 USSTexas (BB-35), off New York City c. 1919 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Texas |
| Namesake | State of Texas |
| Ordered | 24 June 1910; 115 years ago (24 June 1910) |
| Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding |
| Laid down | 17 April 1911; 114 years ago (17 April 1911) |
| Launched | 18 May 1912; 113 years ago (18 May 1912) |
| Commissioned | 12 March 1914; 111 years ago (12 March 1914) |
| Decommissioned | 21 April 1948; 77 years ago (21 April 1948) |
| Stricken | 30 April 1948; 77 years ago (30 April 1948) |
| Fate | Museum ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | New York-classbattleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | |
| Beam | 95 ft 2.5 in (29.020 m) |
| Draft |
|
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 21 kn (39 km/h) |
| Range | 7,060 nmi (13,075 km; 8,125 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h) |
| Complement | 1,042 officers and men |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
| General characteristics (1945) | |
| Complement | 1810 officers and men[1] |
| Sensors & processing systems | |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | Turrets: 1.75 in (44 mm) added to turret tops |
| Aircraft carried | 2 ×OS2U Kingfisher |
| Aviation facilities | 1 ×catapult |
USS Texas | |
   | |
| Location | Galveston, Texas indrydock for repairs. |
| Coordinates | 29°18′53″N94°47′44″W / 29.31472°N 94.79556°W /29.31472; -94.79556 |
| NRHP reference No. | 76002039 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | 8 December 1976[2] |
| Designated NHL | 8 December 1976[3] |
USSTexas (BB-35) is amuseum ship inGalveston, Texas and formerUnited States NavyNew York-classbattleship. She was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914.[4][5] She is the last survivingdreadnought battleship.
Texas served in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" but saw no action there, and made numerous sorties into the North Sea duringWorld War I without engaging the enemy, though she did fire for the first time when shooting medium-caliber guns at supposed submarines (no evidence exists that suggests these were anything more than waves). From September 1927 to September 1931,Texas became the flagship of theUnited States Fleet, one of only four ships to be designated U.S. Fleet flagships from 1922 to 1941.[A 1][6][7] InWorld War II,Texasescorted war convoys across the Atlantic and later shelled Vichy French forces in theNorth African Landings and German-held beaches in theNormandy Landings before being transferred to thePacific Theater late in 1944 to providenaval gunfire support during theBattles of Iwo Jima andOkinawa. She was the only Allied battleship that took part in all four of these amphibious landings.Texas wasdecommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of fivebattle stars for service in World War II.
Texas was also a technological testbed: the first U.S. battleship to mountanti-aircraft guns, the first U.S. warship tocontrol gunfire with directors and range-keepers, the first U.S. battleship to launch an aircraft,[8][9] and one of the first U.S. Navy warships to receive productionradar. She was the first battleship in the world to be outfitted with 14-inch guns.[A 2]
Texas was the first U.S. battleship to become a permanent museum ship; she was turned over to the state of Texas on 21 April 1948 as a permanent museum in Houston.[A 3][8] In 1976 she became the first battleship to be declared a U.S.National Historic Landmark,.[10] She is one of the seven remaining ships and the only remainingcapital ship to have served in both World Wars.[11][A 4]Texas is owned by the people of Texas and is officially under the jurisdiction of theTexas Parks and Wildlife Department. Everyday operations and maintenance ofTexas have been handled by the non-profit organization Battleship Texas Foundation since August 2020.[12][13] At the end of August 2022 she was moved to a dry dock inGalveston, Texas, to undergo a $60 million repair project. On completion, her new permanent home will be Galveston. As of June 2025, the repair project is still underway, but she has moved out of dry dock and is in final stages of restoration.[14][15]
The United States Congress authorized the construction ofTexas, the second Navy ship to be named after that state, on 24 June 1910.[16][17] Bids forTexas were accepted from 27 September to 1 December with the winning bid of $5,830,000—excluding the price of armor and armament—submitted byNewport News Shipbuilding.[4][18][19] The contract was signed on 17 December and the plans were delivered to the building yard seven days later.[5][16][20]Texas'skeel was laid down on 17 April 1911 atNewport News, Virginia. She waslaunched on 18 May 1912, sponsored by Miss Claudia Lyon, daughter ofColonel Cecil Lyon, Republican national committeeman from Texas.[21] The ship wascommissioned on 12 March 1914 withCaptainAlbert W. Grant in command.[17][20][22][23]
Texas's main battery consisted of ten14-inch (356 mm)/45 caliber Mark 1 guns,[24] which could fire 1,400 lb (635 kg)armor-piercing[25] shells to a range of 13 mi (11 nmi; 21 km). Her secondary battery consisted of twenty-one5-inch (127 mm)/51-caliber guns.[26] She also mounted four 21-inch (533 mm)torpedo tubes for theBliss-Leavitt Mark 8 torpedo, one each on the port-side bow and stern and starboard bow and stern. The torpedo rooms held 12torpedoes total, plus 12naval defense mines.[24]Texas and her sisterNew York were the only battleships to store and hoist their 14-inch ammunition in cast-iron cups, nose-down.[5][17][27]
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On 24 March 1914,Texas departedNorfolk Navy Yard and set a course for New York City, making an overnight stop atTompkinsville, New York, on the night of 26 March. EnteringNew York Navy Yard on the next day, she spent the next three weeks there undergoing the installation offire-control equipment.[9]
During his stay in New York, PresidentWoodrow Wilson ordered a number of ships of theAtlantic Fleet to Mexican waters in response to tension created when a detail of Mexican federal troops detained an Americangunboat crew atTampico. The problem was quickly resolved locally, butRear AdmiralHenry T. Mayo sought further redress by demanding an official disavowal of the act by theHuerta regime and a21-gun salute to theAmerican flag.[9]
President Wilson saw in the incident an opportunity to put pressure on a government he felt was undemocratic. On 20 April, Wilson placed the matter before theUnited States Congress and sent orders to Rear AdmiralFrank Friday Fletcher, commanding the naval force off the Mexican coast, instructing him to land a force atVeracruz and to seize the customs house there in retaliation for what is now known as the "Tampico Incident". That action was carried out on 21–22 April.[9]
Due to the intensity of the situation,Texas put to sea on 13 May and headed directly to operational duty without benefit of the usualshakedown cruise and post-shakedown repair period. After a five-day stop atHampton Roads from 14 to 19 May, she joined Rear Admiral Fletcher's force off Veracruz on 26 May. She remained in Mexican waters for just over two months, supporting the American forces ashore. On 8 August, she left Veracruz and set a course forNipe Bay,Cuba, and from there steamed to New York, where she entered the Navy Yard on 21 August.[9]
The battleship remained there until 6 September, when she returned to sea, joined the Atlantic Fleet, and settled into a schedule of normal fleet operations. In October, she returned to the Mexican coast. Later that month,Texas became station ship atTuxpan, a duty that lasted until 4 November, when she steamed forGalveston, Texas. While at Galveston on 7 November, Texas GovernorOscar Colquitt presented the ship's silver service to Captain Grant. The Young Men's Business League ofWaco, Texas, raised the $10,000 to purchase the silver.[20]
Texas sailed for Tampico on 14 November and thereafter to Veracruz, where she remained for a month.[20] The ship left Mexico on 20 December and set a course for New York. The battleship entered New York Navy Yard on 28 December and remained there undergoing repairs until 16 February 1915.[9] On 25 May,Texas, along with battleshipsSouth Carolina,Louisiana, andMichigan, rescued 230 passengers from the damagedHolland America Line passenger shipRyndam, which had been rammed byNorwegian-flagged fruit steamerJoseph J. Cuneo.[20][28] In gratitude, Holland America Line presentedTexas with a model of a 17th-century warship, which is displayed with the wardroom silver as of 2014. In 1916,Texas became the first U.S. battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns with the addition of two3-inch (76 mm)/50-caliber guns on platforms atop the boat cranes, and the first to control gunfire with directors and rangefinders, analog forerunners of today's computers.[8][29][30][A 5]
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Upon her return to active duty with the fleet,Texas resumed a schedule alternating between training operations along theNew England coast and off theVirginia Capes and winter fleet tactical and gunnery drills in theWest Indies. That routine lasted just over two years until theFebruary-to-March crisis overunrestricted submarine warfare catapulted the U.S. into World War I in April 1917. The 6 April declaration of war foundTexas riding at anchor in the mouth of theYork River with the other Atlantic Fleet battleships. She remained in the Virginia Capes–Hampton Roads vicinity until mid-August, conducting exercises and training Naval Armed Guard gun crews for service onboard merchant ships.[9] One of the gun crews trained aboardTexas was assigned to the merchant vesselMongolia at the beginning of the war. On 19 April, the crew ofMongolia sighted a surfaced GermanU-boat and the gun crew trained aboardTexas opened fire on the U-boat, averting an attack onMongolia and firing the first American shots of World War I.[31]
In August, she steamed to New York for repairs, arriving at Base 10[A 6] on 19 August and entering the New York Navy Yard soon thereafter. She completed repairs on 26 September and got underway forPort Jefferson that same day.[9] During the mid-watch on 27 September, she ran hard aground onBlock Island. CaptainVictor Blue and his navigator, confused about shore lights and more concerned about the minefield at the opening ofLong Island Sound, made the turn at the wrong time and ran the ship aground on the island from thebow all the wayaft beyond midships.[32] For three days, her crew lightened ship to no avail. On 30 September, tugs came to her assistance, and she finally backed clear. Hull damage dictated a return to the yard, and extensive repairs precluded her departure withBattleship Division 9 for theBritish Isles in November.[17] The secondary battery was reduced to eighteen 5-inch guns in October 1917.[33] Captain Blue, a protege of Navy SecretaryJosephus Daniels, was nevercourt-martialed and remained in command ofTexas. The Navy Department held hisnavigator entirely responsible for the accident.[32]
By December, she had completed repairs and moved south to conductmilitary simulations out of the York River. Mid-January 1918 found the battleship back at New York preparing for the voyage across the Atlantic, including the removal of two more 5-inch guns, reducing the total number aboard to 16.[33] She departed New York on 30 January 1918, arrived atScapa Flow in theOrkney Islands off the coast of Scotland on 11 February, and rejoined Battleship Division 9, by then known as the6th Battle Squadron of Britain'sGrand Fleet.[9]
Texas's service with the Grand Fleet consisted entirely of convoy missions and occasional forays to reinforce the British squadron on blockade duty in theNorth Sea whenever German heavy units threatened. The fleet alternated between bases at Scapa Flow and at theFirth of Forth in Scotland.Texas began her mission five days after her arrival at Scapa Flow, when she sortied with the entire fleet to reinforce the4th Battle Squadron, then on duty in the North Sea. She returned to Scapa Flow the next day and remained until 8 March, when she put to sea on a convoy escort mission from which she returned on 13 March.Texas and her division mates entered the Firth of Forth on 12 April, but got underway again on the 17th to escort a convoy. The American battleships returned to base on 20 April. Four days later,Texas again stood out to sea to support the Second Battle Squadron the day after the GermanHigh Seas Fleet had sortied fromJade Bay toward the Norwegian coast to threaten an Allied convoy. Forward units caught sight of the retiring Germans on 25 April, but at such an extreme range, bringing the German fleet into engagement with the Grand Fleet was not possible. The Germans returned to their base that day, and the Grand Fleet, includingTexas, did likewise on the next.[9]
Texas and her division mates passed a relatively inactive May in the Firth of Forth. On 9 June, she got underway with the other warships of the 6th Battle Squadron and headed back to the anchorage at Scapa Flow, arriving there the following day. From 30 June to 2 July,Texas and her colleagues acted as escort for American minelayers adding to theNorth Sea Mine Barrage. After a two-day return to Scapa Flow,Texas put to sea with the Grand Fleet to conduct two days of tactical exercises and war games. At the conclusion of those drills on 8 July, the fleet entered the Firth of Forth. For the remainder of World War I,Texas and the other battleships of Division 9 continued to operate with the Grand Fleet as the 6th Battle Squadron. With the German Fleet increasingly tied to its bases in the estuaries of theJade and theEms rivers, the American and British ships settled into a routine schedule of operations with little-to-no hint of combat operations. That state of affairs lasted until theArmistice ended hostilities on 11 November 1918. At 03:35 on 21 November, she got underway to accompany the Grand Fleet to meet the surrendering German Fleet.[34] The two fleets rendezvoused about 40 nmi (46 mi; 74 km) east of theIsle of May and proceeded to the Firth of Forth. Afterward, the American contingent moved toPortland Harbour, England, arriving there on 4 December.[9]
On 12 December 1918,Texas put to sea withBattleship Divisions 9 and 6 to meet President Woodrow Wilson embarked inGeorge Washington on his way to theParis Peace Conference. The rendezvous took place around 07:30 the following morning and provided an escort for the President intoBrest, France, where the ships arrived at 12:30 that afternoon.[9] On the afternoon of 14 December,Texas and the other American battleships departed Brest to return to the United States.[35] The warships arrived offAmbrose light station on Christmas Day, 1918, and entered New York the next day.[9]
Following overhaul,Texas resumed duty with the Atlantic Fleet early in 1919. On 10 March, she became the first American battleship to launch an airplane whenLieutenant CommanderEdward O. McDonnell flew a British-builtSopwith Camel off the warship at Guantanamo Bay.[citation needed] Later in 1919Texas's captain,Nathan C. Twining, successfully employed naval aircraft to spot the fall of shells during a main battery exercise.[36] The results were that aircraft-borne gunfire spotters were significantly more accurate than shipboard spotters. In testimony to theNavy General Board, Lieutenant CommanderKenneth Whiting attested that the increase in gunfire effectiveness with air spotting was likely to be as great as 200%.[37] As a result of these first experiments, the Navy would add floatplanes to all of the fleet's battleships and newer cruisers.[38] In May 1919,Texas served as a plane guard and navigational aid for the successful attempt by NavyCurtiss NCflying boatNC-4 to become the first airplane to cross the Atlantic.[8] On 26 July 1919Texas entered the Pacific Ocean as part of the newly formedPacific Fleet and she would spend the next five and half years as a part of Pacific Fleet.[39] On 17 July the following year, she was designatedBB-35 under the Navy's newly adopted alpha-numeric system ofhull classification symbols.[9]
Texas left the Pacific on 16 January 1924[40] and returned to the east coast for overhaul and to participate in a training cruise to European waters withNaval AcademyMidshipmen embarked.[9] While operating in the Atlantic, on 25 November 1924, she sank the incomplete battleshipWashington in compliance with theNaval Arms Limitation Treaty of 1922,[17] and later that fall, conducted maneuvers as a unit of theScouting Fleet. On 31 July 1925,[41] she entered Norfolk Navy Yard for a major modernization overhaul. The overhaul, which replaced bothcage masts withtripod masts, replaced her 14Babcock & Wilcoxcoal-firedboilers with 6 Bureau Express oil-fired boilers,[8] addedanti-torpedo bulges and upgraded her fire-control equipment, was completed on 23 November 1926. Also, her AA armament was increased to eight 3-inch guns, and the torpedo tubes were removed. Six of the 5-inch guns were relocated to new main deckcasemates at this time.[9]Following completion of her overhaul,Texas was designated theflagship of theUnited States Fleet and resumed duty along theeastern seaboard. She kept at that task until late 1927, when she did a brief tour of duty in the Pacific from late September-early December.[9] In 1927,Texas set another first with the showing of"talking" pictures for crew entertainment.[8] Near the end of the year,Texas returned to the Atlantic and resumed normal duty with the Scouting Fleet. In January 1928, she transported PresidentCalvin Coolidge toHavana, Cuba, for thePan-American Conference and then continued on via the Panama Canal and thewest coast to maneuvers with the fleet near Hawaii.[9]
She returned to New York early in 1929 for her annual overhaul and had completed it by March when she began another brief tour of duty in the Pacific. She returned to the Atlantic in June and resumed normal duty with the Scouting Fleet. In April 1930, she took time from her operating schedule to escortLeviathan into New York when that ship carried the returning U.S. delegation to theLondon Naval Conference. In January 1931, she left the yard at New York as flagship of the United States Fleet and headed via the Panama Canal toSan Diego, California, and then on to Los Angeles (port of San Pedro) which became her home port for the next six years and three months.[42][43] There would be a temporary redeployment back to the Atlantic from April to October 1934.[44] During this Pacific period, she served first as flagship for the entire Fleet and, later, as flagship for Battleship Division 1.[9]
In the summer of 1937, she once more was reassigned to the east coast, as the flagship of the Training Detachment, United States Fleet. Late in 1938 or early in 1939, the warship became flagship of the newly organized Atlantic Squadron, built around Battleship Division 5. Through both organizational assignments, her labors were directed primarily to training missions, Midshipman cruises, Naval Reserve drills, and training members of theFleet Marine Force. Also in 1937, eight1.1-inch (28 mm) AA guns in two quadruple mounts were added to improve the light AA armament. In December 1938,Texas received for testing the first shipborne radar designed and made by a commercial company,RCA, for the U.S. Navy, the 385 MHz CXZ.[45] In 1941,Texas was one of fourteen ships to receive the RCACXAM-1 radar.[46]
Soon after war broke out in Europe in September 1939,Texas began operating on theNeutrality Patrol, an American attempt to keep the war out of theWestern Hemisphere. Later, as the United States moved toward more active support of theAllied cause, the warship began convoying ships carryingLend-Lease material to the United Kingdom. In February 1941, theU.S. 1st Marine Division was activated aboardTexas. On 1 February,AdmiralErnest J. King hoisted his flag as Commander-in-Chief of the re-formed Atlantic Fleet aboardTexas.[9] That same year, while on Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic,Texas was stalked unsuccessfully by the German submarineU-203.[8]
On Sunday, 7 December 1941, the day of theattack on Pearl Harbor, the battleship was atCasco Bay, Maine, undergoing a rest and relaxation period following three months of watch duty atNaval Station Argentia,Newfoundland. After 10 days at Casco Bay, she returned to Argentia and remained there until late January 1942, when she got underway to escort a convoy to England. After delivering her charges, the battleship patrolled waters nearIceland until March when she returned home.[9] At various times in 1942, the secondary battery was reduced to six 5-inch guns and the light AA battery was increased, adding two extra 1.1-inch/75-caliber quad mounts (these would be replaced by 10 quad mount40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors in June 1943) and adding fourteen20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannons (increased to 44 by 1944), the attack on Pearl Harbor having demonstrated the need for this.[26] For the next six months, she continued convoy-escort missions to various destinations. On one occasion, she escortedGuadalcanal-bound Marines as far asPanama; on another, the warship screened service troops toFreetown,Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. More frequently, she made voyages to and from the United Kingdom escorting both cargo- and troop-carrying ships.[9]
On 23 October 1942,Texas embarked upon her first major combat operation when she sortied with Task Group 34.8 (TG 34.8), the Northern Attack Group forOperation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. The objective assigned to this group wasPort Lyautey inFrench Morocco. The warships arrived off the assault beaches near the village ofMehedia early in the morning of 8 November and began preparations for theinvasion.Texas transmittedLt. GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower's first "Voice of Freedom" broadcast, asking the French not to oppose Allied landings on North Africa. When the troops went ashore,Texas did not go into action immediately to support them. At that point in the war, the doctrine of amphibious warfare was still embryonic. Many Army officers did not recognize the value of prelanding bombardments. Instead, the Army insisted upon attempting a landing by surprise.Texas entered the battle early in the afternoon when the Army requested her to fire upon aVichy French Armyammunition dump near Port Lyautey.[9] One more gunfire mission was provided on the 10th before the cease fire on 11 November.[47] Thus, unlike in later operations, she expended only 273 rounds of14-inch shells and six rounds of5-inch shells. During her short stay, some of her crewmen went ashore to assist in salvaging some of the ships that had been sunk in the harbor.[9]Texas was one of only three U.S. battleships (Massachusetts andNew York) that took part in Operation Torch.[48] On 16 November,Texas departedNorth Africa for the East Coast of the United States in atask force along withSavannah,Sangamon,Kennebec, four transports, and sevendestroyers.[9]
The young news reporterWalter Cronkite was on boardTexas starting inNorfolk, Virginia, through her service off the coast of North Africa, and thence back to the US. On the return trip, Cronkite was flown offTexas in one of herOS2U Kingfisher aircraft when Norfolk was within flying distance. He was granted permission to be flown the rest of the distance to Norfolk so that he could outpace a rival correspondent onMassachusetts to return to the U.S. and to issue the first uncensored news reports to be published about Operation Torch.[49] Cronkite's experiences aboardTexas launched his career as awar correspondent.[8]
Throughout 1943,Texas carried out the familiar role of convoy escort. With New York as her home port, she made numerous transatlantic voyages to such places asCasablanca andGibraltar, as well as frequent visits to ports in the UK. That routine continued into 1944 but ended on 22 April of that year when, at the European end of one such mission, she remained at theClyde estuary in Scotland and began training for the invasion ofNormandy.[9]
During the next twelve days,Texas carried out many 14-inch gun-firing exercises with British battleshipsHMS Ramillies andRodney. The firing was done in conjunction withRoyal Air Force airplanes as spotters. On 29 April,Texas,Nevada, andArkansas relocated toBelfast Lough,Northern Ireland. There, final preparations were made, including the removal of the airplane catapult and the ship's OS2U Kingfisher observation planes. The three pilots who flewTexas's Kingfishers during this period were temporarily transferred to a newly formed squadron,VOS-7, that was composed of the pilots who flew observation and scouting planes from the cruisersAugusta,Quincy, andTuscaloosa and the battleshipsArkansas,Nevada, andTexas. VOS-7 received training in defensive fighter tactics, aerobatics, navigation, formation flying and spotting procedures in Royal Air ForceSpitfires; they flew spotting missions in the Spitfires because of the threat from German fighters. The pilots of VOS-7 would fly spotting missions for the U.S. warships offOmaha andUtah Beaches during D-Day.[50] Also, during this time additional radio equipment was added, including a device to detect and jamradio-guided missiles.[A 7] Final exercises were carried out to the south in Dundrum Bay and Belfast Lough. During the final preparations, General Eisenhower came aboard on 19 May to speak to the crew. On 31 May, the ship was sealed and a briefing given to the crew about the upcoming invasion. For the invasion,Texas was designated Bombardment Force Flagship for Omaha Beach, in the Western Taskforce. Her firing area of Omaha was the western half, supporting theU.S. 29th Infantry Division and the U.S.2nd Ranger Battalion atPointe du Hoc, and the U.S.5th Ranger Battalion, which had been diverted to Western Omaha to support the troops at Pointe du Hoc.[51]
TheOmaha Beach bombardment force consisted of two sections withTexas and the British light cruiserHMS Glasgow responsible for the western half withArkansas, and the French light cruisersGeorges Leygues andMontcalm responsible for the east. Also assigned to Omaha Beach were the American destroyersFrankford,McCook,Carmick,Doyle,Emmons,Baldwin,Harding,Satterlee,Thompson, and the British destroyersHMS Tanatside,Talybont andMelbreak.[51]Texas was one of only three U.S. battleships (Arkansas andNevada) that took part in Operation Neptune (D-Day).[52]
At 02:09 on 3 June,Texas and the rest of the Western Taskforce sailed from Belfast Lough for Normandy. In sight, on a parallel course was a group of British ships, including the battleshipsWarspite andRamillies. At 07:10 on 4 June, the taskforce had to reverse course due to unacceptable weather in Normandy. Later that evening, off Lundy Island, the taskforce reversed course and headed for and joined the invasion fleet gathering at Area Z.[clarification needed] The invasion fleet then headed south toward Normandy and navigated the Germanminefield, through whichminesweepers had cleared channels; not a single Omaha Beach vessel was lost.[51]
At 03:00 on 6 June 1944,Texas and the British cruiserGlasgow entered the Omaha Western fire support lane and arrived at her initial firing position 12,000 yards (11,000 m) offshore near Pointe du Hoc at 04:41, as part of a combined total US-British flotilla of 702 ships, including seven battleships and fiveheavy cruisers.[51][53][A 8][55]The initial bombardment commenced at 05:50, against the site of six 15-centimetre (6 in) guns, atop Pointe du Hoc.[9] WhenTexas ceased firing at the Pointe at 06:24, 255 14-inch shells had been fired in 34 minutes—an average rate of fire of 7.5 shells per minute, which was the longest sustained period of firing forTexas in World War II.[51] While shells from the main guns were hitting Pointe du Hoc, the 5-inch guns were firing on the area leading up to Exit D-1, the route to get inland from western Omaha. At 06:26,Texas shifted her main battery gunfire to the western edge of Omaha Beach, around the town ofVierville. Meanwhile, her secondary battery went to work on another target on the western end of "Omaha" beach, a ravine laced with strong points to defend an exit road. Later, under control of airborne spotters, she moved her major-caliber fire inland to interdict enemy reinforcement activities and to destroy batteries and other strong points farther inland.[9]
By noon, the assault on Omaha Beach was in danger of collapsing due to stronger than anticipated German resistance and the inability of the Allies to get neededarmor andartillery units on the beach. In an effort to help the infantry fighting to take Omaha, some of the destroyers providing gunfire support closed near the shoreline, almost grounding themselves to fire on the Germans.Texas also closed to the shoreline; at 12:23,Texas closed to only 3,000 yd (2,700 m) from the water's edge, firing her main guns with very little elevation to clear the western exit D-1, in front of Vierville. Among other things, she fired uponsnipers and machine gun nests hidden in adefile just off the beach. At the conclusion of that mission, the battleship attacked an enemy anti-aircraft battery located west of Vierville.[51]
On 7 June, the battleship received word that theRanger battalion at Pointe Du Hoc was still isolated from the rest of the invasion force with lowammunition and mounting casualties; in response,Texas obtained and filled twoLCVPs[56] with provisions and ammunition for the Rangers.[55]: 131 Upon their return, the LCVPs brought thirty-five wounded Rangers toTexas for treatment of whom one died on the operating table. Along with the Rangers, a deceased Coast Guardsman and twenty-sevenprisoners (twenty Germans, four Italians, and three French) were brought to the ship. The prisoners were fed, segregated, and not formally interrogated aboardTexas, due to the ship bombarding targets or standing by to bombard, before being loaded aboard anLST for transfer to England.[57] Later in the day, her main battery rained shells on the enemy-held towns ofFormigny[58] andTrévières to break up German troop concentrations. That evening, she bombarded a German mortar battery that had been shelling the beach. Not long after midnight, German planes attacked the ships offshore, and one of them swooped in low onTexas's starboard quarter. Her anti-aircraft batteries opened up immediately but failed to hit the intruder. On the morning of 8 June, her guns fired onIsigny, then on a shore battery, and finally on Trévières once more.[9]
After that, she retired toPlymouth to rearm, returning to the French coast on 11 June. From then until 15 June, she supported the army in its advance inland. By 15 June, the troops had advanced to the edge ofTexas's gun range; her last fire support mission was so far inland that to get the needed range, the starboard torpedo blister was flooded with water to provide a list of two degrees which gave the guns enough elevation to complete the fire mission. With combat operations beyond the range of her guns on 16 June,Texas left Normandy for England on 18 June.[51][59]
On the morning of 25 JuneTexas, in company withArkansas,Nevada, four cruisers and eleven destroyers, closed in on the vital port ofCherbourg to suppress the fortifications and batteries surrounding the town while the U.S. Army'sVII Corps attacked the city from the rear. While en route to Cherbourg, the bombardment plan was changed and Task Group 129.2 (TG 129.2), built aroundArkansas andTexas, was ordered to move 6 mi (9.7 km)[clarification needed] to the east of Cherbourg and engage the guns of Battery Hamburg, a large shore battery composed of four 24 cm (9 in) guns.[60][61][62] At 12:08,Arkansas was the first to fire at the German positions, while the German gunners waited forArkansas andTexas to be well in range to return fire. At 12:33,Texas was straddled by three German shells; five minutes laterTexas returned fire with a continuous stream of two-gunsalvos. The battleship continued her firing runs in spite of shell geysers blossoming about her and difficulty spotting the targets because of smoke; however, the enemy gunners were just as stubborn and skilled. At 13:16, a German 24-cm shell skidded across the top of herconning tower, sheared the top of the fire control periscope off (the periscope remains fell back into the conning tower and wounded the fire control officer, Lt. Cmdr. Richard B Derickson Jr. and three others), hit the main support column of the navigation bridge and exploded.[60][63][64] The explosion caused the deck of the pilot house above to be blown upwards approximately 4 ft (1.2 m), wrecked the interior of the pilot house, and wounded seven. Of the eleven total casualties from the German shell hit, only one man succumbed to his wounds—the helmsman on duty, Christen Christensen.[65]Texas's commanding officer, Captain Baker, escaped unhurt and quickly had the bridge cleared. The warship herself continued to deliver her 14-inch shells in two-gun salvos and, in spite of damage and casualties, scored a direct hit that penetrated one of the heavily reinforced gun emplacements to destroy the gun inside at 13:35.[61]
At 14:47, an unexploded 24 cm shell was reported.[66] The shell crashed through the port bow directly below theWardroom and entered the stateroom ofWarrant Officer M.A. Clark, but failed to explode. The unexploded shell was later disarmed by a Navy bomb disposal officer inPortsmouth and is currently displayed aboard the ship. Throughout the three-hour duel, the Germans straddled and near-missedTexas over sixty-five times, but she continued her mission firing 206 fourteen-inch shells at Battery Hamburg until ordered to retire at 15:01.[61][62]
AfterTexas underwent repairs at Plymouth from damage sustained at Cherbourg, she drilled in preparation for the invasion of southern France. On 16 July, she departed Belfast Lough and headed for the Mediterranean. After stops at Gibraltar andOran,Algeria, the battleship arrived inTaranto,Italy on 27 July.[67] Departing Taranto on 11 August,Texas rendezvoused with three French destroyers offBizerte,Tunisia, and set a course for theFrench Riviera. She arrived offSaint-Tropez during the night of 14 August and was joined early the next morning by battleshipNevada and cruiserPhiladelphia[68] At 04:44 on 15 August, she moved into position for the pre-landing bombardment and, at 0651, opened up on her first target, a battery of five 15 cm guns.[68] The beaches had been fortified and heavy resistance was expected. Due to very poor visibility that morning,Texas relied on her SG radar equipment to determine her position and track for both navigation and gunnery purposes. No landmarks were visible during the firing and for the greater part of the forenoon.[69]
The heavy opposition that was expected never materialized, so the landing forces moved inland rapidly. As fire support fromTexas's guns was no longer required, she departed the southern coast of France on the early morning of 17 August.[70] After a stop atPalermo,Sicily, she left the Mediterranean and headed for New York where she arrived on 14 September 1944.[9]
At New York,Texas underwent a 36-day repair period during which the barrels on her main battery were replaced. She replaced all ten of her 14-inch main gun barrels for the third and final time in her career during this refit. In an incredible stroke of luck she was reunited with 9 out of 10 of her original gun barrels that served onTexas from 1914 to 1923. These nine guns served withPennsylvania prior to being refurbished, relined, and reinstalled onTexas in late 1944. These original guns have remained onTexas ever since.[71] After a brief refresher cruise, she departed Maine in November and set a course, via the Panama Canal, for the Pacific. She made a stop atLong Beach, California, and then continued on toOahu. She spent Christmas atPearl Harbor and then conducted maneuvers in theHawaiian Islands for about a month at the end of which she steamed toUlithi Atoll. She departed Ulithi on 10 February 1945, stopped in theMariana Islands for two days of invasion rehearsals, and then she set a course forIwo Jima. She arrived off Iwo Jima on 16 February, three days before theamphibious landings began. She spent just three days pounding theJapanese defenses on Iwo Jima in preparation for the landing of three Marine Corps Divisions.[9] After the Marines stormed the beaches on 19 February,Texas switched to providing naval gunfire support for them. "On-call fire" in response to requests from Marine units continued through 21 February.[72]
Though the island of Iwo Jima was not declared to be captured until 16 March,Texas departed from theVolcano Islands on 7 March,[73] and returned to Ulithi Atoll to prepare for the invasion ofOkinawa (Operation Iceberg). She departed from Ulithi with Task Force 54, the gunfire support unit, on 21 March, and arrived in theRyukyu Islands on the 26th.Texas moved in close to Okinawa and began her prelanding bombardment that same day. For the next six days, she fired multiple salvos from her main guns to prepare the way for severalArmy and Marine divisions to make their amphibious landings on 1 April.[citation needed]
Each evening,Texas retired from herbombardment position close to Okinawa, but returned the next morning to resume her bombardments. The enemy ashore, preparing for adefense-in-depth strategy as at Iwo Jima, made no answer. Only air units provided a response, as severalkamikaze raids were sent to harass the bombardment group.Texas escaped damage during those attacks. On 1 April, after six days of aerial and naval bombardment, the ground troops went ashore, and for almost two months,Texas remained in Okinawan waters providing gunfire support for the troops and fending off the enemy aerial assault. In performing the latter mission, she claimed one kamikaze kill on her own and claimed three assists.[9]Texas was atgeneral quarters for over 50 days straight at Okinawa due to the threat of kamikazes. This meant that the crew were at their battle stations at all times for seven weeks and ate only crackers andK-rations for meals and their only resting time was a quick shower and change of clothes every 3 days.Texas was never damaged as a result and it is believed that this was the only U.S. ship that stayed at general quarters for such duration at any point during World War II. She fired 2,019 fourteen-inch shells, 2,643 5-inch shells, 490 3-inch shells, 3,100 rounds of 40 mm ammunition, and 2,205 rounds of 20 mm ammunition during the Okinawa campaign.[74] On 14 May she departed Okinawa for thePhilippines.[75]
On 17 May,[75]Texas arrived atLeyte in the Philippines and remained there until after the Japanese capitulation on 15 August. She returned to Okinawa toward the end of August and stayed in the Ryukyu Islands until 23 September. On that day, she set a course for the United States with homeward bound troops embarked as part ofOperation Magic Carpet. The battleship delivered her passengers toSan Pedro, California on 15 October, and celebratedNavy Day there on 27 October before resuming her mission to bring American troops home. She made two round-trip voyages between California and Oahu in November and a third in late December.[9] On 21 January 1946,Texas departed San Pedro and steamed via the Panama Canal to Norfolk where she arrived on 13 February, and soon began preparations for inactivation. On 18 June, she was placed officially in reserve atBaltimore, Maryland.[20]
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On 17 April 1947, the BattleshipTexas Commission was established by the Texas Legislature to care for the ship. The $225,000 necessary to pay for towing her from Baltimore to San Jacinto was the commission's first task.[20] On 17 March 1948,Texas began her journey to her new anchorage along the busyHouston Ship Channel near theSan Jacinto Monument, atSan Jacinto State Park, arriving on 20 April, where she was turned over to the State of Texas the next day to serve as a permanent memorial.[17][76]Texas sat just across from the monument at Battleground Park in the waters of the Port of Houston where she was ceremoniously decommissioned on the 21st, nine days later on 30 April 1948 her name was struck from theNaval Vessel Register.[9]Texas was the first permanent battleship memorial museum in the US.[76]USS Oregon (BB-3) was displayed as a floating museum in Portland, Oregon from 1925 to 1941 but was scrapped in 1956. When the battleship was presented to the State of Texas, she was commissioned as the flagship of the ceremonialTexas Navy.[76][77]: 181
The funding produced by the BattleshipTexas Commission was not up to the task of maintaining the ship. Consequently, years of neglect resulted in cracks and gaps in coated surfaces, water intrusion, and steel deterioration. Paint in interior spaces began to crack, then flake, exposing metal surfaces underneath, which began to rust. At the same time, pipes open to the sea ultimately failed, flooding various voids and bunkers.[78]By 1968, the wooden main deck of the ship was so rotted that rainwater was leaking through the deck into the interior of the ship and pooling in various compartments. The Commission found that replacing the decayed deck timbers would be prohibitively expensive. The solution at the time was to remove the wooden deck and replace it with concrete. The concrete eventually cracked, and again, rainwater began to leak through the main deck into spaces below. In 1971, three local charitable institutions, the Brown Foundation, theMoody Foundation, and theHouston Endowment, together contributed $50,000 to the ship to enable the commission to sandblast and paint the hull.[20] By this time, newspaper articles reported thatTexas was "under attack" from neglect and insufficient funding.[79]Nevertheless,Texas was designated aNational Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by theAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1975, and a National Historic Landmark by theNational Park Service in 1976.[11][20][3]
By 1983, concerns with the leadership of the BattleshipTexas Commission led to the decision by the State Legislature to turn over control of the ship to theTexas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD).[78] The legislature abolished the commission effective 31 August 1983, and TPWD assumed operational control the next day. One of the first actions by TPWD was to hire a firm of naval architects to survey the ship in order to assess the deterioration and make recommendations as to what actions should be taken to preserve the ship. The survey revealed that the ship's watertight integrity was badly compromised, the hull was open to the sea in many places, and many compartments were full of standing rain water. The architects determined that the ship needed to go to dry dock for major repairs to the hull and to keep rain water from coming through the porous concrete deck.[20] As part of this plan, serious consideration was given to protecting sensitive fabrics and restoring the interior of the ship.[78] After a five-year-long fund-raising campaign, $15 million was collected to dry dock the ship and complete necessary repairs.[80]
On 13 December 1988,Texas was pulled from her berth with great difficulty over the course of six hours by six large tugboats to begin the 56-mile (49 nmi; 90 km) trip from her berth toTodd Shipyards in Galveston, Texas. Once under tow in the Houston Ship Channel she started taking on water, with a serious breach just forward of the engine rooms. The crew had three 4-inch (100 mm) pumps and two 2-inch (51 mm) pumps in continuous service to combat the flooding. During the nine-plus hour transit, the ship's draft increased by 18 to 20 in (460 to 510 mm) in the stern.[citation needed]
Texas entered the yard's floating drydock at approximately 22:30 on 13 December, at high tide with only 6 in (150 mm) to spare between her hull and the blocks she would sit on.[81] She underwent a 14-month refit that sought to restore the ship to her 1945 condition. While under refit, yard workers sand-blasted paint from not only the hull but also the superstructure and replaced many tons of rusted metal from the hull. Inside the ship, welders and fabricators replaced weakened structural beams and numerous rusted-out deck plates. Topside, workers removed the concrete from the main deck in preparation for a new pinewood deck to be installed later in the refit.[82][83][84] In total, more than 375,000 lb (170,000 kg) of steel (amounting to about 15% of the ship's hull) were replaced and more than 40,000 rivets were seal-welded on the underwater hull.[81][85]
On 24 February 1990, tugboats movedTexas from dry dock toBrown & Root's offshore fabrication facility on Green's Bayou for further repairs, and installation of the four mooring attachments on the starboard side of the vessel. Special diamond bit cutting blades had to be used to cut the 4" thick hull steel which was made in Germany and hardened in carbonized beds to reach over 425 HB hardness values according to original blueprints. It was here that the wood deck was also installed and four of the ten mounts ofquad 40 mm guns that had been removed in 1948 due to the guns still being actively used by the Navy were installed.[82][86]
On 26 July, the ship was returned to her berth at San Jacinto where the four old inferior1.1-inch/75-caliber guns that the Navy had given toTexas in 1948 as proxies for the quad 40s were removed and the final six 40 mm quad mounts (salvaged fromMissouri, made available during her 1986 modernization[87][88]) were installed.[86][89]
Texas then had the haze gray paint scheme that she had worn most of her time in the Atlantic theater (but for theMeasure 22 scheme she had worn at Normandy) and then from 1948 to 1990 before her first dry dock refit, replaced with theMeasure 21 dark blue paint scheme she had worn in the Pacific theater at the end of World War II in 1945.
This made her appearance consistent with her new period correct anti-aircraft armament.
Repairs complete, the ship officially reopened to the public on 8 September 1990.[20] Upon returning to her slip at San Jacinto, members of the ship's staff and volunteers worked to restore the interior spaces.[78]
In 2004, after many years of working with many of the stakeholders at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site evaluating a wide range of alternative plans to address the ship's problems, TPWD adopted a Master Plan that called for placingTexas into a permanent dry berth. The Texas Legislature was approached to secure appropriate funding. The Legislature allowed the voters of Texas to express their opinion and on 6 November 2007 Texas votersapproved $25 million in funds to dry-berth the ship to prevent further deterioration from the corrosive waters of the ship channel.[90][91]
One of the provisions of the bond legislation was the Battleship Texas Foundation (BTF), a non-profit support organization, raise $4 million in private funds to supplement the $25 million in bond funds. This would provide a total of $29 million to accomplish the goal.[90]
BTF contracted a maritime engineering firm which determined that the ship's keel and main supporting internal structure would be sufficiently strong to support the ship in a dry berth, while another maritime engineering firm was also contracted to study the full range of dry berth alternatives. With these and other studies complete, TPWD presented a progress report to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) in late July 2008.[90]
In March 2009 the LBB released the funds for the dry berthing project to commence.[92] After a lengthy selection process and fee negotiations, TPWD signed a contract withAECOM, on 26 October 2010, to design and develop the plans forTexas's dry-berth. The contract called for AECOM to have its preliminary design completed by spring 2011, with the bidding process for the construction of the dry berth and temporary mooring ofTexas to begin in mid-2014, and construction completed by summer 2017.[93] However, by February 2019, funds had not yet been secured to commence construction, with efforts instead dedicated to repairs to the ship.[94]
On 28 May 2019, it was reported thatTexas would be undergoing $35 million worth of repairs and then be moved further up the Texas coast, largely due to a decline in visitors at its current location. Later that year,Texas was closed to the public so necessary preparations could be made for the upcoming restoration process.[95]
In June 2010, a leak on the starboard side of the ship causedTexas to sink two to three feet in her mooring. The leak was precipitated by a burned out pump, which allowed the ship to take on more water than usual. Consequently, a seam separation was pulled below the waterline creating a second leak. Once the leak was discovered, the broken pump was replaced. 105,000U.S. gal (400,000L; 87,000imp gal) of water had to be pumped from the ship.[96]
On 9 June 2012 about 30 new leaks, between 1 in (25 mm) holes and 2 sq ft (0.19 m2) gaps, were discovered, ultimately necessitating a three-week closure of the ship to visitors; removal of water and repair was complicated by the presence of residual oil in the ship's fuel bunkers.[97][failed verification][98] In less than a month, the leaks were fixed.[99]
On 12 June 2017, a 6-by-8-inch (15 by 20 cm) hole about 15 feet (4.6 m) below the waterline caused the ship tolist six degrees to starboard. After emergency repairs, crews pumped out about 105,000U.S. gal (400,000L; 87,000imp gal) of water per minute out of the ship for more than 15 hours.[100]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(April 2024) |
On 31 August 2022,Texas was towed out of her berth to a floating dry dock at Gulf Copper Dry Dock & Rig Repair in Galveston for repairs.[101] The journey took four tugboats pulling the ship 40 miles (64 kilometres) through the Houston Ship Channel and ended at around 4 pm.[102] Gulf Copper's old dry dock was no longer usable so, in order to find a quick affordable option for their clientTexas, they found a sunken dry dock, a very large 42-year-old dry dock that sank off of theBahamas, that they had to salvage by repairing it after raising it from the seafloor and then cutting its length in half due to heavy damage from its sinking. The first vessel to use this recycled dry dock wasTexas.[103]
Once repairs are complete, the Battleship Texas Foundation intends to berth the ship in Galveston. As part of the conditions for receiving the $35 million from the Texas government,Texas can only be berthed in the upper coast region of Texas after she is repaired, meaning any part of the Texas coastline from theSan Bernard National Wildlife Refuge to the Louisiana border.Texas also received a matching $35 millionfederal grant from the United States government for her repairs. This $70 million can only be used to repair the battleship and cannot be used on cosmetic-related maintenance like replacing the wooden deck and painting the ship. Also, infrastructure-related projects for the new homeport such as the parking lot or museum buildings cannot be paid for by these funds.[101][104][105]Texas later received $25 million more in funding for repairs from the Texas government in 2023.[106]
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In November 2023, the Port of Galveston board of trustees approved Galveston to become the new home forTexas. She left dry dock on 5 March 2024 but will receive more repairs while afloat for the next 18 to 24 months to her superstructure, smaller guns, and interior spaces.[107][108]
On 4 March 2025, the Galveston Wharves Board voted unanimously to offer Pier 15 as a permanent docking berth forTexas to reside at.[109]
As of June 2025,Texas is still under repair but offering restoration tours every Sunday. The Battleship Texas Foundation expects a grand reopening sometime in 2026.[110]
Texas was the first and oldest of the eight U.S. battleships that became permanent floating museums; the other battleships honored in this way areMassachusetts,Alabama,North Carolina,New Jersey,Missouri,Wisconsin, andIowa.[111][A 9]Texas is also one of the oldest surviving modern naval ships, having turned 110 years old on 12 March 2024.[112]
Radio commemorations occur onTexas yearly during Museum Ship Weekend and Pearl Harbor Day.Amateur radio operators from the Battleship Texas Amateur Radio operate on those two occasions under theFederal Communications Commissioncallsign NA5DV, similar to the original callsign NADV.[113][114]
TheTexas Legislature designated the battleshipTexas as the official "State Ship of Texas" in 1995.[115]
Texas has appeared in several films prior to and since her retirement. Her cinema debut, though brief, was in the final scene of the 1937 filmBoy of the Streets starringJackie Cooper and Maureen O'Conner.[116] The 1966Steve McQueen film The Sand Pebbles shot some scenes aboard the ship, but these were removed from the final cut of the movie and subsequently lost. For the 2001 film Pearl Harbor,Texas was chosen as a filming location because she is the only surviving American battleship that was built and in service prior to 1941, and her exterior and interior components look very similar to other battleships that were built in the 1910s and 1920s and were present onBattleship Row during the attack. Numerous exterior and interior shots were filmed onTexas, with actors using the main deck and numerous interior areas. The interior scenes of the aircraft carrierHornet were also shot insideTexas. For the 2006 films Flags of Our Fathers andLetters from Iwo Jima actual film footage of the exterior ofTexas taken by the film crew were used to depict her fighting at Iwo Jima. Close-up shots of actors manning the smaller guns ofTexas also were used. The only thing added in post-production wascomputer-generated imagery depicting the main turrets turning and firing.[117]
Texas appears as a multiplayer map forCall of Duty: Vanguard andCall of Duty: WWII. Players fight on the deck of the ship as it is at sea during World War II.[118] Despite the name, however, the layout of the ship does not match the design of the real USSTexas (BB-35).
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This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere. This article incorporatespublic domain material fromTexas (BB-35) at theNaval Vessel Register.
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