Last of the Battleships: The Iowa Class

in 1990 a coalition of 35 nations went to war over the invasion and occupation of Kuwait by Iraq the Gulf War was a war of modern technologies that tested and sometimes debuted some of those cutting-edge technologies of modern warfare things like stealth aircraft and laser-guided smart bombs hyper accurate radar air and ground surveillance systems advanced infrared imaging systems that required no light source at all out of line-of-sight satellite communications remote aerial vehicles and all sorts of technologies to find the war that became called the video game war but in this war of new technologies there were some venerable weapons systems that many thought were past their prime maybe even past their time that still showed their worth to veterans of wars long past lent their mighty voices which had not been heard in combat for decades to the Gulf War leading to a startling first and the nostalgic finale for warfare the end of the era of the battleship is history that deserves to be remembered the era of the battleship was already waning by the time the battleships of the iowa-class were commissioned the class of fast battleships was originally envisioned as a group that was heavy enough to participate in the battle line but fast enough to protect supply lines there were response to fast battleships especially the Kongo class of the Imperial Japanese Navy which it was feared could attack the Navy along its lines of supply help gun protective cruisers and yet be too fast for slower battleships of the line to bring to battle as designed the ships of the iowa-class can make 33 knots and had a main armament of 9/16 inch 50 caliber guns more powerful than the 16-inch 45 caliber guns used on the preceding South Dakota and North Carolina classes whose barrels were 80 inches shorter 887 feet long with the displacement of 57,000 540 long tons fully loaded their superstructure stood 15 stories high they were the largest battleship ever built by the United States 207 feet longer than the South Dakota class yet still having a beam of a hundred and eight feet narrow enough to diverse the Panama Canal by the time the first ship of the class the USS Iowa BB 61 was commissioned in February of 1943 the idea fast battleships had already changed although there were a few battleship versus battleship Encounters of the war it was already obvious that naval combat was no longer defined by a battle line of heavy battleships but that the future was in naval aviation where great fleet battles would occur without the ships ever coming within sight of each other while battleships still played an important role in fire support their fleet role had changed to escorting the new fast essex-class aircraft carriers for ships of the iowa-class were initially envisioned later an additional two battleships originally intended to be built as the heavier Montana class were assigned to be built to the Iowa design Iowa was commissioned in February 1943 in New Jersey the following May the next to Missouri in Wisconsin were both ordered in June of 1940 laid down in January of 1941 wisconsin launched on december 7th 1943 two years to the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the final two Illinois Kentucky were still under construction at the end of the war were never completed making in the Missouri in Wisconsin the last US battleships ever built they weren't the last battleship ever built HMS bang guard of the Royal Navy was commissioned in 1946 it never saw combat but they were among the last of the ships that had once defined the Navy's prestige but had been displaced by new technology the iowa-class battleships saw combat throughout the Pacific campaigns defending the fleet against air attacks and using their massive guns support troops landing on enemy beaches on September 2nd 1945 Missouri but then affectionately nicknamed the mighty mo was the location of the ceremony where representatives of the Empire of Japan signed the Japanese instrument of surrender officially marking the end of hostilities the Second World War Iowa was also in the bay that day three days later Wisconsin called the Whiskey inter Tokyo Harbor part of the occupying force New Jersey the big J arrived on the 17th and served as a flagship of the naval forces in Japanese waters among them the iowa-class battleships and 26 battle stars during their relatively brief service in world war ii after the war there was disagreement as the need to maintain battleships all of the classes of battleships prior to the iowa-class were too slow to keep up with the fleet carriers now the centerpiece of the Navy while they had some post war duties transporting troops or as training ships by 1947 all had been decommissioned placed in reserve fleets scrapped or used in testing nuclear weapons in 1947 Iowa was part of a group assigned to sink the decommissioned USS Nevada which had been sunk at Pearl Harbor refloated participated in the d-day landings and then survived not one but two nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll but even the iowa-class the most modern battleships in the Navy proved just too expensive to keep in service by 1948 all but the Missouri have been placed into the reserve fleet reserve fleets are often called mothball fleets or places where ships are kept maintained enough to stay afloat in case they need to be recommissioned in times of emergency but in practice very few ships in history have ever been recommissioned after being placed in mothballs as congress and military planners discussed possible roles and conversions for the remaining battleships Missouri was the only commissioned u.s. battleship after 1948 some argue because President Truman had a soft spot for the ship which had been christened by his daughter Margaret but the Second World War had given away to the cold war and perhaps the largest proxy war of the Cold War started in June of 1950 when troops from North Korea crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea the South Korean army poorly equipped and caught by surprise was decimated in a matter of days the US military had been greatly reduced following the end of the Second World War but was to point the first troops to assist South Korea before the end of June in addition to land and air units u.s. deployed a significant fleet to support UN forces defending South Korea among them was the nation's last battleship USS Missouri arrived in September Missouri's 16-inch guns played critical roles in supporting the landings at Incheon that turned the tide of the war and in the following December and covering the retreat of UN forces as the intervention by the People's Republic of China turned the tide yet again in November New Jersey was reactivated in Wisconsin and Iowa returned to service in 1951 Iowa engage in so many fire support missions in Korea that she earned the nickname the Gray Ghost the ships of the Iowa class continued to rotate through service in the conflict until the end of hostilities in 1953 New Jersey earned four battle stars for the Korean conflict Missouri earned three Iowa - and Wisconsin earned one while there are fire support capabilities with their massive 16-inch guns were impressive the enemy simply learned to not put important targets that close to shore heavy cruisers proved to be almost as effective at Shore bombardment and were far less expensive to operate despite their distinguished service during the war the Korean Conflict left the Navy less convinced than ever that it was worthwhile to maintain the high cost of operating battleships by 1958 all for the iowa-class battleships were back in mothballs there was a noteworthy incident in this period in May 1956 the Wisconsin collided with the fletcher-class destroyer USS Eaton in heavy fog off the virginia capes both ships were damaged severely the Eaton's keel was broken and the bow was only saved by securing an anchor chain bow to stern Wisconsin took significant damage to her bow leaving the question whether the ship should be maintained however the Hulk USS Kentucky the iowa-class battleship that had never been finished was kept as a parts Hulk Kentucky's bow was removed whole and used to replace whiskey's damaged bow at this point it seemed like the argument to turn against the costly battleships by 1962 all the remaining battleships except for the for Iowa class to be removed from the reserve fleet most have been scrapped while a handful were give to various organizations as museum ships in 1968 the Navy briefly reactivated the New Jersey which of the iowa-class had had the most recent refit to use in the Vietnam conflict by then New Jersey was the only active battleship left in the world it was hoped that her heavy guns could replace some air missions reducing the air losses in the conflict the cost of maintaining the vessel and crew however proved prohibited she served one tour and was deactivated again in 1969 but the day of the battleship had not ended in 1980 Ronald Reagan was elected president and his platform included a significant increase in the size and capabilities of the US Navy this is part of a strategy that Reagan described as peace through strength the idea of promoting peace via a strong deterrence and the underlying goal of winning the Cold War by bankrupting Moscow in an arms race in 1980 the USSR commissioned the first Kirov class nuclear-powered heavy missile cruiser at 827 feet the ships of the Kirov class were the size of World War 1 battleships and the largest surface combatant ships active in the world at the time smaller only than large aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships the administration intent on bringing the US fleet up to 600 ships wanted a response the decision was to modernize and reactivate the four iowa-class battleships that had been in mothballs for nearly 30 years the ship's engines were modified to use new fuel their electronics and anti-aircraft systems were replaced with modern electronic warfare sweets and close-in weapon systems they were modified to carry carpoon Tomahawk missile systems they're equipped with the RQ to pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle acting as a spotter for their 16-inch guns which despite some discussion of replacing them were retained their fire accuracy greatly enhanced with the modern mark 160 fire control system despite their age the refit was reasonably cost-effective with the Navy spending a total of some 1.7 billion dollars to bring the four ships back into service roughly the cost of building four new Oliver Hazard perry-class frigates New Jersey's guns were fired as part of an intervention in the 1983 Lebanese civil war Iowa suffered a catastrophic turret explosion its number-two turret in 1989 spite sending some 25 million dollars on to investigations the cause of the explosion could not be definitely determined 47 crew were killed one of the most deadly events during peacetime in the history of the United States Navy Iowa was again decommissioned December of 1990 in New Jersey in February 1991 but Missouri in Wisconsin had another war to fight on august 2nd 1990 the Iraqi army invaded and occupied the neighboring country of Kuwait the move brought international condemnation and a coalition of nations to support the military response the response included the world's last two active battleships Missouri arrived in the Gulf first making its first attacks with missiles on January 17th on January 30th for the first time since 1953 and more than 46 years after the ship had been commissioned the 16-inch guns of USS Missouri were fired in anger showing a command-and-control bunker near the Saudi border Wisconsin relieved Missouri in February find her guns at a fire support mission against Iraqi artillery the first time that they've been used in combat since March of 1952 later in February both ships participated in an important mission simulating a planned amphibious assault the fate tied up some 80,000 Iraqi troops assigned to bombard entrenched troops on Kuwait's Fay laka Island after being pounded by Missouri's 16-inch guns throwing nineteen hundred pound high-explosive shells Wisconsin flew her unmanned aerial vehicle over the trenches deliberately low so that the Iraqi troops would know what was coming terrified of more bombardment by the massive battleships Iraqi troops showed white flags to the tiny spotter vehicle the first known timing war that enemy troops surrendered to an unmanned aircraft controlled by a ship the company that built the aircraft described the event as the first electronic capture in history before the end of hostilities later that month Missouri and Wisconsin each had fired more than a million pounds of ordnance on Iraqi targets their unmanned aerial vehicles have phone hundreds of hours reconnaissance missions and the battleships had also helped a clear naval mines on February 23rd the last day of hostilities Wisconsin fired the last fire support mission of the Gulf War it was the last time that a battleships guns were fired in combat anywhere on earth the shots marked the end of the era of the battleship although they are no longer being maintained so that they could be brought into service all four ships of the iowa-class have been preserved as museum ships over the course there are long careers there was always a discussion about the cost of maintaining and crewing such large ships their successful deployment nearly 50 years after they were launched was a testament to the durability of their design but things like missiles and aircraft and perhaps future weapons like rail guns are thought now to be able to replace the fire support missions that were the last main role of the 16-inch guns of the iowa-class and as time went on it just became more and more expensive to try to maintain them or considering bring them back into service they were there were no longer crew or shipyards with experience in their maintenance or their operation still the great battleships and their great guns were a sign of national prestige and they were a terror that intimidated an enemy the battleships of the iowa-class earned 47 battle stars among them and it is difficult to imagine a United States Navy without them I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guys where it's snippets are forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring comm and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do you subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 580,914

Keywords: history, The History Guy, history guy, us navy, us history, military history, battleship, iowa class

Id: FU57Y1Td6xI

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 16 2019

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