, the battleship was towed to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in July 1981 and extensively modernized there. It cost $ 356 million, "less than the price of a new frigate," according to Lehman. On December 28, 1982, New Jersey was called for its fourth term. Reagan personally traveled to Long Beach to do this. This made the New Jersey again the only active battleship, but after her her three sister ships were reactivated every two years. The operating costs for each of the reactivated ships subsequently amounted to approximately $ 58 million annually.
In early 1983, the New Jersey made its first trips off the US west coast; the battleship launched cruise missiles for the first time in May and was relocated to Asian waters two months later. However, when the military situation in Nicaragua escalated during the Contra War in July, the New Jersey was relocated through the Panama Canal off the Central American coast. However, when the situation of the Lebanese civil war came to a head, the battleship was sent to the Mediterranean, where it arrived on September 21. The New Jersey was intended to provide fire support for the American and French soldiers of the Multinational Force in Lebanon in the event that they should come under Syrian fire in Beirut . On December 14, 1983, January 15, and February 8 and February 26, 1984, New Jersey fired at Syrian positions in Lebanon that had been attacked by MNFL soldiers. The Navy was accused that the projectiles of the 16-inch guns partially deviated from the targets. This was declared among other things that the New Jersey not with the counter-battery radar of Army could work together. The Navy took the position that all targets had been hit. The bombing of the Shiite and Druze positions on the Bekaa Plain on February 8, 1984, in which almost 300 shots were fired by the New Jersey , was the heaviest coastal bombardment since the Korean War. In April, after the NMFL ground forces were withdrawn from the country, the New Jersey also left the Mediterranean and reached Long Beach a month later. She was docked there for five months in June.
The New Jersey spent 1985 doing various exercises in the Pacific and the Ind . In 1986 she took part in the RIMPAC maneuver (a multinational military maneuver under the command of the US Navy), after which she sailed with her combat group waters of Thailand, Japan and South Korea for the rest of the year. This was the first combat group deployment to a battleship since the Korean War. 1987 she spent again in the Long Beach NSY. The first half of 1988 drove the New Jersey again mainly in the region before San Francisco. In the summer she took part in RIMPAC again and then visited ports in Asia and then Sydney , where she took part in the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Australia. In late 1988, the battleship reached Long Beach, where it spent early 1989 doing local exercises. A training voyage to the Indian Ocean followed in September, and in December it was the first US battleship ever to enter the Persian Gulf . In late February 1990, the New Jersey returned to Long Beach.
Decommissioning
After a farewell voyage along the west coast in August, preparations for deactivation began in Puget Sound. On February 8, 1991, the New Jersey was taken out of service for the last time, but initially still held in reserve status. During this last period of service, the New Jersey fired 2,983 rounds from its 16-inch guns. After it had already been deleted from the Naval Vessel Register in 1995 , Congress first fought for resumption. It was not until the beginning of 1999 that the battleship was finally canceled. Shortly afterwards, the New Jersey was towed from Bremerton into the Atlantic, where it was brought to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
In 2000, the Navy announced that it would donate the New Jersey to a veterans' group that they wanted to maintain as a museum ship in Camden , New Jersey. In 2001 the USS New Jersey Museum opened on the Delaware River . It is run by a non-profit organization. The budget for the first few years was around $ 5.5 million, consisting of around $ 2 million in entrance fees, $ 1 million in donations, and $ 3 million in public grants. These grants have been cut from 2007 to $ 1.35 million in 2009.
literature
- Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Comeback of the IOWA class. The American battleships from 1941 to the present day. Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7637-5862-3 .
- Stefan Terzibaschitsch: The last giants of the seas. Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-7637-5961-1 .
- Stefan Terzibaschitsch: battleships of the US Navy 1941–1981. Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-5268-4 .
- Samuel Loring Morison, Norman Polmar: The American Battleship. Zenith Press 2003, ISBN 978-07603-0989-6 .
- New Jersey Veteran's Inc .: USS New Jersey (BB-62). Turner Publishing, Nashville, Tennessee 1997, ISBN 1-5631-1256-6 .
Web links
- History of USS New Jersey (BB-62) in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- Battleship New Jersey Museum (English)
- Website former crew members (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Norman Polmar: Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet. US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2005, ISBN 978-1591146858 , p. 128 ff.
- ↑ ussnewjersey.org: 1968 Narrative (English)
- ↑ ussnewjersey.org: 1969 Narrative (English)
- ^ Morison, Polmar (2003), p. 140
- ^ Gannett News Service: Battleship New Jersey back in action. (English)
- ↑ a b General Accounting Office, investigation report of January 29, 1991. pp. 15, 46 (English; PDF; 3.6 MB) viewed on November 9, 2009
- ^ The New York Times: TV REVIEWS; NBC NEWS'S 'TRILLION FOR DEFENSE'. April 21, 1987
- ^ The New York Times: Navy denies report on ship missing targets in Lebanon. October 26, 1984.
- ↑ navysite.de: USS New Jersey (BB 62) , accessed on May 20, 2010
- ^ The Washington Post: USS New Jersey Visits Sensitive Persian Gulf. December 10, 1989
- ↑ Phillynews: Battleship New Jersey stays afloat despite economy. ( Memento from September 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 39 ° 56 ′ 21 ″ N , 75 ° 7 ′ 58 ″ W.