USS Texas (BB-35) (Galveston, Texas)

 museum, Second World War 1939-1945, military, First World War 1914-1918, battleship, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, historic landmark, United States Navy

USS Texas (BB-35), the second ship in the history of the United States Navy named in honor of the state of Texas, is a New York-class dreadnought battleship, launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914.

Soon after her commissioning, Texas saw action in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I as part of the British Grand Fleet. Participating mainly in peacetime exercises and midshipmen cruises during the interwar years, the Texas was heavily modernized to keep pace with advancing naval technologies, and by the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 she was assigned to lead US Naval forces operating as part of the American Neutrality Patrol along the Atlantic seaboard. When the United States formally entered World War II in 1941, Texas and her crew immediately took on the incredibly hazardous role of escorting merchant convoys across the U-Boat infested North and Central Atlantic to reinforce the Allied war effort. Detached from her escort duty to support Allied landings in North Africa in October 1942, Texas and her crew returned to the convoy lanes and continued their role in the Battle of the Atlantic through April 1944 when ship and crew were called upon once again to support the landing of Allied forces.

Arriving off the beaches of Normandy at 0300hrs on June 6th, 1944, Texas’ crew trained their main and secondary batteries onto German gun positions at Pointe du Hoc and commenced her role in the D-Day landings at 0550hrs, beginning what would turn into twelve days of continuous fire support onto German positions before the advance of Allied ground forces outranged her guns. Withdrawing to England for a brief period of reprovisioning, Texas promptly steamed for Cherbourg where she engaged German shore batteries in a gunnery duel which resulted in the ship being struck several times and straddled by over 65 shells before her fire and that of fellow Battleships silenced the German positions. Returning to her bombardment duties at Saint-Tropez in mid-August 1944 following battle damage repairs, the Texas conducted her final action in the European theatre by bombarding German positions in occupied France until rapidly advancing Allied ground forces outranged her guns and brought orders for the war-weary ship and crew to return stateside. Receiving an overhaul and re-gunning at the New York Navy Yard through early November, the Texas stood out for a brief training cruise before shaping a course for Pacific waters, eventually arriving at Pearl Harbor around Christmas 1944. Assigned to the massing US Naval force bound for action at Iwo Jima, the Texas and her crew began intensive gunnery training exercises before arriving off Iwo Jima’s Southern Coast on February 16th and commenced a three-day bombardment of Japanese positions before proving on-call artillery support to ground forces after their landings through March 7th. Hastily reassigned to the Okinawa Invasion force on March 26th, Texas once again began shelling Japanese positions in preparation for an American invasion, beginning what would turn into two straight months on the gunline pounding the island. While both ship and crew assisted ground forces fighting fanatical and suicidal Japanese resistance on land, the Veteran Battleship met much of the same at sea, as swarms of Japanese Kamikaze aircraft began attacking the assembled invasion force. Through the persistent efforts of her AA gun crews, Texas emerged unscathed from multiple attacks while downing at least one enemy aircraft and sharing credit for three others before finally being relieved from the gunline on May 14th, 1945.

Withdrawing to the rear-area harbor of Leyte Gulf for a much-deserved period of upkeep and R&R for her crew, the Veteran Battleship was still on the hook when the Empire of Japan accepted surrender, ending the Texas’ war with five battle stars to her credit. Remaining in the Western Pacific to cover Japans compliance with the peace treaty and the landing of occupation forces through the end of September, the Texas stood out for the United States with a full load of homeward bound Veterans, arriving at San Pedro in mid-October where she and her crew participated in Navy Day celebrations. Continuing her duty with the “Magic Carpet” fleet returning US servicemen to the US through the end of 1945, she departed the Pacific Ocean for the final time in January 1946 and reported to Norfolk where she formally decommissioned on June 18th, 1946. While lying in reserve at Baltimore, the Veteran ship became the subject of a preservation effort, starting with the establishment of the Battleship Texas Commission on April 17th, 1947 by the Texas Legislature, and when the Texas was formally stricken from the Naval Register in April 1948 she became the first battleship memorial museum in the United States.

Enshrined at the San Jacinto Battlefield at her own berth, the Texas became a popular tourist attraction in the Houston area, but by 1983 concerns with the leadership of the Battleship Texas Commission led to the decision by the State Legislature to turn over control of the ship to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). Surveys conducted on the orders of the TPWD found that Texas’ watertight integrity was badly compromised, with the hull open to the sea in numerous places and many compartments flooded by standing rain water. Deemed to be in need of a drydocking to perform major hull repairs and upgrades to her concrete sub-decking, a five-year-long fund-raising campaign was launched which eventually collected $15 million dollars and sent the Battleship to the drydock for the first time since her 1946 deactivation. Duly repaired and returned to her berth, the Texas resumed her duty as a memorial and museum, however it soon became clear that her location on the heavily-trafficked and brackish Houston Ship channel was causing her aging hull to deteriorate and threatening the ships very existence. The museum closed in 2019 and the ship was moved to a dry dock in Galveston in 2022 for restoration. It is set to reopen at a permanent location in Galveston in 2025.

With the completion of this restoration, the USS Texas, the oldest remaining dreadnought Battleship, oldest preserved American Battleship and one of only six remaining ships worldwide to have served in both World Wars, will be able to continue her well-deserved service as a museum ship and memorial.

battleshiptexas.org/
www.usstexasbb35.com/
www.navsource.org/archives/01/35a.htm