Battleships of the Wyoming Class

this episode of the history Guy brought to you by World of Warships [Music] between December 1907 and February 1909 the United States sent a grand Fleet of Warships to circumnavigate the globe because of their shining paint job became known as the Great White Fleet the purpose of the voyage ostensibly was as a Goodwill tour although it also demonstrated the growing might of the United States Navy but the Voyage of the Great White Fleet also tested United States warship design as the world moved in to the Dreadnought age would result in a little remembered Naval conference that would transform the very way that the United States designed and built our warships and in a groundbreaking class of battleships USS Wyoming BB 32 was commissioned on September 25th 1912 111 years ago and the ships of the Wyoming class would go on to serve the Navy with distinction for another 35 years it is history that deserves to be remembered USS Wyoming is one of the ships that you can play in the free-to-play game World of Warships available now on PC one of the best parts of the game is that you get to play actual historical vessels rendered in accurate and loving detail a floating digital museum for people who appreciate Naval History the game includes breathtaking Recreations of not just the most fearsome vessels of the first and second world wars but also many Blueprints and designs of ships had never saw a battle not just battleships but Cruisers destroyers aircraft carriers and submarines each not just historically important and interesting but also which offer unique challenges and advantages in fast exciting strategic gameplay since launch World of Warships has added over 500 playable ships from 10 different nations you can also enjoy an active and engaged online community that includes me the history guy who share your passion for Naval Combat of the first and second world wars new content is released every month and did I mention that the game is also available on console as someone who plays the game World of Warships is just a heck of a lot of fun it is a perfect mix of action and strategy so download today using the link in the description new players on registration use the code warships and you'll get free to balloons and credits and premium play time and even a free ship after you complete 15 battles the era of U.S naval ship design that resulted in the Wyoming class can be said to be full of ironies the Wyoming class was part of a naval arms race that began in the last decade of the 19th century there were many factors affecting the arms race including Rising militarism Rising nationalism and Imperial Ambitions and the breakdown of some long-standing alliances in Europe ironically however the arms race that was largely seen as an anglo-german phenomenon was driven in no small part by these historical works of an American Alfred Thayer Mahan it's difficult to find a more ironic historical figure than Alfred Thayer Mahan he was born the son of an army officer and professor at the U.S military academy at West Point and yet when the time came he chose to attend the U.S Naval Academy at Annapolis graduating second in his class in 1859. he then served with the Union Navy during the U.S Civil War ironic given that he had according to the U.S Naval History and Heritage command secured his appointment to Annapolis via the influence of then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis who would famously go on to be president of the Confederacy ironically Mahan who would become one of the most famous and influential Naval theorists in world history was himself a mediocre naval officer as a junior officer on the screw Sloop Pocahontas my hand was at the Helm of the ship when it drifted into the soup USS Seminole was the first of many collisions in which my hand would be involved notably the Navy times notes while in command of the screw soup USS Wachusett in 1883 Mahan collided with another officer explains a bark under sale which without question had the right of way and it was our duty to keep clear the officer named Hugh Rodman later remarked the greatest naval strategist the world has ever known was not a good Seaman perhaps as ironically Mahan didn't much like ships Naval historian Phil crowl quoted by hand in his 1985 seminal work makers of modern strategy while aboard the protected Cruiser USA Chicago he wrote I had forgotten what a beastly thing a ship is and what a fool of man is who frequents one but in 1886 the naval officer who didn't like ships was named lecturer and President of the U.S naval war College he organized his lectures there into a book published in 1890 called the influence of Sea power upon history 1660-1783 considered by many to be the most influential book on Naval strategy ever published in one of the most influential books of the 20th century the book about history would ironically be a major Force driving history crowl writes only after the age of 50 did he emerge from the obscurity of an undistinguished Naval career to achieve International Renown as a historian strategist imperialist and navalist rubbing shoulders with presidents and prime ministers and even European royalty his name venerated in Naval circles the world over the influence of Sea power Mohan would eventually publish three historical works in the series came at a turning point in world history and fit well with the aims of Nations at the peak of imperialist ambition in brief Mahan argued that the growth of the British Empire had been the result of a naval imbalance that allowed the British to dominate sea trade international power he reasoned resulted from foreign trade which required both a large Merchant Fleet to carry that trade and a capable Navy to defend the sea routes Krell explains two principal meanings emerge one commanded the see-through Naval superiority and two that combination of Maritime Commerce oversees possessions and privileged access to foreign markets that produces National wealth and greatness Mahan was not the only thinker to make the point and many argue his works both oversimplified cause and effect and history but his clean articulation of how to achieve National Power via Naval superiority had an enormous effect on the Strategic thinking of world powers notably the British and Germans but also the French the Japanese in the United States Naval historian Nathan Miller notes in his 1997 book the U.S Navy a history almost immediately after their publication mahan's books were translated into Japanese and adopted his text to the nation's military and Naval schools a misreading of the influence of Sea power on History implanted in the mind of Kaiser Wilhelm II the idea that Germany's Destiny lay on the ocean the Kaiser ordered the copies of the book be placed on all the ships of the German Navy military historian Andrew Roberts argues in his 2009 book Masters and commanders how four Titans won the war in the west that Mahan personally corresponded with and profoundly impacted the thinking of both Theodore Roosevelt and his cousin Franklin Roosevelt and thus the U.S strategic thinking for the first half century of Naval development in the 20th century it was on the backs of the so-called prophet of Naval power that a worldwide Naval arms race would begin with one result being the battleships of the Wyoming class crowl underlines the influence of Mahan when Mahan brought USS Chicago into Southampton in Late July 1893. he stepped ashore to find himself the lion of the season then and on the ship's return visit the following year he was entertained by Queen Victoria her visiting grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II The Prince of Wales the Future King Edward VII prime minister Lord Roseberry Baron Rothschild and the Royal Navy Club the first Foreigner to be so honored Oxford and Cambridge both awarded him honorary degrees each in the same week in the tines of London proclaimed him the new Copernicus mahan's Works arrived at what was already a dynamic time in the development of the U.S Navy with a rapid modernization of vessels explosion of the fleet and increased professionalism of the officer Corps cumulative referred to as the new Navy in fact the growth of the new Navy predated the rise of Han's influence and might have inspired it writing in a 1996 edition of the naval war College review Naval historian William H Theisen writes that for decades Naval historians have pointed out that the 1880s were remarkable for debates about American Naval policy theories put forward in the debates provided a thorough reservoir from which Alfred Thayer mahand members of Congress and others after them Drew but Han's work and the effect it had in thinking both in Congress and the nation undoubtedly affected the expansion of the U.S Navy in the 1890s to develop a blue water Fleet that expansion in mahan's argument for imperialism is a means of protecting Maritime trade undoubtedly affected the U.S decision to go to war with Spain in 1898. that was somewhat ironic as Mohan was described as somewhat ambivalent about the annexation of the Philippines that came as a result concerned that the defense of the islands would demand more Naval resources than they offered in Naval advantage Roberts noted that muhan had told Franklin Roosevelt that the Philippines could not be defended from a Japanese attack advice that FDR ignored leading Roberts to observe in the event the dead Admiral would be proved right and the living president wrong even as mahan's ideas were driving a naval arms race in Europe between the United Kingdom and Imperial Germany they were along with the growing U.S imperialism in the Pacific creating an arms race between the United States and the Japanese empire demonstrating U.S naval power to the Japanese was one of the reasons that President Theodore Roosevelt decided in 1907 to send 16 battleships of the new Navy and their escorts around the world their white peacetime color schemes giving them the moniker the Great White Fleet ironically it was in that attempt to demonstrate Naval power that would demonstrate particular weaknesses that would quickly render most of that Fleet obsolete the website Naval gazing explained in 2018 the U.S Navy's expansion beginning in the mid-1880s in response to Mahan's new strategic thinking was conducted largely without seagulling experience long build times rapid technological progress and a focus on getting as much Firepower into a smaller Hull as possible meant that the resulting ships were slightly cramped and not particularly suited for prolonged operations on the high seas The Voyage of the fleet demonstrated several weaknesses which drove the navy-minded president Theodore Roosevelt had previously been assistant Secretary of the Navy to call a conference that would dramatically affect the way the U.S warships and particularly battleships were built Naval gazing continues in July of 1908 a Conference was held at Newport Rhode Island to digest the lessons of the ongoing cruise and to investigate the American Battleship design process more generally there were many impacts of the little remembered 1908 Naval conference with among the most important being the change in how the Navy designed and built ships Naval gazing rights some naval officers such as William Sims were already critical of the existing system where the bureaus were in control of ship design and construction even after the dawn of the new Navy in the 1880s the material bureaus the Departments responsible for weapons engineering and construction were only responsible to the Secretary of the Navy they had no direct contact with the sea going elements of the fleet Sims and his colleagues had the backing of President Roosevelt and the crews served as the Catalyst for a major change in how the U.S built warships the conference would shift power from the bureaus to a newly created General Board of the United States Navy the board was comprised of senior Admirals near the ends of their careers who were thought to be more able to objectively make decisions about both ship design and a naval strategy William McBride a professor at history at the U.S Naval Academy explains in his 2001 book technological change in the United States Navy the general board provided the secretary of the Navy with an advisory body of seagulling line officers outside the bureau system the general board was to provide an efficient preparation for the fleet in the case of war and for the defenses of the coast John Kuhn a professor of military history at the Army command and Staff College argues in his 2008 book agents of innovation the general board and the design of the fleet that defeated the Japanese Navy that it was the Innovations Allowed by the Navy Board that successfully navigated the difficult era of Naval treaty limits to create the Navy that won the war in the Pacific but the first role of this new Navy general board Naval gazing notes was to design a new class of battleships the Wyoming class this new class of vessels would be different than the ships that had circumnavigated the globe with the Great White Fleet as these would be of the new all big gun design that had become the model for new battleships following the launch of the British Battleship HMS Dreadnought in 1906. that was itself somewhat ironic as Mahan whose ideas had been instrumental in the growth of the fleet and the creation of the naval board was unsold on the concept writing in 1914. I cannot say that I agree with the idea of the all big gun ships England of course originated the original Dreadnought and cackled like a chicken that had laid an egg and got everyone else building abgs but I think that all the Navies are coming around to what was called the mixed battery ship and that is as it should be the U.S had already begun construction of the first all big gun dreadnoughts USS Michigan had been launched in May 1908 and South Carolina was launched the same month as the conference before the end of 1910 North Dakota Delaware Utah and Florida would be launched but those classes had not been designed with the benefit of the experience of The Voyage of the Great White Fleet nor of the general board the Wyoming class would be different they were a third larger than the previous classes at a full-length Folk Soul allowing a higher free board to keep the secondary battery from being swamped they used more reliable steam turbines had a one inch thicker armor belt in a new scheme and where the first U.S battleships to incorporate an underwater torpedo bulkhead while the Navy would have preferred that they'd be armed with 14-inch guns the U.S 14-inch gun had not been tested yet and wedding Woods delayed the construction so an additional two gun turret was added they were mounted with 12 12-inch 50 caliber guns more powerful than the 10 12-inch 45 caliber guns of the preceding Florida Class Arkansas was launched in January 1911. Wyoming was launched the following May Wyoming was commissioned into service on September 25th 1912. both serve to support the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet during the Great War ironically a fleet that was so Grand that the two of them never saw combat and in fact so Grand that it might have prevented combat altogether in that it was a German Naval Mutiny in October 1918 that spelled the end of the war both served to train midshipmen from the Naval Academy and served in both the Atlantic and the Pacific where Wyoming served as the flagship but in another irony the naval arms race that Muhammad had spurred and that had resulted in the construction of the ships of the Wyoming class then spurred a movement to limit the naval arms race in hopes of preventing war and under the terms of the 1930 London Naval treaty Wyoming had to be demilitarized preside armor torpedo blisters and three of her main turrets were removed although Arkansas continued to serve but Wyoming was given a new role becoming a training ship designated ag-17 she continued to trade midshipmen in Naval ROTC Cadets Arkansas was part of the bombardment group at Normandy in the invasion of Southern France and then at Iwo Jima in Okinawa but Wyoming also ironically played a critical role in the war that she had been demilitarized in the hopes of preventing the Naval History and Heritage command writes that in November 1941 Wilmington parked on yet another phase of her career that of a Gunnery training ship in that role she was extraordinary operating as a Gunnery training ship throughout the war the Naval History and Heritage command explains that so familiar was her appearance in the Chesapeake Bay that Wyoming earned the nickname of the Chesapeake Raider over the course of the war an estimated 35 000 Gunners were trained aboard the former USS Wyoming on some seven different types of shipboard weapons the Naval History and Heritage command notes that during a single month November 1944 she fired 3033 5-inch shells 849 3-inch 10 000 76 40 millimeter thirty two thousand two hundred thirty one twenty millimeter sixty six thousand two hundred seventy Thirty caliber and 361.1 inch shells ironic for a ship that had been officially demilitarized the Naval History and Heritage command notes she claimed the distinction of firing off more ammunition than any other ship in the fleet the ships of the Wyoming class were designed during a dynamic time in worship design when rapid technological advancement meant that many ships were obsolete before they were even launched they were the first ships to be designed under the auspices of the naval board in the last U.S battleships to be mounted with 12-inch guns and yet the class endured commissioned before the first world war the ships of the Wyoming class were the oldest battleships in the United States Navy to serve throughout the Second World War The Guns of Arkansas supported the Allied Landings while the Wyoming trained many of the men who fired those guns but one final irony as the great ships that were once a nation's Pride are cast aside once they grow old in 1946 after 35 years of service USS Arkansas was decommissioned and sunk in the nuclear test that was called operation Crossroads and Wyoming last of her class was decommissioned in August 1947. and sold for scrap remember download World of Warships using the link in the description use the promo code warships get free to Blues credits premium play time and a free ship after you complete 15 battles I hope you enjoyed watching this episode of the history guy and if you did please feel free to like And subscribe and share the history guide with your friends and if you also believe that history deserves to be remembered then you can support the history guy as a member on YouTube a supporter on our community and locals or as a patron on patreon you can also check out our great merchandise shop or book a special message from the history guy on cameo [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 137,252

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: l4PjA7dgJkM

Length: 18min 54sec (1134 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 25 2023