I went onboard the USS Alabama many years ago when I was a small boy. Seeing this huge ship and all those John Wayne movies led me to join the navy at 17, retiring at 37 in 1999. It was a true honor ❤️
A good friend of mine took the same path. He was in from ‘77 to ‘97. San Diego, when he wasn’t on ships. With the skills he got, he turned that into another 25 year career.
I toured her just last year. There is a plethora of .50cal and 20mm guns all over that ship. More than what the drawing above is showing. Her teak decking is in the process of finally being replaced after all these years. They close and open various parts of the ship over time for maintenance. My last two visits, the bridge has been closed as well as the combat bridge which was open 3 years ago. I did get to make it down to the engine room this past trip which has been off limits for a while. If you go to tour her, get there when it opens and then do the self guided tour in reverse. You will be rewarded with having the lower decks all to yourself for a couple of hours. It is a real nice experience and I highly recommend the visit.
I visited the Alabama last year, fulfilling a promise my father made back in 1965. Back in '65 we were travelling over Mobile Bay on the I-10 bridge and Dad pointed out a warship in the distance. "That's the Battleship Alabama and one day we're going to visit her." I could only spend one day in Mobile and there is so much more to see now than there was in '65. Funny how such a big ship has so many tiny spaces. Some areas are not open to the public for reasons of safety. There were crew access hatches that are very difficult for us visitors to squeeze our fat old bodies through. Part of the wartime equipment included a training device to teach crews to load the 5"/38 cal dual purpose guns (anti-aircraft and secondary surface battery--also used for star shells to light up the night). Even though Alabama's service life was about four years (Jan 1943 to decommissioning in 1947) I believe America got her ,money's worth. I need to spread out my battleship reference books to compare the various American battleships that saw service in World War Two, and then I have the paper performance statistics--the real-world performance achieved was not always as specified.
I served in The Living History Crew aboard Alabama for 3 yrs. She is a beautiful ship and is in great shape. They are in the process of restoring her a few compartments at a time and I believe they have replaced her decking. Life has just gotten in the way but I plan to return to the crew when I retire.
I have visited the Missouri, The North Carolina and the Texas. We were going to go to see Alabama in 2019 but COVID intervened. Still have plans to go sometime in the near future though.
Roll Tide!!! Cleveland Indians great Bob Feller, served as a Gunnery Officer onboard the Alabama. I checked & it was still marked. During Hurricanes that strike the Mobile area, it serves as a makeshift shelter. The USS Drum is also there along w/many other aircraft & vehicle exhibits.
My father sailed in company with the Alabama aboard the South Dakota as a Royal Navy communications link with our Home Fleet when both acted as Arctic distant convoy protection against Tirpitz for convoys to and from Russia. 👍🏻🏴✌️🇺🇸
Not that Tirpitz was ever a real threat, given that the Germans couldn’t have sent her out even if the Allies did absolutely nothing to keep her contained due to fuel shortages and political concerns…
We had lost battleships, some were refitting, and in the same way we lent the aircraft carrier Victorious to the U..S. Navy in the Pacific where the Japanese had sunk American carriers and new construction hadn’t entered service. I still have all my father’s mementoes from the South Dakota; his Blue Nose (Arctic) Certificate, the ship’s daily newsletter including baseball scores back home, and a British aircraft recognition waterline model of the ships. His American shipmates who’d been aboard when she nearly succumbed at Guadalcanal told him that Japanese survivors had attempted to knife their rescuers. He enjoyed his time aboard with similar but different routines such as the method for going-down ladders, ship’s tannoy announcements, and eating arrangements.
It is one of the premier naval museums in the entire country. Fantastically preserved. They have just replaced the teak decks. The Submarine USS Drum is a magnificent memorial in itself.
Pleasant video of an outstanding battleship. I have visited Alabama several times, even slept on it in 1990 as a boy scout one weekend while they were filming Mission of the Shark which was a made for TV movie about the USS Indianapolis sinking and the crew's survival waiting for rescue. One rainy night during that weekend, me and two others snuck away and went exploring all over the Alabama and there were many times we could have fallen to our deaths but that was the last thing on our minds while we explored as much as we could of that amazing vessel though we did get lost a couple of times and there was a looming fear of getting trapped within one of the rooms/spaces. Have not been out to see it since 2003 and a revisit is long overdue. I highly recommend visiting USS Alabama.
Visited the Alabama in November 2024 from the UK. What makes this ship so interesting is that it's in WW2 configuration. My late father-in-law was an officer (navigator) on the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Onslaught from 1943-5. He and his ship were in Scapa Flow when the Alabama and South Dakota were on detachment there in the spring and early summer of 1943. So, it was particularly interesting for my wife to see this tanglible relic of her father's time on the high seas with Arctic convoys in WW2. It was great to explore the ship again (we saw it in 2004). It's a really dignified and powerful image of the naval war though it's hard not to feel a little sorry for it confined to a museum setting after such brief war service. We have also visited the North Carolina.
A few years ago now, I took the opportunity to stop and tour the ship. It is easily the most impressive warship I've been on. I've toured the Texas a few times, but the compact & powerful South Dakota class battleships give a real sense of efficient power. Awe inspiring. So balanced. Definitely worth a visit.
i visited Lucky A as a child in the mid 90s while on our annual summer road trip with my mother and father. i remember staring up at this absolute titan slack jawed and saying "dad, that boat is as big as Godzilla!" id like to go back and see the old iron lass again one day.
You didn't mention that USS Alabama appeared in at least one movie. During the filming of Steven Segal's "Under Seige" the crew used Alabama as a stand-in for the USS Missouri during some interiors, etc.
Ching Lee was robbed of his chance to be one of the few (if not first) to be responsible for the near destruction of a Ship-Class by not shooting Kongo and Haruna.
Check out Drachinifel's presentation of how a 4-battleship Task Force 34 (Iowa, New Jersey, Alabama and Washington) might have handled Kurita's Center Force and its surviving 4 (Yamato, Nagato, Kongo, Haruna).
Been aboard her several times, most recently about 20 years ago. My parents were Mobile natives, so we'd visit the area frequently. The great Bob Feller served aboard her during the war.
I have watched several of your other videos and found them quite interesting. Yet I feel you missed the mark here. Because the Alabama was never struck by a shell or bomb nor sank another ship does that minimize the efforts of the men who served? Going into harms way being prepared to give the ultimate sacrifice deserves the same amount of reverence .
I was one of the children , I donated 25 cents and received a one time pass to go on the Alabama ,which I used two years later . Wish now I had the pass .
SoDak was a very effective shell magnet and diversion while Lee was getting his ship into position to drop unholy death onto Kirishima. Every bad thing that could have happened to SoDak aside from collecting a full salvo of long lances and becoming a permanent submarine happened.
I’d love a video on what was removed from the museum battleships in the 1980s. I am frequently on BB55 and cannot think of anything significant missing on the tour routes - though I might not notice if small things were. I have heard that North Carolina contributed from the massive stock of stores and spares aboard her - some of which still remain. And while I’ve been in two of the machinery rooms (the one on the main tour and the one on a special tour), I’ve no idea what the other two machinery spaces are like. 1 of 3 magazines are open. 2 out of 3 turrets are open and look pretty intact. Again, it might be little things. I wonder if Massachusetts and Alabama had more stripped off because the SoDak design and equipment were closer to the Iowas than NC?
Yes pretty sure they went through the Massachusetts especially on the bridge and decks . There is a lot of empty compartments as well and she was close to Melville and Quonset Point NS . But she is sat I’ll here and they have utilized the empty compartments for displays although the bridge areas are still pretty empty. It was rumored she lost 5000 tons of equipment and machinery
I think a lot of what was removed from NORTH CAROLINA was shell handling equipment taken from Turret 2. I read somewhere that #2 was basically "stripped" inside to refit the IOWAs.
It's not that ships without big, flashy moments don't deserve being preserved. It's that ships with big, flashy moments that would have absolutely deserved to be turned into a museum, were scrapped because of reasons.
ruclips.net/video/vODy6k0oJzQ/видео.html TARGETS: Fleet Oilers: USS Patoka (AO-9) USS Sapelo (AO-11) USS Kaweah (AO-15) USS Laramie (AO-16) USS Mattole (AO-17) USS Rapidan (AO-18) USS Salinas (AO-19) USS Salamonie (AO-26) USS Chemung (AO-30) USS Cimarron (AO-22) USS Guadalupe (AO-32) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Squadron
She is the only American military ship recognized by the Kremlin in Russia as a major contribution to supplying Russia by protecting arctic convoys. Bama sailors were actually awarded medals by Russia, for the USS Alabama
I’ve been on the ship twice. It’s sad that the employees have the ship restricted to where ur able to go to see the magazines for the powder. I’ve been to the bottom of turret 1 but not inside the magazine
'Don't hate me because I'm beautiful'; born w/ Buck Rogers ammo, she was a 28 - knot no-fly zone. Feel sorry 4 poor Japanese trains tossed by 16" shellfire
Yeah ... North Carolina and Alabama are not known for their wealth ... but ... their citizens came up with the money to buy _their_ ships. Unlike - Washington. It's somewhat understandable that South Dakota didn't buy their ship and then dredge a channel up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Then you have New York City - not coming up with the money to buy _Enterprise_ ... Says something about the people in those States. Oh ... and when I was in 4th Grade - I was one of the North Carolina School Children dropping my dimes in a can to buy _OUR_ ship. .
It’s a travesty that Washington was damaged by poor seamanship by the Indiana during unrep operations and missed 2 months of action, she would have been the most decorated BB in the war. To top it off, she never lost a crewman to enemy action, and saved Sodak’s bacon by sinking Kirishima and Ayanami at Savo Island.. with Adm. Willis Lee aboard Washington was a virtual sniper out to 34,000 yards. In approx 7 minutes she put 20-24 super heavy 16” rounds into Kirishima many just below the waterline (verified in 2019 survey) the showboat and rustyW should both have been preserved my father was aboard Washington from Murmansk to Magic Carpet. “Ching Lee’s home away from home”
@@Zephyrmec No battleship ever hit the enemy at 34,000 yards (in fact, that’s far beyond the effective range of literally every battleship ever built, even late-war radar fire control wasn’t that good). Washington was actually shooting at point-blank range during Second Guadalcanal.
Her speed was of more importance keeping up w/the fast attack carriers for AA help. The older, PH Battleships were best used for shore bombardment given their slow speed & being fuel hogs.
PLEASE STOP calling Ozawa's force a decoy force.....he had orders to run off TF 38..part of that could be done by striking the fleet oilers servicing TF 38. Direct attacks on tf 38 were not required, BUT would be accepted. ServRon 10 generally operated east of the fleet.
The Japanese intended it to very well be that. They knew that Adm Halsey, being a carrier force commander for the majority of WW2, as well as being very aggressive(and a deep seated hatred for the Japanese) would take the bait, which he did. Quite fortunately Taffy fought ferociously enough to save the day.
Per Ryan S. Curator of USS New Jersey, it needs a separate basin that keeps wind from blowing water at the waterline delaying corrosion that is better than open water. But drydockimg a ship permanently isn’t recommended because it’s own weight will deform its hull and other places without the water acting as counterforce .
Alabama played as USS Indianapolis in both version 1991 mission of the sharks is good film I highly recommend to watch and horrible 2016 crappy nic cage film men of courage by far the worst film ever made
They were obsolete when built. Just a waste of $$$. See how long they were in service? Not long. Like the Abrams tank,they are not usable in modern warfare. Vested interests kept these programs going when common sense said it was just a waste. Huge carriers are likewise obsolete.
To be fair to Alabama, SoDak did Jack shit during Second Guadalcanal (and her performance during Santa Cruz is also hilariously overinflated in pop culture history), and even Massachusetts’s combat record at Casablanca isn’t that impressive given the incomplete state of her target plus Ranger’s oft-ignored involvement. As you mentioned, WWII battleships in general failed to actually do their jobs, but I have to disagree with the idea that we shouldn’t judge these ships for not having any significant achievements in combat-after all, those achievements were literally the reason these things even existed in the first place, and at the strategic level building a battleship (due to the massive investment involved) is only justifiable if it can be used as a capital ship instead of being only useful for second-line supporting roles. So the fact most of them never actually engaged enemy capital ships is very much indicative of just how much of a net strategic negative these new battleships ended up being for their own fleets.
So, by this logic, every aircraft carrier since Midway rolled off the slip on Sept. 10 was a waste? They haven't engaged enemy carriers at all, after all. Just land installations and non-ship sea targets. The only CV that did go into action against enemy vessels was just Midway's air arms dumpstering the Iraqi "Navy" in the northern Gulf back in 91. In fact, the same could be said for nearly the entire post-WW2 USN. Barely any of them have gone into ship-to-ship combat in decades. Are you going to go full SAC and say we just don't need a navy anymore? Because spoiler alert, they do a lot.
@@brucewilson4200 But the CVs arguably still have a chance of being able to go up against enemy capital units should war break out, while the WWII-era battleships were obsolete from the moment they entered service and were never going to be useful (in strategic terms) even if nobody realized this until it was too late.
@@bkjeong4302 Tell that to the Marines on Guadalcanal whenever one of the IJN battleships came down the slot and started tossing 14in, or larger, thinwall HE shells at them. A lot of Marines were injured or killed from those bombardments. Even though the BB's didn't have many ship to ship duels, they were invaluable for shore bombardments.
I went onboard the USS Alabama many years ago when I was a small boy. Seeing this huge ship and all those John Wayne movies led me to join the navy at 17, retiring at 37 in 1999. It was a true honor ❤️
Thank you for your service 🇺🇸
@@briancooper2112 😀TY
A good friend of mine took the same path. He was in from ‘77 to ‘97. San Diego, when he wasn’t on ships. With the skills he got, he turned that into another 25 year career.
Thank you for your service!
@@Don.E.63TY kind sir. 62 now seems like a lifetime ago
I toured her just last year. There is a plethora of .50cal and 20mm guns all over that ship. More than what the drawing above is showing. Her teak decking is in the process of finally being replaced after all these years. They close and open various parts of the ship over time for maintenance. My last two visits, the bridge has been closed as well as the combat bridge which was open 3 years ago. I did get to make it down to the engine room this past trip which has been off limits for a while. If you go to tour her, get there when it opens and then do the self guided tour in reverse. You will be rewarded with having the lower decks all to yourself for a couple of hours. It is a real nice experience and I highly recommend the visit.
I visited the Alabama last year, fulfilling a promise my father made back in 1965. Back in '65 we were travelling over Mobile Bay on the I-10 bridge and Dad pointed out a warship in the distance. "That's the Battleship Alabama and one day we're going to visit her." I could only spend one day in Mobile and there is so much more to see now than there was in '65.
Funny how such a big ship has so many tiny spaces. Some areas are not open to the public for reasons of safety. There were crew access hatches that are very difficult for us visitors to squeeze our fat old bodies through. Part of the wartime equipment included a training device to teach crews to load the 5"/38 cal dual purpose guns (anti-aircraft and secondary surface battery--also used for star shells to light up the night). Even though Alabama's service life was about four years (Jan 1943 to decommissioning in 1947) I believe America got her ,money's worth. I need to spread out my battleship reference books to compare the various American battleships that saw service in World War Two, and then I have the paper performance statistics--the real-world performance achieved was not always as specified.
Hi! I live about 15 minutes from the Bama. If you ever make it back down this way, stick around for sunset (or a sunrise) with her and the area.
I served in The Living History Crew aboard Alabama for 3 yrs. She is a beautiful ship and is in great shape. They are in the process of restoring her a few compartments at a time and I believe they have replaced her decking. Life has just gotten in the way but I plan to return to the crew when I retire.
Alabama with her Marine Battalion barracks in her bow was truly an AUSSAULT BATTLE SHIP!
As a navy vet I served onboard a Perry Class frigae, I've been there to see the USS Alabama, that ole girl is impressive.
I have visited the Missouri, The North Carolina and the Texas. We were going to go to see Alabama in 2019 but COVID intervened. Still have plans to go sometime in the near future though.
Roll Tide!!! Cleveland Indians great Bob Feller, served as a Gunnery Officer onboard the Alabama. I checked & it was still marked. During Hurricanes that strike the Mobile area, it serves as a makeshift shelter. The USS Drum is also there along w/many other aircraft & vehicle exhibits.
Have visited multiple times . I always said the S.D. Class BB were the linebackers of the Battleships. Strong and Stocky!
Feller was prouder of his WW2 service than his baseball accomplishments. A real American hero.
My father sailed in company with the Alabama aboard the South Dakota as a Royal Navy communications link with our Home Fleet when both acted as Arctic distant convoy protection against Tirpitz for convoys to and from Russia. 👍🏻🏴✌️🇺🇸
Not that Tirpitz was ever a real threat, given that the Germans couldn’t have sent her out even if the Allies did absolutely nothing to keep her contained due to fuel shortages and political concerns…
We had lost battleships, some were refitting, and in the same way we lent the aircraft carrier Victorious to the U..S. Navy in the Pacific where the Japanese had sunk American carriers and new construction hadn’t entered service. I still have all my father’s mementoes from the South Dakota; his Blue Nose (Arctic) Certificate, the ship’s daily newsletter including baseball scores back home, and a British aircraft recognition waterline model of the ships. His American shipmates who’d been aboard when she nearly succumbed at Guadalcanal told him that Japanese survivors had attempted to knife their rescuers. He enjoyed his time aboard with similar but different routines such as the method for going-down ladders, ship’s tannoy announcements, and eating arrangements.
@@Backwardlookingppp
The Lucky A and her sisters are good ships! And it's heartwarming to know the citizens of her namesake state successfully preserved her to this day.
The folks in Mobile have done a great job in preserving her and with the entire park in whole.
It is one of the premier naval museums in the entire country. Fantastically preserved. They have just replaced the teak decks. The Submarine USS Drum is a magnificent memorial in itself.
I pass her every week, for years now, and she still awes me everytime! My fav Biggun Battlewagon!
My favorite ship. Been on her many times. Even got to spend the night on her growing up in cub scouts
Pleasant video of an outstanding battleship. I have visited Alabama several times, even slept on it in 1990 as a boy scout one weekend while they were filming Mission of the Shark which was a made for TV movie about the USS Indianapolis sinking and the crew's survival waiting for rescue. One rainy night during that weekend, me and two others snuck away and went exploring all over the Alabama and there were many times we could have fallen to our deaths but that was the last thing on our minds while we explored as much as we could of that amazing vessel though we did get lost a couple of times and there was a looming fear of getting trapped within one of the rooms/spaces. Have not been out to see it since 2003 and a revisit is long overdue. I highly recommend visiting USS Alabama.
mission of the sharks is good focusing on characters very well done
A mighty ship for a mighty State!
Visited the Alabama in November 2024 from the UK. What makes this ship so interesting is that it's in WW2 configuration. My late father-in-law was an officer (navigator) on the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Onslaught from 1943-5. He and his ship were in Scapa Flow when the Alabama and South Dakota were on detachment there in the spring and early summer of 1943. So, it was particularly interesting for my wife to see this tanglible relic of her father's time on the high seas with Arctic convoys in WW2. It was great to explore the ship again (we saw it in 2004). It's a really dignified and powerful image of the naval war though it's hard not to feel a little sorry for it confined to a museum setting after such brief war service. We have also visited the North Carolina.
I went to mobile Alabama on vacation and went to see her!
Nobody talks about Tirpitz vs Alabama as a theoretical fight and I really hope you do!
I live in Alabama and I am a huge fan i think you should do one on the HMS Hermes
A few years ago now, I took the opportunity to stop and tour the ship. It is easily the most impressive warship I've been on. I've toured the Texas a few times, but the compact & powerful South Dakota class battleships give a real sense of efficient power. Awe inspiring. So balanced. Definitely worth a visit.
Yep, compact, balanced & powerful....I feel the So Daks were the HANDSOMEST battlewagons, from any side, in that war. Husky BRUTES !
Wonderful ship. Did you know the 4 Iowa class battleships are almost 200 ft longer
Just toured her in November. Wow
The Battleship Alabama Commission just got through replacing her Teak deck
i visited Lucky A as a child in the mid 90s while on our annual summer road trip with my mother and father.
i remember staring up at this absolute titan slack jawed and saying "dad, that boat is as big as Godzilla!"
id like to go back and see the old iron lass again one day.
In that one Steven Seagal movie. She was a stand in for Mighty Mo.
Yes. It also stood in for ‘War & Remembrance’ & ‘Men of Courage’
You didn't mention that USS Alabama appeared in at least one movie. During the filming of Steven Segal's "Under Seige" the crew used Alabama as a stand-in for the USS Missouri during some interiors, etc.
Imagine the Mighty A with the other battleships blocking San Bernardino Straight during the 1944 invasion of the Phillipines.
Ching Lee was robbed of his chance to be one of the few (if not first) to be responsible for the near destruction of a Ship-Class by not shooting Kongo and Haruna.
Disclaimer: I wasn’t being sarcastic
Check out Drachinifel's presentation of how a 4-battleship Task Force 34 (Iowa, New Jersey, Alabama and Washington) might have handled Kurita's Center Force and its surviving 4 (Yamato, Nagato, Kongo, Haruna).
We have her sister ship Massachusetts here on display.
Been aboard her several times, most recently about 20 years ago. My parents were Mobile natives, so we'd visit the area frequently. The great Bob Feller served aboard her during the war.
I have watched several of your other videos and found them quite interesting.
Yet I feel you missed the mark here.
Because the Alabama was never struck by a shell or bomb nor sank another ship does that minimize the efforts of the men who served?
Going into harms way being prepared to give the ultimate sacrifice deserves the same amount of reverence .
I was one of the children , I donated 25 cents and received a one time pass to go on the Alabama ,which I used two years later . Wish now I had the pass .
SoDak was a very effective shell magnet and diversion while Lee was getting his ship into position to drop unholy death onto Kirishima. Every bad thing that could have happened to SoDak aside from collecting a full salvo of long lances and becoming a permanent submarine happened.
I had the honor to tour the USS Alabama battleship!
I’d love a video on what was removed from the museum battleships in the 1980s. I am frequently on BB55 and cannot think of anything significant missing on the tour routes - though I might not notice if small things were. I have heard that North Carolina contributed from the massive stock of stores and spares aboard her - some of which still remain. And while I’ve been in two of the machinery rooms (the one on the main tour and the one on a special tour), I’ve no idea what the other two machinery spaces are like. 1 of 3 magazines are open. 2 out of 3 turrets are open and look pretty intact. Again, it might be little things. I wonder if Massachusetts and Alabama had more stripped off because the SoDak design and equipment were closer to the Iowas than NC?
Yes pretty sure they went through the Massachusetts especially on the bridge and decks . There is a lot of empty compartments as well and she was close to Melville and Quonset Point NS . But she is sat I’ll here and they have utilized the empty compartments for displays although the bridge areas are still pretty empty. It was rumored she lost 5000 tons of equipment and machinery
I think a lot of what was removed from NORTH CAROLINA was shell handling equipment taken from Turret 2. I read somewhere that #2 was basically "stripped" inside to refit the IOWAs.
It's not that ships without big, flashy moments don't deserve being preserved. It's that ships with big, flashy moments that would have absolutely deserved to be turned into a museum, were scrapped because of reasons.
No, the issue is that for capital ships having a big, flashy moment is kind of the point they exist, so if they fail at that then…
Please do a video on USS Massachusetts
There was 4 South Dakota class, South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Alabama. The North Carolina had 2: North Carolina and Washington
I've inky been to the Alabama twice, and there is still half of the entire ship I haven't seen yet
Can you do a in depth look at the CL-83 USS MANCHESTER and her service in Korea? A dear friend of mine sailed on Her then...
Did the Massachussets absorb all the Good Luck for the SODAKs?
Washington
@@jamessimms415 North Carolina class no?
ruclips.net/video/vODy6k0oJzQ/видео.html TARGETS: Fleet Oilers:
USS Patoka (AO-9)
USS Sapelo (AO-11)
USS Kaweah (AO-15)
USS Laramie (AO-16)
USS Mattole (AO-17)
USS Rapidan (AO-18)
USS Salinas (AO-19)
USS Salamonie (AO-26)
USS Chemung (AO-30)
USS Cimarron (AO-22)
USS Guadalupe (AO-32) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Squadron
She is the only American military ship recognized by the Kremlin in Russia as a major contribution to supplying Russia by protecting arctic convoys. Bama sailors were actually awarded medals by Russia, for the USS Alabama
I’ve been on the ship twice. It’s sad that the employees have the ship restricted to where ur able to go to see the magazines for the powder. I’ve been to the bottom of turret 1 but not inside the magazine
My dad served on the Alabama and later was on the lsts during dday
My grandfather did as well. I have his tour diary
I still have my card to get in. We raise penny for her.
Last of the South Dakotas? What about USS Massachusetts tied up in Falls River?
I think he meant the last SD constructed not in existence.
'Don't hate me because I'm beautiful'; born w/ Buck Rogers ammo, she was a 28 - knot no-fly zone. Feel sorry 4 poor Japanese trains tossed by 16" shellfire
Sounds like she is a hurricane magnet.
Yeah ... North Carolina and Alabama are not known for their wealth ... but ... their citizens came up with the money to buy _their_ ships. Unlike - Washington.
It's somewhat understandable that South Dakota didn't buy their ship and then dredge a channel up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
Then you have New York City - not coming up with the money to buy _Enterprise_ ...
Says something about the people in those States.
Oh ... and when I was in 4th Grade - I was one of the North Carolina School Children dropping my dimes in a can to buy _OUR_ ship.
.
I kinda feel like the whole country should be on the hook for failing to save CV6.
It’s a travesty that Washington was damaged by poor seamanship by the Indiana during unrep operations and missed 2 months of action, she would have been the most decorated BB in the war. To top it off, she never lost a crewman to enemy action, and saved Sodak’s bacon by sinking Kirishima and Ayanami at Savo Island.. with Adm. Willis Lee aboard Washington was a virtual sniper out to 34,000 yards. In approx 7 minutes she put 20-24 super heavy 16” rounds into Kirishima many just below the waterline (verified in 2019 survey) the showboat and rustyW should both have been preserved my father was aboard Washington from Murmansk to Magic Carpet. “Ching Lee’s home away from home”
@@Zephyrmecactually it was 8,000 yards - the WA used the SD as a distraction and sailed right up to pretty much point blank range.
@@Zephyrmec
No battleship ever hit the enemy at 34,000 yards (in fact, that’s far beyond the effective range of literally every battleship ever built, even late-war radar fire control wasn’t that good). Washington was actually shooting at point-blank range during Second Guadalcanal.
@@pedenharley6266no warship was ever more deserving to be saved than CV-6. Damn shame
I'm happy about this documentary, I was always interested in the south Dakota class.
needed her guns for D Day they didn't use enough to support the troop landings
Her speed was of more importance keeping up w/the fast attack carriers for AA help. The older, PH Battleships were best used for shore bombardment given their slow speed & being fuel hogs.
I wish it was repainted in her camo, i live 10 min away from it.... they just repainted the hull..... in..... gray.
Bring them back,all 7 battleships and let's kick ass
PLEASE STOP calling Ozawa's force a decoy force.....he had orders to run off TF 38..part of that could be done by striking the fleet oilers servicing TF 38. Direct attacks on tf 38 were not required, BUT would be accepted. ServRon 10 generally operated east of the fleet.
The Japanese intended it to very well be that. They knew that Adm Halsey, being a carrier force commander for the majority of WW2, as well as being very aggressive(and a deep seated hatred for the Japanese) would take the bait, which he did. Quite fortunately Taffy fought ferociously enough to save the day.
Taffy 3.
This ship will suffer the same fate as USS Texas unless it's taken out of the water
Per Ryan S. Curator of USS New Jersey, it needs a separate basin that keeps wind from blowing water at the waterline delaying corrosion that is better than open water. But drydockimg a ship permanently isn’t recommended because it’s own weight will deform its hull and other places without the water acting as counterforce .
@@tonymanero5544 Then you design the dry dock with your comments in mind.
@@richardholte1859 Then it wouldn't be dry docking, but more than likely encased in concrete, like the IJN Mikasa.
Roll Tide !
Alabama played as USS Indianapolis in both version 1991 mission of the sharks is good film I highly recommend to watch and horrible 2016 crappy nic cage film men of courage by far the worst film ever made
They were obsolete when built. Just a waste of $$$. See how long they were in service? Not long. Like the Abrams tank,they are not usable in modern warfare. Vested interests kept these programs going when common sense said it was just a waste. Huge carriers are likewise obsolete.
They helped win the war nonetheless.....
To be fair to Alabama, SoDak did Jack shit during Second Guadalcanal (and her performance during Santa Cruz is also hilariously overinflated in pop culture history), and even Massachusetts’s combat record at Casablanca isn’t that impressive given the incomplete state of her target plus Ranger’s oft-ignored involvement.
As you mentioned, WWII battleships in general failed to actually do their jobs, but I have to disagree with the idea that we shouldn’t judge these ships for not having any significant achievements in combat-after all, those achievements were literally the reason these things even existed in the first place, and at the strategic level building a battleship (due to the massive investment involved) is only justifiable if it can be used as a capital ship instead of being only useful for second-line supporting roles. So the fact most of them never actually engaged enemy capital ships is very much indicative of just how much of a net strategic negative these new battleships ended up being for their own fleets.
So, by this logic, every aircraft carrier since Midway rolled off the slip on Sept. 10 was a waste?
They haven't engaged enemy carriers at all, after all. Just land installations and non-ship sea targets. The only CV that did go into action against enemy vessels was just Midway's air arms dumpstering the Iraqi "Navy" in the northern Gulf back in 91.
In fact, the same could be said for nearly the entire post-WW2 USN. Barely any of them have gone into ship-to-ship combat in decades. Are you going to go full SAC and say we just don't need a navy anymore?
Because spoiler alert, they do a lot.
@@brucewilson4200Im sure the Intro was made specifically for this BK guy lol.
@@brucewilson4200
But the CVs arguably still have a chance of being able to go up against enemy capital units should war break out, while the WWII-era battleships were obsolete from the moment they entered service and were never going to be useful (in strategic terms) even if nobody realized this until it was too late.
Wow!! You sure have a lot of hate, being envious brings that hate doesn't it??
@@bkjeong4302 Tell that to the Marines on Guadalcanal whenever one of the IJN battleships came down the slot and started tossing 14in, or larger, thinwall HE shells at them. A lot of Marines were injured or killed from those bombardments. Even though the BB's didn't have many ship to ship duels, they were invaluable for shore bombardments.