Tag Archives: USS New Mexico (BB-40)

New Mexico by way of Guam, 75 years ago

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“14-inch guns of the USS New Mexico (BB-40) opening fire on Guam, 18 July 1944, during the pre-invasion bombardment.”

(NHHC: 80-G-239965)

The lead ship of her class of Yankee dreadnoughts, she was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1915 and commissioned in the waning days of the Great War. Modernized in 1931, she was in the Atlantic on neutrality patrol duty during Pearl Harbor but rushed to the Pacific where she was one of the few operational battlewagons available to Nimitz in early 1942. She earned six battlestars the hard way, supporting the island hopping campaign from the Aleutians to Okinawa, plastering suicide boats, shore positions and kamikazes.

Scrapped in 1948, two of her bells are preserved in her namesake state, for which she was the first ship to be named.

Nothing says ‘good morning’ like 5″ batteries, 75 years ago today

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This beautiful originial Kodachrome shows the 5″/25cal (127 mm) Mark 10 battery aboard the U.S. Navy battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40) preparing to fire during the bombardment of Saipan, 15 June 1944.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # 80-G-K-14162

Note the time-fuze setters on the left side of each gun mount, each holding three fixed shells; the barrels of 20 mm cannon at the extreme right; and triple the 14″/50 (34.5 cm) Mark 4 main guns in the background. On the two nearest weapons, note the “Hot Case Man” standing behind the breech and equipped with asbestos catcher’s mitts. Their job was to catch the ejected casing and then toss it out of the way of the gun crew as best they could.

The lead ship of a class of three battleships, and the first ship to be named for the state of New Mexico, Battleship No. 40 was a Great War baby, commissioning 20 May 1918, and famously escorted the ship that carried President Wilson to Brest to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Missing Pearl Harbor as she was at the time on neutrality patrols in the Atlantic, she came through the Panama Canal on 17 January 1942 and earned six battlestars in the Pacific War.

She was in Tokyo Harbor for the end of the war.

The U.S. Navy battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40) anchored in the Tokyo Bay area, circa late August 1945, at the end of World War II. Mount Fuji is in the background. NH 50232

The U.S. Navy battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40) anchored in the Tokyo Bay area, circa late August 1945, at the end of World War II. Mount Fuji is in the background. NH 50232

Decommissioned in 1946 after 28 years of faithful service, she was paid off the next year and sold for $381,600, her value as scrap metal.

 

Panama, class of ’21

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“Combined Atlantic and Pacific Fleets in Panama Bay, Jan. 21st 1921,” taken by M.C. Mayberry, of Mayberry and Smith, Shreveport, Louisiana:

Click to big up 1777x529 Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, D.H. Criswell Collection. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 86082-B

Click to big up 1777×529. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, D.H. Criswell Collection. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 86082-B

Among the ships present in this image are (from left to right): USS Stoddert (DD-302), USS Melville (AD-2), USS Texas (BB-35), USS Partridge (AM-16), USS Birmingham (CL-2), USS Arkansas (BB-33), USS Idaho (BB-42), USS Mississippi (BB-41), USS Wyoming (BB-32), USS New York (BB-34), USS New Mexico (BB-40) and USS Pennsylvania (BB-38).