Tag Archives: WWII in color

Super BB vs America’s Largest Cruiser

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This great overhead shot at Norfolk Naval Base’s piers, on 20 August 1944, gives a good comparison of two of the Navy’s newest surface combatants at the time. The newly commissioned Iowa-class battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) is the largest ship in the center, and she is flanked by the large (not battle) cruiser USS Alaska (CB-1). Meanwhile, the jeep carrier USS Croatan (CVE-25), her deck crowded with Wildcats and Avengers, brings up the rear while assorted tin cans of the Fletcher, Four-Pipe, and Flush-Deck classes dot the far pier.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-190547

A closer inset of just the heavyweights, fresh off their East Coast shakedown cruises, shows off the 45,000-ton/887-foot Missouri and her main battery of nine 16″/50 guns in three triple turrets and 20 5″/38 DP guns in 10 twin mounts. This compared to the 30,000-ton/808-foot Alaska’s nine 12″/50 guns in three triple turrets and 12 5″/38 DP guns in six twin mounts.

With very similar layouts, one almost seems like a slimmed-down version of the other.

Both ships were fast– capable of 33 knots– and had long legs– over 12,000 nm unrefueled– while armor on Alaska (9-inch belt, 12.8-inch around the conning tower) was only incrementally less than Missouri who sported a 12-inch belt and up to 17 inches in the CT.
However, Alaska, while she would have no doubt proved her worth in the Java Sea in 1942, just two years later was too little too late and was never properly utilized. Hence, this faux battlewagon, used to provide AAA screens to aircraft carriers and deliver the occasional naval gunfire support, only saw six months of active service and was decommissioned for good in 1947. After 13 years in mothballs, she was scrapped.
Meanwhile, we all know Missouri’s history.

Mighty Mo, Stretching Her Sea Legs

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If you have followed this blog for more than five minutes, you know I am a sucker for period Kodachromes and classic warships, so this superb 80-year-old photo essay of the brand new Iowa-class battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) on her shakedown cruise alongside the large (not “battle”) cruiser USS Alaska (CB-1), circa August 1944, should not come as a shock. 

Enjoy.

Missouri In port during her shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. USS Alaska (CB-1) is in the left distance, with a K-type blimp overhead. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4523 (Color)

Missouri anchored in port during her shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. A K-type blimp is overhead. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4576 (Color)

Missouri was photographed while on her shakedown cruise, in August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4575 (Color)

USS Alaska (CB-1) maneuvers in front of USS Missouri (BB-63) during their shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-5584

40,000 tons at 30+ knots! View along the battleship’s port side, during a high-speed run while on her shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4533 (Color)

Missouri’s signal flags flying from her port halyards during her shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-14527 (Color)

Signal flags fly from her port side halyards, as the battleship speeds along during her shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. Note 5/38 twin gun mounts below. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4571 (Color)

The pilot of a Vought OS2U floatplane unstraps his flight log from his leg, after returning from a flight. The airplane is on the catapult behind him. Photographed during the ship’s shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4597 (Color)

Missouri Electricians’s Mate First Class Kenneth McNally and Seaman First Class George Skiratko operate a 36-inch searchlight, during the ship’s shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4560 (Color)

Missouri Fire Controlman Third Class James Tucker adjusts the canvas bloomer on a 16/50 gun while standing on the gun turret’s face plate ladder. Photographed during the battleship’s shakedown period, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4535 (Color)

Missouri fires the center 16/50 Mk.VII guns of each of her forward turrets, during a shakedown cruise night gunnery practice, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4549 (Color)

This looks so crisp and sharp that it could have been taken in the 1990s! “Missouri fires a salvo from the forward 16/50 gun turret, during her shakedown period, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4546 (Color)”

Missouri Fires her 5″/38 secondary battery during a shakedown cruise night gunnery practice, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4550 (Color)

The old man: Captain (future VADM) William McCombe Callaghan (USNA 1918) the ship’s Commanding Officer, on the navigating bridge during her Summer 1944 shakedown period. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4600

A bit of light reading occupies the spare time of one of the ship’s crew members, during Missouri’s shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. His booklet is the Public Affairs Committee publication What About Girls?. Note helmets stowed on the 40mm gun tub shield behind the sailor. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4541 (Color)

WAVES Yeoman Third Class Betty Martin exiting the rear door of a 5/38 twin gun mount while touring the ship in an east coast port during Missouri’s shakedown period, circa August 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Lieutenant Rival Joe Hawkins, Chaplain, leads a congregation of sailors in prayer, during services on the battleship’s fantail. Photographed during her shakedown period, circa August 1944. Note the portable organ at the right, the 16-inch triple gun turret in the center background, and the censored ship (which is USS Alaska, CB-1) at the right distance. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. 80-G-K-4531 (Color)

The Brooklyn-built battlewagon conducted her cruise down the Eastern Seaboard to the Chesapeake, then left Norfolk after post-shakedown availability on Veteran’s Day 1944, headed to her destiny in the Pacific.

Dragoon Jeep Carriers IN COLOR!

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Check out this beautiful original Kodachrome. Official caption: “Southern France Invasion, August 1944. USS Kasaan Bay (CVE-69) seen through signal flags of USS Tulagi (CVE-72), on ‘D-Day’ off Southern France, 15 August 1944.”

Photo by Miller. National Archives Catalog #: 80-G-K-15369

Casablanca-class escort carriers, Kasaan Bay and Tulagi were built nearly side-by-side by Kaiser Co., Inc. in Vancouver under a Maritime Commission contract on freighter hulls. Commissioned by the Navy on 4 December and 21 December 1943, respectively, after workups and moving from the Pacific Northwest around the globe to the Med, the twins were in RADM Calvin T. Durgin’s Task Group 27.7 for the Dragoon landings along the Riviera, just eight months after commissioning.

DANFS on Kasaan Bay’s landing operations:

Kasaan Bay departed Malta on 12 August, and 3 days later arrived in the invasion area off the French Riviera. Planes from the carrier bombed and strafed German positions, destroying hundreds of enemy vehicles and tanks and downing two enemy aircraft over the beach. She completed her assignment on 30 August and departed Oran, Algeria, on 6 September, arriving in Norfolk 12 days later.

DANFS on Tulagi’s Dragoon days:

On D-day, Tulagi steamed in formation 45 miles off the invasion beach; and, at 0546, she launched her first flight of Hellcats. In the next week, aircraft from Tulagi flew a total of 68 missions and 276 sorties, inflicting considerable damage on the enemy. Weather was generally good as carrier-based planes conducted spotting missions and made strikes at various targets ashore, including gun emplacements and railway facilities. On 21 August, Tulagi’s last day in support of Operation “Dragoon,” German forces were in retreat before the Allied thrust. Tulagi’s fliers conducted a devastating attack along the line of march of a German convoy which snarled the roads for miles around Remouline and crowned her achievements of the day by downing three German Ju 52s.

A U.S. Navy F6F Hellcat fighter of VOF-1 is waved off during a landing attempt on USS Tulagi (CVE-72) after a close air support mission over southern France during Operation Dragoon, D-day, 15 August 1944 (80-G-K-15370).

The remainder of the war for these twins saw them in the Pacific, lending their 500-foot decks and composite air wings on the drive to the Japanese Home Islands, assigned alternately to antisubmarine and direct support activities.

Inactivated in 1946, with one carrier laid up on the Pacific Fleet mothballs and the other on the Atlantic, they were sold for scrap by the 1960s

Tulagi received four battle stars for World War II service while Kasaan Bay, who saw less Pacific action, only received one.