Sacred landmarks of faith , spooky remnants of industry , even surreal displays of science , but one piece captures the pride of the state as a dominant and decorated vessel of military strength.
Welcome aboard Battleship New Jersey. Built in the Philadelphia Naval Yard and launched on Dec. On the main deck, the structure captivates onlookers with its three towering turrets, each holding a trio of inch gun barrels that were used to fire 6-foot-long projectiles, each the weight of a Volkswagen Beetle, more than 20 miles.
The Combat Engagement Center displays radar and sonar tracking stations, while videos demonstrate the launch of Tomahawk missiles. Photo by Hunter Hulbert. Above the main deck, explore a network of corridors that lead to the Combat Engagement Center and fire away in a simulated Tomahawk missile launch to observe one of the most advanced weaponry systems of its time, which could hit targets as far as 1, miles away.
William F. The interactive adventure is not complete, though, without a walk down Broadway — the longest and most impressive passageway on the battleship — and into one of the engine rooms, where visitors can learn the process of powering the speedy vessel. Eat dinner from the chow line, sleep in the bunk beds, tour areas normally off-limits to the public, learn the science behind the battleship and pick up a commemorative dog tag to finish off the cool venture.
Battleship New Jersey is open daily, rain or shine, from a. The battleship will have extended hours a. In mid-December, the damaged ship returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for major repairs, where Gatch and his crew were profiled for their heroic deeds in the Pacific. Calvin Graham received a Bronze Star for distinguishing himself in combat, as well as a Purple Heart for his injuries. Graham returned to Texas and was thrown in a brig at Corpus Christi, Texas, for almost three months.
Battleship X returned to the Pacific and continued to shoot Japanese planes out of the sky. He was simply tossed from jail with a suit and a few dollars in his pocket—and no honorable discharge. Back in Houston, though, he was treated as a celebrity. The attention quickly faded. He married at age 14, became a father the following year, and found work as a welder in a Houston shipyard. Neither his job nor his marriage lasted long.
At 17 years old and divorced, and with no service record, Graham was about to be drafted when he enlisted in the Marine Corps.
He soon broke his back in a fall, for which he received a 20 percent service-connected disability. The only work he could find after that was selling magazine subscriptions. All Graham had wanted was an honorable discharge so he could get help with his medical and dental expenses. The Third Fleet was bedeviled by kamikaze planes, whose crash-dive suicide attacks were easier for inexperienced pilots than dropping bombs or torpedoes, harder to stop because the Americans had to destroy the attacking plane completely, and more devastating because the plane and its fuel added to the destructive force of its bombs.
Day after day, kamikaze and conventional planes would attack. Most were downed by Navy planes, carriers, the screen, or the New Jersey , but some got through.
On November 25, the New Jersey shot down six kamikazes and damaged several others, but some still struck four carriers. An instant after she was hit, she was wrapped in flames. With an airstrike scheduled for December 19, Halsey ordered the fleet to refuel at sea on December To avoid the weather, Halsey moved the fueling rendezvous south.
Unfortunately, this took Third Fleet right in the path of Typhoon Cobra. Winds up to knots blew destroyers around like corks. Ships lost steering control and power. Even the stable New Jersey pitched and rolled, hanging near the point of no return. With several destroyers dangerously low on fuel and high in the water, Admiral Halsey ordered refueling to continue. USS New Jersey tried to refuel the destroyer Spence, but Spence rolled so wildly that the fuel lines parted, and she almost collided with the New Jersey.
With barometers setting record lows, Halsey postponed refueling and ordered the fleet to hold a new course, which inadvertently prolonged its ordeal in the typhoon and prevented skippers from maneuvering independently.
It towered like a skyscraper and stretched away, seemingly for blocks, on either side, hiding the atoll. The New Jersey was awesome. This is the Navy, here, the real Navy. Thus, the typhoon results in a court-martial. Reality was worse. Several light and escort carriers were badly damaged, with stowed planes breaking loose and staring fires.
An athletic lieutenant, future President Gerald Ford, was almost swept overboard as he helped save his burning carrier Monterey. The typhoon damaged many other ships, destroyed planes, and drowned men.
On December 24, , the newly-promoted Nimitz flew in from Pearl Harbor and came aboard the New Jersey — the first time the five-star flag of a Fleet Admiral was raised over a Navy warship.
Nimitz spent Christmas conferring with Halsey on the New Jersey. Halsey and the New Jersey led a surface fleet to engage battleships Ise and Hyuga at their reported position in Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, but they once again were able to flee from Halsey. Superlatively well done. The goal was to secure a base to escort and recover B bombers attacking Japan from the Marianas. On February , to prevent kamikazes from interfering with the landings, the New Jersey escorted the first major carrier strike against Japan.
The New Jersey shot down more Japanese planes. Kamikazes from Japan eventually struck the fleet off Iwo Jima, sinking an escort carrier, the last carrier sunk in the war.
The New Jersey screened the fleet carriers which again struck Tokyo on February 25, and then reconnoitered and bombed the next invasion target, Okinawa.
The New Jersey returned to Ulithi on March 5, but even that remote atoll was the target of a night kamikaze attack on March The task force was subjected to a flurry of attacking bombers and kamikazes, including the first use of rocket-powered piloted flying bombs. On March 19, the New Jersey shot down about a half dozen aircraft attacking the carriers, damaged others, and used her floatplane to rescue a downed carrier pilot.
However, kamikazes hit several carriers, including Franklin , the most heavily damaged carrier to be saved in the war. This was the largest amphibious operation in the Pacific and proved to be the final amphibious operation of the war. Through emergency rudder and engine maneuvers, the New Jersey avoided cutting the destroyer in two but still sideswiped her in a shower of sparks.
The New Jersey sustained only negligible damage and continued escorting the carriers. Recognizing that an American capture of Okinawa would enable the invasion of its Home Islands, Japan launched an all-out offensive against the invasion fleet on April 6, Almost seven hundred Japanese planes attacked the fast carriers and invasion fleet, and the giant battleship Yamato and escorts embarked on a one-way attack aimed at Okinawa.
On April 7, while still hundreds of miles from Okinawa, Yamato and several escorts were sunk by American planes from the carriers, while the New Jersey protected the carriers from attacking aircraft. This pointedly illustrated the new roles of carriers and battleships. USS New Jersey and the Fifth Fleet weathered the most powerful kamikaze attacks of the war, with over kamikazes and other planes attacking on April , and kamikazes and a hundred or more other planes on April , Unlike the flammable carriers, the Iowa -class ships were near impervious to kamikazes.
The New Jersey shot down at least one of the hundreds of planes downed by American ships and planes. Nonetheless, these initial waves sank three destroyers, three smaller warships, and two transports, and damaged two carriers and dozens of small ships, some beyond repair. These and other attacks cost Japan over a thousand aircraft and made April one of the bloodiest months in the war for the Navy.
These suicide attacks, and the fanatical resistance by Japanese soldiers on Okinawa until June 22, helped convince new President Harry Truman that invasion of Japan itself would be exceedingly bloody and that use of the atomic bomb was a better alternative. She had helped carry the American advance thousands of miles from the edge of the Japanese outer defensive perimeter in the Marshalls to the doorstep of Japan itself.
And she did so without losing a man in combat. Her unique round bridge was replaced by the same squared off bridge that had been installed on Missouri and Wisconsin during their construction and on Iowa during a refit. The New Jersey received a more substantial tripod mainmast in place of her previous pole mast, allowing her to handle more radar and radio antennas.
Some of her single barreled 20mm anti-aircraft guns were replaced by twin barreled 20mm mounts. After sea trials off California and drills off Pearl Harbor, she headed back to the war on August 2. On August 8, the New Jersey used her inch and 5-inch guns to bombard Wake Island, captured after a heroic defense by the Marines in The Japanese returned fire but missed.
That day, however, the Japanese agreed to capitulate. USS New Jersey steamed , miles during the war. Asiatic Pacific Raids, 2. Hollandia Operations, 3. Marianas Operations, 4. West Caroline Operations, 5.
Marshall Island Operations, 6. Leyte Operations, 7. Luzon Operations, 8. Iwo Jima Operations, and 9. Okinawa Operations. The New Jersey was the first flagship for the occupation of Japan. From the New Jersey, Spruance commanded all naval forces in Japanese waters. Towers, who had helped pioneer naval aviation. Both Spruance and Towers went on to command the Pacific Fleet. Sherman, who had commanded carriers in battles from Coral Sea to Leyte Gulf. The next day, she set sail for home.
World War II proved the value of the truly fast battleship, but it also showed that the aircraft carrier was now the queen of the seas. Moreover, the destruction of all major hostile surface navies, the coming of peace, and the advent of nuclear weapons reduced the need to maintain the largest fleet in history. After Britain finished a battleship under construction in , no more battleships were built. For the same reasons, the 19 slower battleships that fought in World War II were decommissioned by Most of them were scrapped or expended as targets in atom bomb tests.
Even the speedy Iowa- class ships were targeted by the budget-cutters. President Truman ordered Missouri to remain active, but the other three Iowa -class battleships were decommissioned and placed in reserve by March At Long Beach, California, in , she prepared to observe the atomic bomb tests at Bikini atoll, but they went on without her. She was docked at Bremerton until early , when she returned through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic.
On June 7, , the New Jersey set off on the training cruise carrying over Naval Academy midshipmen. The crew of the New Jersey , flagship of the largest battle at sea in history, visited HMS Victory , flagship of the largest naval battle in the age of sail. Equipment was coated with preservative grease like cosmoline, and non-moving parts were preserved under layers of paint.
Unfortunately, a foe appeared on June 25, , when North Korean forces blitzed across the 38 th Parallel into South Korea. They captured its capital Seoul and drove the beleaguered South Korean units and reinforcing U. With only the Missouri still active, a call went out for more battleship support, and USS New Jersey was the first to answer.
The mothballing process was reversed, and a new crew trained. The catapults that had launched her Seahawk floatplanes were removed to make room for landings on the fantail by a new Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter. Meanwhile, in the fall U.
In the winter, they had reeled back as huge numbers of Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River and retook Seoul. In the early part of , U. The New Jersey reached the east coast of Korea on May The Communist forces had just driven the outnumbered U. The New Jersey promptly pitched in on May 19, shelling Kansong just above the Parallel to interdict enemy supplies.
There, on May 21, , a North Korean shore battery scored a direct hit that did no significant damage to the heavily armored Turret I, and a near miss that sprayed the ship with shrapnel, killing Seaman Robert Oesterwind. He was the only sailor ever killed in action on the New Jersey throughout the many conflicts in which she participated over her four commissionings.
The New Jersey returned fire and quickly obliterated the shore battery. She bombarded Wonson multiple times over the next two years, silencing any shore batteries that fired back. In late May , U. Her helicopters worked to rescue downed aviators. During June, while U. With the battlelines stabilizing and negotiations beginning, USS New Jersey still alternated between escorting carriers and bombarding the North Korean coast. After the Communists broke off talks in August , the New Jersey provided naval gunfire support for the U.
Her firing broke up counterattacks, harassed the enemy at night, and supported amphibious feints while X Corps took Heartbreak Ridge and the Punchbowl. Her inch guns could range twenty miles inland, outdistancing Army artillery and demolishing targets that had survived repeated air attacks.
Her and 5-inch guns destroyed enemy bridges, tunnels, road and rail junctions, railroad yards, trains, bunkers, trenches, troops, mortar pits, artillery positions, shore batteries, supply dumps, ammo dumps, a dam, and an oil refinery. Her helicopters rescued Navy pilots downed in or near North Korea, and her doctors cared for wounded from a South Korean frigate damaged by shore batteries.
On November 22, , as delegates at Panmunjom agreed that the current battleline would be the truce line, USS New Jersey was relieved by the newly arrived Wisconsin later relieved by Iowa. Her remaining sixteen twin 20mm mounts were removed, and a Navy librarian removed any books from her library that might be deemed subversive in the McCarthy era. In the fall, she trained reservists.
She then reloaded ammunition and trained to head back to the war. That same day, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died. Thereafter, the Communists made peace overtures but resumed ground attacks. The New Jersey relieved Missouri, which had relieved Iowa.
The New Jersey resumed escorting carriers but spent most of her time in the Sea of Japan bombarding the east coast of North Korea, destroying coastal batteries, communication facilities, train tracks, bridges, and tunnels, and other targets at Kojo, Chongjin, Hungnam, Songjin, and Wonson.
Once again Wonson shore batteries fired and were silenced by the New Jersey. When the Communists launched a major offensive, the New Jersey returned to the east coast. Over the next two months, she launched some of her heaviest and most accurate bombardments, again hitting Wonson, Hungnam, and Tanchon and directly supporting U.
She thus helped apply pressure on the Communist negotiators at Panmunjom. She fired the last salvo of the war at Wonson when the armistice was signed on July 27, with a New Jersey delegation present. They first came aboard at Pusan on April 14, Communist China Spring Offensive, 2. Third Korean Winter Offensive.
She headed through the Panama Canal to Cuba and Norfolk. On June 7, , off the Virginia Capes, all four Iowa -class battleships steamed together for the first and only time. USS New Jersey continued steaming on the summer cruise for midshipmen. The New Jersey first stopped in Spain to cement a new pact which allowed the United States to use bases in that diplomatically isolated country. The guns had a lifespan of full charge shots per barrel before the shells wore the rifling away and made the gun inaccurate.
By the end of their second war, the Navy decided to replace them. Fortunately, barrels were a long lead-time item, so barrels had been procured for Illinois , Kentucky , and some of the Montana -class battleships even though the ships never were completed.
Those barrels were used to replace the ones on the New Jersey. Her original barrels were relined and went on to be preserved at locations around the country. The gunnery department also prepared to receive W nuclear inch shells.
Fifty such shells were produced, but it is unknown whether they were deployed on the New Jersey or his sister ships. In summer , she conducted the midshipman cruise to Norway, Great Britain, and Cuba, returning July After the Korean War, the Navy again began decommissioning ships. Missouri had been decommissioned in Bremerton in Iowa and Wisconsin were decommissioned in early and laid up in Philadelphia.
Their maximum height reached some feet 56 meters , about the height of a story building. Armed with centimeter main guns—the largest and most powerful of any warship—the Yamato and Musashi were designed to help Japan combat the much larger naval force of the United States during World War II.
On October 24, , the Musashi came under heavy fire from U. Despite its massive size, the Musashi lacked sufficient aerial protection in the battle, and proved vulnerable to enemy torpedoes. After it caught fire and began to lose propeller power, U.
The Musashi sustained some 25 direct torpedo hits over more than four hours.
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