US Navy

Anchors Aweigh ! USS Pennsylvania.

US Navy.

USS Pennsylvania, lead ship of its class of "super-Dreadnaught" battleships, leads Colorado class battleship USS Colorado (class leader) and cruisers USS Louisville, USS Portland and USS Columbia towards Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, January, 1945. The action at Lingayen proved to be the last action of USS Pennsylvania's long and distinguished career. As the "super-Dreadnaught" description implies, this 14-inch gun-armed battleship was of WW1 vintage, having been commissioned in 1916. She was, for the time, state-of-the-art - to such an extent that when the US entered WW1, she could not cross the Atlantic as tankers could not be spared to fuel her (Pennsylvania burned fuel oil; British dreadnaughts still ran on coal). In WW2, USS Pennsylvania served throughout the Pacific War, mainly on bombardment duties. At the war's end, she was patched up (she had suffered a deal of torpedo damage at Lingayen) and was relegated to target ship duty. She was sent to the bottom in the course of a target practice session in 1948. Best regards, JR.