Texas II

(Battleship No. 35: displacement 27,000 (normal); length 673'0"; beam 95'2½" (waterline); draft 29'7" (forward); speed 21.06 knots (trial); complement 954; armament 10 14-inch guns, 21 6-inch guns, 4 3-pounders, 4 21-inch torpedo tubes (submerged); class New York)

The second Texas (Battleship No. 36) was laid down on 17 April 1911 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding Co., launched on 18 May 1912, sponsored by Miss Claudia Lyon, and commissioned on 12 March 1914 with Captain Albert W. Grant in command.

On 24 March, Texas departed the Norfolk Navy Yard and set a course for New York. She made an overnight stop at Tompkinsville, New York, on the night of the 26th and 27th and entered the New York Navy Yard on the latter day. She spent the next three weeks there undergoing the installation of fire control equipment.

During her stay in New York, President Woodrow Wilson ordered a number of ships of the Atlantic Fleet to Mexican waters in response to tensions created when Mexican Federal troops detained an American boat crew at Tampico. The issue was quickly resolved locally, but fiery Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo sought further redress by demanding an official disavowal of the act by the Huerta regime and a 21-gun salute to the American flag.

Unfortunately for Mexican-American relations, President Wilson saw in the incident an opportunity to pressure a government he deemed undemocratic. On 20 April, Wilson brought the matter before Congress and sent orders to Rear Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher, commanding the naval force off the Mexican coast, instructing him to land a force at Veracruz and seize the customs house there in retaliation for the "Tampico Incident." That action was carried out on the 21st and 22nd.

Due to the intensity of the situation, Texas put to sea on 13 May, heading directly to operational duty without the usual shakedown cruise and post-shakedown repair period. After a five-day stop at Hampton Roads between 14 and 19 May, she joined Rear Admiral Fletcher's force off Veracruz on the 26th. She remained in Mexican waters for just over two months, supporting American forces ashore. On 8 August, she left Veracruz, set a course for Nipe Bay, Cuba, and then steamed to New York where she entered the Navy Yard on 21 August.

The battleship remained there until 6 September, when she rejoined the Atlantic Fleet and settled into a schedule of normal fleet operations. In October, she returned to the Mexican coast and became the station ship at Tuxpan, a duty that lasted until early November. She bid farewell to Mexico at Tampico on 20 December and set a course for New York, entering the New York Navy Yard on 28 December and undergoing repairs until 16 February 1916.

Upon her return to active duty, Texas resumed a schedule of training operations along the New England coast and off the Virginia Capes, alternated with winter fleet tactical and gunnery drills in the West Indies. This routine lasted just over two years until the crisis over unrestricted submarine warfare catapulted the United States into war with the Central Powers in April 1917.

The declaration of war on 6 April found Texas anchored in the mouth of the York River with other Atlantic Fleet battleships. She stayed in the Virginia Capes-Hampton Roads area until mid-August, conducting exercises and training naval armed guard gun crews for service on merchant ships.

In August, she steamed to New York for repairs, arriving at Base 10 on the 19th and entering the New York Navy Yard soon after. She completed repairs on 26 September and got underway for Port Jefferson that same day. However, during the mid-watch on the 27th, she ran aground on Block Island. Despite efforts over three days, she remained stuck until tugs assisted on the 30th. Hull damage necessitated a return to the yard, preventing her from departing with Division 9 for the British Isles in November.

By December, she had completed repairs and moved south to conduct war games out of the York River. In mid-January 1918, Texas prepared for a voyage across the Atlantic. She departed New York on 30 January, arrived at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland on 11 February, and rejoined Division 9, now known as the 6th Battle Squadron of Britain's Grand Fleet.

Texas' service with the Grand Fleet consisted of convoy missions and occasional forays to reinforce the British squadron on blockade duty in the North Sea. The fleet alternated between bases at Scapa Flow and the Firth of Forth in Scotland. Texas began her mission only five days after arriving at Scapa Flow, where she sortied with the entire fleet to reinforce the 4th Battle Squadron in the North Sea. She returned to Scapa Flow the next day and remained until 8 March when she embarked on a convoy escort mission, returning on the 13th. Texas and her division mates entered the Firth of Forth on 12 April but got underway again on the 17th to escort a convoy. The American battleships returned to base on 20 April. Four days later, Texas again set out to sea to support the 2nd Battle Squadron the day after the German High Seas Fleet had sortied from Jade Bay toward the Norwegian coast to threaten an Allied convoy. The Germans returned to their base on the 25th, and the Grand Fleet, including Texas, did likewise the next day.

Texas and her division mates experienced a relatively quiet May in the Firth of Forth. On 9 June, she got underway with the other warships of the 6th Battle Squadron and headed back to Scapa Flow, arriving the following day. From 30 June to 2 July, Texas and her colleagues escorted American minelayers adding to the North Sea mine barrage. After a two-day return to Scapa Flow, Texas put to sea with the Grand Fleet to conduct two days of tactical exercises and war games. At the conclusion of those drills on 8 July, the fleet entered the Firth of Forth. For the remainder of World War I, Texas and the other battleships of Division 9 continued to operate with the Grand Fleet as the 6th Battle Squadron. With the German Fleet increasingly confined to its bases in the estuaries of the Jade and Ems Rivers, the American and British ships settled into a routine schedule of operations with little hint of combat. This state of affairs lasted until the armistice ended hostilities on 11 November 1918. On the night of 20 and 21 November, Texas accompanied the Grand Fleet to meet the surrendering German Fleet.

The two fleets rendezvoused about 40 miles east of May Island, near the mouth of the Firth of Forth, and proceeded together into the anchorage at Scapa Flow. Afterward, the American contingent moved to Portland, England, arriving there on 4 December.

Eight days later, Texas set sail with Divisions 9 and 6 to meet President Woodrow Wilson, embarked in George Washington, on his way to the Paris Peace Conference. The rendezvous took place around 0730 the following morning, and Texas provided an escort for the President into Brest, France, where the ships arrived at 1230 that afternoon. That evening, Texas and the other American battleships departed Brest for Portland, where they stopped briefly on the 14th before getting underway to return to the United States. The warships arrived off Ambrose Light on Christmas Day 1918 and entered New York on the 26th.

Following an overhaul, Texas resumed duty with the Atlantic Fleet in early 1919. On 9 March, she became the first American battleship to launch an airplane when Lt. Comdr. Edward O. McDonnell flew a British-built Sopwith "Camel" off the warship. That summer, she was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet. On 17 July 1920, she was designated BB-35 as a result of the Navy's adoption of the alphanumeric system of hull designations. Texas served in the Pacific until 1924, when she returned to the east coast for an overhaul and a training cruise to European waters with Naval Academy midshipmen embarked. That fall, she conducted maneuvers as a unit of the Scouting Fleet. In 1925, she entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for a major modernization overhaul, during which her cage masts were replaced with a single tripod foremast, and she received the latest in fire control equipment. Following the overhaul, she resumed duty along the eastern seaboard and continued at that task until late in 1927, when she briefly toured the Pacific between late September and early December.

 

Near the end of the year, Texas returned to the Atlantic and resumed her normal duties with the Scouting Fleet. In January 1928, she transported President Herbert Hoover to Havana for the Pan-American Conference, then continued via the Panama Canal to the West Coast for maneuvers near Hawaii.

She returned to New York early in 1929 for her annual overhaul, completing it by March. She then began another brief tour of duty in the Pacific. By June, she was back in the Atlantic, resuming normal duties with the Scouting Fleet. In April 1930, Texas took a break from her schedule to escort SS Leviathan into New York. This ship carried the delegation that had represented the United States at the London Naval Conference. In January 1931, she left the New York yard as the flagship of the United States Fleet, heading via the Panama Canal to San Diego, her home port for the next six years. During this time, she served first as the flagship for the entire Fleet, and later, as the flagship for Battleship Division 1. She left the Pacific once during this period, in the summer of 1936, for a midshipman training cruise in the Atlantic. After completing this assignment, she immediately rejoined the Battle Force in the Pacific.

In the summer of 1937, Texas was reassigned to the East Coast as the flagship of the Training Detachment, United States Fleet. Late in 1938 or early in 1939, she became the flagship of the newly organized Atlantic Squadron, built around BatDiv 5. Her duties primarily involved training missions, midshipman cruises, naval reserve drills, and training members of the Fleet Marine Force.

When war broke out in Europe in September 1939, Texas began operating on the "neutrality patrol," established to keep the war out of the Western Hemisphere. As the United States moved towards more active support of the Allied cause, Texas started convoying ships carrying Lend-Lease material to Great Britain. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, she was at Casco Bay, Maine, for a rest and relaxation period following three months of watch duty at Argentia, Newfoundland. After ten days at Casco Bay, she returned to Argentia and stayed there until late January 1942, when she escorted a convoy to England. After delivering her charges, she patrolled near Iceland until March, then returned home. For the next six months, she continued convoy-escort missions to various destinations. On one occasion, she escorted Guadalcanal-bound Marines as far as Panama. On another, she screened service troops to Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the West Coast of Africa. More frequently, her voyages were to and from Great Britain, escorting both cargo- and troop-carrying ships.

On October 23, Texas embarked on her first major combat operation with Task Group 34.8, the Northern Attack Group for Operation "Torch," the invasion of North Africa. Her objective was Mehedia near Port Lyautey and the port itself. The ships arrived off the assault beaches on the morning of November 8 and began preparations for the invasion. When the troops went ashore, Texas did not immediately enter action to support them. At that time, amphibious warfare doctrine was still developing, and many did not recognize the value of a pre-landing bombardment. The Army insisted on attempting surprise. Texas finally entered the fray early in the afternoon when the Army requested her to destroy an ammunition dump near Port Lyautey. For the next week, she cruised up and down the Moroccan coast, delivering specific call-fire missions. Unlike in later operations, she expended only 273 rounds of 14-inch and 6 rounds of 6-inch ammunition. During her short stay, some of her crew briefly went ashore to assist in salvaging shipping sunk in the harbor. On November 15, she departed North Africa, returning home in company with Savannah (CL-42), Sangamon (ACV-26), Kennebec (AO-36), four transports, and seven destroyers.

Throughout 1943, Texas continued her role as a convoy escort. With New York as her home port, she made numerous transatlantic voyages to places like Casablanca and Gibraltar, as well as frequent visits to ports in the British Isles. This routine continued into 1944 but ended in April of that year when, at the European end of one such mission, she remained at the Clyde estuary in Scotland, training for the invasion of Normandy. This warm-up period lasted about seven weeks, after which she departed the Clyde, traveled down the Irish Sea, and around the southern coast of England to arrive off the Normandy beaches on the night of June 5-6.

At about 0440 on the morning of June 6, the battleship closed in on the Normandy coast to a point about 12,000 yards offshore near Pointe du Hoc. At 0550, Texas began bombarding the coastal landscape with her 14-inch salvoes. Her secondary battery targeted another area on the western end of "Omaha" beach, a ravine laced with strong points to defend an exit road. Later, under the control of airborne spotters, she shifted her major-caliber fire inland to interdict enemy reinforcement activities and to destroy batteries and other strong points farther inland.

By noon, she had closed in on the beach to about 3,000 yards to fire upon snipers and machine-gun nests hidden in a defile just off the beach. After completing that mission, she targeted an enemy anti-aircraft battery west of Vierville.

The following morning, her main battery bombarded the enemy-held towns of Surrain and Trevieres to break up German troop concentrations. That evening, she targeted a German mortar battery that had been shelling the beach. Shortly after midnight, German planes attacked the ships offshore, but Texas' anti-aircraft batteries, though they opened fire immediately, failed to score a hit. On the morning of June 8, she fired on Isigny, then a shore battery, and finally Trevieres once more.

After this, she retired to Plymouth to rearm, returning to the French coast on June 11. From then until June 15, she supported the Army in its advance inland. However, by June 15, the troops had advanced beyond the range of her guns, and Texas moved on to another mission.

On the morning of June 26, Texas closed in on the vital port of Cherbourg, joining Arkansas (BB-33) to open fire on various fortifications and batteries surrounding the town. The guns on shore returned fire immediately. Around 1230, they managed to straddle Texas. Despite shell geysers erupting around her, the battleship continued her firing runs. The enemy gunners were both stubborn and skilled. At 1316, a 280-millimeter shell hit her fire control tower, killing the helmsman and wounding nearly everyone on the navigation bridge. Captain Baker, the commanding officer, miraculously escaped unharmed and quickly cleared the bridge. Despite the damage and casualties, Texas continued to deliver her 14-inch shells. Later, another shell, a 240-millimeter armor-piercing shell, struck the battleship. It crashed through the port bow, entered a compartment below the wardroom, but failed to explode. Throughout the three-hour duel, the Germans straddled and nearly missed Texas over 66 times, but she persisted in her mission until 1600, when she received orders to retire.

Texas underwent repairs at Plymouth, England, then prepared for the invasion of Southern France. On July 16, she departed Belfast Lough for the Mediterranean. After stops at Gibraltar and Oran in Algeria, she rendezvoused with three French destroyers off Bizerte, Tunisia, and set a course for the Riviera coast of France. She arrived off St. Tropez during the night of July 14-15. At 0444, she moved into position for the pre-landing bombardment and, at 0651, opened fire on her first target, a battery of five 155-millimeter guns. The troops ashore moved inland rapidly against light resistance, so Texas provided fire support for the assault for only two days. She departed the Southern coast of France on the evening of August 16. After a stop at Palermo, Sicily, she left the Mediterranean and headed for New York, arriving there on September 14, 1944.

At New York, Texas underwent an 86-day repair period during which the barrels of her main battery were replaced. After a brief refresher cruise, she departed New York in November and set a course, via the Panama Canal, for the Pacific. She made a stop at Long Beach, California, then continued to Oahu. She spent Christmas at Pearl Harbor and then conducted maneuvers in the Hawaiian Islands for about a month, after which she steamed to Ulithi Atoll. Departing Ulithi on February 10, 1945, she stopped in the Marianas for two days of invasion rehearsals, then set a course for Iwo Jima. She arrived off the target on February 16, three days before the scheduled assault, spending those three days bombarding enemy defenses on Iwo Jima in preparation for the landings. After the troops stormed ashore on February 19, Texas switched roles and began delivering support and call fire. She remained off Iwo Jima for almost a fortnight, helping the Marines subdue a well-dug-in and stubborn Japanese garrison.

 

Although Iwo Jima was not declared secured until March 16, the USS Texas cleared the area in late February and returned to Ulithi in early March to prepare for the Okinawa operation. She departed Ulithi with Task Force 64, the gunfire support unit, on March 21 and arrived in the Ryukyus on the 25th. Texas did not participate in the occupation of the islands and the roadstead at Kerama Retto, which was carried out on the 26th, but instead moved in on the main objective, beginning the pre-landing bombardment that same day. For the next six days, she delivered 14-inch salvos to prepare the way for the Army and the Marine Corps. Each evening, she retreated from her bombardment position close to the Okinawan shore, only to return the next day and resume her shelling. The enemy ashore, preparing for a defense-in-depth strategy as at Iwo Jima, did not respond. Only their air units responded, sending several kamikaze raids to harass the bombardment group. Texas escaped damage during these small attacks. After six days of aerial and naval bombardment, the ground troops began their assault on April 1, storming ashore against initially light resistance. For almost two months, Texas remained in Okinawan waters, providing gunfire support for the troops ashore and fending off enemy aerial assaults. In this latter mission, she claimed one kamikaze kill on her own and three assists.

Late in May, Texas retired to Leyte in the Philippines and remained there until after Japan's capitulation on August 16. She returned to Okinawa toward the end of August and stayed in the Ryukyus until September 23. On that day, she set a course for the United States with troops embarked. The battleship delivered her passengers to San Pedro, California, on October 16. She celebrated Navy Day there on October 27 and then resumed her mission of bringing American troops home. She made two round-trip voyages between California and Oahu in November and a third in late December.

On January 21, 1946, the warship departed San Pedro and steamed via the Panama Canal to Norfolk, where she arrived on February 13. She soon began preparations for inactivation. In June, she was moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she remained until the beginning of 1948. Texas was towed to San Jacinto State Park in Texas, where she was decommissioned on April 21, 1948, and turned over to the state of Texas to serve as a permanent memorial. Her name was struck from the Navy list on April 30, 1948.

The USS Texas (BB-35) earned five battle stars during World War II.