Wreck of USS Arkansas (BB-33)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, First World War 1914-1918, shipwreck, battleship, nuclear testing area, United States Navy

USS Arkansas was the second and final member of the Wyoming Class of Battleships built for the US Navy, laid down at New York Shipbuilding in Camden, NJ in January 1910 and commissioned into service in September 1912 as a member of the US Atlantic Fleet. After taking part in routine exercises and ceremonial duties during the next two years, Arkansas and her crew found themselves heavily involved in the “Veracruz Incident” of April 1914, wherein her embarked Marines were put ashore to secure the Mexican port city to prevent a shipment of arms from reaching the forces of then-President Victoriano Huerta. Providing artillery support as the Marines and a band of Arkansas crewmen fought for and gained control of the city, the Battleship proved herself in combat for the first time in what would be a long and active career.

Following Veracruz, Arkansas resumed her normal routine of training and exercise in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean through 1917, when the United States officially entered the First World War. After embarking gun crews for training along the US East Coast, Arkansas departed American waters for duty in Europe in early July 1918, arriving in Rosyth Scotland at the end of the month where she began operations with the 6th Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet. Three months after her arrival in theatre the Arkansas’ crew received word of an armistice between the warring powers, and following the November 11th cessation of hostilities she oversaw the internment of the German High Seas Fleet and returned stateside in December. Shifting her operations to the Pacific Fleet in July 1919, Arkansas spent the next two years conducting Fleet Battle maneuvers, exercises and goodwill port visits along North and South America before she returned to the Atlantic and became flagship for the Commander, Battleship Force, US Atlantic Fleet, in the summer of 1921.

During the following two decades, Arkansas operated with the US Atlantic Fleet, conducting regular Midshipmen training cruises to Europe during the summer and battle exercises off Puerto Rico and Cuba during the winter. Given a major overhaul in 1925, Arkansas lost her coal-fired boilers for an oil fired system while also receiving armor and armament upgrades to bring her to a modern standard, however by this time the signing of the Washington and London Naval Treaties by the United States began to thin the ranks of operational American Battleships. With the designation of her sistership USS Wyoming (BB-32) and fellow Battleship USS Utah (BB-31) as gunnery training ships in 1931 & 1932 respectively, USS Arkansas became the oldest operating Battleship in the US Fleet. Despite her new and unflattering title, Arkansas maintained her busy schedule through the 1930’s and into the 1940’s, and following the outbreak of war in Europe once again she began intensive battle tactics training in addition to her training duties. After a joint US/British/Icelandic agreement was reached to occupy the mid-Atlantic island nation, Arkansas escorted a convoy of American troops for occupation duty in the summer of 1940 before steaming to Argentia where she stood watch over the Atlantic Charter Conference in August.

When the Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the Second World War, Arkansas was ordered to operate with the Atlantic Fleet despite the losses in Battleships experienced in the Pacific. After screening merchant ship convoys to Iceland from December 1941 through March 1942, she put into the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for overhaul and modernization which lasted four months. Emerging from the yard in July 1942, Arkansas was assigned to the role of escorting merchant and troopship convoys in the Atlantic Ocean, a role best suited for her lower speed and heavy armament. Arkansas would spend the next two years so engaged, providing cover for the vital convoys which were the lifeline for the British and American forces fighting in Europe. Spring 1944 found the Arkansas detached from her convoy escort work and operating in the Irish Sea on intensive gunnery exercises, training the crews of her six dual 12-inch gun turrets in the precise art of naval gunfire support. Two months of near-constant training proved its worth in the predawn hours of June 6th, 1944 when Arkansas threaded her way through the minefields off Normandy and took a position 4,000 yards off "Omaha" beach. In concert with assembled British, American, Free French and Free Polish ships, Arkansas main battery barked fire onto German bunkers at 0552 hrs, and continuously fired on targets for the next seven days in support of Allied forces moving into Fortress Europe, withdrawing only when the front lines outranged her main battery. Less than two weeks later, Arkansas was back in action at Cherbourg, trading accurate fire with German Shore Batteries until the port city fell to Allied forces on June 26th.

After regunning her worn out barrels the Arkansas shifted her area of operations to the Mediterranean where she joined US, British and Free French forces in Operation Anvil; the Invasion of the Southern France in August 1944. Operating along the French coast between Toulon and Cannes, Arkansas pounded away at German positions and shore batteries and provided gunfire support to advancing ground forces for four days, until her main guns were once again outranged. After escorting troopship convoys from Southern France to Northern Africa, Arkansas and her crew returned to the United States in September 1944 whereupon she went into drydock for a much-needed overhaul and voyage repairs. Returning to the action in November Arkansas was ordered to join the US Pacific Fleet where her shore bombardment capabilities were in high demand for the litany of Amphibious operations taking place in the fight against Japan. Departing the Atlantic for the final time on November 22nd, 1944, Arkansas and her crew transited the Panama Canal and began battle exercises with the US Pacific Fleet at San Diego and eventually Pearl Harbor, arriving in January 1945. After escorting an Amphibious convoy to the US Fleet staging area at Ulithi Atoll, Arkansas conducted shore bombardment training off Tinian before she steamed Northward with several other Battleships to the small volcanic island of Iwo Jima.

Arriving during the predawn hours of February 16th, Arkansas began her offensive role in the Pacific Theatre at 0600hrs when she loosed her guns on Japanese shore positions and gun batteries on Iwo. During the next three days, she provided direct gunfire support to US Invasion forces and spent the next two weeks conducting nightly bombardment missions of Japanese positions on Mount Suribachi and the Northern portion of the island before she depleted her food and ammunition stores and was retired to Ulithi. Rearmed, reprovisioned and refueled, Arkansas again departed for a shore bombardment mission against the Japanese, this time at the island of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Island chain where she arrived on March 25th. In what would eventually become 46 days of continuous fire support, Arkansas and her crew endured countless Kamikaze attacks while providing accurate fire support for American forces on Okinawa before she wore out the barrels of her main guns and withdrew to Guam for regunning in May 1945. After steaming to Leyte Gulf in the Philippines for further exercises and maneuvers in preparation for the planned Invasion of Japan, the Arkansas and her crew were informed of Japan’s Surrender while anchored off Leyte, after which she steamed to Okinawa, loaded homeward bound troops and departed far Eastern waters for Pearl Harbor on September 23rd, 1945.

Making four round-trip voyages between Seattle and Pearl Harbor returning Veterans from the Pacific, the Arkansas was selected to serve as a target ship for the Operation Crossroads Nuclear Weapon Testing program scheduled for June of 1946. Departing the United States for the final time in late April 1946, Arkansas sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and arrived at Pearl Harbor on May 2nd where she loaded scientific instruments, scientists and cargo before departing for Bikini Atoll on May 20th. Anchored in Bikini Lagoon fully loaded with fuel and munitions, the Veteran Battleship was situated roughly 200 yards from the USS Nevada (BB-36), the target ship for the air-dropped nuclear bomb being used in test ABLE. High winds aloft blew the weapon off course as it dropped onto the fleet of target ships on July 1st, 1946 and when it finally detonated it was 620 yards off Arkansas’ Starboard Quarter, causing major shock damage to her upper superstructure and unarmored hull areas, but little damage to her gun turrets and 36-year old hull. After being re-moored for the second test, the Arkansas was placed only 170 yards from the detonation point of the second bomb, which would be suspended 90ft beneath a landing craft to determine the effects of underwater nuclear explosions on ship hulls.

At 0835hrs on July 25th, 1946 the BAKER test was initiated and within four milliseconds of the bombs detonation a supersonic hydraulic shock wave slammed into the Arkansas’ hull with enough force to crumple her entire Starboard hull, rip off her Starboard propellers and rudders and slice a 25ft section of her hull off the ship. Obscured from view by a low-pressure “Wilson Cloud” the Arkansas was pushed forward and forced down by the bow by the two million tons of spray and seabed being forced into the air at speeds of 2,500 feet per second by the bombs blast, however her bow struck the seabed 180ft below and dug in, which caused the 26,000 ton, 535ft ship to be stood up vertically by the rising water column behind her. Now visible to video cameras recording the blast, the Arkansas is recorded in her vertical position for a few seconds before she was enveloped by the base surge of falling water and disappeared from view. It is speculated that the Battleship fell backwards through the water column and was inundated by the collapsing water column which when combined with the catastrophic damage to her hull, caused her to roll over and sink at this position at approximately 0840hrs on July 25th, 1946.

A Veteran of Two World Wars, USS Arkansas received four Battle Stars for her World War Two actions and was located by US Navy divers lying inverted in 170ft of water. Today, she is accessible to SCUBA Divers visiting Bikini and has become a popular attraction.

www.navsource.org/archives/01/33a.htm