 The battleship USS Alabama (BB-60) was laid down on 1 February 1940 by the Norfolk, Virginia, Navy Yard; launched on 16 February 1942; and commissioned on 16 August 1942. |
USS Alabama began her combat service on the "Murmansk Run" from England through the North Sea to Russia. The ship transferred to the Pacific Fleet in August 1943. She earned 9 battle stars providing support for amphibious assaults and protecting carrier task forces from air and surface attack. | Decommissioned
in 1947, Alabama was "mothballed" in
Bremerton, Washington until 1964, when she was
transferred to the State of Alabama and towed 5,600 miles
to become a memorial in Mobile. She now is berthed at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, located adjacent to I-10 on Mobile Bay in Mobile, Alabama. |
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Left:
Naval Archive photo of the Alabama
underway. Click any photo to see the larger version. Right: In a later archive photo, Alabama shows her wartime camoflauge. |
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The USS Alabama
is a South Dakota class battleship. Her sister ships are
the USS South Dakota (BB-57), USS Indiana (BB-58),
and USS Massachusetts (BB-59). Only the Alabama
and Massachusetts remain. The other two ships
were dismantled and scrapped in 1962. Left: the USS South Dakota making a good head of steam.. Right: The USS Indiana (Naval Archive). |
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Left:
A Naval Archive aerial photo of the larger and modernized
USS New Jersey. Note the blast from the heavy
guns. Battleships are fast, heavily armored ships whose
purpose is to get their heavy armament to the right place
at the right time. Right: a cutaway drawing of Alabama's massive 16-inch gun turrets. Each turret required a crew of 140. Continue to click through these pages, and you'll see me inside a turret peering through the auxiliary rangefinder gunsight. |
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Now we're ready to
enter Battleship Memorial Park to see the USS Alabama
up close. Left: As we turn into
the entrance road, a Navy F-4 Phantom (complete with crew)
perches precariously atop the entrance sign. Right: As we exit the car, we see the Alabama as she seems to rise from the earth. |
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