USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

The USS Pennsylvania was in north section of Drydock #1 on December 7th, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

The ship was receiving power and water from the mainland at the time of attack and her crew were among the first of any defenders in Pearl Harbor to return fire on the Japanese fighters & bombers. Being out of the water saved the Pennsylvania from being torpedoed like many of the other vessels in the harbor, however she was stuck by one 500 lb. armor piercing bomb which detonated inside of her #9 casemate and was subject to repeated strafing before the Japanese broke off their attack.

The ship had escaped the attack with relatively minor damage, however by this time the two destroyers in the South section of the drydock, USS Cassin & USS Downes, were both heavily damaged and on fire. Shipyard workers fearing explosions on the ships and noting exterior damage to the drydock wall, decided to flood the drydock to extinguish the fires and equalize the pressure on the drydock caisson. The flooding would complete at 1010am, however at 941am, the fires on the USS Downes reached her 5-inch magazines and she exploded, covering the Pennsylvania in thousands of pieces of shrapnel, including a thousand pound part of a torpedo tube. The explosion also sank the USS Cassin and both destroyers began to spill out their heavy fuel oil into the flooded drydock. Fires quickly began burning on the fuel and the crew on the Pennsylvania rushed to bring up fire hoses and water pressure to keep the flaming oil from enveloping the ship. The fires were eventually pushed away, thanks in part to favorable winds, leaving the bow of the Pennsylvania scorched, but otherwise undamaged. By the evening of December 7th, the Pennsylvania had 15 men killed, 14 MIAs, and 38 wounded. Repairs started onboard almost immediately after the fires were clear of the bow and the ship sailed for the US Mainland on December 20th, 1941. She was under repair at Mare Island Shipyard until March 30, 1942 when she rejoined the Pacific Fleet for the Aleutians Campaign in April of 1943.

In September and November of 1943 the Pennsylvania covered buildup and execution of the amphibious landings on Tarawa and other atolls in the Gilbert Islands before she returned to the US for an overhaul and upgrade of her Anti-Aircraft weaponry. January 1944 found the Pennsylvania off Kwajalein with fellow Battleships and Pearl Harbor Veterans USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS Colorado (BB-45) serving as fire support ships for the troops onshore, a role she continued to play through the US Island Hopping Campaign through the Marshall Islands until the Pennsylvania sailed for Australia in April for re-gunning.

Returning to the fray in June 1944, the Pennsylvania sailed for Saipan where she again provided shore bombardment for US forces assaulting the island, and subsequently provided the same for Tinian and Guam during the Marianas Campaign. The volume of fire from her main guns in her bombardment of Guam warranted the Pennsylvania to steam for emergency repairs at Manaus, as the concussive forces from her broadsides began to open up seams in her hull. She remained under repair at Manaus for almost a month before she again steamed for combat, this time as part of Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf's Bombardment and Fire Support Group which would assist in the Invasion of the Philippines in October 1944.

Covering the landings at Leyte, the Pennsylvania was one of the Battleships which was diverted to intercept a large Japanese force steaming towards the Surigao Strait. In the resulting Battle of Surigao Strait, the last Battleship vs. Battleship surface encounter, she was unable to lock onto a target and did not fire her guns in anger before the rest of the American ships pounded the Japanese fleet into submission. After covering the landings on Lingayen Gulf in Luzon in January 1945, she briefly patrolled the South China Sea before returning to the US mainland for modifications and repairs.

Returning to the Pacific in July 1945, Pennsylvania anchored at Buckner Bay in Okinawa on August 11th where her crew received informal reports that the Japanese were on the verge of surrender, but for the Pennsylvania, the war was not yet over. On the night of August 12th, a single Japanese torpedo bomber slipped into the US anchorage undetected and put a torpedo into the Stern of the Pennsylvania, where it blew a 30ft hole into her hull and damaged three of her four propeller shafts, killing 20 men and wounded another 10. After extensive salvage efforts, she limped back to the US on one propeller and was quickly placed into a reduced commission.

Heavily stripped of her wartime armament and repaired enough to make her seaworthy for the trip to Bikini Atoll, the Pennsylvania arrived for her final duty as a target ship for Operation Crossroads in June 1946. Despite her still taking on water from the torpedo damage she survived both the Able and Baker bombs and was formally decommissioned on August 29th, 1946. She was then towed to Kwajalein Atoll and was studied for radiological and structural testing before her continual leaking prompted her to be towed off Kwajalein and allowed to sink in deep water on February 10, 1948.

USS Pennsylvania was awarded eight Battle Stars for her World War II service as well as the Navy Unit Commendation.

www.navsource.org/archives/01/38c.htm