BatDiv
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A BatDiv or BATDIV was a standard
World War I and prior
BatDivs existed from at least 1913, when there were four Battleship Divisions in the US Atlantic Fleet.
By April 1917, with the American entry into World War I, there were at least nine Battleship Divisions, as BatDiv 9 was dispatched to operate with the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet.[1]
Inter-War period
Before the Second World War, the U.S. Navy battleship force was organized into five Battleship Divisions of three battleships each. Only two of these BATDIVs were composed of three battleships of the same class, but mixing battleships of separate two-ship classes to form three-ship BATDIVs was facilitated by the "
- Battleship Division 1
- Battleship Division 2
- Battleship Division 3
- Battleship Division 4
- Battleship Division 5
Stationed at Pearl Harbor as part of the U.S.
at that time.The U.S. Atlantic Fleet contained BatDiv 3 and 5. BatDiv3 had been part of the Pacific Fleet until 20 May 1941 when its three ships were transferred to the Atlantic Fleet for Neutrality Patrol duty. BatDiv 5 was a training division consisting of three older battleships. An additional BATDIV (BatDiv 6) was attached to the Atlantic Fleet during 1941; this consisted of the new battleships North Carolina and Washington, both of which were in the process of undergoing post-commissioning work up.
World War II and beyond
After the
Battleship Division 1 was active in the Pacific at least until 1946, according to U.S. Navy records with the National Archives and Records Administration.[3] On June 7, 1954, under the direction of Battleship Division 2, Norfolk, Virginia, the four battleships of the Iowa class operated together for the only time under the flag of RAdm George R. Cooper.[4]
On January 15, 1957, Wisconsin reported to Commander Fleet Training Group, Guantanano Bay, Cuba and Rear Admiral Henry Crommelin, Commander Battleship Division Two broke his flag in Wisconsin. On May 27, 1957 Rear Admiral Lewis S. Parks relieved Rear Admiral Crommelin as Commander Battleship Division Two.
See also
- ComBatPac, Commander, Battleships, U.S. Pacific Fleet
- Carrier battle group#Battleship battle group
References
- ^ For further details on Battleship Divisions in the First World War see Michael D. Besch, A Navy Second to None: The History of U.S. Naval Training in World War I, Issue 215 of Contributions in Military Studies, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002
- J. F. Lehmanns Verlag, Munich, 1977.
- ^ National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Naval Operating Forces World War II and Later 1931-63: Pacific Fleet, accessed April 2012
- ^ "Ship's History". Archived from the original on 2010-09-14. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.