Wyoming-class battleship
![]() Wyoming as completed
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Class overview | |
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Name | Wyoming-class battleship |
Builders | |
Operators | ![]() |
Preceded by | Florida class |
Succeeded by | New York class |
Built | 1910–1912 |
In commission | 1912–1947 |
Completed | 2 |
Retired | 2 |
General characteristics (As built)[a] | |
Type | Dreadnought battleship |
Displacement |
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Length | |
Beam | 93 ft 3 in (28.42 m) |
Draft |
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Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 20.5 kn (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph) |
Range | 8,000 nmi (9,210 mi; 14,820 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 1,063 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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Armor |
The Wyoming class was a pair of
The two ships frequently served together, first in the
The London Naval Treaty of 1930 mandated that Wyoming be demilitarized; she accordingly was converted into a training ship, with half of her main battery turrets, belt armor, and anti-torpedo bulges removed. However, Arkansas was permitted to continue in service with the fleet. After the United States entered World War II, Arkansas was used to escort convoys to North Africa. By 1944, she served as a coastal bombardment vessel; in this role, she supported Allied landings at Normandy (Operation Overlord) and southern France (Operation Dragoon) before being transferred to the Pacific, where she provided fire support to Marines fighting on Iwo Jima and at Okinawa in 1945. Wyoming meanwhile continued as a training ship, being modified further in 1944 to include the various types of anti-aircraft guns that trainees would operate in the fleet. Both ships were decommissioned shortly after the war, with Arkansas being expended as a target ship during the 1946 nuclear tests at Operation Crossroads, and Wyoming being sold for scrap in 1947.
Design
On 22 July 1908, the Newport Conference was held; this included the
BuOrd argued that at likely battle ranges, 8,000 to 8,500 yd (7,300 to 7,800 m), the 12-inch gun was powerful enough to penetrate existing armor, and so the 14-inch gun was unnecessary. C&R produced three designs to meet Metcalf's request, all based on the preceding Florida design; the first, referred to as design 404, was a battleship armed with eight 14-inch guns. The second, design 502, had an additional twin turret for a total of ten 14-inch guns. The third, design 601, would be fitted with twelve 12-inch guns. The General Board chose 601, since the design work for the 14-inch gun had not begun, and adopting it would have caused the class to be delayed. In addition, the ships' displacement would have increased more dramatically with the larger gun, requiring extensive improvements to harbor facilities; design 502 would have only been able to dock in Pearl Harbor and Puget Sound with the existing facilities. The placement of the secondary battery also proved to be problematic. The cruise of the Great White Fleet in 1907–09 had demonstrated the problems with casemates on the main deck. They were too easily washed out in even moderate seas, making them unusable. Some officers at the Newport Conference had advocated placing them in the superstructure, but the heavy 5-inch (127 mm) guns used by the Navy would have added excessive top weight. Another alternative was to place them in the forecastle, but the additional weight forward would have strained the ship where the forecastle stepped down to the main deck. The designers ultimately settled on a full-length forecastle, which allowed the casemates to be moved about 4 ft (1.2 m) higher in the hull.[3]
The ships' armor protection was improved over earlier designs. The
General characteristics and machinery
The ships of the Wyoming class were 554 ft (169 m)
The ships were powered by four-shaft
Armament

The ships were armed with a
The secondary battery consisted of twenty-one
Armor
The main
The gun turrets had 12 in (305 mm) thick faces and 3 in thick roofs. Their supporting barbettes had 11 in thick sides where they were exposed; the portions that were masked by the armored belt were reduced to 4.5 in (110 mm). The lower half of the casemate armor was 11 in thick, and the upper half was reduced to 6.5 in (170 mm). Inboard of the casemate battery were longitudinal armored bulkheads; these were designed to protect the uptakes to the funnels. These were deemed important because during the Russo-Japanese War, three years before, Russian battleships had had their uptakes damaged, which ducted the boiler smoke into the ship rather than out through the funnels.[7][15]
Modifications
Both ships were significantly modified throughout their careers. During and shortly after

The two Wyomings, along with the Floridas and New Yorks, were heavily modernized in the 1920s. All six ships were converted to completely oil-fired boilers with equipment taken from the cancelled
Under the terms of the 1930
Ships in class
Ship name | Hull no. | Builder[7] | Laid down[7] | Launched[7] | Commissioned[7] | Decommissioned | Fate |
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Wyoming | BB-32 | William Cramp & Sons | 9 February 1910 | 25 May 1911 | 25 September 1912 | 1 August 1947 | Struck 16 December 1947; Sold for scrap, 30 October 1947 |
Arkansas | BB-33 | New York Shipbuilding Corporation | 25 January 1910 | 14 January 1911 | 17 September 1912 | 29 July 1946 | Struck 15 August 1946; Sunk on 25 July 1946, as part of Operation Crossroads |
Service history

After entering service, both ships were assigned to the
From mid-1919 to mid-1921, Arkansas and Wyoming served in the

From early 1932 to early 1934, Arkansas returned for another stint in the Pacific Fleet, followed by another tour of Europe later in the year. After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, she was assigned to the reserve force for the Neutrality Patrols. She supported the replacement of Canadian troops by American ones maintaining the occupation of Iceland in July 1941 as an escort for the troopship convoys. In November, as it became increasingly apparent that the United States would become involved in World War II, Wyoming was reassigned as a gunnery training ship, a role she served in for the duration of the war. Arkansas, meanwhile, continued in front-line service during the war, first as an escort to convoys to North Africa, and then as a shore bombardment vessel. She supported the landings at Normandy in June 1944, shelling German positions at Omaha Beach, before bombarding Cherbourg later in the month. Her next bombardment mission came with Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France, in August that year. She was then transferred to the Pacific Theater of Operations for action against the Japanese. She bombarded Japanese positions on Iwo Jima in February 1945 and on Okinawa in April.[20][22]
With the end of the war in September 1945, Arkansas was employed with Operation Magic Carpet, repatriating American soldiers in the Pacific. Wyoming remained in service briefly after the war, though she was decommissioned in August 1947. She was sold for scrap in October and subsequently broken up. Arkansas was instead retained for use as a target ship during the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in mid-1946. She survived the first test, an air-burst code-named ABLE, though the second experiment, an underwater detonation code-named BAKER, sank the ship.[20][22]
Notes
Footnotes
Citations
- ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 81, 85.
- ^ Friedman 1985, p. 86.
- ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 87–89.
- ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 89–93.
- ^ Friedman 1985, p. 88.
- ^ Friedman 1985, p. 93.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Friedman 1986, p. 114.
- ^ a b Friedman 1985, pp. 434–435.
- ^ Moore, p. 135.
- ^ a b c d Friedman 1985, p. 434.
- ^ Friedman 2011, pp. 172–173.
- ^ Friedman 2011, p. 185.
- ^ Friedman 2011, p. 342.
- ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 90, 434.
- ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 90–91, 434.
- ^ a b Friedman 1980, p. 91.
- ^ Friedman 1985, p. 189.
- ^ Friedman 1985, p. 193.
- ^ Friedman 1985, pp. 195–196.
- ^ a b c d e f Cressman.
- ^ a b Breyer, p. 202.
- ^ a b c d DANFS Arkansas.
References
- "Arkansas III (Battleship No. 33)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- Breyer, Siegfried, ed. (1978). Battleships and Battle Cruisers 1905–1970. Garden City: OCLC 7284895.
- Cressman, Robert (10 May 2016). "Wyoming III (Battleship No. 32)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- Friedman, Norman (1980). "United States of America". In Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 86–166. ISBN 978-0-87021-913-9.
- Friedman, Norman (1985). U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-715-9.
- Friedman, Norman (1986). "United States of America". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 105–133. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.
- Moore, John, ed. (2001). Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. London: Random House Group. ISBN 978-1-85170-378-4.