Dreadnoughts

Posted on April 3, 2013 | Comments Off on Dreadnoughts

Actually, it’s the U.S. battlewagons of 1945, entering Lingayen Gulf in the Phillipines. You can tell the war by that bedsprings thingie perched atop the mast of the battleship in the foreground—an early iteration of radar. Notice the guns trained up. By 1945, Japanese fighter-bombers were their deadliest foe. Apropos of nothing, though it’s too bad they were scrapped. They could help sober the latest North Korean bombast. Click on pix to biggerize.

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0 responses to “Dreadnoughts”

  1. Darkwater's avatar Darkwater | April 3, 2013 at 7:28 am |

    Back when I was uniformed, the four remaining battleships of the Iowa class were back on duty for their last hurrah. Even as the Navy was trying to shape them up and man them, there were complaints from the bean counters about how expensive they were.

    I proposed to anyone who would listen that we should convert them (there were lots of plans being bandied about) into BBLs — amphibious command-and-control battleships. Put the Navy and Marine command staffs (CATF and CLF) aboard them, attach the various other ships of the amphibious task force such as LPHs, LPDs, LSDs and the like, and we could hit the beach anywhere, with a massive shore bombardment capability all our own.

    I have to expect that you are intimately familiar with the only remaining real Dreadnought, the USS Texas permanently affixed to the San Jacinto battlefield.

  2. SnoopyTheGoon's avatar SnoopyTheGoon | April 4, 2013 at 5:16 am |

    Still darn impressive. More than the modern missile frigates.

  3. Dick Stanley's avatar Dick Stanley | April 4, 2013 at 10:48 am |

    Supposedly scrapped because too expensive to operate. Probably had more to do with changing politics, because otherwise they could have been retrofitted with modern engines, sensors, computers and missiles. Keeping only the main guns for bombardment.

    The USS Texas, which I visited back in the 80s when it was rusting in the mud off the Houston Ship Channel (since extensively repaired via private donations), is not permanently affixed to the battlefield but only occupies an artificial lagoon there. It can be (and has been) moved by tugs into the adjacent ship channel for dry-dock work.

    More here: https://texasscribbler.com/wp/2010/01/07/battleship-bb-2/

    Follow the link there for a pretty photo.