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THE U.S. NAVY |
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Battleships and Aircraft Carriers |
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LINKS: North Carolina Class Battleship
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Battleships |
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Battleships are the most important warship. Until the 1940’s battleships were the most important warship in a navy. They were replaced with aircraft carriers. The U.S. Navy’s last four battleships are in storage. Battleships attacked enemy ship and enemy targets on land. Navies put their largest guns on battleships. Thick steal armor helped protect battleships. The U.S. navy has built and commissioned many battleships. They have named them mostly after states, then put them in different classes. |
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USS Wisconsin at sea, circa 1990 |
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Battleship Form |
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All modern battleships have water tight steel hulls. They have two or three fitted hulls. Each of the U.S. Navies remaining battleships are 887 feet long. These are the largest battleships in navy history The navies smallest battleships were 452 feet long. The fastest battleships went 35 knots. |
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U.S.S Iowa |
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Battleship Weapons |
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The U.S. Navy puts many guns on its warships. Each set of guns are called a battery. The largest guns on a U.S. Navy battleship were the heavy 16 inch guns. These guns shot heavy shells weighing around 1 ton. |
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Light Guns |
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In the 1940’s ,the U.S. Navy started putting in smaller 5 inch guns . The battleships carried as many as 20 light guns. Battleships also carried antiaircraft guns which are used to protect the ship from enemy planes. There are two types, the 20 mm and the 40 mm. Battleships had up to 75 antiaircraft guns.
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Battleship History |
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The first battleships in the U.S. were built in the civil war . The U.S Navy built the U.S.S Monitor . The U.S navy built more battleships starting in the 1900’s. These early ships were designed poorly and their engines were not strong. |
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The Great White Fleet |
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Between 1906-1909, U.S President Theodore Roosevelt sent a fleet of battleships known as the Great White Fleet around the world. The fleet had 16 battleships and 4 destroyers. They were called the great white fleet because they had been painted white. |
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USS Maine BB-10 |
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U.S.S Monitor |
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The First Modern Battleship |
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The first modern battleship was built by the British. It was built in 1906 and named the Dreadnaught. It had ten large guns and powered by steam turbines. It had a top speed of 21 knots (that is about 24 mph). The ship was scrapped in 1923. The U.S. Navy built its first dreadnaught style battleship. The Navy named it the Delaware. It was 518 feet long. It also carried 10 guns which were all 12-inch guns. It went at a top speed of 21 knots. The crew consisted of 933 crew members. In 1923 the navy removed the Delaware and it was scrapped in 1924. In 1924 the battleships were still having problems. |
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Dreadnought |
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U.S.S Connecticut |
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U.S.S Delaware |
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U.S. Navy Battleships 1922 |
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By 1922, the U.S Navy had 29 battleships in service or under construction, but the U.S. Navy signed a treaty limiting the number of battleships a navy could have. In 1936, the Japanese and German navies started building more improved battleships. These ships were also fast. The newest battleships at that time was the West Virginia in 1923.
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USS West Virginia BB-48 |
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U.S. Navy Battleships 1938 |
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In 1938, the navy started two new battleships that were six knots faster then any other battleship. They entered service in 1941. They were called the North Carolina and the Washington. The North Carolina had a top speed of 28 knots. The North Carolina is now a museum ship. The Washington went the same speed as the North Carolina at 28 Knots. It was taken out of service in 1947. Then it was scrapped. These ships were 729 feet long. They had 9 16inch guns and 20 light guns. |
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USS North Carolina BB-55 |
USS NORTH CAROLINA (BB-55) |
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USS Washington |
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South Dakota Class |
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By the 1940s the U.S. Navy started on a improved fast battleship. These ships were the Indiana, Massachusetts, Alabama, and South Dakota. They had heavier armor and had a top speed of 27 knots. They had a crew of 2,354 sailors. The Massachusetts and Alabama were turned into museum ships. The other two ships were scrapped. |
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USS Alabama |
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USS Massachusetts (BB-59) |
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Iowa Class |
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The U.S. commissioned its last battleships in the 1940’s. These ships were the Iowa, the New Jersey, Wisconsin, and the Missouri. These were the largest battleships ever built for the navy in navy history. They are 887 feet long and powered by steam turbine engines. They had a top speed of 33 knots. |
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How Pearl Harbor Effected the U.S. Navies Battleships |
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At the attack of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese sunk the battleships Arizona and Oklahoma. The West Virginia, California, Nevada, Maryland Tennessee, and Pennsylvania were not severally damaged . The navy rebuilt the damaged warships. They could not rebuild the Arizona and Oklahoma |
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USS Arizona after attack |
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USS Missouri |
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USS Nevada beached during pearl harbor |
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After The World War II |
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After the war the navy scrapped most of its battleship. Some became museums. It only kept it four Iowa class battleships and put them into storage. They have come out in some of the following wars we were in. the navy is turning them into museums and does not have anymore battleships because aircraft carriers are the new backbone of navies. |
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Aircraft Carriers |
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Aircraft carriers are large warships, that carry airplanes and deploy them. The newest carriers in the U.S. navy are 1006 are feet long. Also, some of the ships have a top of 35 knots. The only weapons aircraft carriers have are anti aircraft guns, because their main weapons are the planes they deploy. Early Carrier History The U.S. tested its idea of making aircraft carrier in 1910. A pilot flew of a navy cruiser. In the same year a pilot landed on a navy cruiser. In 1922 the U.S. Navy changed the supply ship Jupiter into its first aircraft carrier. They named it the Langley after the airplane pioneer Samuel F. Langley. The Langley was a test to see if carriers would work. It was 534 feet long . It had a top speed of 15 Knots. It had a crew of 468 including sailors and pilots. It carried 34 planes. Japanese bombers attacked the Langley during World War II. The ship caught fire and the crew had to abandon ship. The Langley sank. This ship proved that planes could take off from ships. In 1927 the navy built the Lexington and Saratoga. These were the navies first big aircraft carriers. Each of the ships carried 83 planes and were 890 feet long. They both had a crew of 2,000 people. They were the largest carriers up to the 1940’s. They went at a top speed of 35 knots. Also they were the fastest and largest ships in the world. In 1934 the navy built the Ranger. This was an attempt to experiment with small carriers. They learned small carriers were too small for battles. The navy commissioned the Yorktown and the Enterprise. They were each 809 feet long and had a top speed of 32 Knots. In 1939, the navy commissioned the Wasp in another attempt to make a small battleship. The ship was 688 feet long compared to the 809 feet long Yorktown and Enterprise. The Wasp was smaller then the Ranger but handled poorly. It was sunk by a Japanese torpedo in World War II. In 1940 the U.S. Navy commissioned the Hornet. It was a improves Yorktown class battleship. Luckily during the attack of Pearl Harbor none of the Pacific fleets carriers were there during the attack. The month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. navy lost four aircraft carriers in battles. The Lexington was the first to sink during the battle of Coral sea. The next carrier to be lost was the Yorktown in the battle of Midway.In October, Japanese planes sank the Wasp. The Hornet sank in the battle of Santa Cruz in October. In the battles of 1942, three carriers survived. The enterprise was the most famous. When Japanese planes damaged it in 1945, the navy used it to transport solders before removing it from service in 1947. In 1942 the navy realized it needed more aircraft carriers. They solved it by changing nine unfinished cruisers into carriers. They were the Independence class, they had a top speed of 35 knots, they carried 45 planes and they were 600 feet long. The navy made the |