USS Mississippi (BB-41)

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For other ships with the same name, see USS Mississippi.

USS Mississippi (BB-41) at sea in the late 1930s
History
United States
NameMississippi
NamesakeMississippi
BuilderNewport News Shipbuilding
Laid down5 April 1915
Launched25 January 1917
Commissioned18 December 1917
Decommissioned17 September 1956
Stricken30 July 1956
Honors and
awards		8 ×
battle stars
FateBroken up, 1957
General characteristics
Class and typeNew Mexico-class battleship
Displacement
Length624 ft (190 m)
Beam97 ft 5 in (29.69 m)
Draft30 ft (9.1 m)
Installed power
  • 9 ×
    Babcock & Wilcox boilers
  • 32,000 shp (24,000 kW)
Propulsion
Speed21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement
  • 55 officers
  • 1,026 enlisted
Armament
Armor

USS Mississippi (BB-41/AG-128), the second of three members of the

launching in January 1917, and her commissioning in December that year. She was armed with a battery of twelve 14-inch (356 mm) guns in four three-gun turrets, and was protected by heavy armor plate, with her main belt armor
being 13.5 inches (343 mm) thick.

The ship remained in North American waters during

Battle of Surigao Strait
, the last battleship engagement in history.

After the war, Mississippi was converted into a gunnery training ship, and was also used to test new weapons systems. These included the RIM-2 Terrier missile and the AUM-N-2 Petrel missile. She was eventually decommissioned in 1956 and sold to ship breakers in November that year.

Design

Main article: New Mexico-class battleship

Mississippi was 624 feet (190 m)

armored belt was 8–13.5 in (203–343 mm) thick, while the main armored deck was up to 3.5 in (89 mm) thick. The main battery gun turrets had 18 in (457 mm) thick faces on 13 in (330 mm) barbettes. The conning tower had 16 in (406 mm) thick sides.[1]

The ship was armed with a

amidships. Initially, the ship was to have been fitted with twenty-two of the guns, but experiences in the North Sea during World War I demonstrated that the additional guns, which would have been placed in the hull, would have been unusable in anything but calm seas. As a result, the casemates were plated over to prevent flooding. The secondary battery was augmented with four 3-inch (76 mm)/50-caliber guns. In addition to her gun armament, Mississippi was also fitted with two 21-inch (530 mm) torpedo tubes, mounted submerged in the hull, one on each broadside.[1]

Modifications

Mississippi was heavily modernized in the early 1930s. Her original turbines were replaced with new

anti-aircraft guns were installed. She received an additional 2-inch (51 mm) armored deck, and her underwater protection was improved. Both lattice masts were removed; a heavy tower bridge was built in place of the fore mast, and a light pole mast was erected in place of the main mast. These alterations greatly increased her displacement, to 33,420 long tons (33,960 t) standard and 36,157 long tons (36,737 t) full load. Her crew increased significantly, to 1,443.[2]

In early 1945, while under repair for combat damage, Mississippi received a new secondary battery. The old 51-caliber 5-inch guns were removed, and eight more of the 25-caliber anti-aircraft guns were installed, along with thirteen quadruple

Bofors 40 mm mounts and forty 20 mm Oerlikon guns.[3] To compensate for the added weight, the ship's armored conning tower was removed.[4]

Service history

Mississippi anchored off New York City c. 1918
A Sopwith Camel takes off from Mississippi, 6 April 1919

The

sea trials off Virginia, Mississippi departed the United States on 22 March 1918 for the Gulf of Guacanayabo in Cuba, where she conducted further training.[5] From 1919 to 1921, William A. Moffett served as the ship's commander.[6] On 31 January 1919, she left for another round of training in the Caribbean.[5] Before the start of fleet maneuvers in March, Mississippi had a flying-off platform built atop her forward superfiring turret, and during the maneuvers that year, she operated a Hanriot HD.1. The ship launched the aircraft three times during the maneuvers, but as she had no landing facilities, the pilot had to land ashore and then be loaded back onto the platform.[7] Later in the year, she returned to Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she began a cruise between Boston and New York.[5]

Mississippi was then reassigned to the

pre-dreadnought Coast Battleship No. 4 (formerly USS Iowa), battering her first with her 5-inch guns at ranges between 8,000 to 10,000 yards (7,300 to 9,100 m) before firing a salvo of 14-inch shells that struck Coast Battleship No. 4 amidships and inflicted fatal damage.[9] During the gunnery exercise, spotter aircraft were used for the first time to help direct an American battleship's guns in a major exercise.[10]

While conducting gunnery practice off San Pedro on 12 June 1924, there was an explosion in her forward superfiring Gun Turret No. 2. The resulting fire asphyxiated 44 members of the turret crew. Upon returning to port the gunpowder that was still in Gun No. 5, the remaining gun in the turret, exploded and killed four members of the rescue team. The shell that was in the gun narrowly missed the passenger ship Yale. This was, at the time, the deadliest peace-time disaster in the Navy's history.[11][12]

She left

Norfolk Navy Yard that began on 30 March.[5] This overhaul significantly changed the ship's profile by removing the original fore and aft lattice mast. The former was replaced with a tower. Modernization also included replacement of earlier 3-inch/50 cal anti-aircraft guns with eight 5-inch/25-caliber guns.[8] Further training exercises followed in September 1933. On 24 October 1934, she passed through the Panama Canal on her way back to the Pacific Fleet, where she remained through mid-1941, apart from the normal winter cruises in the Caribbean.[5]

USS Mississippi, naval cover with ship's postmark. While at Pearl Harbor the Mississippi's crew celebrated Washington's birthday, 22 February, 1941

By this time,

Hvalfjordur, Iceland. She began another convoy escort mission on 28 September, also to Iceland. Mississippi remained there through November to protect American shipping in the area.[5] During this period, she was assigned to the "White Patrol", a special task group, along with the other two battleships and a pair of heavy cruisers.[15]

World War II

HMAS Shropshire
are in the background.

On 9 December, two days after the Japanese

Wotje on 21 February. On 15 March, she shelled Japanese positions at Kavieng on New Ireland, before returning to the United States for an overhaul in Puget Sound.[5] This overhaul increased the number of 5-inch/25 cal guns from eight to fourteen.[8]

After returning to the fleet, Mississippi provided gunfire support for the Marines that went ashore

Battle of Surigao Strait.[5] During the battle, the Japanese warships failed to detect the American vessels with their radar. Additionally, the narrow strait forced the Japanese to steam in line ahead, while Mississippi and the other battleships were stationed at the entrance, where they were able to fire full broadsides. As a result, Nishimura was unable to avoid having his "T" crossed. In the ensuing action, American destroyers inflicted heavy damage on the Japanese force, which was then annihilated by the concentrated fire from the battleships. Mississippi, which was equipped with older fire control radar, had trouble identifying targets in the darkness, and so fired only one 12-gun salvo, after Oldendorf had given the order to cease fire. This salvo was the last fired in the action, and proved to be the last time a battleship fired its guns at another battleship.[17]

Mississippi remained off Leyte, providing gunfire support until 16 November, when she withdrew to the

Honshū, as part of the occupation force, arriving there on 27 August. She was present during the signing of the surrender documents on 2 September in Tokyo Bay. Four days later, she left Japanese waters, bound for the United States. She reached Norfolk on 27 November.[5]

Postwar career

USS Mississippi firing a Terrier missile

Upon arriving in Norfolk, the ship was converted into a gunnery

3-inch/70-caliber mounts, but the twin 5-inch/54 mount (originally for the Montana-class battleships) never entered service and the 3-inch/70 mount was not ready until 1956. Also, a triple 8-inch/55-caliber rapid-fire turret as on the Des Moines class heavy cruisers was proposed in place of No. 3 14-inch turret, but this was not equipped. It is unclear if a proposed mixed 20 mm Oerlikon battery of quadruple, twin, and single mounts was installed.[19]

Mississippi was reconstructed at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard from November 1945 through April 1948. During the yard period she served as the flagship of the operational development force from 18 March to 15 May 1947, and as the flagship of Battleships-Cruisers Atlantic Fleet (COMBATCRULANT) from 11 June to 14 July 1947. In April 1947 she effectively replaced Wyoming as an anti-aircraft training ship, with Wyoming mooring at a pier across from Mississippi and the bulk of Wyoming's crew "cross-decking" to Mississippi.[19] After emerging from the reconstruction, she served in the operational development force, carrying out gunnery tests and helping evaluate new weapon systems.[5] The ship had two new RIM-2 Terrier missile launchers installed in 1952 with No. 4 turret removed, the work being completed on 9 August at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The first test firings of a ship-borne Terrier missile took place on 28–29 January 1953 off Cape Cod.[20] Mississippi later tested the Petrel missile, a radar-homing weapon, in February 1956. On 17 September, Mississippi was decommissioned at Norfolk, sold for scrap to Bethlehem Steel on 28 November, and subsequently broken up.[5]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Friedman 1986, p. 117.
  2. ^ Friedman 1980, pp. 91–92.
  3. ^ Friedman 1980, p. 92.
  4. ^ Friedman 1985, p. 362.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DANFS Mississippi.
  6. ^ Nofi, p. 343.
  7. ^ Polmar, p. 40.
  8. ^ a b c d Breyer, p. 219.
  9. ^ DANFS Iowa.
  10. ^ Nofi, p. 53.
  11. ^ Thompson 2004.
  12. ^ Beitler.
  13. ^ Morison, pp. 13–14.
  14. ^ Morison, pp. 56–57.
  15. ^ Morison, p. 82.
  16. ^ Moore 1989.
  17. ^ Willmott, pp. 141–149.
  18. ^ Anon.
  19. ^ a b Friedman 1985, pp. 402–403.
  20. ^ Boslaugh, p. 59.

References

Further reading

  • Pater, Alan F. (March 2006). "'Ole Miss': The Battleship That Ushered in the Missile Age". Sea Classics. 39 (3).

External links

Media related to USS Mississippi (BB-41) at Wikimedia Commons

  • Photo gallery of USS Mississippi (BB-41) at NavSource Naval History
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