North Carolina class Battleships, USS North Carolina (BB-55) & USS Washington (BB-56) - A new beginning

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            North Carolina class Battleships, USS North Carolina (BB-55) & USS Washington (BB-56) - A new beginning 

                                                                             

 

Background

The North Carolina class was a class of 2 battleships built between 1937 to 1941, the previous class of battleships were the Colorado class ships with the 1920's South Dakota design being scrapped due to the Washington Naval Treaty, this treaty which was also followed by the London Naval Treaty was agreement between all the major naval powers (specifically Great Britain, United States, and Japan, plus France and Italy being the other 2 less powerful naval powers as the main naval powers present in these treaties) and in the case of the Washington naval treaty which sought to limit battleship construction as well as cease any for a period of time as each nation had it's own good reason to agree with a treaty of this form, in which after all theses negotiations funny enough the ones who got what they wanted the most was Italy which wanted to be allowed a navy equal in size to the French which was exactly what they wanted, out of this treaty each nation was allowed to build/complete or keep certain battleships, in this case the United States was allowed the 3 Colorado class battleships, Japan was allowed to keep both Nagato class ships in exchange for the United States having the 3rd Colorado, and the British were allowed the 2 Nelson class ships, these were the only battleships under construction that were permitted as apart of this treaty, these were nicknamed the Big 7 as they were the ships with the largest guns at the time. By this point one may wonder why it's important to mention the Washington Naval Treaty when talking about these ships which is quite simple, these ships as mention previously were built between 1937 to 1941, the Colorado class was built between 1917 to 1923 meaning that by the time construction on the North Carolina class started construction 20 years after the first Colorado class battleship had been started on and as a result with this 20 year gap the North Carolina class was extremely different in design compared to their predecessors.

Links for the Colorado class are included below the specification section

 

History

Development History

Spoiler

Even though North Carolina started in 1937 the design of the class was started in 1928, these ships were designed with the limitation of the Panama Canal in mind as well as the treaty limits in mind to a extent as gun caliber would comply (the guns would range from 14 inch to 16 inch) however displacement in many purposed designs would go over the permitted limit of 35,000 tons (35,600 tons) in the Washington naval treaty, this would as a result limit the capabilities of the ships design. In 1935 3 designs which were designed as fast battleships would be submitted to the General Board of the Navy, unlike the previous Colorado class these ships were not based around the standard battleship concept but rather were actually focused on improving their ability rather than keep designs similar with only gradual improvements, Design A was 32,150 long tons (32,670 t) armed with nine 14-inch (356 mm) guns in triple turrets positioned forward of the bridge, capable of 30 knots, and armored against 14-inch shells, Design B and Design C were similar with both of them being 36,000 long tons (37,000 t) which obvious ruled them out as acceptable, able to reach 30.5 knots and armored against 14 inch shells, as for the major difference between the two was the planned main battery, Design B had 12 14 inch guns in triple turrets, while Design C had 8 16-inch/45-caliber guns in dual turrets. The first 3 design would not be the end however as more designs would come up that year with Designs D and E still remaining around the fast battleship idea, Design F was a Hybrid carrier design with 8 14 inch guns aft that reportedly FDR favored however thanks to sanity it was determined that the as the design used 3 catapults would have launched aircraft inferior to land base aircraft and so nothing would come of design F, the last 2 designs, G and H were sane designs however compared to Designs A , D, and E, these designs were slower being capable of 23 knot ships with 9 14 inch guns and in particular, Design H was thought to be a very well balanced design by the Preliminary Design section of the Bureau of Construction and Repair however the General Board finally decided to use faster ships which G and H were not.

                                                                             

Now basing of the faster designs more designs would be based on these in which they would sacrifice armor for the larger 16 inch guns while others would do the opposite in which they would sacrifice firepower with 14 inch guns in exchange for more armor with the designs having different turret layouts as well as armor thickness. In the end 35 designs would be purposed as final designs in November that year, after assessing the designs as addressing some flaws in the designs in 1936 design XVI-C (16-C) which was armed with 3 quad 14 inch gun turrets however one characteristics with the design that changed was so that the ships could take part advantage if the Escalation clause of the London Naval treat was invoked, in which they would instead use 3 triple 16 inch turrets with 2 forward and 1 aft on the ship. The timing of this decision would benefit the ships as this would allow them to switch to the 16 inch armament even after they had the keels laid down and the Escalation clause would be invoked meaning they would never receive the 14 inch guns.

 

USS North Carolina

Spoiler

USS North Carolina was laid down in late October, 1937 and she would be launched in mid June 1940, she would commission in early April the following year as the First American battleship completed in 18 years. She would spend the year of 1941 with her shake down cruise as well as working up on her systems, with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th she would undergo training to prepare to join the war in the pacific.

                                                                             

Ironically her first operation was not in the Pacific theater but rather the European theater, in 1942 she would be based at Naval station Argentina as apart of a force which was their to stop Tirpitz from breaking out into the Atlantic however she would be sent to the pacific in mid 1942 as the USS South Dakota soon arrived to take North Carolinas position for stopping Tirpitz. She would first take part in the Guadalcanal campaign as apart of Task force 16 which did include the USS Enterprise which was apart of Task force 61 which additionally included the carriers USS Saratoga and USS Wasp, lead by Vice Admiral Fletcher, she would first cover marine landings in at attempt to capture airfields constructed by the Japanese forces in which she would escort the Enterprise and cover her from Japanese aircraft, she would almost then be transferred to lead a task force to deal with the Japanese cruisers that attacked American vessels during the battle of salvo island however her role of carrier escort was deemed a bigger priority and so she would continue to escort the Enterprise which would come under air attack and following this the Enterprise was pulled back to undergo repairs, North Carolina in the meantime would be transferred over to Task force 17 to escort the Saratoga for the next several weeks, in which time a Japanese submarine would attempt to torpedo her twice with the second attempt being aimed at the Wasp having taken 2 to 3 hits while another 2 continued on and hit a friendly destroyer as well as the North Carolina, Wasp as well as the destroyer would sink however North Carolina would return to Pearl Harbor to undergo repairs, she would return with the also recently repaired Enterprise and Saratoga and they would be joined by North Carolinas sister, USS Washington, both Battleships would cover troop convoys from 1942 to 1943 and would later be joined by the USS Indiana however as a result they would not be able to assist in the battle of Rennell Island, in March, 1943 North Carolina would return to Pearl Harbor to undergo a refit which would instal radar was well as improving her fire control systems, she would return to help cover more amphibious assaults until September in which she would return to Pearl Harbor again in preparation for the Gilbert Island campaign as apart of TF 50 in which she would join Enterprise, 2 escort carriers, and 6 destroyers, as well as USS Massachusetts and USS Indiana as apart of TG 50.2 (Note: TG is Task group so they are all apart of Task force 50 but are split into groups hence the .2) and in which they would cover the carriers air raids on the islands, in December she would be detached to join TG 50.8 with the other battleships of TF 50, USS Massachusetts, USS Indiana, USS South Dakota, and her sister USS Washington.

                                                                             

All 5 battleship would then bombard the island of Nauru while preparing for her the Marshall islands campaign, during the Marshall island campaign she would first escort the Essex class carrier USS Bunker Hill as apart of the newly formed TF 58 with North Carolina being assigned to TG 58.2 in early January, 1944, during the campaign she would join once again the Massachusetts, Indiana, and Washington after being detached to join the bombardment group attacking the island of Roi-Namur and during which time she would sink a Japanese cargo ship in while it was in port, next the 4 battleships would then move on to raid the island Truk which had been where Japanese forces were basing themselves out of during this time, she would transfer then to TG 58.3 by this point, she would take part in Operation Hailstone which was the previously mentioned raid on Truk, she would continue to switch between carrier escort and shore bombardment until May 4th in which TF 58 would return to their base in Majuro and Eniwetok and following which North Carolina would return to Pearl Harbor to repair her rudder. 

                                                                             

After completing repairs, North Carolina rejoined the fleet at Majuro while it was preparing for the attack on the Marianas and by which point had been divided into 4 carrier task groups, she would then sortied and bombarded the island of Saipan in which she would cover minesweepers which were attempting to clear mines for the landing areas. Her next major action would be during the  Battle of the Philippine Sea in which she would shoot down 2 Japanese aircraft, following this she would be stationed off the Marianas for the next two weeks before being detached for an overhaul at Puget Sound Navy Yard. Her repairs would last until October 1944 which resulted in her missing out on most of the action during the Philippines campaign, she would cover friendly carriers in strikes on Japanese positions in Leyte, Luzon, and the Visayas, during which time she would shoot down a kamikaze. On December 18th she would along with other ships would be caught in Typhoon cobra however as a battleship this did little to her After returning to Ulithi, she would cover the carrier group which began a series of strikes on targets on Formosa (aka Taiwan), the coast of French Indochina, occupied China, and the Ryuku Islands in January 1945. North Carolina remained apart of TG 38.3 for the operation, and her carrier group struck northern Taiwan from January 3rd to January 4th however poor weather hampered flight operations. In mid January she would along with the rest of the task force enter the South China Sea on the assumption that significant Japanese naval forces were present but instead they only found merchant ships and a number of minor warships which were caught and sunk by the task force. Next she would escort friendly carriers which were attacking the Japanese island of Honshu in an attempt to prevent Japanese aircraft from interfering with the planned invasion of Iwo Jima. She would rejoin TF 58 under TG 58.4 and she would cover the carriers which launched a raid on Tokyo on February 16th which lasted until the next day.She along with USS Washington, and the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis were detached from the task group to reinforce TF 54 which was the assault force for the invasion until February 23rd in which she would rejoin the carrier task force in order to cover them on more raids on mainland Japan in preparation for the Invasion of Okinawa, she would continue to cover friendly carriers during raids on Kyushu in the Japanese home islands and this would continue even after the landings. During another raid by kamikaze aircraft she would be hit by a friendly fire from a 5 inch gun which killed 3 and wounded 44 sailors. She would be sent to cover troops on the island on April 17th before departing 2 days later on April 19th to Pearl Harbor for another overhaul.

                                                                             

After this she would continue to cover friendly carrier raids on mainland Japan, and following Japans surrender she would contribute some of the sailors as apart of the initial occupation force in mid August before patrolling off the Japanese coast and then retrieved the ships sailors in early September and she would along with other warships of the United States Navy take part in Operation Magic carpet, bringing deployed troops to the mainland United States, she would undergo another overhaul in  Brooklyn Navy Yard in mid October and unlike many other Battleships of the United States she would still be in service after the war, she would finally decommissioned on 27 June 1947 in New York and placed in reserve however this was not the end of her story, the Navy considered modernizing her in multiple ways with one increasing her speed to 31 knots however this would result in her losing her rear turret, another suggested to convert her into a helicopter carrier however interestingly she would have kept her front turret in order to keep balance, she would remain in the Navy's inventory until she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1960 and was suppose to go to the scrap yard however a man from North Carolina named James Craig founded a organization to preserve the ship in which he based it off the campaign that saved USS Texas, James Craig would end up convincing the governor of New York at the time to ask the Navy to delay the scrapping and his campaign would raise $330,000 to save the ship, he would then have the ship place in Wilmington as compared to the other option to place the ship it was ironically enough the most inland and more safer from hurricanes.

                                                                             

USS Washington

Spoiler

USS Washington was laid down in mid June, 1938, she would be launched on at the beginning of June in 1940, and she would then be commissioned in mid May, 1941. She would undergo sea trials however would suffer from vibration issues due to the three bladed propellers of the North Carolina class, the solution to this issue was to have 2 four bladed propellers on the otter shafts while using 2 five bladed propellers on her inner propeller shafts however the problem would never truly go away, as a result of the vibration problems during her continued sea trials she would fail to reach her design top speed, as she along with North Carolina were completed in peace time Washington would often take part in training with her sister as well as the USS Wasp.

                                                                             

Work on dealing with the vibration problems by working on the ships screws would continue into late February, 1942 however as previously mentioned they would never find a way to find a solution for the vibration, just like North Carolina, her first action was in the European theater, she would reinforce the British home fleet as elements of the British home fleet had been transferred to Force H and so Washington was their along with the heavy cruisers USS Wichita and USS Tuscaloosa in order to counter the Tirpitz, during this time  she would take part in convoy escort to the Soviet Union and during which time along with King George V accidentally rammed the friendly destroyer Punjabi and USS Washington came to close to the wreak and as a result the depth charges of the destroyer would go off and the Washington would  take damage to her radars and fire control equipment and caused a small leak in one of her fuel tanks. The ship would stop along with the rest of fleet with the exception of King George V which went home for repairs the day of the ramming, at Hvalfjörður, Iceland, where they took on supplies from the supply ship Mizar and would remain their until may 15th, one June 3rd admiral Harold Rainsford Stark, the Commander of Naval Forces Europe, visited the ship and made her his temporary headquarters followed by a visit of King George VI on June 7th, she would return to escorting Arctic convoys once Admiral Stark left the ship, she would return to the United States along with 4 destroyers after the incident with PQ 17 had occurred and and Rear Admiral Giffen who replaced Rear Admiral Wilcox after he was swept overboard and found to have dropped a day after being swept away, had used the Washington as flagship had returned to the Wichita. 

                                                                             

Following her return to the United States she would undergo a refit until late August in 1943 along with 3 destroyers would be deployed to the Pacific theater and arrived in Nukuʻalofa in Tonga on September 14th. There, she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Willis Lee, then the commander of Battle Division 6 and TG 12.2, the next day she would along with the rest of the fleet join with TF 17 which was centered around the carrier Hornet and would begin operations in support of the campaign in the Solomon Islands, being based out of  Nouméa and Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, the ship would continue to escort convoys in support of marine forces during the campaign as mentioned with North Carolina's history and would therefore miss out on Second Battle of Savo Island, in late October the submarine I-15 attempted to torpedo her however missed.

 

By November the US fleet had been severally weakened with the carriers Hornet sunk as well as USS Wasp also being sunk which was less shocking as Hornet as her design was a more flawed design compared to the Yorktown class as she was made to use up the displacement that was left and was permitted from the Naval treaties before the war, in terms of battleships only Washington and South Dakota were present, both battleship would be present for the Battle of Guadalcanal.

                                                                             

The Japanese had sent a bombardment group consisting of the Kongo class fast battleship IJN Kirishima, the cruisers Takao and Atago, the light cruisers Nagara and Sendai, and nine destroyers, the US had deployed Washington, South Dakota, and 4 other destroyers. In this situation the US ships were at a major disadvantage as even though either American battleship alone against the Kirishima would likely come out on top due to Kirishima's armor being more of a battlecruiser than a battleship, however both US battleships and their crews had limited experience shooting their main guns and especially at night which was something the Japanese heavy emphasized in the tactics and training, the only other real advantage the US ship had was radar which allowed them to detect the enemy ships. The Japanese advantage would come into play as during the battle the South Dakota was unable to respond as the ship was illuminated was the Japanese search lights and was under fire from Kirishima and other Japanese warships and torpedos, taking around 26 hits in total, the Washington during that time would sneak up within 9,000 yards of Kirishima but the captain initially hesitated to open fire fearing it was the South Dakota until the ships illuminated the South Dakota, as a result the Washington would blast the unsuspecting Kirishima with a full broadside of 16 inch rounds with 9 to 20 main battery rounds fired at the Battleship plus 17 secondary rounds which caused extensive and fatal damage to the Battleship which would sink the next morning at 03:25 am.

                                                                             

Following the engagement Washington would escort USS Enterprise as well as USS Saratoga while the South Dakota went under repair from the Japanese ships, she would be joined late November by her sister North Carolina and later the  Indiana the same day and the three ships would continue to cover convoys in the area. Once again because of this these ships were too far away to help with the Battle of Rennell Island as mentioned in North Carolina's history, at the end of April, 1943 she would depart for Pearl Harbor and would arrive on May 8th.For the next twenty days, Washington operated as the flagship of TF 60, which conducted combat training off the coast of Hawaii, in late May she went into dry dock at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for repairs and installation of new equipment, this included a new set of screws that again as mentioned previously failed to remediate the vibration problems and would never be fixed. Once the work had been finished she would continue with the training excesses until the end of July in which she set sail for the southern pacific once more, she was attached to TG 56.14, and on arriving in the area was detached on 5 August to proceed independently to Havannah Harbor at Efate in the New Hebrides, which she reached two days later and for the next two months she would once again conducting tactical training with the carrier task forces in the Efate area in preparation for upcoming campaigns in the central Pacific. She along with three other battleships and six destroyers left at the end of October and met up with TG 53.3 with carriers USS Enterprise, USS Essex, and USS Independence for even more exercises, this time lasting until early November.

                                                                             

During the Gilberts and Marshall Islands campaign she would join the not Yorktown class carrier, Essex class carrier USS Yorktown in mid November.In late November, the groups of TF 50 were reorganized and Washington was transferred to TG 50.4, along with the carriers Bunker Hill and light carrier Monterey and the now repaired USS South Dakota and South Dakotas sister, USS Alabama in which the 3 battleship would cover the carrier group. By this point as mentioned in North Carolina's history Washington would be joined by her sister USS North Carolina, as well as South Dakota, Alabama, Indiana, and Massachusetts, in which all 5 battleships would bombard the island of Nauru, in January 1944, at which time Washington was assigned to TG 37.2, along with Bunker Hill and Monterey for the Marshals islands. While patrolling off Kwajalein the USS Indiana cut in front of Washington to go refuel a group of destroyers, causing the latter to ram the former and significantly damaging both ships, making it the second time Washington received damage due to another ship accidentally ramming another friendly ship, in which this case was direct.The Washington had some 200 ft (61 m) of her bow plating torn from her bow causing it to collapse and as a result of the ramming both vessels withdrew to Majuro for temporary repairs, Washington would have her bow reinforced to allow her sail to Pearl Harbor in order for better temporary repairs and was then sent to  Puget Sound Navy Yard for permanent repairs, this would also include as you may have guessed, another new set of screw which were installed in April and once again would fail to solve the vibration problem, that being said it did help the ship this time as the ship could now steam at high speed without significant issues, but vibration was still excessive at speeds between 17 and 20 knots which was better than nothing. Once the work was completed, the ship joined Battle Division 4 and took on a group of 500 passengers before departing for Pearl Harbor, she arrived there in mid may and disembarked the passengers and proceeding back to the fleet at Majuro. On arrival on 7 June, she resumed her service as now-Vice Admiral Lee's flagship. Soon after she would join to take part in assault on the Mariana Islands, she would be joined by 7 battleships in TG 58.7 distributed between 4 carrier groups, on June 13th she along with the other battleship would detach as a bombardment group, the carrier task force would then proceed to strike a number of islands, she would along with the rest of TF 58 would take part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After this and following another raid by friendly carriers Washington along with, Indiana, Alabama, the light cruiser Birmingham, and escorting destroyers were detached as TG 58.7 to proceed to Eniwetok and after arriving there on August 11th, the ships refueled and replenished ammunition and other supplies, remaining there for most of the month. Following this Washington would help prepare for the invasion of the Philippines as she continued her carrier escort duties.

                                                                             

TF 38 embarked on the raids to isolate the Philippines and suppress the units of the 1st Air Fleet in early October with the first major operation during this time being on Japanese air bases on the island of Okinawa, 4 days after the start of the campaign on October 10th. The next day TG 38.3 would refuel at sea and would then along with 3 other carrier groups, attack Taiwan, the fleet would then come under air attack the next day and on the 16th, a submarine reported observing a Japanese squadron consisting of three cruisers and eight destroyers to try to locate damaged Allied warships, TG 38.2 and TG 38.3 would be sent to find the squadron of japans warships but aircraft found and sunk only a torpedo boat. The next day two task groups withdrew to the south to cover the invasion of Leyte with the rest of TF 38 on the same day that elements of Sixth Army went ashore. Washington was during this time resigned to TG 38.4 in which she would find herself escorting the Enterprise again, the Essex class carrier USS Franklin, and the light carriers USS San Jacinto and USS Belleau Wood. Washington would along with Task force 34 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf would be lured up north chasing after the carrier decoy force  and Admiral Halsey would try send Lee's battleships to head south and intervene during the Battle off Samar however it would be hour until Admiral Chester W. Nimitz gave the order and Halsey detached the battleships Iowa and New Jersey however the ships sent south were delayed as the destroyers had to refuel and as a result would fail to intercept the Japanese fleet. 

                                                                             

After the battle, the units of TF 38 withdrew to Ulithi to replenish fuel and ammunition for further operations in the Philippines. The carrier task forces got underway again on 2 November for more strikes on the airfields on Luzon and the Visayas that continued until 14 November, when they withdrew again to Ulithi, arriving there three days later and Washington would be exchanged as flagship as Lee exchanged flagships with Rear Admiral Edward Hanson who had the very familiar South Dakota as his flagship. Washington would be reassigned to TG 38.3 and along with North Carolina and South Dakota sortied off the Philippines for gunnery training while the carriers were occupied attacking targets in the Philippines for the next 3 days. She arrived back in Ulithi in early December where the crew made repairs and loaded ammunition and stores in preparation future operations. She would then in mid December take part in a raid on the island of Mindoro in the western Philippines from the 14th to the 16th and on the 17th the fleet withdrew and then caught in Typhoon Cobra with the same result as North Carolina by the end of it. She would cover the carriers again when they attacked Taiwan again in early January and as a result the fleet would then attack Kamikaze aircraft massed at airfields on Luzon from January 6th and 7th, this was followed by the carrier group entering the South China Sea as mentioned previously only to find basically nothing thanks in part to the carriers efforts. She along with her sister USS North Carolina would then cover carriers in a number of raids in preparation for landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa as mentioned previously. With  the carriers Wasp and Franklin which were badly damaged by bombs, North Carolina had departed to escort them to safety and so Washington would continue shore bombardment in late March. Washington remained off Okinawa until late May, when she was detached for an overhaul. She proceeded first to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, arriving there at the beginning June, before departing for Puget Sound 5 days later on June 6th. While crossing the Pacific, she stopped in Guam and Pearl Harbor before finally arriving in Bremerton June in mid to late June. Her refit continued into September, by which time Japan had surrendered on August 15th and formally ended the war on 2nd of September, 1945.

                                                                             

After completing her refit in September, Washington conducted sea trials, followed by a short period of training while based in San Pedro, California before she went to Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to take part in Navy Day celebrations on 27 October. Following this she, like any warship in service in the US Navy took part in Operation Magic carpet, following this she was then assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, based in New York, where she remained through the 1950s. 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. These guns were then installed on the Iowa-class battleships when they were reactivated for the Korean War. Washington and the other battleships had their 20 mm batteries removed entirely by October 1951. Like North Carolina she was considered for modernization just like her but nothing would happen from this. The ship remained in the inventory until the beginning June 1960, when the ship was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. She was sold for scrap on 24 May 1961 and USS  Washington was towed to the Lipsett Division of Luria Brothers and scrapped.

 

Specifications

Displacement:

36,600 long tons (37,200 t) (standard)

44,800 long tons (45,500 t) (full load)

 

Length: 728 ft 8.625 in (222.113 m) overall

 

Beam: 108 ft 3.875 in (33.017 m) maximum

 

Draft: 35 ft 6 in (10.820 m) maximum

 

Installed power:

8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers

121,000 shp (90,000 kW)

 

Propulsion:

4 x General Electric geared turbines

4 × screws

 

Speed:

1941: 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)

1945: 26.8 knots (49.6 km/h; 30.8 mph) (Due to the increase in AA armament)

 

Range: 17,450 nmi (20,080 mi; 32,320 km) at 15 knots (17 mph; 28 km/h)

 

Crew:

108 officers

1,772 men

1,880 Total

 

Armament

Main armament:

9 × 16 in (406 mm)/45 caliber Mark 6 guns (3 x 3)

Secondary armamanet:

20 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber Mark 12 guns (10 x 2)

AA armament:

(As Built - Both)

16 x 1.1 in (28 mm) Chicago piano anti-aircraft guns (4 x 4)

12 to 18 x 12.7mm 0.50 cal Machine guns (12/18 x 1)

 

(1942) (North Carolina)

40 x 40mm Bofors (10 x 4)

46 x  20mm Oerlikon AA guns (46 x 1)

28 x 12.7mm 0.50 cal machine guns (28 x 1)

(1943) (North Carolina)

65 x 40mm Bofors (14 x 4 + 1 single mount)

46 x  20mm Oerlikon AA guns (46 x 1)

28 x 12.7mm 0.50 cal machine guns (28 x 1) 

(1944) (North Carolina)

65 x 40mm Bofors (14 x 4 + 1 single mount)

53 x 20mm Oerlikon AA guns (53 x 1)

28 x 12.7mm 0.50 cal machine guns (28 x 1) 

(1945)  (North Carolina)

65 x 40mm Bofors (14 x 4 + 1 single mount)

36 x 20mm Oerlikon AA guns (8 x 2 + 20 x 1)

28 x 12.7mm 0.50 cal machine guns (28 x 1) 

 

(1942) (Washington)

20 x 1.1 in (28 mm) Chicago piano anti-aircraft guns (6 x 4)

35 x 20mm Oerlikon AA guns

(1943) (Washington)

65 x 40mm Bofors (14 x 4 + 1 single mount)

64 x 20mm Oerlikon AA guns (64 x 1)

(1944) (Washington)

65 x 40mm Bofors (14 x 4 + 1 single mount)

67 x 20mm Oerlikon AA guns (63 x 1 + 1 x 4) 

(1945) (Washington)

65 x 40mm Bofors (14 x 4 + 1 single mount)

83 x 20mm Oerlikon AA guns (63 x 1 + 8 x 2 + 1 x 4) 

 

Armor: 

• 12" (305mm) belt tapering to 6" (152mm) below the waterline, sloped 15 degrees and backed by 0.75" (19mm) STS
• 3.75" to 2.2" (95mm to 56mm) patches over magazines sloped 15 degrees
• 4.1" to 3.6" + 1.4" (104mm to 91mm + 36mm) armor deck 
• 0.75" to 0.625" (19mm to 16mm) splinter deck
• 1.5" (38mm) bomb deck
• 11.1" (281mm) bulkheads tapering to 1.9" (48mm)
• 14.9"/11.1"/6" (378mm/282mm/152mm) steering belt/bulkheads/crown
• 16"/7"/9.8"/11.8" (406mm/178mm/249mm/300mm) turret front/roof/side/rear
• 16"/14.7"/11.5" (406mm/373mm/292mm) barbette beam/front/rear
• 1.95" (59mm) STS secondary battery
• 16"/14.7"/7" (406mm/373mm/178mm) conning tower beam/centerline/roof
• 5 layer bulkhead: void-liquid-liquid-liquid-void torpedo protection (0.44", 0.75", 0.625", 0.375" and 0.375" or 11mm, 19mm, 16mm, 10mm and 10mm mild steel bulkheads from inboard to outboard) designed to withstand a 700 lb (318 kg) explosive charge

 

Aircraft carried:

• 2 to 3 Vought OS2U Kingfisher or Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk

 

Sources:

Spoiler

http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/N/o/North_Carolina_class.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina-class_battleship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_North_Carolina_(BB-55)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Washington_(BB-56)

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/North_Carolina-class_battleship

https://www.navypedia.org/ships/usa/us_bb_ncarolina.htm

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/North_Carolina-class_battleship

Image Sources:

Spoiler

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/North_Carolina-class_battleship

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Washington_(BB-56)_launching_ceremony,_1_June_1940.jpg

https://www.historycentral.com/navy/battle/NC.html

https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/us-navy/north-carolina/uss-north-carolina-refueling/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/536491374334075113/

https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/us-navy/washington/battleship-washington/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/68736693419/

https://www.reddit.com/r/WarshipPorn/comments/hhk2jj/the_evolution_of_us_battleship_armour_from_north/

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by de Radio Demon@live

[ItssLuBu 1,803]

Approved and open for discussion. 

[Milocat 4,857]

+2, great battleships to add to the U.S. naval tree.

[oom1992 649]

+1 OK, So I just found USS North Carolina (BB-55) she's first battleship WW2 from USA navy before japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in december same year

Edited February 24, 2023 by oom1992

[Taxcollector5 1]

approve tbf i grinded the american tree just in anticipation for this and i hope its under the alaska line(i think it will 

[Fireraid233 4,275]

These are gonna be very powerful especially that AA +1