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USS ''Washington'' (BB-56), the second of two battleships in the , was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 42nd state. Her keel was laid down on 14 June 1938 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Launched on 1 June 1940, ''Washington'' went through fitting-out before being commissioned on 15 May 1941 with Captain Howard H. J. Benson in command. In early 1942, ''Washington'' and twenty other American ships were the first to be equipped with fully operational radar.〔 She has the distinction of being the only American battleship to sink an enemy battleship during World War II in a "one on one" surface engagement.〔Hornfischer p. 366〕 ''Washington'' suffered no losses to hostile action during the entire course of the war, although she had some close calls: she was almost hit by "Long Lance" torpedoes off Guadalcanal, and was hit once by enemy ordnance, a 5-inch shell〔Metric conversions for armaments: , , 〕 that passed through her radar antenna without detonation. In 1942, she was sent to the North Atlantic to fill in for British ships that had been redeployed around Madagascar. She was assigned to guard against a possible sortie by the German battleship , and to provide distant cover for several Iceland–Murmansk convoys. In July, she returned to the United States for an overhaul before being deployed to the Pacific in August for action against Imperial Japan, where she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Willis Augustus Lee. Two months after her arrival at Tonga in September 1942, ''Washington'' was tasked with intercepting a Japanese naval task force near Guadalcanal along with and four destroyers. In the ensuing battle, ''South Dakota'' was severely damaged, but ''Washington'' sustained almost no damage while her guns sank the battleship and the destroyer ''Ayanami''. ''Washington'' operated as an escort for aircraft carrier task forces for most of 1943, and then bombarded Nauru in December in company with five other battleships. Around dawn on 1 February 1944, ''Washington'' rammed the battleship and incurred several fatalities when the latter was maneuvering across the formation to refuel destroyers. With around of her bow heavily damaged, ''Washington'' was forced to retire. The Pearl Harbor shipyards fitted the battleship with a temporary bow; a full restoration had to wait until the ship docked in the Puget Sound Navy Yard. ''Washington'' arrived back in the war zone only in mid-1944. She took part in bombarding Saipan and Tinian before joining the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where the Japanese Combined Fleet's aircraft were decisively defeated by American sea-based fighters and anti-aircraft fire. For the rest of the war, ''Washington'' alternated between shore bombardment and carrier escort, including direct support in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. On 1 July 1945, the battleship headed for the United States for a badly needed overhaul. She entered the Puget Sound Navy Yard and did not emerge until October, after the end of the war. She sailed to Philadelphia, participating in Navy Day celebrations there, before her assignment to Operation Magic Carpet, the withdrawal of American military personnel from overseas deployments. ''Washington'' was decommissioned on 27 June 1947, stricken on 1 June 1960, and sold for scrapping on 24 May 1961. == Construction and commissioning == :''For further information, see '' ''Washington'' and sister ship were both authorized in January 1937. Five shipyards, including three private corporations (Bethlehem Shipbuilding, New York Shipbuilding, and Newport News Shipbuilding), and two naval shipyards (Philadelphia and Brooklyn, New York) tendered bids to build the ships. As the government-owned yards had significantly lower bids, the Navy assigned ''North Carolina'' to Brooklyn and ''Washington'' to Philadelphia.〔Muir, "Gun Calibers and Battle Zones", 28〕 ''Washington''s keel was laid on 14 June 1938 in Philadelphia's Slipway No. 3, and the hull was launched on 1 June 1940, the first battleship launched in the United States since 1921. After a near debacle during the launch of the destroyer , when a merchant ship did not heed the warnings of the Coast Guard, the Delaware River was closed for around the site of ''Washington''s launch. This had the added—or primary—benefit of clearing the river to deprive potential spies of photographic and other information on the ships. Other efforts to prevent any photos included air patrols above the slipway, state police across the river, and the exclusion of any person who could not produce proper credentials. Still, 25,000 attended the ceremony and heard a speech by Senator David I. Walsh, the chairman of the Senate's Committee on Naval Affairs. ''Washington'' was sponsored and christened by 15-year-old Virginia Marshall (a direct descendant of former Chief Justice John Marshall), who broke a bottle of champagne over the bow as the ship slid into the water. Immediately after, tugboats pushed the incomplete ship into a nearby drydock for fitting-out. The main guns were installed during this time after being transported from the Washington Navy Yard on two barges towed by . Soon after being completed, ''Washington'' was commissioned into the United States Navy on 15 May 1941.〔Muir, "Gun Calibers and Battle Zones", 30〕〔Garzke and Dulin, ''Battleships'', 41〕〔Davies, "35,000-Ton Addition To Navy Launched"〕 ''Washington'' was long, wide, and had a maximum draft. The ship was powered by eight Babcock & Wilcox three-drum express-type boilers driving four sets of General Electric geared turbines. These were nominally rated at 121,000 shaft horsepower (shp) to four propellers, giving the ship a top speed of roughly . At the more economical , ''Washington'' could steam for .〔Garzke and Dulin, ''Battleships'', 62, 65〕 ''Washington''s main battery was composed of nine 16"/45 caliber Mark 6 guns arranged in three turrets;〔 two superfiring turrets were located near the bow, while the third was at the stern. Secondary armament included dual purpose 5"/38 caliber Mark 12 guns, arranged all around the superstructure, and greatly varying numbers of 1.1"/75 caliber guns, Browning .50 caliber machine guns, and Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm autocannons.〔Garzke and Dulin, ''Battleships'', 63〕〔Friedman, ''U.S. Battleships'', 276〕 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 Washington (BB-56)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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