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| High-angle view of the stern of USS Alabama, off Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia, 20 August 1943. |
USS
Alabama (BB-60) is a retired battleship. She was the fourth and final
member of the South Dakota class of fast battleships built for the
United States Navy in the 1940s. The first American battleships designed
after the Washington Treaty system began to break down in the
mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed
increasing the main battery to 16-inch (406 mm) guns, but Congressional
refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to
the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t). A requirement to
be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined
with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships.
Overcrowding was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably
strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased
their crews.
After entering service, Alabama was briefly deployed
to strengthen the British Home Fleet, tasked with protecting convoys to
the Soviet Union. In 1943, she was transferred to the Pacific for
operations against Japan; the first of these was the Gilbert and
Marshall Islands campaign that began in November that year. While
operating in the Pacific, she served primarily as an escort for the fast
carrier task force to protect the aircraft carriers from surface and
air attacks. She also frequently bombarded Japanese positions in support
of amphibious assaults. She took part in the Mariana and Palau Islands
campaign in June–September and the Philippines campaign in
October–December. After a refit in early 1945, she returned to the fleet
for operations during the Battle of Okinawa and the series of attacks
on the Japanese mainland in July and August, including several
bombardments of coastal industrial targets.
Alabama assisted in
Operation Magic Carpet after the war, carrying some 700 men home from
the former war zone. She was decommissioned in 1947 and assigned to the
Pacific Reserve Fleet, where she remained until 1962 when she was
stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. A campaign to save the ship
from the breakers' yard succeeded in raising the necessary funds, and
Alabama was preserved as a museum ship in Mobile Bay, Alabama.
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| Alabama (BB-60), December 1, 1942. |
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Gilberts
Operation, November 1943: U.S. Navy ships of Task Force 50 en route to the
Gilberts and Marshalls to support the invasions of Makin and Tarawa, 12 November
1943. Ships are (l-r): USS Alabama (BB-60); USS Indiana (BB-58), in the
distance, wearing dazzle camouflage; and USS Monterey (CVL-26).
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| Chief
Specialist Robert William (Bob) Feller by a 40mm quadruple
anti-aircraft gun mount, probably on board USS Alabama (BB-60) in late
1942 or early 1943. The original caption (released 5 March 1943) reads:
GUN CAPTAIN FELLER. Bob Feller, one of the finest baseball pitchers of
the era, is all set to do a different kind of pitching these days. As a
Chief Specialist, he is the captain of a 40mm gun crew aboard one of
Uncle Sam's new battleships. The former American Leaguer joined the U.S.
Navy as a physical education instructor and later applied for Gunnery
School. Subsequently he was assigned to sea duty and here he is grin and
all beside his guns on a cold winter day. |
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| Alabama underway in the Pacific with Task Force 58.2, circa 1943-44. Taken by a USS Essex (CV-9) photographer. |
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| The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Knapp (DD-653) with Task Force 58.3, escorting the battleship USS Alabama (BB-60), 28 April 1944. |
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| An
Imperial Japanese Navy Nakajima B6N ("Jill") releases its torpedo off
the starboard bow of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) off
Formosa on 14 October 1944. In the background are the battleship USS
Alabama (BB-60), right, and a destroyer, center. |
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| USS
Alabama en route to Gilbert islands, 12 November 1943; note USS Indiana
in distance and another ship in background; photo taken from USS
Monterey. |
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| View
of the U.S. Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, in 1945.
Identifiable ships include (left to right): the battleship USS
California (BB-44) in drydock No. 5. She arrived at the yard on 15
February after a kamikaze hit; the battleship USS Alabama (BB-60). She
entered drydock on 18 January 1945, and she remained there until 25
February. Shipyard work continued until 17 March 1945; the light
aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26). She arrived in January 1945 for
an overhaul; an Essex-class carrier in the drydock, probably USS
Ticonderoga (CV-14), which was under repair at the yard from 15 February
to 20 April 1945 following a kamikaze hit; the escort carrier USS
Commencement Bay (CVE-105) is visible on the right. She arrived at
Bremerton on 1 February 1945 for duty as a training ship in Puget Sound
until 2 October 1945. |
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| U.S.
Navy ships at Seattle, Washington, on 9 January 1947. Three aircraft
carriers are at Pier 91, USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), USS Bon Homme Richard
(CV-31) and USS Essex (CV-9). USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) is at Pier 92. The
battleships USS Indiana (BB-58) and USS Alabama (BB-60) are moored
opposite of the Ticonderoga. |
