Noth Carolina

USS North Carolina (BB-55) was a battleship of the United States Navy, the lead ship of the two-ship North Carolina  class, and was the first new-construction battleship to enter service in the US Navy during World War II. Washington was her only sister ship. She was the fourth Navy ship named for the state of North Carolina. North Carolina participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific theater. She currently rests as a museum ship at the port of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Construction and shakedown

She was laid down on 27 October 1937 at the New York Naval Shipyard and launched on 13 June 1940; sponsored by Isabel Hoey, daughter of Clyde R. Hoey, Governor of North Carolina; and commissioned in New York City on 9 April 1941 with Captain Olaf M. Hustvedt first in command. The first commissioned of the US Navy's new fast, heavily-armed (16 in (410 mm) gunned) battleships, North Carolina received so much attention during her fitting out and trials that she won the enduring nickname "Showboat".

As North Carolina was the first modern American battleship constructed in 20 years, she was built using the latest in shipbuilding technology. Constrained to 35,000 tons (32,000 tonnes) standard displacement by both the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty, to a beam of less than 110 ft (34 m) by the locks of the Panama Canal, and to a 38 ft (12 m) draft to enable the ship to use as many anchorages and navy yards as possible, she was a challenge to design.

To save weight, North Carolina was built using the new technique of welded construction. Her machinery arrangement is unusual in that there are four main spaces, each with two boilers and one steam turbine connected to one of the four propeller's shafts. This arrangement served to reduce the number of openings in watertight bulkheads and conserve space to be protected by armor. The long sweeping flush deck of North Carolina and her streamlined structure made her far more graceful than earlier battleships. Her large tower forward, tall uncluttered stacks, and clean superstructure and hull were a sharp break from the elaborate bridgework, heavy tripod masts, and casemated secondary batteries which characterized her predecessors. North Carolina was one of fourteen ships to receive the early RCA CXAM-1 RADAR.

Service history

World War II

North Carolina completed her shakedown in the Caribbean prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Early in 1942, North Carolina was scheduled to head to Pearl Harbor. However, she remained in the Atlantic a few more months so she would be available to take on the German battleship Tirpitz , in the event that ship began to attack Atlantic convoys shipping goods from America to England. North Carolina was ordered to the Pacific in the summer of 1942.

After intensive war exercises, North Carolina departed for the Pacific theater. She transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific on 10 June 1942, four days after the end of the Battle of Midway. She sailed to San Pedro and San Francisco, before departing for Pearl Harbor. North Carolina ' s arrival at Pearl Harbor on 11 July 1942 was a noteworthy event; North Carolina was the first new battleship to arrive in the Pacific since the beginning of the war. According to sailors at Pearl, North Carolina was "the most beautiful thing they had ever seen", and her arrival in Hawaii greatly increased the morale of the Pacific Fleet. North Carolina departed Pearl Harbor on 15 July with the carrier Enterprise , heavy cruiser Portland , light cruiser Atlanta and eight screening destroyers, bound for operations in the South Pacific.

North Carolina and the Navy began the long island-hopping campaign for victory over the Japanese by landing Marines on Guadalcanal and Tulagi 7 August 1942, beginning the Guadalcanal campaign. The naval contingent, including the carriers Saratoga , Enterprise , and Wasp , their cruisers and other escorts contained a single battleship, the North Carolina . After screening Enterprise in the Air Support Force for the invasion, North Carolina guarded the carrier during operations protecting supply and communication lines southeast of the Solomons. Enemy carriers were located 24 August, and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons erupted. The Americans struck first, sinking carrier Ryūjō ; Japanese retaliation came as dive and torpedo bombers, covered by fighters, roared in on Enterprise and North Carolina . In an eight-minute action, North Carolina shot down between seven and 14 enemy aircraft, her gunners standing to their guns despite the jarring detonation of seven near-misses. One man was killed by a strafer, but the ship was undamaged. Her sheer volume of anti-aircraft fire was such as to lead Enterprise to query, "Are you afire?" The protection North Carolina could offer Enterprise was limited as the speedier carrier drew ahead of her. Enterprise took three direct hits while her aircraft severely damaged seaplane carrier Chitose and hit other Japanese ships. Since the Japanese lost about 100 aircraft in this action, the United States won control of the air and averted a threatened Japanese reinforcement of Guadalcanal.

North Carolina now gave her strength to protect Saratoga . Twice during the following weeks of support to Marines ashore on Guadalcanal, North Carolina was attacked by Japanese submarines. On 6 September, she maneuvered successfully, dodging a torpedo which passed 300 yd (270 m) off the port beam. Nine days later, on 15 September, sailing with Wasp and Hornet , North Carolina took a torpedo portside, 20 ft (6.1 m) below her waterline, and six of her men were killed. This torpedo originated from I-19 , and other torpedoes in the same salvo sank Wasp . Skillful damage control by the crew of North Carolina and the excellence of her construction prevented disaster; a 5.6° list was righted in as many minutes, and she maintained her station in a formation at 26 kn (30 mph; 48 km/h).

After temporary repairs in New Caledonia, the ship proceeded to Pearl Harbor to be dry docked for a month for repairs to her hull and to receive more antiaircraft armament. Following repairs, she returned to action, screening Enterprise and Saratoga and covering supply and troop movements in the Solomons for much of the next year. She was at Pearl Harbor in March and April 1943 to receive advanced fire control and radar gear, and again in September, to prepare for the Gilbert Islands operation.

With Enterprise , in the Northern Covering Group, North Carolina sortied from Pearl Harbor on 10 November for the assault on Makin, Tarawa, and Abemama. Air strikes began on 19 November, and for ten days mighty air blows were struck to aid marines ashore engaged in some of the bloodiest fighting of the Pacific War. Supporting the Gilberts campaign and preparing the assault on the Marshalls, North Carolina ' s highly accurate big guns bombarded Nauru on 8 December, destroying air facilities, beach defense revetments, and radio installations. Later that month, she protected Bunker Hill in strikes against shipping and airfields at Kavieng, New Ireland and in January 1944 joined the Task Force 58 (TF 58), Rear Admiral Marc Mitscher in command, at Funafuti, Ellice Islands.

During the assault and capture of the Marshall Islands, North Carolina illustrated the classic battleship functions of World War II. She screened carriers from air attack in pre-invasion strikes as well as during close air support of troops ashore, beginning with the initial strikes on Kwajalein 29 January. She fired on targets at Namur and Roi, where she sank a cargo ship in the lagoon.

The battlewagon then protected carriers in the massive air strike on Truk, the Japanese fleet base in the Carolines, where 39 large ships were left sunk, burning, or uselessly beached, and 211 planes were destroyed, another 104 severely damaged. Next she fought off an air attack against the flattops near the Marianas 21 February splashing an enemy plane, and the next day again guarded the carriers in air strikes on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.

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