USS Nevada (BB-36)

USS Nevada (BB-36) was a battleship in service with the US Navy during WW1 and WW2. She was moored at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese torpedo-bombers attacked the American naval base. Although she was was damaged, she did not sink, surviving this air raid as she would be used both in the Atlantic and the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II, going on to serve as a convoy escort. However, her sister ship, the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was badly struck and sank.

The BB-36 was a Nevada class battleship and she was the lead vessel of her class of two; the other was the USS Oklahoma. Launched on July 14, 1914, she was the first American warship to be powered by geared turbines (steam turbines connected to a set of reduction gears). Thus, when she was commissioned on March 11, 1916, she was more advanced than the Dreadnought type battleship. She introduced the 'all-or-nothing' armor protection, which was based on the proposition that armor-piercing shell should be either completely stopped, or not at all. Since she had been built right before WW1, she was fitted with ten 14-inch (356-mm) naval guns, instead of the 16-inch (406-mm)-caliber guns on the deck of the Colorado class battleships.

Between 1926 and 1927, USS Nevada (BB-36) underwent a major refit, during which a new taller superstructure was added as all the casemate guns were removed and replaced with a new battery of sixteen 5-inch (127-mm) guns mounted in eight twin turrets. One of the most prominent feature was a tall funnel cap, which was raked aft to keep fumes away from the new higher bridge. After she was repaired from the damage sustained at Pearl Harbor, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, operating as an escort. In November 1942, however, USS Nevada covered the Allied landings on the North African shores near Casablanca known as Operation Torch. At the end of 1944, she would be re-deployed to the Pacific in time to take part in the Iwo Jima and Okinawa landing operations. After the war, in 1946, she was a target ship for an A-bomb test.

Specifications

Type: battleship

Displacement: 29,000 tons/or 34,000 tons full load.

Length: 175.3 m (575 feet).

Beam: 29 m (95.25 feet)

Draft: 9.7 m (32 feet)

Power Plant: geared Curtis turbines, with two shaft; these were fed from twelve boilers, generating 26,500 SHP.

Maximum Speed: 20.5 knots.

Range: 10,000 nautical miles (18,520 km) sailing at 18 knots.

Armor: 18-13-inch (203-343mm)-thick on main belt; 13.5-inch (343mm) on bulkheads.

Armament: ten 14-inch (356mm) naval guns; sixteen 5-inch (127mm) guns; eight 127mm AA; two 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes.

Crew: 864 sailors and officers.

Below, the USS Nevada (BB-36) on dry dock at Pearl Harbor in 1935.

The battleship sailing on the Atlantic in February 1942.