Nevada-class battleship

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Nevada (right) and Oklahoma (left) steaming in the Atlantic in the 1920s
Class overview
NameNevada-class battleship
Builders
Operators United States Navy
Preceded byNew York class
Succeeded byPennsylvania class
Built1912–1916
In commission1916–1946
Completed2
Lost1
Retired1
General characteristics (Original configuration)
Type
Dreadnought battleship
Displacement
Length
  • Length at the waterline
    : 575 ft (175 m)
  • Length overall: 583 ft (178 m)
Beam95 ft 2.5 in (29.0 m)
DraftNormal: 28 ft 6 in (8.7 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
  • 2 ×
    screw propellers
  • Nevada:
  • 2 × steam turbines
  • Oklahoma:
  • 2 ×
    triple-expansion steam engines
Speed20.5 knots (38 km/h; 24 mph)
Range8,000 nmi (9,206 mi; 14,816 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement
  • 55 officers
  • 809 enlisted men
Armament
Armor
General characteristics (After 1927–1930 refit)
Displacement
  • Standard: 30,500 long tons (31,000 t)
  • Full load: 33,901 long tons (34,445 t)
Installed power
  • 6 × Bureau Express boilers
  • 25,000 shp (19,000 kW)
Range15,700 nmi (29,100 km; 18,100 mi) at 10 knots
Complement1,374
Armament
General characteristics (Nevada after 1942 refit)
Sensors and
processing systems		SC
air search radar
Armament

The Nevada class comprised two

classes
of broadly similar battleships that were intended to be tactically homogeneous.

Nevada and Oklahoma deployed to Ireland in 1918 to escort convoys during World War I but saw no action. After the war, they were transferred to the Pacific Fleet, where they spent most of the 1920s and 1930s. During this period, they conducted extensive training operations and made several long-distance cruises, including to Australia and New Zealand in 1925 and Oklahoma's voyage to Europe in 1936. Both vessels were extensively modernized between 1927 and 1930, having their armament improved, protection scheme strengthened, and new boilers installed. They were moored in Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941; Oklahoma was sunk in the attack while Nevada was able to get underway before being forced to ground herself to avoid sinking in deeper water.

Only Nevada was salvageable, and she was repaired and modernized by mid-1943 when she joined the

ship breakers in 1946. While under tow to San Francisco in May 1947, she became separated from the vessel towing her and foundered
.

Development

The design of the Nevada class took place in the context of strong political opposition to the continual growth (and thus increases in cost) of battleship building that had accelerated with the development of the

General Board for larger, more powerful ships as part of an effort to return to two vessels per year. The resulting stabilization of designs produced the standard-type battleship, of which the two Nevadas were the first.[2]

Initial design

USS Texas of the New York class, which formed the basis for the initial Nevada design

The General Board was not satisfied with the adoption of 5 and 6 twin-

amidships No. 3 turret was moved up to superfire over what had been No. 5 turret in an arrangement similar to contemporary British battlecruisers. It was a complicated arrangement that required an ammunition magazine to separate the engine and boiler rooms; the naval historian Norman Friedman suggests it may have been adopted to reduce the concentration of weight aft, which would have put greater stress on the hull and thus required significant strengthening of the hull structure. The ship would also carry four torpedo tubes and a secondary battery of seventeen 5 in (127 mm) guns, while belt armor was to be 11 in (279 mm) thick.[3]

By this time, the Navy had come to the conclusion that naval engagements would be fought at very long range, and primarily with

all or nothing" principle of armor protection, which reserved armor protection only for the ship's vitals, including magazines, propulsion machinery spaces, and command spaces. The arrangement was made watertight to create an armored raft that contained enough reserve buoyancy to keep the ship afloat even if the unarmored ends were completely flooded.[4][5] The Nevada design was the first of any navy to introduce the concept.[6]

In June, the Board sent a set of requirements to C&R that incorporated the twelve-gun battery already projected, a minimum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph), and an armor layout based on the "all or nothing" concept. The engineers at C&R noted that the armor deck would considerably strengthen the hull, but pointed out that the 11-inch belt of the original design would be wholly insufficient to defeat the latest main guns in foreign navies. The Board suggested the addition of a 1.5 in (38 mm) splinter bulkhead behind the belt, which would contain shell fragments. In late 1910, before a final design was accepted, the Navy had to submit estimates for FY1912 to be voted on by Congress in 1911; they used figures based on the New Yorks, which were accepted by Congress, and in turn limited the size of the new ships to a displacement of around 27,000 long tons (27,000 t); this was too low for C&R's existing proposals, necessitating a redesign. By this time, the first generation of American dreadnoughts had begun to enter service, so experiences operating them could be incorporated into the redesign.[7]

Redesign and approval

The first major change was the arrangement of the aft pair of turrets. The amidships magazine of the battleship

triple-expansion engines, as they believed the greater efficiently of fuel oil would allow the notoriously voracious turbines to achieve the long cruising radius necessary for operations in the Pacific Ocean.[8]

Nevada in her original configuration

C&R submitted its next proposal on 13 February 1911; it generally aligned with the Board's ideas for the armor layout, but it retained some medium armor to protect the secondary guns and it incorporated triple-expansion machinery (though they noted that the engine rooms could accommodate Curtis turbines). The Board rejected it, leading the designers to remove the medium armor, producing a series of studies with speeds of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), 20.5 knots (38 km/h; 24 mph), and 21 knots and main batteries that ranged from eight to twelve guns. During this period, on 4 March, Congress authorized a pair of ships, designated BB-36 and BB-37 for FY1912. With the ships now authorized, the Board selected one of the ten-gun, 20.5-knot variations on 30 March, which had a belt that was increased to 14 in but included a series of tapers at the top and bottom edge to save weight. The Bureau of Ordnance pointed out that the belt could not be manufactured in a single strake with the tapers, so a joint between upper and lower strakes—a design weakness the engineers had been attempting to avoid—would have to be used. The problem was resolved in July, when C&R proposed removing the 1.5-inch splinter bulkhead in favor of increasing the belt to 13.5 in (343 mm) and incorporating only one taper at the lower edge.[9]

The next issue to address was the triple turret that was the linchpin of the design, since the weight savings made the heavier belt possible and it corrected design defects present in the earlier 5- and 6-turret classes. The US Navy had never built a three-gun turret, and there were concerns that a single hit could disable all three guns, and that three holes in the turret face would weaken the armor too much. C&R suggested conducting firing trials with the old battleship Indiana, but nothing came of the proposal. Daniels approved the finalized Nevada design on 31 March, without a completed turret design, which was a significant gamble because the turret design might not have been successful. An experimental turret was completed in August 1912, proving the concept, though it required some modifications to reduce shell interference. Since the finalized design adopted a ten-gun battery, only two of the four turrets would be triple mounts, one forward and one aft, with twin-gun turrets superfiring over them.[10]

With the design nearly finalized, the Board began to circulate it with fleet officers for comment; Captain

5-inch /51 caliber guns could not effectively engage destroyers before they launched their weapons, so retaining the weapons at all might not be worthwhile. But there were no suitable alternative, so the Board decided to keep the 5-inch guns as they were. This proved to be the correct decision, as the development of fire-control systems improved the guns' ability to hit at longer ranges.[11]

Design

General characteristics and machinery

Oklahoma in 1917, painted in an experimental dazzle camouflage

The ships of the Nevada class were 575 ft (175 m)

spotting tops to assist in directing the main battery, a common feature of American capital ships of the period. They had a crew of 55 officers and 809 enlisted men.[12][13]

Since the Board expected turbines to achieve greater efficiency, Nevada was equipped with a pair of direct-drive

double-acting, two-stroke diesel engines in 1925, but the great weight of diesels at the time led to the idea being abandoned.[16] Both ships' boilers were ducted into a single funnel located amidships.[13]

Nevada's engines were rated at 26,500

kW), while those of Oklahoma were projected to produce 24,800 indicated horsepower (18,500 kW). Both ships had a designed top speed of 20.5 knots, though Nevada reached 20.9 knots (38.7 km/h; 24.1 mph) from 26,291 shp (19,605 kW) on speed trials upon completion. Their designed endurance was 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Under service conditions, Nevada was found to have an endurance of 5,195 nmi (9,621 km; 5,978 mi) at a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), which fell considerably at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) to 1,980 nmi (3,670 km; 2,280 mi). With a freshly-cleaned hull, these figures improved slightly, to 6,494 nmi (12,027 km; 7,473 mi) and 2,475 nmi (4,584 km; 2,848 mi), respectively. Nevada had a tactical diameter—the distance it took to turn the ship 180 degrees—of 825 yards (754 m) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) and 580 yards (530 m) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). The only figure available for Oklahoma is her high-speed turning circle: 625 yards (572 m) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).[12][13]

Armament

Nevada's forward turrets; note the bomb damage from the attack on Pearl Harbor

The Nevadas were equipped a main battery of ten

rangefinders installed atop their roofs, with a centralized fire control room in the conning tower.[17]

The guns fired a 1,400-pound (635 kg) armor-piercing (AP) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,600 feet per second (790 m/s). Trials with the triple turret revealed excessive dispersion caused by interference between the projectiles while in flight, so a system was adopted to fire each gun individually, separated by a tenth of a second apiece. The turrets allowed elevation to 15 degrees and depression to −5 degrees. At maximum elevation, the guns had a range of about 21,140 yd (19,330 m).[18] Two shell hoists serviced all three guns, which were electrically loaded and operated.[19][20]

For defense against destroyers and torpedo boats, the ships carried a secondary battery of twenty-one 5-inch /51 caliber Mark VIII guns in individual mounts. Twelve of the guns were in casemates in the forecastle deck, six on either side, and another six were in casemates toward the stern at main deck level, with another weapon directly in the stern. These guns proved to be excessively wet in heavy seas and thus were frequently unusable, as experience with earlier vessels had already demonstrated. The last two guns were in open mounts on either side of the conning tower. The guns had a muzzle velocity of 3,150 ft/s (960 m/s) firing a 50-pound (23 kg) shell.[12][13][21]

As was customary for capital ships of the period, both vessels were armed with a pair of 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes submerged below the waterline, one on each broadside.[13] They were supplied with Bliss-Leavitt torpedoes of the Mark VII type; these carried a 321 lb (146 kg) warhead and had a range of 12,500 yd (11,400 m) at a speed of 27 kn (50 km/h; 31 mph). Nevada and Oklahoma were the first battleships to carry the Mark 7 torpedoes.[22]

Armor

The Nevada class was protected by side armor that was 13.5 in thick in the central portion where it protected the ship's vitals, the magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. It was 17 ft 4.6 in (5 m) wide, of which 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) was below the

nickel steel.[13][23][24]

The ships' main battery turrets received very heavy armor protection; the triple turret faces were 18 in (457 mm) thick, with 10 in (254 mm) sides and 5 in roofs. The twin-gun turrets had slightly thinner protection, consisting of 16 in (406 mm) faces and 9 in (229 mm) sides. Both turret types had 9 in rears and they rested atop barbettes that were 13 in thick. The conning tower had 16 in sides and a 8 in roof, the latter consisting of STS. The uptakes from the boilers to the funnel were protected by a conical mantlet that was 13 in thick.[13][25]

Modifications

Official drawings of Oklahoma after her refit

The ships underwent a series of changes over the course of their careers, particularly with regards to their secondary batteries, along with the addition of a tertiary

flying-off platforms for aircraft on their superfiring turrets, but these proved to be problematic in service, as they prevented the guns from being fired without destroying the ramps and they severely limited the ability of the guns to be elevated and depressed.[27]

In the late 1920s, both ships were substantially modernized. Both were re-boilered with six Bureau Express boilers that were significantly more efficient than the original twelve boilers. In addition, Nevada was re-engined using the turbines that had been installed in

torpedo bulges that increased their beam to 107 ft 11 in (32.89 m). Both vessels' main armor deck was increased in thickness by 2 in (51 mm), bringing the total to 5 inches, though because it consisted of layers, it was not as effective as a single plate of the same thickness.[26][28]

USS Nevada after her 1942 reconstruction

Both vessels' armament was significantly improved. The main battery turrets were modified to allow elevation to thirty degrees, which increased their maximum range to 34,300 yd (31,400 m).

air search radar.[31]

In 1942, during repairs for the damage sustained in the Japanese

Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) guns in nine quadruple mounts and thirty-eight Oerlikon 20 mm (0.79 in) autocannon in individual mounts. By the end of the war, she had received an additional quadruple 40 mm mount, while her 20 mm guns were reorganized into five single and twenty twin mounts, for a total of forty-five barrels.[32][33] Unlike many of the other battleships rebuilt after the attack, Nevada did not receive fire-control radar for her main battery, but she was fitted with Mark 37 directors for her new secondary battery.[31]

Ships in class

Oklahoma at her launching
Construction data
Ship name Hull no. [34][35] Builder [34][35] Laid down [34][35] Launched [34][35] Commissioned [34][35] Fate [34][35]
Nevada BB-36
Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts
 4 November 1912 11 July 1914 11 March 1916 Struck 12 August 1948; Sunk as a target 31 July 1948
Oklahoma BB-37 New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey 26 October 1912 23 March 1914 2 May 1916 Struck 1 September 1944; Hulk sank while under tow, 17 May 1947

Service history

Main articles: USS Nevada (BB-36) and USS Oklahoma (BB-37)

Early careers

Alcatraz
in the 1930s

After entering service in 1916, both vessels were assigned to the

Versailles Conference at the end of the conflict. After the war, both vessels returned to the Atlantic Fleet, though in 1919, Nevada was transferred to the Pacific Fleet; Oklahoma joined her there in 1921.[34][35]

Throughout the 1920s, both ships participated in a yearly routine of training exercises with the rest of the fleet, including shooting practice, tactical training, and annual, large-scale

Fleet Problems, the latter providing the basis for the US Navy's operations in the Pacific War, and experience that demonstrated that the standard-type battleships were too slow to operate with aircraft carriers led to the development of the fast battleships built in the 1930s. They were also involved in cruises around the Americas and further abroad, such as a goodwill visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1925. Between 1927 and 1930, both ships were heavily modernized. The standard peacetime routine continued through the 1930s. In 1936, Oklahoma embarked on a training cruise to Europe; she was there when the Spanish Civil War broke out that year, and she went to Spain to evacuate Americans in the country.[34][35]

As tensions with Japan began to rise in the late 1930s over the latter's waging of the

San Pedro, California, to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in an effort to deter further aggression. Both ships were at anchor in Battleship Row along Ford Island in December 1941.[34][35]

World War II

Nevada bombarding Iwo Jima in February 1945

On the morning of 7 December 1941, the Japanese aircraft carriers of the

capsize before receiving six more torpedo hits. As she rolled over, her superstructure prevented her from fully inverting and she came to rest on her port side. Her crew suffered heavy casualties in the sinking, with 20 officers and 395 enlisted men killed. Nevada was hit by a single torpedo in her bow early in the attack, but she nevertheless got underway, the only battleship to do so during the attack. She was hit by between six and ten bombs as she moved through the harbor and fears that she might sink in the channel out of Pearl Harbor, thus blocking the port, led her commander to decide to beach the vessel. She suffered relatively minor casualties, with 50 killed and 109 wounded. Nevada was refloated in February 1942 and was immediately dry-docked for repairs and modernization, while Oklahoma was too seriously damaged to be returned to service; she was righted in 1943 and partially dismantled in 1944 before being sold for scrap in 1946. While being towed from Pearl Harbor to San Francisco on 17 May 1947, she slipped her towing line and sank.[34][35]

After returning to service in 1943, Nevada was primarily used to support amphibious operations. She took part in the

occupied France, including Cherbourg before being reassigned to the force tasked with supporting Operation Dragoon, the landing in southern France conducted on 15 August. During the landings, she shelled the remnants of the French battleship Strasbourg, scuttled in 1942, and now nothing more than a floating hull, scoring hits that inflicted further damage on the vessel.[35]

Nevada then returned to the United States to have her badly-worn barrels relined before returning to the Pacific Fleet. She arrived in the advance base at

Marines went ashore on 19 February. The ship operated off the island providing fire support through 7 March, when she departed to prepare for the invasion of Okinawa. The initial bombardment began on 24 March and continued until the landing on 1 April, and Nevada remained off the island until 14 April when she was withdrawn for an overhaul. The ship returned for patrols in the East China Sea in July, though she saw no further action before the end of the war on 15 August.[35]

Worn out after nearly thirty years of service by late 1945, she was slated for disposal in

nuclear weapons tests in November 1945. She was allocated to the fleet of target ships to be used for Operation Crossroads in January 1946 and she arrived in Bikini Atoll in May. The target fleet included several other battleships, including the captured Japanese vessel Nagato. Nevada was used as the aiming point for the first test, an air-dropped bomb on 1 July, because the Navy deemed her to be the most resilient of the battleships. The bomb missed the target and inflicted minimal damage. Another test, an underwater blast, was conducted on 24 July, which also failed to sink the ship. She was taken to Pearl Harbor to be examined and was ultimately sunk off Hawaii in conventional weapon tests in 1948.[35][36]

Footnotes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nevada class battleships.

Notes

  1. ^ They have also been called "super" dreadnoughts.[1]
  2. ^ "/45 caliber" refers to the length of the gun in terms of calibers, or the bore diameter of the gun.

Citations

  1. ^ "The Nevada Leaves Quincy". The New York Times. 23 October 1925. p. 5. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  2. ^ Friedman 1985, p. 101.
  3. ^ Friedman 1985, p. 102.
  4. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 101–102.
  5. ^ Breyer, pp. 59, 209.
  6. ^ Jordan, p. 8.
  7. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 102–103.
  8. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 103–105.
  9. ^ Friedman 1985, p. 107.
  10. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 107, 111.
  11. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 111, 113.
  12. ^ a b c d e Friedman 1985, p. 438.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Friedman 1986, p. 115.
  14. ^ Cox 1916.
  15. ^ Prange, Goldstein, & Dillon, p. 217.
  16. ^ Breyer, p. 209.
  17. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 107, 111, 438.
  18. ^ Friedman 1985, p. 135.
  19. ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 159–162.
  20. ^ a b Campbell, p. 121.
  21. ^ Friedman 2011, p. 185.
  22. ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 342–343.
  23. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 107, 438.
  24. ^ Breyer, pp. 209–210.
  25. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 107–108, 438.
  26. ^ a b c Breyer, p. 210.
  27. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 175–176, 179.
  28. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 190, 197, 201, 438.
  29. ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 190, 201, 438.
  30. ^ Friedman 1980, p. 91.
  31. ^ a b Friedman 1985, p. 369.
  32. ^ Breyer, pp. 189, 210.
  33. ^ Friedman 1980, pp. 91–92.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cressman.
  35. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Havern.
  36. ^ Delgado, pp. 23, 33.

References

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