Ya, but...USS Oregon... used during WWII to retake Guam and then sold to the Japanese to be scrapped. Idiots. If ever a moral boost was needed...
She had already been gutted long before. She was nothing but a barge by that point.
Ya, but...USS Oregon... used during WWII to retake Guam and then sold to the Japanese to be scrapped. Idiots. If ever a moral boost was needed...
If the USN could rebuild Weevee from practically scrap metal to fight at Surigao, then Oregon could be an archeology project for conscientious objectors to learn how to build before being sent to the Kaiser yards?Ya, but...
She had already been gutted long before. She was nothing but a barge by that point.
2. Original Condition of the Ship: The West Virginia was sunk and rested on the hard bottom in the outboard berth of F6, with a list of about three degrees to port. The draft was 50 feet 6 inches forward and 40 feet 10 inches aft. Exploratory work by divers had revealed very extensive damage in the midship area, port side. In addition, divers had found that the rudder had been knocked off and was lying on the bottom, and that the steering engine room was considerably damaged. A serious oil fire had burned on the West Virginia for about thirty hours following the December 7th attack, and had caused extensive damage throughout the ship. For about three quarters of the length of the ship all of the deck plating above the second deck and some of the bulkheading was seriously buckled from the heat. At the time of the attack on December 7th, the ship had on board approximately seventy percent of its capacity of fuel oil and was fully loaded with fresh provisions and meat. The records of the West Virginia indicated that there were approximately seventy bodies on board the vessel.
BTW, the surveyor was smoking whacky weed when he estimates four months to fix all the "casualties".The armor belt was found to be badly askew but nevertheless furnished excellent backing for shores. The chief difficulty in shoring was to find suitable structure above the armor belt in the midship area to shore against, - this for the reason that all of the hull plating in the midship area above the armor belt was missing or badly damaged. Shell plating that had been blown out was removed previously by underwater cutting. An ingenious scheme for shoring in this area was devised by setting ten inch "H" beams vertically on end on top of the armor with the lower end of the beam kept flush with the outer edge of the armor by means of heavy angle bars which were welded to the "H" beams but not to the armor. A hook bolt was fastened by divers back of the armor. Above the water's edge the "H" beams were backed by steel shapes which acted as struts between the "H" beams and the structure of the ship. These vertical members were tied together fore and aft by welded angles and channels. When thus secured and spaced about every eight feet they furnished a very substantial means against which to shore sections of the patch to take the pressure as the water was pumped down.
39. The direct contact of torpedo and/or bomb explosions against the armor belt caused the third deck to absorb considerably more energy than is usually the case in way of torpedo explosions. As a result the damage to and on the third deck in the midship area is very extensive. This damage extended to #5 torpedo bulkhead which is pushed in as much as two feet in boiler rooms two and four. Also, there is considerable buckling and failure of bulkhead stiffeners, bracket, etc.
40. Extent of Structural Damage and Time to Repair: The time required to make good the structural damage to the West Virginia depends upon numerous considerations such as, availability of material, number of structural trades available, handling of armor, etc. Obviously the armor belt in way of the damage must be removed and the whole structure from the shell to torpedo bulkhead #5 inclusive must be replaced in large part. It seems that five armor plates are cracked and all or most of these may require renewal; also, it may be found that some of the armor keyways of others are broken open so as to require replacement of the armor plate. The bottom of the ship under the turn of the bilge is rumpled considerably and is pulled up in way of torpedo bulkhead #5. The docking keel is pulled up by six to eight inches. It is not blown out at any place and is damaged comparatively less than in the case of the California.
41. With material and men available it would seem that the structural job on the West Virginia would require some four to six months. A large part of this work can be deferred until the vessel reaches a mainland yard, especially most of the renewal and straightening of main and upper decks. The time required for the steering gear job is anybody's guess at this stage and depends primarily on the delivery of new parts such as stern post, rudder stock, crosshead, etc.
42. The Yard is being pressed to have the West Virginia in condition to vacate the dock if emergency requires. It is likely that the inner bulkheads can be made tight to permit refloating of the vessel after a period of about three weeks in dock. Although structural repairs can best be done in dock, it would be possible to handle the work so that only the outer layers need be done in dock and the inside layers competed thereafter. While this would not be the most efficient way of doing the job it would cut down the total drydock period to approximately ten to twelve weeks.
Japan picks Musashi
Pennsylvania would have been a good Pearl Harbor survivor to preserve, she could be in Philadelphia with Olympia
Saratoga was not that famous a ship plus it was nuked so there was no way to save it.
Mind you both Warspite and Pennsylvania were in pretty bad condition at the end of the war and fixing them would cost a pretty penny. Oh if only I was an eccentric millionaire in 1945 the stuff I would save
And vehicles,weapons and aircraft of courseYou and me both.
Being and eccentric millionaire to keep WW1-WW2 era warships around as museum ships is something I would be totally down with.
If you're going to do something go all the way. Dredge the Sacramento river and park it in the capital.Which coastal Californian city should California have been parked in?
To be honest it's not just the damage from the bomb, there was also the mine strike she took during the invasion campaign and support operations, I imagine combined it would have utterly broken her back.Australian vessels? Either HMAS Hobart or Australia and one of either Stuart or Vendetta (the two survivors of the Scrap Iron Flotilla)
British vessels? One of the surviving Queen Elizabeth class, but I'd actually be inclined to not go with Warspite as the whole damage from a Fritz-X thing likely makes her less suitable for long term preservation (probably knocks out Valiant as well due to damage from her dry dock accident).
I’ve always had the view that Enterprise should have been moored at Pearl HarborMy list:
USS Enterprise (CV-6)
USS California (BB-44)
USS West Virginia (BB-48)
USS San Francisco (CA-38)
USS Franklin (CV-13) "The ship that would not die"
HMS Warspite
HMS Illustrious
HMS King George V
HMAS Australia
Where should Enterprise have been moored? Norfolk would be obvious.
California? Either San Pedro or San Francisco alongside CA-38.