List of U.S. Dreadnought Battleships, 1909 - 1944

American dreadnought battleship New York, vaporizing the sea with her cutwater during trials in mid-1914 (for an enlarged view click here). The United States built more battleships than any other nation, arriving at arguably the greatest design of all, the 882-foot Iowas of 1944. You can trace the evolution of American dreadnoughts in this page. Note that from the very first, U.S. dreadnoughts mounted their big guns in all-centerline turrets with a superfiring arrangement. Introduced by the U.S. in 1910, this scheme was eventually adopted by all the world's navies -- a tribute to its economy and sensible distribution of force.

Robustly championed by President Theodore Roosevelt (TR), the U.S. Navy played a prominent rôle in the country's rise to imperial reach and, eventually, to superpower status. Another hero of the Spanish War, Capt. George Dewey, was raised to Admiral of the Fleet by act of Congress in 1899. Until his death in 1917, the Vermont-born admiral proved a deft infighter in the corridors of government, and a force for conservatism in the Navy. A confirmed believer in the writ of Alfred T. Mahan and the true religion of the battleship, Dewey boosted TR's buildup of the Great White Fleet, and his demand for a dreadnought fleet to replace it immediately afterward. The U.S. fleet derived its attitudes from the Royal Navy, but the culture of the USN officer corps discouraged original thinking. For instance, torpedo craft and submarines were de-emphasized in the U.S. fleet compared to the battleships. But anti-submarine warfare proved to be Job One in both world wars.

Unlike the British empire, the U.S. had the economic vitality and industrial muscle to finesse the tricky technological transition to overwhelming air power during the 1940s while at the same time churning out subs, destroyers, cruisers and landing craft in record numbers. Nor was battleship construction shelved in the twilight of their prominence. During this transition to air-power, the Navy's strategists -- led by R. Adm. Raymond Spruance and Adm. Chester Nimitz -- had the vision to rethink the battleship's function. Powerful new units with speeds of 27-33 knots were assigned to beat off air attack with a heavy curtain of flak, protecting the fleet carriers. For this duty, speed was essential. The 20- and 21-knot pre-1925 battleships were still valuable for shore bombardment and convoy escort service, but faster units were required to work with the fleet carriers: the four Wisconsin class ships, and four more Montanas ordered but never completed (with four triple turrets of 16" guns, but 2 knots less speed than the Wisconsins). As fortune increasingly smiled on the Allies from mid-1944 forward, there were both enough fast battleships and (with the Pearl Harbor casualties all reëmerging from the yards) plenty of older ships to cover shore bombardment too.

American Dreadnought Battleships by Class

The aerial bombing successes of General Billy Mitchell notwithstanding, the U.S. Navy's faith in the battleship continued unabated until WWII; above, The New York leads Atlantic fleet battleships on maneuvers in 1932 (for an enlarged view, click here). In the Twenties, older units were converted to burn oil fuel and to carry scout planes and AA guns; during the Thirties, their hulls had stout blisters added to their beams for anti-torpedo protection. The cult-like adherence to the big battleship took a body blow on Dec. 7, 1941. In the Pearl Harbor attack most of the U.S. Pacific battleship fleet was sunk or damaged -- out of eight, two were destroyed outright, five sunk or heavily damaged, and one, the Pennsylvania, lightly damaged; however, six units caught at Pearl were salvaged and returned to action, improved and modernized. The Japanese fuelishly neglected to bomb the fuel tanks at Pearl Harbor; and luckily for the Americans, all their carriers were at sea on the morning of the attack. Within six months, the carrier fleet and their pilots had the Japanese air arm on the defensive. Despite the primacy of air power demonstrated at Pearl Harbor, the Coral Sea and Midway, all battleships already under construction in U.S. yards were completed. Later in the War, two of the projected six Iowa class ships were scratched, and the four-ship Montana class (each mounting a dozen 16-in guns) was canceled while still on the drawing boards. At sea, the battleships' mission bifurcated into AA protection and carrier escort for the fast ships, and shore bombardment for the older units. In the Pacific war there was but one ship-on-ship battleship duel, a night action between the USS Washington and South Dakota and the Japanese 14" battleship Kirishima fought in the waters off Guadalcanal on Nov. 14/15, 1942. In the opening phase of this fight, known as the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Kirishima temporarily disabled the South Dakota but was in turn blasted by the "Lucky W," shooting accurately from 8,000 yards. His steering wrecked and his upperworks turned into a red-hot inferno by nine 16-in hits, the Japanese commander chose to scuttle his ship. With the subsequent sinking of four Japanese transports, the night's action presaged the withering of the Japanese effort at Guadalcanal (chart). Later in the War, many older American battleships got in their licks during the Oct. 25, 1944 Battle of Surigao Strait (see video). The fast Iowas were away chasing a diversion, leaving a force of six old U.S. battleships (five of them Pearl Harbor survivors) on guard. State-of-the-art radar aboard the West Virginia detected a Japanese task force led by Fuso class fast battleships attempting to sneak into Leyte Gulf by the back door. When the ruse was discovered, American PT boats and destroyers launched a swift and devastating torpedo attack while the U.S. battleships scrambled to block the Japanese challenge. A battle royal ensued. Fuso exploded and split in two, while four out of five Japanese destroyers were disabled, two being sunk outright. Although only the West Virginia had the range -- thanks to her advanced targeting radar --, the amount of 14-inch ordinance flying back and forth sufficed to gratify even the crustiest battleship buff. Combined with with the aggressive use of American torpedo craft, it sufficed to snuff the Japanese advance, smoothing the way for Gen. Douglas MacArthur's reconquest of the Philippines. Though marred by sloppy shooting on both sides, this encounter was the last all-out slugfest between opposing capital ships in the Pacific. Thus, as naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison has pointed out, it stands as the definitive end of the armored battleship era begun some 85 years before with La Gloire and HMS Warrior.

Above, the USS Idaho looses a hellish bombardment of Okinawa with her 14" guns in 1945. Tremendous firepower was brought to bear on Iwo Jima and Okinawa as the Pacific War reached its climax. Older battleships such as the Texas, Nevada, Arkansas, and Idaho were instrumental in softening up the landing zones. Unfortunately their heavy artillery had little effect on the Japanese garrisons deeply dug into rock caves in the islands' craggy interiors. Bitter resistance from the stubborn, dedicated defenders made these final offensives a meat-grinder for the American infantry and Marines. The battleships' value in coast bombardment was felt around the world, but particularly in the invasions of Italy and France and the Pacific islands. While HMS Warspite and the French dreadought Lorraine were welcome partners in pulverizing enemy-held beachheads, the U.S. battleship fleet constituted the core of this effort through its sheer numbers.

From the 1907 - 08 voyage of the Great White Fleet onwards, the Navy's peacetime PR has been handled masterfully by the government. In the 60 years since the end of WWII, the USS Missouri and the other Iowa class battleships were potent symbols of America's military might sent on "goodwill cruises" to show the flag abroad and flog patriotism at home. With the retirement of the Iowas, that rôle has been transferred at last to the carriers, as witness the recent PBS series "Carrier," and the deployment of flattops to the Persian Gulf to intimidate Iran. But as befits the nation that fielded more dreadnoughts than any other, the burly battleships of WWII continue to carry their message: the U.S. has no fewer than seven war memorial museum ships in as many states (and the name ship of the Iowa class is still in existence, awaiting restoration). In the entire remaining world, there is only one comparable battleship: the venerable Mikasa in Japan, restored in part with U.S. contributions during the late 1950s. Of the battlewagons in the U.S., perhaps the one of greatest interest to the history buff is the 1914 dreadnought USS Texas, the only WWI vintage dreadnought in existence in the world today, which fought with distinction in both World Wars. She is preserved at San Jacinto State Park near Houston.

Certainly the USS Missouri may make an historic claim to fame as well, for it was on her deck that the Japanese surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, ending the Second World War. The "Big Mo" has been on permanent exhibit at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii since 1993. A thousand yards off her bulbous bow, a war memorial of another kind spans the sunken hull of the dreadnought Arizona, which entombs 1,103 crewmen in its tortured steel. After 67 years the rusty hulk still oozes oil into the fairway off Ford Island, in mute remembrance of the appalling morning of December 7, 1941.

Relevant Web Resources

• Global List of all U.S. Navy Battleships
• U.S. Pre-Dreadnought Battleships, 1890 - 1908
• The Pearl Harbor Attack - from Wikipedia
• USS Arizona Tribute Video
• Escape From the Jaws of Death: A Yarn of the Pacific War
• Battle of Surigao Strait Video
• Index to Japanese Dreadnoughts
• Index to British Dreadnought Battleships
• Index to British Dreadnought Battlecruisers
• Index to German Dreadnoughts of WWI
• Haze Gray's World Battleships List
• Battleships Class by Class with Plans: World War 1.co.uk
• Big, Bad Battleships Global Site Nav