USS Washington (BB-56)

History

USS Washington, hull number BB-56, was the second and final member of the North Carolina class of fast battleships, the first vessel of the type built for the United States Navy. Built under the Washington Treaty system, North Carolina's design was limited in displacement and armament, though the United States used a clause in the Second London Naval Treaty to increase the main battery from the original armament of nine 14 in (356 mm) guns to nine 16 in (406 mm) guns. The ship was laid down in 1938 and completed in May 1941, while the United States was still neutral during World War II. Her initial career was spent training along the East Coast of the United States until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, bringing the United States into the war.

Washington was initially deployed to Britain to reinforce the Home Fleet, which was tasked with protecting convoys carrying supplies to the Soviet Union. She saw no action during this period, as the German fleet remained in port, and Washington was recalled to the US in July 1942 to be refitted and transferred to the Pacific. Immediately sent to the south Pacific to reinforce Allied units fighting the Guadalcanal campaign, the ship became the flagship of Rear Admiral Willis Lee. She saw action at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on the night of 14–15 November in company with the battleship USS South Dakota and four destroyers. After South Dakota inadvertently drew heavy Japanese fire by sailing too closely to Admiral Nobutake Kondō's squadron, Washington took advantage of the Japanese preoccupation with South Dakota to inflict fatal damage on the Japanese battleship Kirishima and the destroyer Ayanami, while avoiding damage herself. Washington's attack disrupted Kondō's planned bombardment of U.S. Marine positions on Guadalcanal and forced the remaining Japanese ships to withdraw.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Washington (BB-56), CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1938
   The keel for Washington was laid down on 14 June 1938 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
2. 1943
   These operations included covering a group of seven transports carrying elements of the 25th Infantry Division to Guadalcanal from 1 to 4 January 1943.
3. 1944
   The ships returned to port on 7 January 1944, at which time Washington was assigned to TG 37.2, along with Bunker Hill and Monterey.
4. 1945
   The carriers struck Formosa again on 3 and 4 January 1945; after refueling at sea on 5 January, the carriers struck kamikazes massed at airfields on Luzon on 6 and 7 January to neutralize them before the invasion of Lingayen Gulf.
5. 1946
   Beginning already in 1946, the Ships Characteristics Board authorized the removal a number of the 40 mm guns from the North Carolina and South Dakota class battleships that had been decommissioned.
6. 1947
   Washington embarked a contingent of Army personnel totaling 185 officers and 1,479 enlisted men and then re-crossed the Atlantic to New York, where she was decommissioned on 27 June 1947.
7. 1960
   The ship remained in the inventory until 1 June 1960, when the ship was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.

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:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Washington (BB-56)”

More history

• Naval History and Heritage Command (DANFS)
• Wikipedia: USS Washington (BB-56)