New Mexico class battleship

The New Mexico class battleships of the United States Navy, all three of whose construction began in 1915, were improvements on the design introduced three years earlier with the Nevada class.

The twelve-gun main battery of the preceding Pennsylvania class was retained, but with longer 14-inch (356 mm) 50-caliber guns in improved triple turrets. Hull design was also upgraded with a "clipper" bow for better seakeeping and a sleeker look. One ship, the New Mexico, was fitted with turbo-electric propulsion.

Though eight secondary batteries were located in very wet bow and stern positions and were soon removed, the rest of the ships' 5-inch (127 mm) guns were mounted in the superstructure, a great improvement over the earlier arrangements.

Class history

Completed during and soon after World War I, the New Mexicos were active members of the Battle Fleet during the decades between the World Wars. All were rebuilt between 1931 and 1934, receiving entirely new superstructures, modern controls for their guns, new engines and improved protection against air and surface attack. Anti-torpedo "bulges" increased their width to 106 feet 3 inches (32.39 m) and displacement went up by a thousand tons or more.

The New Mexico class was part of the "Standard type battleship" concept of the U.S. Navy, a design concept which gave the US Navy a homogeneous line of battle (very important, as it allowed the Navy to plan maneuvers for the whole line of battle rather than detaching "fast wing"s and "slow wing"s). The "Standard" concept included long-range gunnery, moderate speed of 21 knots (39 km/h), a tight tactical radius of 700 yards (640 m) and improved damage control. The other Standards were the Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Colorado classes.

In order to counter the German threat, these ships, operating together as Battleship Division 3, were transferred from the Pacific to the Atlantic in 1941, leaving the Pacific Fleet inferior in battleship strength to the Japanese Navy. Sent back to the Pacific after the Pearl Harbor Raid devastated the Pacific Fleet's battle line, they were active in the war with Japan until final victory was achieved in August 1945. Their heavy guns provided vital assistance to the many amphibious invasions that marked the Pacific conflict, and Mississippi took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last time in history that battleships fought each other. New Mexico and Idaho were disposed of soon after the war ended, but Mississippi was converted to a training and weapons trials ship and served for another decade. The Navy's first generation of ship-launched guided missiles, the replacements for most of the guns that had long been the focus of her career, first went to sea aboard this old former battleship.

Ships in class

• USS New Mexico (BB-40)
• USS Mississippi (BB-41)
• USS Idaho (BB-42)

See also

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:New_Mexico_class_battleships New Mexico class battleships] at Wikimedia Commons

Notes

References

Initially based on the public domain article published by the Department of the Navy's Naval Historical Center

• Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-907-3. OCLC 12119866.