Battleships · from 1910

USS Texas (BB-35)

Dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy.

History

USS Texas (BB-35) is a museum ship in Galveston, Texas, and former United States Navy New York-class battleship. She was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914. She is the oldest surviving dreadnought battleship.

Texas served in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" but saw no action there, and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I without engaging the enemy, though she did fire for the first time when shooting medium-caliber guns at supposed submarines (no evidence exists that suggests these were anything more than waves). From September 1927 to September 1931, Texas became the flagship of the United States Fleet, one of only four ships to be designated U.S. Fleet flagships from 1922 to 1941. In World War II, Texas escorted war convoys across the Atlantic and later shelled Vichy French forces in the North African Landings and German-held beaches in the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theater late in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She was the only Allied battleship that took part in all four of these amphibious landings. Texas was decommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II.

Texas was also a technological testbed: the first U.S. battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first U.S. warship to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers, the first U.S. battleship to launch an aircraft, and one of the first U.S. Navy warships to receive production radar. She was the first battleship in the world to be outfitted with 14-inch guns.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Texas (BB-35), CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

World War IOperation Torch

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1910
The United States Congress authorized the construction of Texas, the second Navy ship to be named after that state, on 24 June 1910.
1918
That state of affairs lasted until the Armistice ended hostilities on 11 November 1918.
1927
In 1927, Texas set another first with the showing of "talking" pictures for crew entertainment.
1942
On 23 October 1942, Texas embarked upon her first major combat operation when she sortied with Task Group 34.8 (TG 34.8), the Northern Attack Group for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.
1947
On 17 April 1947, the Battleship Texas Commission was established by the Texas Legislature to care for the ship.
1990
On 24 February 1990, tugboats moved Texas from dry dock to Brown & Root's offshore fabrication facility on Green's Bayou for further repairs, and installation of the four mooring attachments on the starboard side of the vessel.
2010
After a lengthy selection process and fee negotiations, TPWD signed a contract with AECOM, on 26 October 2010, to design and develop the plans for Texas's dry-berth.
2022
On 31 August 2022, Texas was towed out of her berth to a floating dry dock at Gulf Copper Dry Dock & Rig Repair in Galveston for repairs.
2027
The Battleship Texas Foundation expects a grand reopening sometime in 2027.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

More history

Did a relative serve aboard USS Texas (BB-35)? Our free search checks 15 public sources and shows which records match, with links to the pages.