South Dakota-class battleship.
L/B/D:
680 × 108.2 × 29.3 (207.3m × 33.2m × 8.9m). Tons:
35,000 disp. Hull:
steel. Comp.:
1,793. Arm.:
9 × 16 (3×3), 20 × 5, 24 × 40mm, 40 × 20mm. Armor:
12.2 belt, 5.8 deck. Mach.:
geared turbines, 130,000 shp, 4 screws; 28 kts. Built:
Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Va.; 1942.
USS Alabama's first overseas assignment was with the British Home Fleet in the summer of 1943, when she and her sister ship South Dakota sailed on Arctic convoys and in diversionary maneuvers aimed at diverting German attention from the Allied landings in Sicily. Detached from this duty in August, she sailed for the South Pacific, arriving in the New Hebrides in September. Alabama's subsequent career in the Pacific theater of World War II fairly mirrors the course of the Allied advance against Japan. She escorted fast carrier forces in operations in the Gilbert Islands in November; the Marshall Islands in late January and February; the Caroline Islands in March; and on the coast of New Guinea in April 1944. Following a month of repairs in Majuro, Marshall Islands (captured on January 31), Alabama rejoined Task Force 58 for the invasion of the Mariana Islands in June, taking part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, June 19-20, and supporting the landings on Saipan and elsewhere. After upkeep at Eniwetok in the Marshalls, she became flagship of Rear Admiral E. W. Hanson's Battleship Division 9. She supported landings in the Carolines before heading east for the invasion of the Philippines in mid-October. She operated in the Philippines through December. After weathering the typhoon of December 18, in which the destroyers USS Hull,Monaghan, and Spence were sunk, she returned to Puget Sound, Washington, for overhaul. Alabama rejoined TF 58 in May, providing gunfire support against stubborn Japanese positions on Okinawa (five weeks after the American landings on April 1) and supported carrier operations in the Ryukyus and Kyushu, the southernmost of the Japanese main islands. As part of the 3rd Fleet, in July Alabama took part in the bombardment of targets in the heart of Japan, including industrial sites only eight miles north of Tokyo.
Following the Japanese surrender on August 15, Alabama remained in Japanese waters until September 20, when she embarked 700 sailors en route to San Pedro as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Decommissioned at Seattle in 1947, she remained in reserve until 1962. Two years later she was towed to Mobile, Alabama, where she was opened to the public as a floating memorial and museum ship.
U.S. Navy, DANFS.
