USS Alabama

The USS Alabama was a a BB-60 battleship most notoriously known for its use in WWII for its aid in helping to take Japanese-held islands in the Pacific during the years of 1943-1945. The ship itself was an 80 million dollar project weighing approximately 45,000 tons and having a length of 680 feet. However, despite how bulky the ship was it was still able to reach a top speed of approximately 28 knots or 32 mph. The battleship came prepared to take Japanese islands as well as it held about 129 main guns on board with armor that is approximately 1 foot thick. Most of the weapons on board served the purpose of providing bombardment to the shore and also for anti-aircraft defense for aircraft carriers nearby. The ship also was able to carry 7,000 tons of fuel and when fully fueled it was able to have a range of about 15,000 nautical miles (1 nautical mile = 1.15078). The USS Alabama was notorious for participating in battles within WWII such as the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the capture and occupation of Guam, and also additional attacks on Palau, Yap, and Ulithi in the Western Caroline Islands.

The USS Alabama did have quite the lifetime while it was in operation. It originally launched at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, Untied States in February 1942 approximately three months after the US had entered WWII. The USS Alabama would later depart the US however in 1943 for Britain alongside her sister ship, the USS South Dakota, and would join the British Royal Navy Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland at the United Kingdom. The USS Alabama participated in several operations to draw out German soldiers as well such as Operation Governor, which was directed towards drawing German attention toward Norway while Allied forces would prepare for the real attack on Sicily, Italy. Later the USS Alabama also participated in escorting US carriers across the Philippines between September and November 1944. Later after shortly returning to the US for repairs the USS Alabama soon participated in the Okinawa, Japan invasion that was already occurring during late April of 1945. Soon after the Pacific war had ended the USS Alabama was decommissioned in 1947 and was then turned over to the government of the state of Alabama. Over its lifetime, the USS Alabama has earned about 9 battle stars due to the service and successful missions it has completed. Now it stands as a museum at USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park as a form of US history.

"USS Alabama Battleship." USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. 2017. Accessed March 1st 2021. http://www.ussalabama.com/explore/uss-alabama-battleship/.

USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park offers numerous amounts of information on the USS Alabama, which allows for the reader to gain a full understanding on why this warship is such a remarkable piece of U.S. history. The park offers information such as the ships statistics, which include speed in knots, weight when fully loaded, range, crew, Armament, etc. The Memorial Park website offers the ability to view the full history of the warship, which is a document of everything that occurred on the USS Alabama. This source will be helpful for research because it offers tons of history on the USS Alabama and practically every event that occurred on the warship.

Hickman, Kennedy. World War II: USS Alabama (BB-60), ThoughtCo.. August 5th 2019. Accessed February 28th 2021. https://www.thoughtco.com/uss-alabama-bb-60-2361283.

Hickman's Article on the USS Alabama offers a different variety of information on the battleship as it discusses the design and construction of the warship rather than mainly focusing on its history. On top of this, the source also goes on to give more detail on how the ship was used throughout WWII such as it being able to provide naval gunfire support to troops on shores. This source will be helpful for research as it offers a new branch of information rather than just history and it also explores more of the ways the ship was used in WWII.

Tunnell, Bill. USS Alabama (BB-60), Encyclopedia of Alabama. November 5th 2018. Accessed March 25th 2021. http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2958.

Tunnell's article on the USS Alabama provides valuable information on the actual workings of the ship as well as information on the dimensions etc. This type of information will be useful to the investigation as it allows for a more in-depth analysis on how the ship was used during WWII.

American Heritage. USS Alabama Battleship, American Heritage. 2021. Accessed March 26th 2021. https://www.americanheritage.com/content/uss-alabama-battleship.

American Heritage offers similar information to that of Tunnell's article however, it also goes to list some facts about the ship that no other sources presented, which adds some value to the investigation. The source is descriptive of the ship and gives specific detail on the workings of it and how operational the ship actually is.

Chen, C. Peter . Alabama, World War II Database. July 17th 2018. Accessed March 31st 2021. https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=795.

Chen's article offers a more in-depth analysis to the battles that the USS Alabama actually faced as the article is that of a WWII database marking down most if not all the events that the USS Alabama went through. This is important to the investigation as it opens up the history of the ship and allows for one to analyze and see if the ship was actually used to its full potential, how it was used, etc.