Pennsylvania-class battleship
The Pennsylvania-class battleships were built for the United States Navy just before the First World War. The ships were named Pennsylvania and Arizona, after the American states of the same names. The class was the second standard type battleship class to join the US Navy, along with the preceding Nevada and the succeeding New Mexico, Tennessee and Colorado classes. The Nevadas were also the first American battleships to use exclusively oil fuel.
About Pennsylvania-class battleship in brief
The Pennsylvania-class battleships were built for the United States Navy just before the First World War. The ships were named Pennsylvania and Arizona, after the American states of the same names. The class was the second standard type battleship class to join the US Navy, along with the preceding Nevada and the succeeding New Mexico, Tennessee and Colorado classes. They were the first in the world to employ the \”all or nothing\” armor scheme that characterized every succeeding American battleship. Pennsylvania was severely damaged by a torpedo on 12 August 1945, two days before the cessation of hostilities. With minimal repairs, it was used in Operation Crossroads, part of the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, before being expended as a target ship in 1948. The Nevadas were also the first American battleships to use exclusively oil fuel, which had greater thermal efficiency than coal sprayed with coal or oil. The Navy’s General Board asked for triple gun turrets, i. e., three guns mounted per turret, in the design of the Nevada class. The decision to go ahead with the turret was a calculated gamble, but proved to be a qualified success; the only issue came with shell interference when the center and outside guns were fired simultaneously, which was easily solved by delaying the firing of the center barrel by a small fraction of a second. The first turret was authorized in 1911 and would not be ready until months after contracts for the new ships would be signed with the shipbuilders. The second turret was first proposed in American professional magazines in 1901 and briefly considered for the South Carolinas, but it was not even in the experimental stage.
The third turret was approved in 1911, but the first was not ready until after the contract was signed with shipbuilders for the Pennsylvania class was signed. The last battle ever between battleships was the Battle of Surigao Strait, but did not engage. Both ships were present during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the U.S. into the Second World War, and were used as shore bombardment ships for most of the remainder of the war. In service, the Pennsylvaniaclass saw limited use as a shortage of oil fuel in the United Kingdom meant that only the coal-burning ships of Battleship Division Nine were sent. Both were sent across the Atlantic to France after the war for the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, and then transferred to the Pacific Fleet before being significantly modernized from 1929 to 1931. In the 1930s, the ships were used in exercises and fleet problems. The Nevada class represented a marked increase in the US’ dreadnought technology, with two additional 14-inch 45 caliber guns and improved underwater protection. By removing gun turrets and reducing the overall protected length of the ship, the navy’s designers were able to devote the weight savings to the belt, as well as extra deck armor to protect against plunging shells. Within the Navy’s Repair Bureau of Construction and Repair, the loss of bunkers were employed as a few parts of the armor, which met the unfortunate side effects of higher height and lower center of gravity.
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This page is based on the article Pennsylvania-class battleship published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
