Post-war view of Yokosuka, while anchored in Tokyo Bay.
The surrendered 33,000-ton 16-inch gunned Japanese super-dreadnought Nagatocan be seen in the right background in this image, 30 December 1945, with the more advanced Iowa-class fast battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) in the foreground, which carried an extra 16-inch gun when compared to Nagato and hit the scales at a massive 57,540 tons at the time due to her immense AAA battery and huge crew.
USN photograph courtesy of David Buell, via Navsource.
New Jersey, launched 7 December 1942 by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, was commissioned 23 May 1943, making her just over two years in the fleet at the time, and had earned nine battle stars for her World War II service in the Pacific. She would go on to serve in Korea (four more battle stars plus a Presidential Unit Citation), Vietnam (three more plus a Navy Unit Commendation), Lebanon, and the Persian Gulf and would only decommission for her final time on 8 February 1991.
She, of course, is a museum ship with at least another 20 years of service ahead of her following her latest dry docking.
Nagato, commissioned on 25 November 1920, had served just over 25 years with the Imperial Fleet but spent the majority of the war in home waters, one of the primary reasons she was still afloat in 1945, albeit a little battered. That would soon change, as she was sunk just seven months after this image was taken, sent to the bottom as a target in the Atomic tests at Bikini Atoll, Operation Crossroads, 29/30 July 1946.
Her decaying wreck will continue to rest on the ocean floor in Bikini Lagoon, some 170 feet down, for decades to come.
The mothballed Iowa-class fast battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62)is towed up the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge to the New York Navy Yard, 22 November 1950, for reactivation as a fire support platform for use in the Korean War.
She had been recommissioned at Bayonne the day before.
She would be refitted with SK-2 search radar, MK 12/22 radar on her MK 37 directors, and retained her 20mm Oerlikons, although most of her 40mm Bofors are gone
USS New Jersey (BB-62) commissioning at Bayonne, 21 November 1950, for Korean War reactivation
Already the recipient of nine battle stars for her WWII service, New Jersey had been decommissioned at Bayonne on 30 June 1948, so her hull had only languished on “red lead row” for 28 months and, notably, was still a very young ship, having been commissioned the first time at Philadelphia on 23 May 1943.
After a quick refit and shakedown, New Jersey left for the Seventh Fleet, where she arrived off the east coast of Korea on 17 May 1951 and spent the next seven months as fleet flagship. The recalled battleship’s big guns opened the first shore bombardment of her Korean career at Wonsan just two days later.
Over the next two years, she would pick up another four battlestars.
The battleship New Jersey (BB-62) fires a full nine-gun salvo of her 16″ rifles at a target in Kaesong, Korea, on 1 January 1953. Official USN photograph # 80-G-433953 in the collection of the National Archives,
USS New Jersey (BB-62) fires a nine 16-inch gun salvo during bombardment operations against enemy targets in Korea, adjacent to the 38th parallel. The photo is dated 10 November 1951. Smoke from shell explosions is visible ashore, in the upper left. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-435681
As noted by DANFS:
During her two tours of duty in Korean waters, she was again and again to play the part of seaborne mobile artillery. In direct support to United Nations troops, or in preparation for ground actions, in interdicting Communist supply and communication routes, or in destroying supplies and troop positions, New Jersey hurled a weight of steel fire far beyond the capacity of land artillery, moved rapidly and free from major attack from one target to another, and at the same time could be immediately available to guard aircraft carriers should they require her protection.
New Jersey would be decommissioned a second time on 21 August 1957, was brought back in 1968 to rain 6,000 shells on NVA positions in Vietnam, then decommissioned a third time the next year, and brought back a fourth and final time in 1982.
The “Black Dragon,” USS New Jersey (BB-62), whose keel was laid in September 1940, was last dry docked from late 1990 into 1991 when she was being deactivated and prepared for the mothball fleet. Stricken in 1999, capping an impressive 56-year career (21 of them on active duty), she has been a museum ship since 2001.
If you can’t make it to Philly for the tour, below is a rundown of how she looks and how the project is going thus far.
Battle Group Romeo
With the above in mind, this post seems like a great time to highlight a couple of her biggest cruises following her third (and final) recommissioning– operating with the Pacific Fleet as the centerpiece of her own surface action group: Battle Group Romeo. It was the first time a battleship had operated in those waters since 1954.
This would include a lengthy 1986 West Pac cruise with port calls at Pearl, Inchon, Manila, Sasebo, Hong Kong, Pattaya Beach (!), and a brush with the Red Fleet in the Sea of Okhost before returning stateside.
Then came the 1988 West Pac cruise which saw Battle Group Romeo steam to Australia and operate in tandem with ships of the Royal Australian Navy and call at Sydney there to mark the country’s bicentennial celebration.
Drink in the “Big Thunder Down Under” pics, all taken by PH2 Barry Orell, across the 86 and 88 deployments, and currently in the National Archives.
An aerial bow view of the first battleship battle group to deploy to the Western Pacific since the Korean War underway with Australian ships during a training exercise. The ships are, clockwise from bottom: USS LONG BEACH (CGN-9), USS MERRILL (DD-976), HMAS SWAN (D-50), HMAS STUART (D-48), HMAS PARRAMATTA (D-46), USNS PASSUMPSIC (T-AO-107), USS WABASH (AOR-5), HMAS DERWENT (D-49), USS KIRK (FF-1087), USS THACH (FFG-43), HMAS HOBART (D-39) and USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62), center.
An aerial bow view of the first battleship battle group to deploy to the Western Pacific since the Korean War underway. The ships are, clockwise from top: replenishment oiler USS WABASH (AOR 5), destroyer USS MERRILL (DD 976), frigate USS GRAY (FF 1054), guided missile frigate USS THACH (FFG 43), nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9) and the battleship USS NEW JERSEY (BB 62), center.
An aerial port bow view of the first battleship battle group to deploy to the Western Pacific since the Korean War underway with Australian ships during a training exercise. The ships are, clockwise from bottom left: USS LONG BEACH (CGN-9), USS MERRILL (DD-976), HMAS SWAN (D-50), HMAS STUART (D-48), HMAS PARRAMATTA (D-46), USNS PASSUMPSIC (T-AO-107), USS WABASH (AOR-5), HMAS DERWENT (D-49), USS KIRK (FF-1087), USS THACH (FFG-43), HMAS HOBART (D-39) AND USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62), center.
An aerial port beam view of the first battleship battle group to deploy to the Western Pacific since the Korean War underway with Australian ships during a training exercise. The ships are, clockwise from left: USS LONG BEACH (CGN-9), USS MERRILL (DD-976), HMAS SWAN (D-50), HMAS STUART (D-48), HMAS PARRAMATTA (D-46), USNS PASSUMPSIC (T-AO-107), USS WABASH (AOR-5), HMAS DERWENT (D-49), USS KIRK (FF-1087), USS THACH (FFG-43), HMAS HOBART (D-39) and USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62), center.
An aerial starboard bow view of the first battleship battle group to deploy to the Western Pacific since the Korean War underway with Australian ships during a training exercise. The ships are, clockwise from right: USS LONG BEACH (CGN-9), USS MERRILL (DD-976), HMAS SWAN (D-50), HMAS STUART (D-48), HMAS PARRAMATTA (D-46), USNS PASSUMPSIC (T-AO-107), USS WABASH (AOR-5), HMAS DERWENT (D-49), USS KIRK (FF-1087), USS THACH (FFG-43), HMAS HOBART (D-39) and USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62), center.
A port bow view of the battleship USS NEW JERSEY (BB 62) tied up at a pier with 60 other warships during the Australian bicentennial celebration.
A view of the battleship USS NEW JERSEY (BB 62) lit up at night during the Australian bicentennial celebration.
Just in case you missed it, the museum ship USS New Jersey (BB-62) this week left her pier at Camden, where she has sat for the past 30 years, headed down the Delaware River on her way to dry docking and maintenance.
The Navy Yard caught her in movement, complete with her glad rags flying on a beautiful spring day. If it wasn’t for the fact that her radar mast has been removed to allow her to pass under bridges, and the lack of bluejackets manning her rails, you would think she was headed out for a deployment.
80 years ago today: The brand-new Iowa-class fast battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) silhouetted against the sea and clouds, as seen from a minesweeper, 26 October 1943. She was then engaged in training in the western Atlantic and Caribbean areas.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. NH 45486
The second USS New Jersey was launched on the 1st Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and commissioned on 23 May 1943, then spent the rest of the year working up before heading West to eventually earn her “Black Dragon” nickname.
New Jersey completed fitting out and trained her initial crew in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. On 7 January 1944 she passed through the Panama Canal war-bound for Funafuti, Ellice Islands. She reported there 22 January for duty with the Fifth Fleet, and three days later rendezvoused with Task Group 58.2 for the assault on the Marshall Islands.
The rest, including nine battle stars for World War II; four for the Korean conflict; and two for Vietnam, was history.
80 Years Ago Today. Aboard the Iowa-class fast super dreadnought USS New Jersey (BB-62). Official caption:
“Looking over a Marine’s pack, during an inspection, 5 September 1943. Officers include Captain Carl F. Holden (third from left); Admiral Donald B. Beary (sixth form left, hands on hips); Captain K. D. Christian (seventh from left, crossed arms). Note expressions of all concerned.”
Of note, this was one of the first Marine Detachments to hit the fleet with M1 Garands. Catalog #: 80-G-82699
A close-up of those concerned faces:
As detailed by DANFS, New Jersey had been commissioned three months prior at Philadelphia on 23 May 1943 and was in the midst of her workups and shakedowns in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. On 7 January 1944 she passed through the Panama Canal war-bound for duty with the Fifth Fleet and in the next 20 months would earn nine battle stars for her World War II service.
Of note, the sour-looking ADM Beary (USNA 1910) had earned a Navy Cross in the Great War in command of a patrol yacht and destroyer engaged in convoy duty and anti-submarine warfare and early in WWII, as skipper of the troop transport Mount Vernon (AP 22), was credited with landing desperately needed reinforcements at Singapore and the evacuation of refugees from that city despite repeated air raids in the area just prior to the fall of the city. During 1944-45, he was credited with being a sort of logistics genius behind the scenes that helped win the Pacific War. He would become President of the Naval War College post-war and is buried at Annapolis.
Warship Wednesday, Dec.7, 2022: Pearl Harbor D+365
Just one year to the day after the Japanese attack that wiped out the Pacific Fleet’s Battleforce, sending four battleships (five if you count the old USS Utah) to the bottom and severely damaging four more, the Navy was already busy making new ships to fill the gaps.
Commissioned in that 365-day period between December 7th, 1941 and 1942 were all four of the brand new South Dakota-class battleships, with SoDak (BB-57) entering the fleet on 20 March, Indiana (BB-58) on 30 April, Massachusetts (BB-59) on 12 May– then cleaning the Vichy French battleship Jean Bart‘s clock just six months later– and Alabama (BB-60) on 16 August, very much making good on the battlewagon losses from Pearl Harbor.
Embarcadero, 1946, showing battleships Alabama, right, Indiana, left, and Massachusetts, center. All three, along with class leader South Dakota, were commissioned within eight months of Pearl Harbor. Photo via San Francisco Public Library
Moreover, the two larger North Carolina-class battleships that were in the Atlantic at the time of the attack on shakedown, were in the Pac and dealing damage in the waters off Guadalcanal (Washington had sent the Japanese battleship Kirishima to the bottom on 15 November 1942).
Further, the most lightly damaged battleship at the Pearl Harbor attack, USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) had been repaired just a month after the attack and was even at sea during the Battle of Midway as part of VADM Pye’s Task Force 1.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), shown on the warpath against the Empire, firing her guns during the first days of landings at Guam, Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 67584
By 1944, six of the eight battleships that had been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor had been returned to service, better and more modern than ever. Only Oklahoma and Arizona would never sail again.
It was not just ships, by the end of 1942, the U.S. was producing more military material than the entire Axis bloc combined and showed no signs of slowing down.
By 1944, as American foundries were making 150 tons of steel every minute– around the clock– shipyards were easily launching four merchant ships per day on average along with at least one warship every five days and up to seven aircraft carriers per month (February: Casablanca-class escort carriers USS Shamrock Bay, Shipley Bay, Sitkoh Bay, and Steamer Bay along with the Essex-class fleet carriers USS Ticonderoga, Bennington, and Shangri-La). In all, 18 American shipyards built 2,710 “Emergency” Liberty ships alone between 1941 and 1945– each requiring 592,000 man-hours (as much as a third performed by women) and 6,850 tons of steel– followed by another 534 larger and faster Victory ships built between 1944 and 1946. Added to this were vast encompassing fleets of amphibious warfare ships (1,051 LSTs and 923 LCIs were constructed during WWII not to mention the amazing 23,000 smaller LCM, LCVP, and LCPL “Higgins Boats”).
Look at this chart of force levels for 1938-44 and pay close attention to the totals for 1941-42-43-44, where the U.S. fleet roughly doubles every year from 790 to 1,782 to 3,699 to 6,084 before peaking at 7,601 ships of all sorts on VJ Day.
‘Big J’ on the Way!
But we have forgotten about the best news the country got on December 7, 1942.
The lead ship of the largest class of American battleships ever produced, USS Iowa (BB-61) had been launched on 27 August followed by New Jersey (BB-62), on the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) Caption: “World’s largest battleship” is christened by Mrs. Charles Edison, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 7 December 1942. Description: Courtesy of Allan J. Drugan, Columbus, Ohio. Catalog #: NH 45485
USS New Jersey BB-62 Waterborne, a few hours after launch, December 7, 1942.
The Iowas were immense ships, with some 175 tons of blueprint paper alone in the class’s 430,000 man-days of design and each vessel’s 3,300,000 man-days of construction time.
Each was crafted with:
4,300,000 feet of welding
90 miles of piping
15,000 valves
300 miles of electric cables (some of them armored)
900 electric motors
312,000 pounds of paint
15 miles of manila and wire rope
1,857 access openings (161 hatches, 844 doors, and 852 manholes)
Even for her size, New Jersey was just a bullet point in the U.S. shipbuilding program 80 years ago. The U.S. Navy and Maritime Commission between them officially launched no less than 25 ships across the nation on 6-8 December 1942. Among the 15 vessels for the Navy that day was the new Independence-class light aircraft carrier USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24)— which would go on to earn the Presidental Unit Citation and a full dozen battle stars in WWII– the future 11-starred Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), the Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Miami (CL-89) which would pick up a half-dozen battle stars of her own, and, as mentioned, New Jersey, the latter a full year ahead of schedule.
New Jersey would end up spending more days in commission than her sisters, some 21.5 years – 2.5 years more than Iowa, 5 years more than Missouri, and 8.5 years more than Wisconsin. For several years (1968-69 and again in 1982-84) she was the world’s only operational battleship.
As noted by the Battleship New Jersey Museum, “across World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, and the Persian Gulf, the New Jersey earned a total of 19 Battle and Campaign stars, making her the most decorated battleship in American history, the most of any surviving U.S. Navy ship, and the second-most decorated ship in American history.”
In a bit of coming full circle, the Virginia-class submarine PCU New Jersey (SSN 796)— only the third U.S. Navy vessel named for the Garden State– last April was rolled out of Newport News Shipbuilding’s Modular Outfitting Facility to the Floating Dry Dock, where she was floated and launched. The submarine is now at a pier undergoing extensive testing in preparation for sea trials. She is expected to be delivered to the Navy late in 2022 and should be commissioned shortly after.
This June 1, 1986 photo shows an aerial port beam view of a seven-vessel battleship surface action group along with five allied destroyers and frigates of the Royal Australian Navy in the Western Pacific, a sight not seen since 1969 when USS New Jersey was activated briefly for the Vietnam War.
The ships are, clockwise from front left: USS LONG BEACH (CGN-9), USS MERRILL (DD-976), HMAS SWAN (D-50), HMAS STUART (D-48), HMAS PARRAMATTA (D-46), USNS PASSUMPSIC (T-AO-107), USS WABASH (AOR-5), HMAS DERWENT (D-49), USS KIRK (FF-1087), USS THACH (FFG-43), HMAS HOBART (D-39) and USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62), at the center of them all, Photo by PH2 Orell via NARA.
The Battleship New Jersey Museum in Camden, New Jersey has been the caretaker of the retired Iowa-class battlewagon USS New Jersey (BB-62) for the past 20 years, picking up the legendary ship after its 4th stint in mothballs. The museum normally has 92 staff, mostly part-time guides and giftshop clerks whose hours peak in summer (May-Sept), while 10 full-time maintenance and security personnel operate year-round.
The thing is, 2020 wasn’t a normal year and the vessel is closed to the public at least until March.
Further, they have a dire revenue shortfall due to COVID lockdowns. No tours = no cash.
And it’s not Uncle Sam’s problem. In other words, lots of pork in the COVID relief bills but not a dollar for historic battleships.
We had to cancel several of our major revenue-generating programs, including group tours, special events, and overnights. Due to the closures and elimination of programs, the ship has lost over $1.5 million this past year.
Unfortunately, our expenses do not stop. As much as we have cut back in personnel and energy usage, we still have required expenses to maintain and preserve the World’s Greatest Battleship. Below is a list of some of the expenses the ship incurs on a weekly basis:
• Gas & Electric (in energy savings mode) $7,238 or $1,034 per day • Liability & Property Insurance $3,500 or $500 per day • Maintenance $5,754 or $822 per day • Security $3,500 or $500 per day • Curatorial & Education $4,585 or $655 per day
The Battleship needs to raise $56,176 or $3,511 per day to cover the above costs through the end of the year. We need your help now! Please consider making a donation to the Battleship, or becoming a Member, or even purchasing a gift from the online Ship’s Store this Holiday Season.
The Battleship New Jersey has answered the call to defend our nation since World War II. Now we ask you to answer the call and support our nation’s most decorated battleship.
Donations to help the Battleship New Jersey can be made through:
Ryan Szimanski, the curator of the USS Battleship New Jersey Museum in Camden, has recently been making a ton of lo-fi videos on YouTube with lots of great information about not only the Black Dragon but battlewagons in general. However, there is a problem on the horizon.
Facing closure in September, the museum needs to raise $20,000 to continue educating the public online over the next six months. As of yesterday, they were a little over halfway there. With that in mind, if you have a dollar or two…
