The Nevada (BB-36) and her ill-fated sister ship Oklahoma (BB-37) were the first U.S. Navy battleships designed to the “all or nothing” theory of armoring, wherein the vital portions of the ship were protected by the maximum possible thickness of armor, leaving the ends of the hull and other non-essential areas basically unprotected. Thus, out of a total designed full-load displacement of 28,400 tons, the pair carried no less than 11,162 tons of armor, as compared to the 8,120 tons of the preceding New York class.
The Nevada differed from her sister in having twin-screw geared steam-turbine propulsion, while the Oklahoma used heavier but less expensive reciprocating steam engines; both employed oil fuel for their dozen boilers.
Authorized by Congress for construction on 4 March 1911, the Nevada was ordered for $5,926,000 from the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., Quincy, Massachusetts, and was laid down on 4 November 1912. She was launched on 11 July 1914 shortly before the outbreak of World War I, and commissioned on 11 March 1916. Her first commanding officer, Captain William S. Sims, later commanded U.S. Navy forces in Europe during U.S. participation in the conflict. Although on joining the Allied cause in April 1917 the United States originally sent only older, coal-burning dreadnought battleships to augment the British Grand Fleet, the newer and more powerful Nevada arrived on 28 August 1918 at Bantry Bay, Ireland, to assist. She saw no combat, however, and departed for home waters on 11 December 1918 to begin more than two decades of peacetime service.
The Nevada’s main battery incorporated two twin 618-ton and two triple 748-ton 14-inch/45-caliber gun turrets. Each gun weighed some 135,803 pounds and was capable of hurling a 1,500-pound shell 34,300 yards at the maximum elevation of 30 degrees. The armored faces of the twin turrets were 16 inches thick, while those on the triples were 2 inches thicker to provide greater support for the extra gun. All guns in each turret elevated together, with the center guns in the triple turrets fitted with a firing delay to reduce blast interference between the projectiles when all guns were salvoed together. The turrets had 10-inch sides and 5-inch roofs, while their supporting barbettes had 13.5-inch armor all around.
The original secondary gun battery was 21 5-inch/51-caliber low-angle guns arranged in unarmored casemates on the main deck forward and on the first platform from amidships to the stem, with one gun on the centerline at the very stem. All the 5-inch positions were wet, and by 1922 the number had been reduced to 12, with the forwardmost pair of casemates and all on the first platform plated up. By then, the ship also had eight single 3-inch/50-caliber antiaircraft guns, and retained her original two 21- inch submerged torpedo tubes.
The class’s 13.5-inch thick, 17.5-feet high main armor belt extended some 400 feet along the sides of the ship’s 583-foot overall length. It extended 8.5 feet below the waterline, where it tapered to 8 inch thickness. The massive armored conning tower had 16-inch armor, and 3-inch and 1.5-inch protective decks were within the hull and 2-inch sloped decks at the bow and stem.
By the mid-1920s, however, it had become evident that U.S. battleships were vulnerable to plunging projectiles fired at long ranges and also lacked adequate torpedo protection. Battleships BB-30 through BB-46 were earmarked for modernization with improved structural defenses in the order of their construction. The Nevada received a major reconstruction at the Norfolk Navy Yard from 27 April 1927 to 26 November 1929. Her armor defenses were upgraded by the addition of 80-pound plate to the 3-inch second deck, while antitorpedo bulges increased her beam from the original 95 feet 2.5 inches to 107 feet 11 inches and increasing her draft to 32.5 feet at her new 32,650-ton full-load displacement. The original boilers were replaced by six more-efficient Bureau Express models, and the characteristic cage masts gave way to two heavy tripods to support new fire-control equipment.
Of the remaining dozen 5-inch/51- caliber guns, ten were moved up one deck and the other two remained in the open, flanking the conning tower, while the 3-inch antiaircraft guns were replaced by eight single 5-inch/25-caliber weapons. The torpedo tubes were removed, and by the mid-1930s, eight water-cooled .50-caliber machine guns had been added to augment antiaircraft defenses. Two compressed-air aircraft catapults were installed, one on the fantail and one atop X-turret. The rebuilt Nevada could now steam at 21 knots and had a crew complement of 66 officers, 12 warrants, and 1,183 enlisted.
The Nevada was the only one of the eight battleships present to get underway during the 7 December 1941 attack at Pearl Harbor, although she had been hit by one Japanese aerial torpedo and two or three bombs. After a second torpedo hit, the sinking ship was grounded off Hospital Point in the channel entrance to the base; she had suffered 50 killed and 109 injured. Refloated on 12 February 1942, the Nevada underwent initial repairs at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard and in May was moved under her own power to Puget Sound Navy Yard for further repairs and a second major modernization.
Her 5- and 3-inch gun batteries were replaced by eight twin 5-inch/38-caliber MK 30 dual-purpose gun mounts. Further air-attack protection was provided by eight quadruple Bofors mounts, and, initially, 38 single 20-mm Oerlikon guns, which replaced the inadequate machine guns.
By the end of the war, two additional quadruple 40-mm mounts had been added, and the 20-mm battery consisted of 20 twin MK 24 and five single MK 10 mounts. In addition, she received four radar-equipped MK 37 fire-control direction systems for the 5-inch guns, two MK 8 radars to provide target ranges for the main battery, and MK 51 lead-computing directors for the 40-mm and 5-inch batteries. The ship’s final operational displacement reached 34,757 tons, and her augmented crew eventually included 106 officers and 2,060 enlisted; her maximum sustained speed dropped to just over 19 knots.
The rebuilt Nevada first encountered action in the Aleutians from 11 to 18 May 1943 when, along with the Pennsylvania (BB-38) and Idaho (BB-42) she provided 14-inch fire during the retaking of Attu from the Japanese. After further upgrading at Norfolk Navy Yard from June to September 1943, the battleship saw major action along the Cherbourg Peninsula during the Normandy invasion in June 1944, when her shells pounded targets as far as 17 miles inland. Although undamaged during the actions, she was straddled some 27 times by German shore artillery. The Nevada’s guns next saw action during the invasion of southern France from 15 August to 25 September 1944, during which she traded fire with German shore positions that mounted 13.5-inch guns removed from scuttled French battleships.
After a further refit, the Nevada returned to the Pacific, arriving off Iwo Jima on 16 February 1945 and providing fire support until 7 March. On 24 March, the ship began a prolonged period of bombarding targets on Okinawa, where she was hit by a kamikaze aircraft on 27 March, with 11 killed, and experienced minor damage from five Japanese artillery shells on 4 May. Repaired at Pearl Harbor, the Nevada saw her final combat between 7 July and 7 August with the Third Fleet off the Japanese home islands, where her 14-inch guns were used against shore targets. During her 1944 and 1945 regunnings, the Nevada was fitted with replacement 14-inch guns salvaged from her sister Oklahoma and the Arizona, thus, in effect, giving those ships a bit of revenge as the guns were fired against Japan near the end of the war.
After brief duty during the occupation of Japan, the battleship returned to Pearl Harbor, where she was stripped of her 40-mm and 20-mm armament and painted a brilliant orange (except on the fantail, which remained in deck blue) in preparation for use as a target for the Operation Crossroads nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. During Event Able on 1 July 1946, the ship was to have been the aiming point for a 21-kiloton bomb dropped by the U.S. Army Air Forces’ B-29 bomber “Dave’s Dream” and detonated at 520-feet altitude. The weapon, however, missed by more than 1,500 yards and did little damage to the battleship and most other large ships in the area. During Event Baker on 25 July, a second 21-kiloton bomb was exploded 90 feet beneath the target fleet, and again the Nevada experienced little structural damage, although she was rendered radioactive. After an initial radiological cleanup, the battleship’s hulk was towed by the salvage ship Preserver (ARS-8) to Kwajalein, where she was officially decommissioned on 29 August 1946. Towed to Pearl Harbor for radiological studies, the Nevada was finally disposed of as a gunnery target on 31 July 1948 some 65 nautical miles southwest of Pearl Harbor. The battleship had earned seven Battle Stars for her World War II service.
The author thanks Christopher C. Wright and Norman Friedman for their assistance in the preparation of this article.