Recently spotted while wandering around the Alabama Battleship Memorial Park on Mobile Bay.
Thought some of you guys who are scale modelers or just general naval history buffs, would find it of interest and should generally cover not only USS Alabama (BB-60), but also her sisters USS South Dakota, Indiana, and Massachusetts.
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80 years ago this month: British and American Navy Forces in Combined Exercises, June 1943, off Scapa Flow. Shown are two very different battlewagons including the brand new SoDak-class fast battleship USS Alabama (BB-60) and the King George V-class HMS Anson (79).
Photograph by LT H.A. Hudson. IWM A 17582
The above stems from the efforts of U.S. Navy RADM Olaf Mandt Hustvedt (USNA 1909), a diehard battleship sailor who commanded TF 61 around Alabama and her sister, the recently repaired USS South Dakota, along with the destroyers USS Ellyson (DD-454), Emmons (DD-457, Fitch (DD-462), Macomb (DD-458), and Rodman (DD-456).
TF 61 sailed at varying times with the British ADM Sir Bruce Fraser’s Home Fleet between May and July 1943, typically in the company of HM battleships Anson (79) and Duke of York (17) along with a myriad of RN cruisers and destroyers. This was an effort to backfill the British ships sent to take part in the Husky landings in the Med.
USS Alabama BB-60 and HMS Anson (79) exercises off Scapa Flow June 1943 IWM Hudson, F A (Lt) b
USS Alabama BB-60 and HMS Anson (79) exercises off Scapa Flow June 1943 IWM Hudson, F A (Lt)
The force took part in a series of relatively bloodless missions including Operation Gearbox III, the relief of the Anglo-Norwegian garrison of Spitzbergen, and Operations Camera/Governor, demonstrations off the Norwegian coast to divert German attention from the Husky landings in July 1943.
South Dakota, Ellyson, Emmons, Fitch, Macomb, and Rodman arrived back in Norfolk on 1 August 1943, while Alabama reached Norfolk eight days later. They would soon sortie to the Pacific for a much more active role in the war.
As for Hustvedt, he went on to command Battleship Division 7 on the push to Tokyo and would retire as a Vice Admiral in 1946, capping 37 years of service. For his operations with Sir Bruce, he would be invested as a Knight Commander Order of the British Empire.
On 14 September 1964, the ex-USS Alabama (BB-60), arrived at the entrance of Mobile Bay in her namesake state after a 5,600 nm tow from mothballs at Puget Sound, where she had rested since her decommissioning in 1947. Just five months later she opened as a museum, the centerpiece of the Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, where she remains in excellent repair today.
Her departure from Bremerton left the Navy with just four battleships in storage, all Iowas, who would live on to fight another day.
Via All Hands, August 1964
Within a year, she was busy in her new life.
Via All Hands, December 1965
“Big Grey Al” has been a regular feature in Mobile Bay for over 50 years, guarding the entry to Mobile along the Moon Pie City’s Western Shore.
Note her distinctive large SK3 radar antenna array near the top of her mast. Photo by me on Leap Day 2020
The thing is, the lucky SoDak-class fast battleship spent her brief but very active WWII career typically dressed in camo of various schemes, starting off with Measure 12 for her Atlantic tour then haze grey augmented by Measure 22 for her Pacific career.
Original color photo of USS Alabama (BB-60) In Casco Bay, Maine, during her shakedown period, circa December 1942. Note her Measure 12 (modified) Atlantic camouflage scheme. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-K-445
Alabama (BB-60) anchored at Lynnhaven in Hampton Roads, on 1 December 1942. Via Navsource
With that being said, USS Alabama (BB-60) is gaining some Measure 22 Pacific camo, courtesy of the Living History Crew, complete with dungarees.
Here we see have what the locals’ term “Big Grey AL,” the battleship USS Alabama (BB-60), just outside of downtown Mobile near the Austal shipyard at the park she has called home since 1964.
Note her distinctive large SK3 radar antenna array near the top of her mast. Photo by me on Leap Day 2020
Commissioned 16 August 1942, Alabama‘s entire active career ran just 4 years, 4 months, and 24 days before she was mothballed for another 15 years then stricken from the Navy List and later retired to her home state, with just 22 years on her.
Of note, the top of Alabama’s main mast is 194-feet above baseline to the roof of the truck light and TDG antenna– as is the rest of her class, which includes the scrapped USS South Dakota and USS Indiana, along with the preserved USS Massachusetts (BB-59). In terms of buildings, this works out to right at 18 stories, relatively, making Alabama about the 14th tallest in the state, if she was on dry land.
How does that compare to the later American battlewagons? Post-1980s refit, the Iowa-class battleships ran 216-feet, 5-inches ABL, peaking at the tip of the lighting rod above the newly-installed AS-3240/URN-25 TACAN Antenna.