USS Arkansas (BB-33)

History of USS Arkansas (BB-33)

With the arrival of the British Royal Navy's seminal battleship HMS Dreadnought in 1906, the world's naval powers are racing to catch up, either by updating existing designs or by starting construction of all new warship designs. The United States Navy (USN) followed world trends and produced several classes in the period leading up to World War I (1914-1918), including the Wyoming class.

The group consisted of two battleships, USS Wyoming (BB-32) and USS Arkansas (BB-33), both later in service with the USN.

The USS Arkansas featured in this article was laid by the New York Shipbuilding Company on January 25, 1910 and launched on January 14, 1911. She was officially commissioned on September 17, 1912, and intended to work until 1946.

The HMS Dreadnought was a revolution as she became the first "cannon" battleship design, and her other key quality was her all-steam powerplant. The result is the perfect combination of power, firepower, armor and performance.

When built, USS Arkansas displaces 26,417 tons under standard load and 27,680 tons under full load. Dimensions include an overall length of 562 feet, a beam of 93.2 feet and a draft of 29.6 feet. The engines consist of 12 coal fired Babcock & Wilcox water tube boilers feeding 4 x Parsons direct drive steam turbines producing 28,000 hp on 4 x shafts below the stern. Performance shows up to a speed of 20.5 knots and a range of up to 8,000 nautical miles.

There are 1,063 crew members on board. Her profile includes a total of six main turrets, a central fuselage superstructure, and two main turrets, one in front of a pair of central chimneys and the other behind.

The armament is spearheaded by 12 x 12" (305 mm)/50 caliber Mark VII main guns housed in six twin gun turrets, two forward of the hull superstructure and four aft. This consists of 21 x 5" (127 mm) /51 caliber secondary gun.

4 x 3 lb (47 mm)/40 caliber guns are used for salute/ceremonial roles, and the warship is equipped with 2 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes in the submerged position of its beam.

Armor protection continues to range in thickness from 5" to 11", with main turret fairing up to 12", secondary turret 11", conning turret 11.5", and main turret fairing up to 2.5" deck. Overall, she is a well-protected and well-equipped surface vessel.

The USS Arkansas, commissioned in 1912, was in service in the summer of 1914 when World War I (1914-1918) broke out in Europe. The U.S. remained on the sidelines until 1917, with warships like the Arkansas rapidly deploying to active combat units en route, initially patrolling key shipping lanes along the U.S. East Coast. Although attached to the 9th Battleship Division of the British Grand Fleet in 1918, she saw no direct combat with the enemy.

With the armistice in November 1918, the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and German Empires were dead.

Despite this achievement, the USS Arkansas will continue to be a major component of U.S. Navy service in the future. She served as a training platform during the interwar period (1919-1939) and completed necessary "goodwill" port visits to American allies around the world. In 1925, she underwent an overhaul at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Part of the work included changing the structure to increase her beam (width), adding anti-torpedo bulges for additional protection and armor protection as a whole against new foreign threats. There are four oil-fired boilers in total, which now replace the original twelve coal-fired boilers. At least five of their 5" turrets were removed and replaced by 3" (76mm)/50 caliber rapid-fire types as an anti-aircraft measure. All of this work has caused her displacement to climb to nearly 30,000 tons. A major noticeable change in her shape is the modification of the stern structure to provide operational clearance for the aircraft catapult through Tower 3 (now three seaplanes can be carried, launched and recovered).

Torpedo weapons have been removed. The overhaul continued until 1927.

With the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the United States was again on the sidelines as Europe managed to become involved in another global conflict. With each passing month, the U.S. moved closer and closer to war, until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, all but guaranteed U.S. involvement in the conflict.

At the time America's war machine was in full swing, and the USS Arkansas underwent another major overhaul in 1942. During this period, her armament included 12 x 12" main guns, 6 x 5" secondary guns, 10 x 3" anti-aircraft guns, 4 x 3-pounder salutes, 9 x 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns (with quads) and 26 x Lessons learned during the 20mm Oerlikon Pearl attack ensured that future U.S. warships would be adequately protected from aircraft attack.

USS Arkansas assumed escort duties early in the war and was subsequently deployed to the North African campaign to support the Allied invasion through Operation Torch. On June 6, 1944, during D-Day, she took part in the Allied invasion of northern France, when a large force of men and machines went ashore against the Axis forces. Operation Dragoon followed, marking the Allied invasion of southern France, and the USS Arkansas was again called to assist.

It also became a notable victory for the Allied forces marching towards Paris. Her WWII career began with participating in the amphibious assault on the Japanese-held Pacific island of Iwo Jima - a warship that has now spotted (and survived!) all three scenarios of the conflict.

Thereafter, their weapons were used against enemy positions in Okinawa. With the surrender of Japan in August 1945, World War II officially ended.

Like other ships in the U.S. Navy, the USS Arkansas was used in Operation Magic Carpet, which saw tens of thousands of U.S. troops return to the United States. In 1946, she was stripped of military use and began participating in tests related to the US atomic bomb program at Bikini Atoll (Operation Crossroads).

On July 25, she was exhausted by an underwater nuclear explosion on an atoll. She was officially decommissioned from the U.S. Navy fleet on July 29, and her name was removed from the Navy register on August 15 of the same year.

During her service life, USS Arkansas and her crew earned four Battle Stars, survived two world wars, and helped advance the U.S. nuclear programfor warships before World War I That said, it's quite an achievement.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Wing