Battleships: North Carolina Class

[designeraccd]

NORTH CAROLINA's camo in '44 and '45........ DFO

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Fast Battleship USS North Carolina pictured undergoing battle damage repairs and new AA installations at Pearl Harbor on November 15th 1942.

[Brian James]

North Carolina Class Fast Battleship USS Washington pictured escorting Convoy PQ-17 in 1942..On June 27th 1942, the ships sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, for the port of Arkhangalesk in the Soviet Union. The convoy was located by German forces on July 1st, after which it was shadowed continuously and attacked. The First Sea Lord Admiral Dudley Pound, acting on information that German surface units, including German Battleship Tirpitz, were moving to intercept, ordered the covering force built around the Allied Battleships HMS Duke of York and the USS Washington away from the convoy and told the convoy to scatter. Because of vacillation by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, German armed forces high command), the Tirpitz raid never materialised. The convoy was the first large joint Anglo-American naval operation under British command; in Churchill's view this encouraged a more careful approach to fleet movements. As the close escort and the covering Cruiser forces withdrew westwards to intercept the German raiders, the merchant ships were left without escorts. The merchant ships were attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft and U-Boats and of the 35 ships, only eleven reached their destination, delivering 70,000 short tons of cargo. The convoy disaster demonstrated the difficulty of passing adequate supplies through the Arctic, especially during the summer midnight sun. The German success was possible through German signals intelligence and cryptological analysis.

[Brian James]

Part of Task Force 38.3, Kennebec Class Oiler USS Neches pictured refueling Lead Ship, Battleship North Carolina, South China Sea on November 30th 1944.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Fast Battleship US North Carolina pictured anchored off Puget Sound Navy Yard on September 24th 1944.

[designeraccd]

WASHINGTON off Iceland in 1942. DFO

[Brian James]

North Carolina Class Fast Battleship USS Washington pictured off New York on August 21st 1942.

[Brian James]

North Carolina Class Fast Battleship USS Washington makes heavy work of the swell..c1942.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Fast Battleship USS North Carolina pictured at Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1941.