World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseUSS Alabama was launched at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, United States in Feb 1942, three months after the US entered WW2. She was commissioned into service in Aug of the same year. She held her shakedown cruise in the Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of the United States in late 1942 and held training operations off Casco Bay, Maine, United States in early 1943. She departed the United States in Apr 1943 for Britain alongside of her sister ship USS South Dakota, joining the British Royal Navy Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland, United Kingdom on 19 May. After a period of training, she covered the landing of Allied troops on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, situated on the border between the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Sea, in Jun 1943. In the following month, she participated in Operation Governor which aimed to draw German attention toward southern Norway while the Allied forces prepared for the actual target of Sicily, Italy. On 1 Aug, she was detached from the Royal Navy and began sailing for the United States, arriving in Norfolk 8 days later.

ww2dbaseAfter a scheduled overhaul at Norfolk, USS Alabama sailed for the South Pacific, arriving in the New Hebrides by Sep 1943, in time to participate the invasions of Gilbert Islands; she provided anti-aircraft fire for fleet carriers and provided gunfire support for the landings at Tarawa Atoll and Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. After a very brief time in the drydock at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for a scheduled overhaul, she returned to the South Pacific in late Jan 1944 and joined the fleet that supported the invasion of Marshall Islands. On 16 and 17 Feb, she escorted US carriers as their carrier aircraft raided the Japanese naval base at Truk, Caroline Islands. From Truk, the fleet sailed toward Mariana Islands, where the carrier aircraft raided Japanese positions on Tinian, Saipan, and Guam. In early Mar 1944, she temporarily served, for the period of five days, as the flagship of Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher of the US Navy Fast Carrier Task Force. In late Mar and early Apr, she supported carrier raids on several Caroline Islands bases. Later in Apr, she supported landings in the northern coast of Australian New Guinea and Dutch New Guinea. On 12 Jun, USS Alabama provided defense for US carriers while the carrier aircraft struck Japanese positions on Saipan in the Mariana Islands; on the following day, she bombarded Saipan with her guns for six hours in an attempt to soften the shore defenses prior to the amphibious assault which was to take place on 15 Jun. On 19 Jun 1944, her radar picked up incoming enemy aircraft, but it was initially thought to be inaccurate; in the ensuing Battle of the Philippine Sea, later nicknamed "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" by the Americans, she would play a minor role, firing sporadically on Japanese aircraft that broke through the perimeter defenses. In Jul and then Sep, she escorted carriers during the Guam of Mariana Islands and Palau, Ulithi, and Yap of Caroline Islands actions. Between Sep and Nov 1944, she escorted US carriers as carrier aircraft struck Japanese positions across the Philippine Islands. She saw a brief period of respite from fighting in early Dec at Ulithi, Caroline Islands, conducting training exercises. She departed Ulithi on 10 Dec and resumed her station alongside carriers off Luzon, Philippine Islands by 14 Dec. USS Alabama returned to the United States in Jan 1945, spending time at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington through Mar 1945 for repairs. After a period of training off southern California, United States, she returned to the South Pacific in late Apr 1945 to support the Okinawa, Japan invasion that was already in progress. During the night of 17 to 18 Jul, she bombarded industrial targets in the Hitachi-Mito area 13 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, Japan.

ww2dbaseWhen the Pacific War ended, USS Alabama was underway south of Japan. Her Marines detachment, supported by sailors, assisted in the occupation of the Yokosuka-Tokyo area of Japan. She departed Japanese waters in Sep, bringing home US servicemen from Japanese Home Islands and Okinawa to San Francisco, California, United States, arriving on 15 Oct. She underwent deactivation overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and was decommissioned in Jan 1947. She was a part of the Bremerton Group of the United States Pacific Reserve Fleet until 1962 when she was struck from the US Naval Register. She was turned over to the government of the state of Alabama, United States to be operated as a museum ship, and the battleship began her life in that capacity starting in 1965 at Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile, Alabama, United States, where she still remains today.

Battleship Alabama (BB-60) Interactive Map

Photographs

Alabama Operational Timeline

Visitor Submitted Comments

Show older comments

6.  C. Peter Chen says:
9 Oct 2017 07:31:13 AM

Anonymous of 8 Oct 2017 -- Thank you, the particular entry's date has been corrected to 25 Oct 1944.

8.  C. Peter Chen says:
17 Jul 2018 08:53:57 AM

Michael Hanks Kierum: Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It should be listed as 406-mm (16-in). The error has been corrected.