Figure 1: USS West Virginia (BB-48) photographed in March 1926 while anchored with other ships of the US Fleet. An Omaha class light cruiser is in the right distance, with destroyers beyond. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS West Virginia (BB-48) in San Francisco Bay, California, circa 1934. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. Torpedo planes attack "Battleship Row" at about 0800 on 7 December, seen from a Japanese aircraft. Ships are, from lower left to right: Nevada (BB-36) with flag raised at stern; Arizona (BB-39) with Vestal (AR-4) outboard; Tennessee (BB-43) with West Virginia (BB-48) outboard; Maryland (BB-46) with Oklahoma (BB-37) outboard; Neosho (AO-23) and California (BB-44). West Virginia, Oklahoma and California have been torpedoed, as marked by ripples and spreading oil, and the first two are listing to port. Torpedo drop splashes and running tracks are visible at left and center. White smoke in the distance is from Hickam Field. Gray smoke in the center middle distance is from the torpedoed USS Helena (CL-50), at the Navy Yard's 1010 dock. Japanese writing in lower right states that the image was reproduced by authorization of the Navy Ministry. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. USS West Virginia (BB-48) is on fire forward, immediately after the Japanese air attack. USS Tennessee (BB-43) is on the sunken battleship's opposite side. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. Sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor from the water alongside the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48) during or shortly after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor. USS Tennessee (BB-43) is inboard of the sunken battleship. Note extensive distortion of West Virginia's lower midships superstructure, caused by torpedoes that exploded below that location. Also note 5-inch gun, still partially covered with canvas, boat crane swung outboard and empty boat cradles near the smokestacks, and base of radar antenna atop West Virginia's foremast. Note: This is a color-tinted version of a US Navy photograph. It is not an actual color photograph. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. USS Tern (AM-31) fighting fires aboard the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48), on 7 December 1941, immediately after the Japanese raid. Note radar antenna, paravanes and 16-inch twin gun turrets on the battleship. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. Fighting fires on the sunken battleship West Virginia (BB-48), 7 December 1941. The garbage lighter YG-17 is at right, with her crewmen playing two fire hoses at the flames. Assisting or standing by are a motor launch and an officer's motorboat.USS Tennessee (BB-48) is inboard of West Virginia. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: Pearl Harbor Raid, December 1941. USS Tennessee (BB-43), at left, alongside the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48), photographed from the capsized hull of USS Oklahoma (BB-37) on 10 December 1941, three days after the Japanese raid. The mainmast of USS Arizona (BB-39) is visible in the right distance. Collection of Vice Admiral Homer N. Wallin. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS West Virginia (BB-48) approaching dry dock at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on 8 June 1942. She entered Drydock Number One on the following day, just over six months after she was sunk in the 7 December 1941 Japanese air raid. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS West Virginia (BB-48) in dry dock at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, 10 June 1942, for repair of damage suffered in the 7 December 1941 Japanese air raid. She had entered the dry dock on the previous day. Note large patch on her hull amidships, fouling on her hull, and large armor belt. Photographed by Bouchard. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: View of USS West Virginia (BB-48) port side amidships, seen from the floor of Dry Dock Number One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, in June 1942, as patches were being removed. Note the massive damage to hull plating inflicted by several Japanese Type 91 torpedoes that struck this area during the 7 December 1941 air raid. The battleship's side armor belt, at the top of the hole, is seriously distorted. View looks aft, with a patch still in place at the far end of the damage area. Collection of Vice Admiral Homer N. Wallin, USN (Retired). US Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS West Virginia (BB-48) is moved to a pier after being undocked from Pearl Harbor Navy Yard's Dry Dock Number One, 9 September 1942. Note the large area of her midships upper hull that must still be replaced. West Virginia was then under repair for damages received in the 7 December 1941 Japanese air raid. A New Mexico class battleship is in the right background. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of The Honorable James V. Forrestal. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: USS West Virginia (BB-48) prepares to leave Pearl Harbor on 30 April 1943, en route to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, for reconstruction. The Pearl Harbor Navy Yard had just finished temporary repair of the damage she had received in the Japanese attack of 7 December 1941. The battleship in the left background is USS North Carolina (BB-55). Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: USS West Virginia (BB-48) leaving Pearl Harbor on 30 April 1943, en route to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, for reconstruction. The Pearl Harbor Navy Yard had just finished temporary repair of the damage she had received in the Japanese attack of 7 December 1941. A New Mexico class battleship is in the right distance, and at far right is the former mainmast of USS California (BB-44), now serving as a signal tower ashore. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: USS West Virginia (BB-48) en route to the West Coast after she had been salvaged and given preliminary repairs at Pearl Harbor. Original photo is dated 20 April 1943. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 16: USS West Virginia (BB-48) off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Washington, 2 July 1944 following reconstruction. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 17: USS West Virginia (BB-48) off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Washington, 2 July 1944 following reconstruction. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 7D. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 18: USS West Virginia (BB-48) off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Washington, 2 July 1944 following reconstruction. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 7D. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 19: USS West Virginia (BB-48) in floating dry dock ABSD-1, off Aessi Island, Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, on 13 November 1944. The battleship was docked for upkeep and repair to propellers damaged when she touched ground off Leyte on 21 October. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 20: USS West Virginia (BB-48) anchored in Sagami Wan, Japan, outside of Tokyo Bay, circa late August 1945. Mount Fuji is in the background. Courtesy of Robert O. Baumrucker, 1978. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
USS West Virginia (BB-48) was a 32,600-ton Colorado class battleship that was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, and was commissioned on 1 December 1923. She was the last battleship completed for the US Navy for nearly two decades. One of the last “super-dreadnaughts” to be built, West Virginia also represented one of the most advanced battleship designs at the time of her commissioning in 1923. She possessed numerous watertight compartments within her hull and her armor protection was superior to many of the other battleships that were built around that time. West Virginia was approximately 624 feet long and 97 feet wide, had a top speed of 21 knots, and had a crew of 1,407 officers and men. The ship was armed with eight powerful 16-inch guns, twelve 5-inch guns, eight 3-inch guns, four 6-pounders, and two 21-inch torpedo tubes.
During the 1920s and 1930s, West Virginia was an important part of the US fleet, taking part in numerous training exercises and assisting in the development of naval tactics that would maintain the Navy’s combat readiness. West Virginia, along with a large number of American warships, visited New Zealand and Australia in 1925 as a demonstration of the Navy’s ability to project power across the Pacific. As tensions mounted with Japan, West Virginia, along with the bulk of the US surface fleet, was moved to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1940 to serve as a forward deterrent against the Japanese fleet.
On the morning of 7 December 1941, West Virginia was anchored outboard of Tennessee (BB-43) at berth F-6 with only 40 feet of water beneath her keel. Just before 0800, Japanese carrier aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor. West Virginia was hit by seven 18-inch torpedoes in her port side and also was hit by two armor-piercing bombs. The first bomb hit the superstructure deck, causing extensive fires and structural damage. The second bomb hit further aft, demolishing a Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplane and destroying a 5-inch gun turret. But the torpedo hits did the bulk of the damage to the ship. West Virginia flooded rapidly and could have capsized, just like the battleship Oklahoma (BB-37) did a few minutes earlier. Fortunately, the assistant fire control officer, Lieutenant Claude V. Ricketts, had extensive knowledge of damage control techniques and led the efforts to stop the ship from capsizing. Although West Virginia did go down, she eventually sank upright and settled on the harbor bottom on an even keel, making salvage operations much easier.
During the attack, West Virginia’s commanding officer, Captain Mervyn S. Bennion, was standing at his post on the battleship’s bridge when he was hit by a fragment from a bomb that exploded on one of the turrets of the nearby battleship Tennessee. Bennion was hit in the abdomen and fell to the deck, mortally wounded. However, he remained alive long enough to direct the ship’s defenses until just before West Virginia was abandoned, at which point he died. For his devotion to duty, courage under fire, and complete disregard for his own life during the attack, Captain Bennion was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
More than 100 of West Virginia’s officers and men were killed during the attack. After the ship was abandoned and sank in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor, volunteers returned to West Virginia to fight the massive fires that were consuming what remained of the ship above water. By the afternoon of 8 December, the fires had finally been extinguished. A garbage lighter, YG-17, played a critical role in fighting these fires during the attack and remained in position alongside the stricken battleship after the raid was over, even though the fires were causing ammunition to explode on board West Virginia.
Salvage operations began almost immediately. West Virginia required that an extensive amount of weight be removed from the ship just so it could be refloated and brought into a dry dock. Approximately 800,000 gallons of fuel oil, shells and powder for her 16-inch guns and other equipment were removed from the ship. Massive amounts of burnt and twisted steel also were removed from the superstructure to lighten the ship. Huge patches were placed over the holes made by the torpedoes and the battleship was pumped out and eventually refloated on 17 May 1942. She was moved to Dry Dock Number One on 9 June, where an extensive assessment was made of her damage. Most of the port side of the ship had been blown away by the torpedo hits, with one torpedo even tearing off the ship’s rudder. Gruesome discoveries also were made as the ship was being inspected. The bodies of 70 men who were trapped inside the battleship when it went down were found and, in one compartment, a calendar was discovered. The last date crossed off the calendar was 23 December, indicating that some of the crewmen had survived for a substantial period of time in at least one watertight compartment. Even though West Virginia looked like a hopeless mess, the US Navy decided that she would undergo preliminary repairs at Pearl Harbor and then be sent to the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Washington, to be completely rebuilt. The enormous amount of preliminary repairs was eventually completed and on 30 April 1943 West Virginia left Pearl Harbor under her own power for the West Coast.
West Virginia was totally reconstructed and left the Puget Sound Navy Yard in July 1944. She was a completely different ship than the one that was sunk on 7 December 1941. Her tall “cage” masts that supported the three-tier fire-control tops were gone, she now had one funnel instead of two, and all-new 5-inch guns were mounted in enclosed turrets. An enormous number of anti-aircraft guns were added, including 40-mm and 20-mm cannons, giving the ship a potent defense against enemy planes. Her new streamlined superstructure also gave the battleship a much more modern-looking silhouette.
West Virginia was sent back to the Pacific and immediately was used for the pre-invasion bombardment of Leyte in the Philippines. On 25 October 1944, a Japanese task force of battleships and smaller warships attempted to make a night attack on the landing beaches at Leyte. West Virginia was part of the large group of American warships that stopped and beat this Japanese task force during the Battle of Surigao Strait. It was the last time in history battleships from two opposing fleets fought each other. The “Battleship Era” was coming to a close and West Virginia was there to see it.
West Virginia went on to take part in the battles to capture Mindoro, Lingayen Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. She primarily used her massive 16-inch guns and her secondary 5-inch guns to support US ground forces on shore. On 1 April 1945, while off Okinawa, West Virginia was hit by a Japanese “Kamikaze” suicide plane. Although damaged, she was able to remain in action and continued her gun-support duties into June. After Japan surrendered, West Virginia supported the occupation of that defeated nation until mid-September 1945. She then participated in “Operation Magic Carpet” during the final months of 1945, transporting troops home from the Pacific. She became inactive in January 1946 and was decommissioned on 9 January 1947. After remaining in the Pacific Reserve Fleet for 12 years, USS West Virginia was sold for scrapping on 24 August 1959.
As we pause this week to remember the attack on 11 September 2001, we should also note that this nation survived another such attack on 7 December 1941. From the flames and wreckage of that terrible day in Hawaii almost 68 years ago, a new Navy was born, one that was bigger, tougher, and destined to take the war directly to the enemy. USS West Virginia embodied that concept, rising phoenix-like from the ashes of 7 December to be rebuilt and sent back into battle to be used in the ultimate defeat of Japan. We have picked ourselves up after 11 September 2001 and we are taking the battle to our enemies overseas, just like West Virginia and her crew did so many years ago. Americans have a proud tradition of quickly recovering from horrible attacks and bringing massive defeat on the people responsible for those crimes. Any group of people or nation that plans on doing us any harm in the future would do well to remember the story of West Virginia.
