The History of the USS ALABAMA (BB 60)
The name ALABAMA was first assigned to the 74-gun ship-of-the-line whose keel was laid in June 1819 at Portsmouth Navy Yard. Work proceeded slowly until the outbreak of the Civil War when "Almost Alabama" was renamed the NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The second and third ALABAMAs, both U.S. Steamers, also pre-date the American Civil War. The second was a 700 ton ship, which was transferred to the Navy Department from the War Department under Act of Congress of 3 March 1849. Being unfit for Naval purposes, the troop carrier was sold at auction in October 1849 after the war with Mexico. The third ALABAMA, a sidewheel steamer of 1,261 tons, was commissioned on 30 September 1861. She served in the Navy as a troop and cargo transport until 14 July 1865, at which time she was placed out of commission and sold on 10 August 1865.
The fifth ALABAMA BB-8 was a battleship of the 1st Rate Class. She was commissioned on 16 October 1900 and was a member of the Great White Fleet. She was the flagship for Division 1, Battleship Force, Atlantic Fleet during World War I. She was placed out of commission, and on 15 September 1921, was transferred to the War Department for use as a target in experiments in aircraft bombing. Her hulk, after lying on the bottom of Chesapeake Bay, where she had been sunk on 27 September 1921, was sold on 19 March 1924. Commissioned in 1985, the seventh USS ALABAMA, SSBN-731, a fleet ballistic missile submarine, was assigned to Commander Submarine Force Pacific in early 1986. She is currently still on patrol in the world's seas as a deterrent to nuclear attack. |
| With a fighting name to live up to, Battleship USS ALABAMA BB-60 commenced her shakedown training on 11 November 1942. This series of trials, exercises, and drills was conducted in the Chesapeake Bay area and the operating area of Casco Bay, Maine. Upon completion of her post shakedown repair period, ALABAMA stood out from Norfolk and made the up-coast run to Casco Bay where she conducted tactical maneuvers in company with the USS SOUTH DAKOTA, her sister ship and namesake of the class. |
On 20 March 1943, Captain Fred D. Kirtland, USN, relieved Capt. Wilson as skipper of USS ALABAMA. It was under Capt. Kirtland's conn that the ship completed a tour of duty protecting lend-lease convoys to Britain and Russia, while operating with the British Home fleet in the "Murmansk Run"
| After a 10 day period of limited overhaul and repair at Norfolk, ALABAMA got underway on 20 August 1943 enroute to the forward area in the Pacific. On the 25th, she cleared the Panama Canal, and reported for duty with the Pacific THIRD Fleet at Efate, New Hebrides, in September 1943. |
Her first major Pacific engagement was in the Gilbert Islands in November and December 1943. From this assignment, the battleship proceeded to Roi and Nauru. After heavily bombarding these installations, she moved to Kwajalein and Majuro were secured, the fleet moved into anchorage, and commenced planning the forthcoming attack on the Caroline and Marianas Islands.
| On 12 February 1944, ALABAMA sortied with units of Task Force 58 and launched strikes on Truk in the Carolines. Upon retiring, the force moved to the Marianas and gave enemy bases there a thorough pounding. In the course of these raids, the ships underwent severe air attacks with one raid on the night of 21-22 February lasting 13 hours. The ALABAMA downed one Japanese "Betty" on 29 March 1944. On 1 April, she was in the force making the first raids at Palau, Yap, and Woleai in the Palau Islands, retiring for a week in Majuro. |
The days and nights of 21-24 April 1944 were spent in supporting the operations along the North coast of New Guinea, where General MacArthur's troops moved ashore at Hollandia, Ataipe, and Humboldt Bay. Steaming at top speed, ALABAMA arrived back in the Carolines in time to participate in the bombardment and strikes on Ponape and Truk on 29, 30 April, and 1 May 1944. The remainder of May 1944 was spent at anchor in Majuro Harbor.
| The ALABAMA and other powerful units of the Fleet got underway for pre-invasion softening-up strikes in the Marianas. For seven hours on 13 June 1944, the fast battleships bombarded Saipan while mine-sweepers cleared the landing lanes for the small craft. On 15 June, the assault troops moved ashore under the protective fire of the "big boys," and the ALABAMA accounted for another enemy plane. |
ALABAMA steamed with TG58.7 during the battle of the Philippine Sea, 19-20 June 1944, and her group downed nine enemy planes. The result of the action was some 476 enemy planes destroyed out of a total of 545 sighted, to only 130 American planes lost and minor damage to four ships. When the fight was broken off, the U.S. force made an attempt to catch the enemy fleet, but their high speed retirement made it impossible to make surface contact. Pursuit was abandoned and ALABAMA, in company with other units, returned to support operations ashore.
| On 6 July 1944, the ship retired to Eniwetok, and upon arrival, Rear Admiral L.W.Hanso, USN, broke his flag aboard as Commander, Battleship Division NINE. After making attacks on bases in the Carolines (25-27 July) in support of the Marianas operations, ALABAMA moved into the area of Guam for pre-invasion and D-Day support, continuing until the island was secured in August 1944. |
While undergoing an 18 day logistics period at Eniwetok, Captain Vincent R. Murphy, USN, relieved Captain Kirtland as commanding officer of BB-60. With Captain Murphy as skipper, ALABAMA participated in the series of attacks and raids in connection with the capture and occupation of the Southern Carolines and the Palaus. This operation was carried on throughout September 1944.
| From the more advanced base of Ulithi Atoll, ALABAMA and other ships continued operations in the Western Pacific, the first assignment being in support of the Leyte operations. ALABAMA steamed in company with the carriers throughout October as the planes wrecked Japanese military installations in the Philippines, Formosa, the Pescadore and the Ryukyu Islands. Japanese air attacks on the carrier-battleship force were furious and persistent, however, ALABAMA helped drive off all attacks without damage to herself or any carriers in her group. |
Moving southward, the fast ships launched strikes at various enemy installations in the Philippines, shooting down 3 enemy planes and damaging a 4th. In late October, it became apparent that the enemy was moving a strong surface force into the area to oppose U.S. landings. ALABAMA was the member of Admiral Halsey's force which fought in battle off Cape Ehgano on 25 October as a part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. This battle removed the enemy's threat to Allied landing in the Philippines, and cleared the path for further operations.
| After a brief rest in Ulithi, the big ship moved into the area on the Mindoro (Philippines) operation, and, while in this vicinity, she rode out a fierce typhoon in December, which cost the U.S. Fleet three destroyers in the group. On Christmas Eve 1944, news was received that ALABAMA was to retire to the U.S. West Coast for an extended drydock period. At Pearl Harbor, Captain William B. Goggins, USN, came aboard and, upon the ship's arrival at Bremerton, Washington, he relieved Captain Murphy as commanding officer. |
During the vessel's overhaul, crewmen was granted rehabilitation leave to rest up after two long years of continuous operation in the forward area. After clearing the shipyards, ALABAMA held refresher training exercises in the waters off Lower California, and proceeded then to join the Fleet at the anchorage in Ulithi, arriving in early May 1945. As a member of the THIRD and FIFTH Fleet, the battleship participated in the Okinawa Gunto supporting raids on the Japanese home islands.
| While carrier planes were carrying out their strikes on Kyushu, Japan, enemy planes tried in vain to break through the formation in attempt to make their suicide dives. On the morning of 4 May 1945, several of the Japanese penetrated the combat air patrol defense and, in the midst of the attack, a Kamikaze plunged through the low clouds into Admiral Mitcher's flagship, USS ENTERPRISE. Of the four other planes which attacked the surface formation, ALABAMA's gunners shot down two which crashed only about 1,000 yards away. |
On 5 June, while conducting operations off Kyushu, the task force rode out a typhoon with ALABAMA experiencing slight damage, and cruiser PITTSBURGH losing nearly 100 feet of her bow. On 10 June, ALABAMA received orders to proceed southward and join other battleships in the bombardment of Minami Daito Jima. This new assignment was carried out, and the ship proceeded to the newly developed base in Leyte Gulf.
| The THIRD Fleet's biggest venture was soon to be executed, and after three weeks at anchor, ALABAMA steamed in Admiral Halsey's task force enroute for the home islands of Japan. After the carrier planes had raked the islands from Nakasaki to Hokkaido, enemy targets practically disappeared, and the opposition encountered was negligible. On 14 July came the phase of the operation which was purely a battleship function. Three new "big ones" were turned loose on an industrial area on Hokkaido and, although ALABAMA was not one of them, she spurred her fleetmates on with much enthusiasm--at last, the dreadnoughts were getting a crack at the Japanese in a more direct way than protecting the carriers. |
ALABAMA got her chance on 17 July 1945, with her principal target for the bombardment an engineering works on Honshu Island, about 50 miles north of Tokyo. Some 1500 tons of shells were thrown into the mills and factories under the cover of darkness, but the destruction could not be observed due to a heavy rainstorm. Nevertheless, ALABAMA later learned that she had done a very handsome job of demolishing the targets assigned her.
| The end of the war found the ship still at sea, and, after 67 days of continuous steaming, she dropped anchor in Tokyo Bay, remaining for two weeks while her landing force assisted the occupation of the Yokosuka-Tokyo area. On 20 September 1945, ALABAMA stood out from Tokyo. At Okinawa, she embarked some 3700 passengers for the U.S., thus doing her bit in the task of returning the Pacific veterans. Navy Day, 27 October 1945, was spent with other units of the THIRD Fleet in the celebrations at San Francisco. On 26 November 1945, Captain E. H. Pierce, USN, relieved Captain Goggins as Commanding Officer.after being moved to Bremerton, Washington, she was decommissioned on January 9, 1947 |
In 1835, a general uprising throughout Mexico sought to overthrow the dictatorial reign of President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. American citizens who had settled in the Mexican province of Texas joined the uprising and successfully forced the Mexican military across the Rio Grande River. The objective of these Texan revolutionaries soon changed from modifying the dictatorial rule of General Santa Anna to establishing an independent state of Texas.
 A fight to the death at the Alamo |
Arriving on February 23, 1836, Santa Anna’s troops surrounded the Alamo, laying siege to its defenders. The Mexican Army began to bombard the former mission with cannon shot in an effort to systematically reduce its protective walls to rubble. The assault began in earnest during the early morning hours of March 6 as Mexican soldiers swarmed the walls of the fortress. The Alamo defenders successfully repulsed two attacks but were overwhelmed by the third. The combat was characterized by room-to-room fighting in which all but a handful of the defenders were killed. The ferocity of their defense is underscored by the fact that it resulted in the death of an estimated 600 Mexicans.
"Remember the Alamo!" became a rallying cry that swelled the ranks of the Texian Army led by General Sam Houston. On April 21, this force attacked the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto, captured General Santa Anna and forced him to lead his troops back across the Rio Grande. The independence of Texas was assured.
"At last they were all destroyed by grape, musket shot and the bayonet."
The following account is provided by a member of Santa Anna's army that besieged the Alamo. We join his story on the evening just before the attack:
"On this same evening, a little before nightfall, it is said that Barret Travis, commander of the enemy, had offered to the general-in-chief, by a woman messenger, to surrender his arms and the fort with all the materials upon the sole condition that his own life and the lives of his men be spared. But the answer was that they must surrender at discretion, without any guarantee, even of life, which traitors did not deserve. It is evident, that after such an answer, they all prepared to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Consequently, they exercised the greatest vigilance day and night to avoid surprise.
On the morning of March 6, the Mexican troops were stationed at 4 o'clock, A.M., in accord with Santa Anna's instructions. The artillery, as appears from these same instructions, was to remain inactive, as it received no order; and furthermore, darkness and the disposition made of the troops which were to attack the four fronts at the same time, prevented its firing without mowing down our own ranks. Thus the enemy was not to suffer from our artillery during the attack. Their own artillery was in readiness. At the sound of the bugle they could no longer doubt that the time had come for them to conquer or to die. Had they still doubted, the imprudent shouts for Santa Anna given by our columns of attack must have opened their eyes.
As soon as our troops were in sight, a shower of grape and musket balls was poured upon them from the fort, the garrison of which at the sound of the bugle, had rushed to arms and to their posts. The three columns that attacked the west, the north, and the east fronts, fell back, or rather, wavered at the first discharge from the enemy, but the example and the efforts of the officers soon caused them to return to the attack. The columns of the western and eastern attacks, meeting with some difficulties in reaching the tops of the small houses which formed the walls of the fort, did, by a simultaneous movement to the right and to left, swing northward till the three columns formed one dense mass, which under the guidance of their officers, endeavored to climb the parapet on that side.
 The Death of Davy Crockett |
This obstacle was at length overcome, the gallant General Juan V Amador being among the foremost. Meantime the column attacking the southern front under Colonels Jose Vicente Minon and Jose Morales, availing themselves of a shelter, formed by some stone houses near the western salient of that front, boldly took the guns defending it, and penetrated through the embrasures into the square formed by the barracks. There they assisted General Amador, who having captured the enemy's pieces turned them against the doors of the interior houses where the rebels had sought shelter, and from which they fired upon our men in the act of jumping down onto the square or court of the fort. At last they were all destroyed by grape, musket shot and the bayonet.
Our loss was very heavy. Colonel Francisco Duque was mortally wounded at the very beginning, as he lay dying on the ground where he was being trampled by his own men, he still ordered them on to the slaughter. This attack was extremely injudicious and in opposition to military rules, for our own men were exposed not only to the fire of the enemy but also to that of our own columns attacking the other fronts; and our soldiers being formed in close columns, all shots that were aimed too low, struck the backs of our foremost men. The greatest number of our casualties took place in that manner; it may even be affirmed that not one fourth of our wounded were struck by the enemy's fire, because their cannon, owing to their elevated position, could not be sufficiently lowered to injure our troops after they had reached the foot of the walls. Nor could the defenders use their muskets with accuracy, because the wall having no inner banquette, they had, in order to deliver their fire, to stand on top where they could not live one second.
The official list of casualties, made by General Juan de Andrade, shows: officers 8 killed, 18 wounded; enlisted men 52 killed, 233 wounded. Total 311 killed and wounded. A great many of the wounded died for want of medical attention, beds, shelter, and surgical instruments.
The whole garrison were [sic] killed except an old woman and a negro slave for whom the soldiers felt compassion, knowing that they had remained from compulsion alone. There were 150 volunteers, 32 citizens of Gonzales who had introduced themselves into the fort the night previous to the storming, and about 20 citizens or merchants
1850—The U.S. government leases the Alamo from the Catholic Church, and the U.S. Army begins repairing the mission, adding a gabled roof and the distinctive curved facade.
eptember, 1835—Mexican General Martín Perfecto de Cós arrives in the port at Copano, 30 miles north of Corpus Christi, with 500 troops on their way to San Antonio.
February 23, 1836—Antonio López de Santa Anna and the Centralist forces arrive and the Siege of the Alamo begins.
The museum enjoys an international reputation as one of the best anywhere. For aviation enthusiasts of all ages, PASM brings history to life.
Pima Air Museum had the humblest of beginnings. The museum was conceived in 1966 and a year later the Tucson Air Museum Foundation was incorporated as an educational on-profit organization responsible for the operation of the museum. Ten years later, on May 8, 1976, the museum opened to the public as an official Bicentennial event. The tremendous effort involved in Opening the museum was put forth solely by volunteers. Picture if you will, 75 aircraft in a bare desert setting with the only structure on the ground being a small tin shack used to sell tickets.
Few tickets were sold during the first few months of operation but, today, about 165,000 visitors a year tour the museum.
The museum receives no government funds and is supported solely by gate admissions, gift shop sales, memberships and donations. However, the museum admits all school groups grade 12 and below, at no charge. Educational packets and docent tours for the school groups are provided to make the students' visit a rewarding one. Last year, over 6000 school age children visited the museum. PASM is continually enhancing its educational programs.
As you enter Hangar #1 after leaving the ticket counter, you move toward an exact replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer, the aircraft with which the Wright Brothers made history. Early aircraft such as the Waco RNF, Fleet Model 2 and the Focke-Wulf Fw-44J Stieglitz are also located in Hangar #1. Exhibits such as "Women in Aviation," "Blacks in Aviation" and a "hands-on" area are popular with those of all ages and are just a few of the exhibits located in this hangar. Out the north door of this building can be seen General Eisenhower's "Columbine" and the DC-6 used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. The DC-6 is open for guided tours.
About 100 feet north of the DC-6 is the Space Gallery and Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame building. In 1991, the Foundation membership voted to change the museum's name to the Pima Air & Space Museum. The Space Gallery features a full-scale mock-up of the X-15, the rocket powered aircraft that broke the envelope of space.
In 1985, then Governor Bruce Babbitt, Pima County and the City of Tucson each issued a proclamation naming the museum as the location of the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame. To date, a total of 26 individuals have been inducted. Among the 26 are former Senator Barry Goldwater and astronaut Frank Borman.
Leaving the Space Gallery and walking southwest past the SR-71 Blackbird, the world's fastest jet aircraft, you arrive at Hangar #3. This hangar houses the B-24 Liberator bomber, one of about 12 known to exist, the B-25, A-26, TG-6 and other World War II-era aircraft. A new display, "World War II Combat Gliders" was dedicated on the 50th anniversary of D-Day June 6, 1994. Immediately south of this building is Hangar #4 which houses the B-29 and C-46 aircraft, among others. A formal dedication was held in October during a reunion of the 330th Bomb Group to which this B-29 was assigned during World War II.
The 390th Memorial Museum is located in the center of the grounds and houses the B-17. Its exhibits detail the unit's World War II operations in the European Theater while assigned to the 8th Air Force. It is a museum within a museum
With about 65 acres of display area, comfortable shoes are a must. A walk through the museum takes about three hours but one could easily spend all day. A tram operates daily weather permitting. Cost is $2 and the tram ticket is valid for the entire day.
