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USS ''Texas'' (BB-35), the second ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the U.S. state of Texas, is a . The ship was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914. Soon after her commissioning, ''Texas'' saw action in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I. When the United States formally entered World War II in 1941, ''Texas'' escorted war convoys across the Atlantic, and later shelled Axis-held beaches for the North African campaign and the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theater late in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. ''Texas'' was decommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II, and is now a museum ship near Houston, Texas. Among the world's remaining battleships, ''Texas'' is notable for being the only remaining WW1 era dreadnought battleship, though she is not the oldest surviving battleship; , a pre-dreadnought battleship ordered in 1898 by the Empire of Japan, and HMS Victory, launched 1765 (Nelson's Flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar) are both older than ''Texas''. She is also noteworthy for being one of only six remaining ships to have served in both World Wars.〔〔The other five surviving vessels that hold the distinction of serving in both World Wars are the ''Medea'', which served both the French Navy and Royal Navy, British Monitor , the British light cruiser , the Greek armored cruiser ''Georgios Averof'' and the ''Drazki'', a Bulgarian torpedo boat.〕 Among US-built battleships, ''Texas'' is notable for her sizable number of firsts: the first US Navy vessel to house a permanently assigned contingent of US Marines, the first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first US ship to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers (analog forerunners of today's computers), the first US battleship to launch an aircraft,〔 from a catapult on Turret 3, one of the first to receive the CXAM-1 version of CXAM production radar in the US Navy,〔CXAM was the first non-experimental, non-prototype radar system developed by the US Navy. It was produced in small numbers for the US Navy and installed aboard certain capital ships, including battleships, heavy cruisers, and aircraft carriers. An upgraded version (CXAM-1) would later be installed aboard other US Navy vessels, including a few ships that carried the original version.〕 the first US battleship to become a permanent museum ship,〔The first steel battleship to become a permanent museum ship was ''Mikasa''; the first US battleship to become a museum ship was . However, ''Oregon'' was placed on loan to the state of Oregon and at the outbreak of World War II she was offered back into service and later sunk and scrapped. As a result, ''Texas'' is the first permanent US battleship museum ship.〕 and the first battleship declared to be a US National Historic Landmark.〔See List of U.S. National Historic Landmark ships, shipwrecks, and shipyards for documentation that ''Texas'' is the first declared National Historic Landmark.〕 ==Construction== ''Texas'' was the first〔 of two ''New York''-class battleships authorized on 24 June 1910. Bids for ''Texas'' were accepted from 27 September to 1 December with the winning bid of $5,830,000—excluding the price of armor and armament—submitted by Newport News Shipbuilding Company. The contract was signed on 17 December and the plans were delivered to the building yard seven days later. ''Texas''s keel was laid down on 17 April 1911 at Newport News, Virginia. She was launched on 18 May 1912, sponsored by Miss Claudia Lyon, daughter of Colonel Cecil Lyon, Republican national committeeman from Texas. The ship was commissioned on 12 March 1914 with Captain Albert W. Grant in command.〔〔 ''Texas''s main battery consisted of ten 14 inch/45 cal (356 mm) Mark 1 guns, which could fire armor piercing〔 〕 shells to a range of . Her secondary battery consisted of twenty-one 5 inch/51 cal (127 mm)guns. She also mounted four 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes for the Bliss-Leavitt Mark 8 torpedo, two on each side of the 2nd Platform at frames 32 and 34.5. The torpedo rooms held 12 torpedoes total, plus 12 naval defense mines.〔Friedman, p. 436〕 ''Texas'' and her sister were the only battleships to store and hoist their 14-inch (356 mm) ammunition in cast-iron cups, nose-down.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Texas (BB-35)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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