USS Alabama Squadron at Sea

Description

USS Alabama Squadron at Sea
The keel of the 35,000-ton battleship Alabama was laid in Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1940. Laborers swarmed to build the immense vessel as war raged elsewhere around the world. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, their work took on new urgency, and the mighty battleship was placed in commission on 16 August 1942. Her first duties included bolstering the British Home Fleet, to protect convoys from such famed German surface raiders as Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Admiral Scheer. By late 1943 Alabama was operating with the US fleet in the Pacific, her powerful anti-aircraft battery, which was frequently augmented, putting up a shield over US carriers and her 16-inch guns firing on Japanese shore positions. This book documents all of these events as well as her construction and frequent refitting, before concluding with coverage of her years in the Navy’s “mothball fleet” and the saga of her preservation as a memorial.