USS Tennessee (BB-43)

USS Tennessee (BB-43) was an American battleship, which was in service with the US Navy between 1920 and 1947. She was severely damaged on December 7, 1941, by Japanese dive-bombers when she was moored at Pearl Harbor naval base. However, she would be repaired and upgraded, taking part in the Island-Hopping Campaign of the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II as she provided fire support to landing US Marines with her powerful twelve 14-in (356-mm) guns.

USS Tennessee (BB-43) had been laid down on May 14, 1917, at the New York Naval Shipyard, being launched on April 30, 1919. She was commissioned on June 3, 1920, and became the lead ship of her class, which consisted of two battleships, the other being USS California (BB-44). They both were basically a repeat of the New Mexico class, with the exception that they had modern features, such as turbo-electric machinery and had two funnels in contrast to the New Mexico's one funnel. The hull of the Tennessee was flush-sided as they were designed from the start to carry secondary armament at upper deck level.

Right after repair and modernization, USS Tennessee (BB-43) was recommissioned in May 1943. She was assigned to Task Force 1, under Rear Admiral William S. Pye, participating in the major naval operations of the Pacific Theater, such as the Aleutian Island Campaign, the Battle of Tarawa, Battle of Saipan, and Battle of Iwo Jima, as well as the naval battle of Leyte Gulf. After the war, she would serve two more years, being decommissioned in 1947.

Specifications

Type: battleship

Displacement: 32,818 tons (33,150 tons full-load)

Length: 190 m (624 ft)

Beam: 29.7 m (97 ft, 5 in)

Draft: 9.1 m (30 ft, 2 in)

Propulsion: two steam turbine-driven Westinghouse electric generators; four General Electric AC motors, with four shafts, delivering a total of 27,500 shp. The steam turbines were fed by 9 boilers.

Maximum Speed: 21 knots (24 mph)

Range: 8,000 nautical miles (9,200 miles/ 15,000 km)

Armor: 343-mm-thick steel plate on the belt; 330-mm-thick on barbettes (gun emplacement); and 76-mm on deck.

Armament: twelve 14-in (356-mm) naval guns set up in four towers (two fore and two aft); fourteen 5-in (127-mm) guns.

Crew: 1,085

Below, a photo of the Tennessee battleship taken around 1938. You can notice the three Curtiss SOC-3 scout observation biplane aircraft she carried aboard.

The BB-43 in 1921 after she had been commissioned.

Below, the Tennessee under construction at New York Naval Shipyard in 1918.

The mighty battleship right after having been launched. The photo was taken in May 1919.

Below, the USS Tennessee (B-43) anchored in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, in July 1945.

HMS Hood (51)

HMS Hood (51) was a British battlecruiser used by the Royal Navy during the first two years of World War II. She was sunk during the Battle of Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941. Before this armed conflict broke out, she had represented the ultimate in British sea power in the interwar period as she had been the largest and the most heavily armed capital ship in the world. She had a long and attractive profile, drawing people's attention at every port she anchored at.

Laid down in 1916, HMS Hood was built by John Brown & Company in the shipyards on the Clyde River. She would be launched in 1918 and commissioned in 1920. Her original design dated from before the Battle of Jutland (1916), when a class of four ships was conceived to counter the German Mackensen class battlecruisers, which were already under construction in those days. However, only one was built, HMS Hood, which was equipped with eight 381-mm (15-inch) naval guns. She followed the lines laid down by Adm. Fisher, with heavy gun armament and high speed, but with relative light armor protection.

As originally built, HMS Hood (51) introduced a number of novel features. For example, she was the first ship in the Royal Navy to incorporate an AC electrical supply from an installed generator, and 140-mm (5-inch) guns, which constituted her secondary armament, strengthened by the addition of twin 102mm (4-inch) AA mountings. Major reconstruction had been planned to start of 1938, including the addition of better armored protection and new machinery for the propulsion system. However, the threat of war following the Austrian annexation to Germany and the urgent need for every capital ship made the British government cancel this major upgrade.

At the outbreak of World War II, HMS Hood was attached to the Home Fleet. She was very busy from the very moment war was declared, taking part in the hunt for the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and the bombardment of the French fleet in Mers-el-Kebir, a port in Oran, Algeria. She would be part of the force sent to intercept the heavily armed German battleship Bismarck and her escort the cruiser Prinz Eugen. Thus, HMS Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales met these German warships in the Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941. There, sailing broadside along the British battlecruiser, the Bismarck quickly opened fire right before HMS Hood had a chance to use her guns. The British ship was seriously damaged as fire broke out, leading to an explosion that blew the ship apart.

Specifications

Type: battlecruiser

Displacement: 42,750 tons (48,300 tons full-load)

Length: 262.8 m (860 feet)

Beam: 31.8 m (104 feet)

Draft: 9.7 m (32 feet)

Propulsion: four Brown Curtis geared steam turbines, with four shafts, and twenty four Yarrow boilers, delivering 144,000 SHP.

Maximum Speed: 30 knots

Range: 6,300 nautical miles (11,673 km) at 12 knots.

Armament: eight 381-mm naval guns set up in four twin turrets; twelve 140mm guns.

Compliment: 1,397 sailors and officers.

Below, the HMS Hood approaching home port in 1937.

The British battlecruiser moored to a wharf at Gibraltar port in 1934.