Tennessee class
USS TENNESSEE
Commissioned on 3 June 1920, USS Tennessee was the lead ship of her class and identical to the New Mexico class battleships except for larger bridges, an increase in elevation of her 12 x 14in/50cal main battery guns to 30° to allow shelling at greater distance, and rearrangement of the secondary battery to the upper deck. Above her superstructure were two lattice masts for main gun spotters.
Tennessee was stationed at Pearl Harbor and moored inside of USS West Virginia along Battleship Row the morning of 7 December 1941. She was hit by two bombs and received further damaged by flying debris from the USS Arizona when she exploded.
Although able to get underway, Tennessee remained trapped in-place by the sunken West Virginia for 10 days. She subsequently went to Puget Sound Navy yard for repairs that included additions to its anti-aircraft battery and new search and fire control radars. After repairs, Tennessee participated in combined operations in the Pacific that proved the older battleships could not keep up with the faster aircraft carriers. She returned to Puget for a major modernisation overhaul and missed Guadalcanal.
During her yard period, anti-torpedo bulges were installed, her internal structure was strengthened the old conning tower was replaced with a smaller one, the foremast was exchanged with a tower mast housing the bridge and the main battery director, her two funnels were trunked into one, additional armour was added on the sides of the ship and 3in armour was added to the deck over the magazines with 2in added in other locations.
She also received air-search radar and fire-control radars for her main and secondary batteries, the 5in 51cal and 25cal guns were replaced by 15 x 5in/38cal guns in eight twin mounts.
The light anti-aircraft battery was again upgraded to 10 quadruple 1.6in Bofors guns and 43 x .79 Oerlikons. All the changes necessitated an increase in the ships company to a total of 114 officers and 2,129 enlisted men. On 7 May, she departed for San Pedro to re-join the fleet headed for the Aleutians later that month and provided gunfire support for landings. By late November 1944, Tennessee provided support for the invasion of Tarawa and two months later, shelled the beaches on Kwajalein. She subsequently attacked targets in the Bismarck Islands in March, and in June, covered the landings on Saipan taking three hits from Japanese shore batteries resulting in eight killed and 26 wounded. She was repaired and participated in the invasion of Guam in July.
In September, Tennessee aided the invasion of Peleliu, covered the landings on Leyte in early October and five days later, fought in the Battle of Surigao Strait after which, she returned to Puget Sound for a refit.
On 16 February, Tennessee supported the landings on Iwo Jima remaining offshore until 7 March when she moved to take part in the Battle of Okinawa. On 12 April, she was hit by a kamikaze killing 23 and wounding 107. She supported the final drives to eliminate Japanese resistance ashore.
USS CALIFORNIA
The second of the Tennessee class battleships, USS California was commissioned on 10 August 1921. She was ninth standard dreadnought type and
USS Tennessee
Class: Tennessee
Displacement: 40,345 tonnes
Length: 600ft
Beam: Excess of 110ft (after 1943)
Draft: 30ft 2in
Speed: 21 knots
Range: 9,206 miles
Crew: 2,243 men (post 1943)
Armament: 4 × triple 14in guns • 8 × twin 5in guns • 11 × quadruple 1.6 AA guns • 6 × twin 1.6in AA guns • 43 × single .79in AA guns
Armour: Deck - 5.5in, Waterline belt - 8in-13.5in