They were designed to be the best
They made enemies face to face
Endure tragedies and enjoy victories
They went down in history due to the bravery crews
They are the ships that deserve to be called
NAVAL LEGEND
U.S.S ALABAMA
In this episode USS Alabama
the long life for the lucky A
the battleships define the mines effectiveness in the naval fleet
And major sea power in the first half of the 20th century
these vessels incorporated the latest scientific and technical achievements
each new ship receives the thick armor
and more powerful large-caliber gun
the battleships were becoming real sea Giants
to put a stop to the naval arms race a conference was convened in Washington in 1922
the major see powers reached an agreement to reduce the number battleships
limit their primary armament caliber the displacement and other characteristics
despite the strict limitations imposed by the Treaty
scientific progress allowed participating countries to continuously upgrade the speed
the armor on the armament up their battleships
the US battleships and the South Dakota Class one of the most successful examples are the new design approach
included four vessels
USS Alabama being the last to them
we're standing on the deck in a battleship USS Alabama maybe sixty there
was actually a
the keel was laid February first 1940
Took over 3000 men and women working 24 hours a day
30 months to build a ship she was launched February 16 1942 *
she was commissioned and into the United States Navy on August 16th 1942
she served four and a half years
Earned 9 Battle Stars
Total displacement: 44,500 tons
Length: 207.4 meters
Beam: 33 meters
Draft: 11 meters
Armament
primary armament: 9 MK.6 guns in three turrets
Caliber: 406mm
Range of fire: armor-piercing shells 33 km
high-explosive shells 36 km
Dual-purpose artillery: 10 MK.28 turret with 2 MK. 12 guns each
Caliber: 127mm
Anti-Aircraft Artillery: 12 quadruple Bofors guns
48 Oerlikon MK. 2 3 4 78 cannons
Air group: from 2 to 3 OS2U floatplanes
Armor: belt 310mm
Primary armament turrets: from 184 to 457 mm
Conning tower from 102 to 406 mm
Maximal speed: 27 knots
Range: 13,000 nautical miles at 15 knots
US engineers managed to give the new battleships quite a high-speed
And impressive sustainability the vessels were agile enough to escort aircraft carriers
and the cruising range allow them to sail halfway around the globe
the key to this insurance was the main power plant to the Alabama
installed in four engine rooms
much as you can see, basic what appears to be operational turbans and steam generators the actual boilers are…
Follow me, this way
When fully operational, the peak can pass to 230,000 brake horsepower
you know that's added drove over 45,000 tons
or 90,000,000 pound ship plus 31 miles an hour, 28 knots
USS Alabama’s armaments is worthy of special attention
Only 2 ship classes will more powerfully arm
The newest US Iowa Class and the Japanese Yamato Class, the biggest battle ships in the world
The Alabama's main battery consisted of nine guns with 16 inches caliber
Installed in 2 forward turrets and 1 aft turret
The primary elements magazine is located two levels below the main deck
This is the area called barbette and this is one of the stations where the big 16 inches shells were loaded and put up a hoist above me here
and loaded into the big guns to be fired, big 16 inches guns
you see the front and the back a battleship
it was very very difficult work, very hot conditions in here
The pictures that around this room, the photographs shows many big kind burly man with big arms
Because you need a lot of strength to work in here
They will put chains around these shells
and then put them into the hoist and send them up to be fired
A sophisticated system with gyro, scope and analog calculators was responsible for targeting
Gunners supplied the system with necessary data, such as Target characteristics, speed and direction of the wind
and where I to the barrels
USS Alabama had from two to three floatplanes on board for air reconnaissance and spotting
when the ship was firing the sure targets
Surface targets were tracked and aimed with the help of radars
pride and joy of the US Navy
This place for radars, racial aid and radio contact all came together
And also sonar
and so what you have here this kinda brain trust for the nervous system with the ship
so all the information was collected here and dispersed to the rest to the ship
the dual-purpose MK. 12 guns were designed to destroy both enemy ships and aircrafts
they use shells equipped with non-contact fuses
That dramatically increasing the efficiency of the anti-aircraft fire
the battleships anti-aircraft armaments during the war
also included ever-increasing number 40mm Bofors and 20mm Oerlikon automatic guns
headed up anti-aircraft power shut down 22 aircrafts
That’s confirm 22 the crews said they shut down twice that many
but you know, who knows
to increase the defensive the ship without exceeding the displacement limit
The all-or-nothing approach was adopted
the armor protected only the vital component so the vessel
such as the conning tower, the primary armament, machinery spaces
and the rudder gear the ship and remind unarmored
to further save weight an inner armor belt was introduced in the design
it represented a relatively thin plating reinforced steel covering the main belt of armor
the construction was sufficiently light and was considered to be very effective against the armor-piercing shells
but regardless all these innovations
the engineers still had to shorten the vessel's hull by 20 meters compared to the North Carolina battleship
officers were accompanied in double cabins the crew quarters house 2, 3 and even 4 tier berths
Still, despite of the space-saving, the American design is managed to find a place
for a dentist's office, an operating room, a barber shop, a store and even a pantry
25 hundred man on the ship any one time in World War Two
so he would have had a breakfast, lunch and dinner, the three meals a day
and in front of you now you're seeing the breakfast side
We got all kinds of things this for the guys to eat here so you saw sausage patties
we have bread baking in the oven and over here behind those gentlemen we've got things like rice and also they also had grits once on the morning
we also have breakfast cereal in things like how fresh fruit
whenever they went port they got fresh supplies to help things like apples and oranges
the battleships made the ice cream had the gear on scene and sold ice cream float things like that
one statistic is it sold about 100 gallons of ice cream
and or soda were severed or give to enlisted crews and officers per day here on the ship
so 100 gallons of ice cream and soda, that’s a lot for one day
this is the barber shop for the enlisted crewmen's, not for the officers
you would have 3 master barbers down here men who cut hair
and then they had 2 apprentice
if the men want a certain style or something like that there was allowed by Navy military
rigid discipline was maintained on the ship
but considering the number of people aboard, more than 2,500
minor offenses were inevitable
what's called the Temporary brig, some people call panned or the slammer
because the slam of jail door
and this was a about temporary jail area for guys that were crewmen who eventually were on leave
either got drunk and came back or are they were in a fight, something minor
Down blow us 1 deck, we have the actual brig where for major offenses
they weren’t allowed to have a lot of things except for maybe a little bit a reading material
or some cards or something like that as you would see it here
the her commissioning
USS Alabama was sent to the Atlantic Ocean the US battleships were tasked with holding back the German fleet in the north
while the British ships moved to the Mediterranean to prepare the assault on Sicily
In July 1943, the Alabama joined the ride on Norwegian shores
the Allied forces attempted to lure out the Tirpitz
but the German battleship preferred to stay undercover fear arms
neither the Tirpitz nor the Alabama had a chance to find a comparable ships in their careers
these battleships, Giants created to assure superiority in the naval rounds
never engaged in a serious battle with the similar type opponent to people's tracks
USS Alabama however managed to distinguish herself during one of the major engagements in the Pacific Ocean
the largest aircraft carrier battle between the US and Japan
known as the battle for the Mariana Islands or the battle in the Philippine Sea
In case the Americans captured the Mariana Islands
they could regularly bomb Japanese cities and cut off the Land of the Rising Sun from strategic resources in the West Indies
Japan could not afford to lose them and send almost all its carrier-borne aviation to fight off the enemy’s fleet
the USS Alabama, transferred early into the Pacific Ocean
joined the battle as part of the screen force for the aircraft carriers
thanks to her state-of-the-art radar
the battleship was able to detect approaching Japanese a profit at a distance of almost 160 miles
In 1944 it was inconceivable
None of the task force ships could confirm the target
and only at a distance of 140 miles to the battleship Iowa confirmed the detection
upon receiving confirmation the US fleet commander
ordered his aircraft carriers to launch their fighters
one of the pilots from the aircraft carrier Lexington described disengagement as a whole time turkey shoot down
this nickname stocks in the battle went down in history as the great Mariana turkey shoot
US pilots and ships destroyed more than 500 Japanese lines and kill the majority of experienced pilots
in fact the Japanese carrier-borne aviation ceased to exist
It is after the battle the Philippine Sea to the Japanese command had to resort to that last trump in the Pacific War
Kamikaze attacks
Eventually US military operations in the Pacificand the Soviet offensive in Manchuria force the Japanese to lay down arms
the surrender of the Land of the Rising Sun was signed aboard the US battleship Missouri
USS Alabama also had an honorary role
the ship pride was after the surrender documents were signed on September the 2nd 45
the next day, that Alabama led the American fleet in Tokyo Bay
pretty soon after world war two
it became obvious the giant battle fleet did not meet the requirements of modern warfare
no matter how big the guns there were no match for the range destructive power aircraft and missiles
little by little battleships were decommissioned
USS Alabama’s turn in the beginning in the 1960s
she was turned to her common birth in Mobile Bay
and became the main exhibit the exposition dedicated to the US Armed Forces and their role in world war two
we've been open actually to the public since 1965 hosting more than 40 million visitors
we've been very happy to see that over the last several years
The younger audiences are very appreciative over learning the history of what made America great
and also what made these vessel so important there
USS Alabama was nicknamed “the Lucky A”
because she did not receive any damage during her service
nor did she lose a single crew member to enemy fire
now she keeps watch
helping to preserve the memory of the greatest naval warfare of whole time