USS Tennessee (BB-43)
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| Keel laying: | May 14, 1917 |
| Launch: | April 30, 1919 |
| Commissioning: | June 3, 1920 |
| Decommissioning: | February 14, 1947 |
| Removed from the register of ships: | March 1, 1959 |
| Fate: | sold for scrapping 1959, scrapped until 1962 |
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Displacement : as a new building |
Construction: 33,190 tn.l. |
| Length: | 190.0 m |
| Width: | 29.7 m |
| Draft: | 9.4 m |
| Speed: | 21.5 knots |
| Crew: | 1,401 officers and men |
| Armament: | 12 × 14-inch (356 mm) guns, 14 × 5-inch (127 mm) guns, 4 × 3-inch (76 mm) guns, 2 × 21-inch torpedo tubes |
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The USS Tennessee (BB-43) was a battleship of the United States Navy and the lead ship of two ships of the Tennessee class . It entered service in 1920 and was damaged in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Tennessee was then repaired. She took part in the fighting in the Pacific until the end of the war.
Tennessee class
The ships of the Tennessee class differed considerably from their predecessors of the New Mexico class , but had the same number of 14-inch guns on board. With them, increased emphasis was placed on underwater protection. Furthermore, the armor protection was strengthened in the horizontal area and the increased range of the guns made possible by increasing the angle of inclination of the barrel. Lessons were learned from the Battle of the Skagerrak , which showed that the combat distances would continue to increase and at the same time the horizontal armor had to be increased because the shells would hit the ship more vertically at a greater distance. At the same time, they started building the clipper bow so that they could operate better in heavy seas. They were almost identical in construction to the following Colorado class , but had only twelve 14-inch guns, whereas the following ships had an increase in caliber to eight 16-inch guns.
The ships of the Tennessee class were very heavily armored and had the latest development stages of warship construction, so that they had better protection against torpedo and mine hits than comparable older battleships. Their biggest disadvantage was their too low speed of almost 22 knots, with which they could not keep up with foreign competition, as newer battleships (and still existing battle cruisers ) could run around 30 knots.
history
From commissioning to war
The construction of the Tennessee was already decided in 1915, but due to the First World War , the construction was continued only hesitantly, as more ships were needed to defend against German submarines during the war and, given its long construction period, completion before the end of the war was rejected as unreal . In addition, construction lessons were drawn from the course of the war and the sea battles fought with it.
The ship was built in the New York Navy Yard , the keel was laid on May 14, 1917. The launch followed on April 30, 1919 and on June 3, 1920, the Tennessee could be put into service. She was immediately assigned to the Atlantic fleet and completed her first test drives there.
In 1922 she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet , where she served until the USA entered the war.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Tennessee was in port next to the battleship USS West Virginia and was only slightly damaged. However, she was blocked at her berth for ten days by the USS West Virginia , which had sunk on a level keel .
Repair
The ship moved to the west coast four days later for repairs at the Puget Sound Navy Yard . On that occasion, the anti-aircraft armament was improved and radar was installed.
She was then used for various maneuvers on the US Pacific coast and in 1942 she drove some escorts for other war-important ships of Task Force 1. She stayed on the Pacific coast because it was feared that the Japanese Navy would dare to attack here as well.
In the summer of 1942 it reached Puget Sound Navy Yard again, this time to be completely rebuilt. As with the West Virginia , the lattice masts were completely removed, the two funnels combined into one chimney, the bridge superstructures redesigned in the style of the Iowa-class battleships , new optical measuring devices installed, radar added and a strong reinforcement of the anti-aircraft armament installed, so that Ship fundamentally changed its appearance and was equipped for the new kind of naval warfare.
In May 1943, the Tennessee was again able to participate in active missions in the Pacific Fleet.
War missions
Until the surrender of Japan, the Tennessee took part in various combat missions by the US Navy in the Pacific. These included the Battle of the Gilbert Islands , the Battle of the Mariana Islands , the Sea and Air Battle in the Gulf of Leyte , the Battle of the Philippine Sea , the Battle of Iwojima and the Battle of Okinawa .
In the battle of the Surigao Strait, the Tennessee drove in the battleship line, which was led by West Virginia , and was instrumental in the sinking of the Japanese battleship Yamashiro and its sister ship Fuso .
Their main task was to give cover fire to the landing forces during the island's income and to break the Japanese resistance through this land fire. During the war it fired 9,347 14-inch shells, 46,341 5-inch shells and more than 100,000 anti-aircraft shells.
After the war until it was scrapped
Immediately after the war, the Tennessee was relocated to Yokosuka and then to Singapore . From there she was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet on the way around the Cape of Good Hope.
In 1947 she was decommissioned and thus remained in the reserve fleet .
In 1959 it was finally deleted from the US Navy shipping register and sold to the Bethlehem Steel Company for scrapping . By 1962 the ship was completely scrapped.
Others
A US Navy Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine was named USS Tennessee in 1986 and is still in active service in the Navy.
