Greek battleship Kilkis
Mississippi, while still in US Navy service
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Mississippi |
Namesake | State of Mississippi |
Builder | William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia |
Laid down | 12 May 1904 |
Launched | 30 September 1905 |
Commissioned | 1 February 1908 |
Decommissioned | 10 July 1914 |
Identification | Hull number: BB-23 |
Fate | Sold to Greece, 8 July 1914 |
Greece | |
Name | Kilkis |
Namesake | Battle of Kilkis–Lachanas |
Acquired | 21 July 1914 |
Fate | Sunk on 23 April 1941 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Mississippi-class battleship |
Displacement |
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Length | 382 ft (116.4 m) |
Beam | 77 ft (23.5 m) |
Draft | 24 ft 8 in (7.5 m) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
Crew | 744 |
Armament |
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Armor |
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USS Mississippi (BB-23) was the
Mississippi served with the Atlantic Fleet from 1909 to 1912, which consisted primarily of routine training operations. In 1910, she and other ships of the fleet visited Europe and in 1912, she carried marines to Cuba during civil unrest in the country. Too slow to operate effectively with the fleet, she was placed in reserve in 1912. Mississippi was reactivated in January 1914 for use as an aviation support ship assigned to the Naval Air Station Pensacola, and she supported flying boats during the occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in April 1914. By this time, the navy was prepared to dispose of the ship, and Greece, which had entered a naval arms race with the Ottoman Empire, sought to acquire warships as quickly as possible.
Greece bought Mississippi in July 1914 and renamed her Kilkis (
Design
The two Mississippi-class battleships were ordered under the terms of the 1903 naval appropriations, which stipulated a maximum designed displacement of 13,000 long tons (13,209 t). The limit was an effort led by senior naval officers including Admiral George Dewey and Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, who believed a force of smaller but more numerous pre-dreadnought battleships would better suit the navy's needs. Elements in Congress also opposed the continually increasing size, and more importantly, cost of each new battleship design.[1] The limited displacement amounted to a reduction of 3,000 long tons (3,048 t) compared to the preceding Connecticut class, which necessitated significant compromises in speed, armament, and armor, making them poor designs unable to serve with the main fleet and led to their quick disposal.[2]
Mississippi was 382 feet (116 m)
The ship was armed with a
The ship's main
Service history
United States career
Construction – 1910
On 16 January 1909, Mississippi left Philadelphia, bound for
Mississippi got underway on 5 January 1910, again headed for Cuba, where she joined the other units of the Atlantic Fleet for training from 12 January to 24 March. She then steamed to Hampton Roads, arriving there on 4 April, and taking part in target practice from then until 28 April. More repairs followed in Philadelphia, lasting until 16 July. She then conducted torpedo training in Maine in late July before embarking a contingent from the Rhode Island Naval Militia for sea training that included further torpedo drills. In August, she steamed south to Hampton Roads for more shooting training and battle practice with the fleet through September. Another stint in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard followed from 5 October to 1 November, after which she and the rest of the Third Division crossed the Atlantic to visit Europe, including stops in Gravesend, United Kingdom and Brest, France. On the way back to Cuban waters, the ships conducted mock battle training.[5]
1911–1914
On 13 January 1911, Mississippi arrived in Guantanamo Bay, and she spent the following two months conducting various maneuvers with the Atlantic Fleet. She left the area on 13 March and arrived in Hampton Roads four days later. Further training followed over the next month, after which she returned to Philadelphia for periodic maintenance that lasted from 12 April to 1 May. She thereafter cruised the east coast of the US in company with the other ships of the division and into the Gulf of Mexico, proceeding as far as Galveston, Texas. Mississippi embarked a group from the New York Naval Militia for a training cruise that lasted from 13 to 22 July, and in August took part in maneuvers with torpedo boats off the coast of Massachusetts. She returned to Hampton Roads on 24 August to meet the rest of the fleet for shooting practice. She participated in a naval review for President William Howard Taft in the North River on 1 November.[5]
The ship then returned to Hampton Roads for training with the Second Squadron before stopping in
She remained in the
Greece became engaged in a naval
Greek career
At the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, Greece's pro-German monarch,
After the end of World War I Kilkis saw service in the
In March 1920, Kilkis was stationed in Constantinople as part of an Allied fleet, which was composed primarily of British warships. The ships' crews practiced landing operations to support the garrison occupying the city, but in the event only crews from the British ships went ashore.
Kilkis underwent repairs and upgrades in 1926–1928 but was already obsolete due to low speed and low freeboard.
World War II
On 28 October 1940, Italy invaded Greece, initiating the
On 6 April 1941, the German
Footnotes
- ^ Lautenschläger, pp. 49–51.
- ^ Friedman, pp. 45–47.
- ^ a b c d Campbell, p. 144.
- ^ a b Friedman, p. 45.
- ^ a b c d e f g h DANFS.
- ^ Hills, Waring (2011-04-25). "First Combat Flight 1914". Patriots Point News & Events. Retrieved 2022-05-15.
- ^ Sondhaus, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Parramore et al., p. 292.
- ^ a b Lautenschläger, p. 64.
- ^ a b c d e Mach, p. 383.
- ^ Fotakis, p. 131.
- ^ Paloczi-Horvath, p. 80.
- ^ Halpern, p. 45.
- ^ Dobkin, p. 65.
- ^ Halpern, p. 69.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 174–175.
- ^ Halpern, p. 244.
- ^ Halpern, p. 269.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 271–272.
- ^ Halpern, p. 379.
- ^ Paizis-Paradellis, p. 96.
- ^ a b c d Mach, p. 384.
- ^ Lautenschläger, pp. 64–65.
- ^ a b Lautenschläger, p. 65.
- ^ Alexiades, pp. 19–20.
- ^ Kaufmann & Jurga, p. 312.
- ^ Alexiades, p. 29.
- ^ Hore, p. 89.
References
- Alexiades, Platon (2015). Target Corinth Canal: 1940–1944. South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-2756-1.
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1979). "United States of America". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 114–169. ISBN 978-0-8317-0302-8.
- Dobkin, Marjorie Housepian (1998). Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City. New York: Newmark Press. ISBN 978-0-9667451-0-8.
- Fotakis, Zisis (2005). Greek Naval Strategy and Policy, 1910–1919. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-35014-3.
- Friedman, Norman (1985). U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-715-9.
- Halpern, Paul, ed. (2011). The Mediterranean Fleet, 1919–1929. Publications of the Navy Records Society. Vol. 158. Farnham: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society. ISBN 978-1-4094-2756-8.
- Hore, Peter (2006). Battleships of World War I. London: Southwater Books. ISBN 978-1-84476-377-1.
- Kaufmann, J. E.; Jurga, Robert M. (2002). Fortress Europe: European fortifications of World War II. Cambridge: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81174-6.
- Lautenschläger, Karl (1973). "USS Mississippi (BB-23) Greek Kilkis". Warship Profile 39. Windsor: Profile Publications. pp. 49–72. OCLC 33084563.
- Mach, Andrzej V. (1985). "Greece". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 382–386. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
- "Mississippi II (Battleship No. 23)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. 10 August 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
- Paizis-Paradellis, C. (2002). Hellenic Warships 1829–2001 (3rd ed.). Athens: The Society for the study of Greek History. ISBN 978-960-8172-14-2.
- Paloczi-Horvath, George (1996). From Monitor to Missile Boat : Coast Defence Ships and Coastal Defence since 1860. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-650-7.
- Parramore, Thomas C.; Stewart, Peter C.; Bogger, Tommy (2000). Norfolk: The First Four Centuries. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. ISBN 978-0-8139-1988-1.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (2014). The Great War at Sea: A Naval History of the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-03690-1.