USS TEXAS

Construction and early operations

USS Texas was laid down at Newport News on 17 April 1911, launched on 18 May 1912, and commissioned on 12 March 1914. She entered service as one of the most powerful American battleships of the period, carrying ten 14-inch guns and a large secondary battery in a hull designed for the 21-knot battle line. [1] [2]

Her first operational deployment came before the normal shakedown cycle was complete. In 1914 Texas joined American forces off Veracruz during the crisis in Mexico and supported operations ashore. The episode established a pattern that would recur throughout her career: the ship was repeatedly used not only as a fleet combatant, but also as a mobile base of heavy firepower positioned near events on land. [2]

Grand Fleet service and early aviation

Texas reached British waters in February 1918 and joined the Sixth Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. Her work included convoy missions, exercises, and sorties intended to reinforce the blockade when German heavy units threatened movement. The expected clash of battle fleets did not occur, but the American squadron strengthened the force containing the High Seas Fleet. [2]

After the armistice, Texas helped escort the surrendering German fleet and later escorted President Woodrow Wilson toward the Paris Peace Conference. In March 1919 she became the first U.S. battleship to launch an airplane when a Sopwith Camel flew from a temporary platform built over a turret. The experiment was a small but telling sign that battleships were beginning to operate in a naval environment transformed by aviation. [2]

Interwar modernization and fleet duty

Texas served in both the Atlantic and Pacific and underwent a major modernization beginning in 1925. The reconstruction replaced the cage masts with a tripod foremast, revised machinery and fire control, and changed the ship above and below decks. Later additions further strengthened anti-aircraft defenses and communications. [2] [3]

She also carried presidents, trained sailors and reservists, and served as a fleet flagship. These assignments are easy to overlook beside wartime bombardments, but they reveal how a capital ship functioned as a national instrument during peacetime. Texas was a command platform, a training environment, a symbol of naval power, and a test bed for changing practice. [2]

Atlantic war and the invasion of Europe

Before the United States entered the Second World War, Texas performed neutrality patrol and convoy-related duties in the Atlantic. She supported Operation Torch in North Africa in November 1942, then returned to convoy escort before preparing for the invasion of Normandy. [2]

On 6 June 1944, Texas opened fire on German positions near Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach. She continued to support troops ashore as targets moved inland. During the bombardment of Cherbourg on 25 June, coastal batteries straddled the ship and hit her twice. One shell struck the fire-control tower, killing the helmsman and wounding personnel on the bridge; another penetrated the bow without exploding. Texas continued firing until ordered to retire. [2]

After repairs, the battleship supported the invasion of southern France. These operations demonstrate how a ship designed for combat against other battleships became part of a combined amphibious system. Fire-control teams, shore parties, aircraft spotters, communications networks, and ground commanders were all necessary to turn heavy naval guns into useful support for troops ashore. [2]

Iwo Jima and Okinawa

Late in 1944, Texas shifted to the Pacific. She bombarded Iwo Jima before and after the Marine landings, then supported the Okinawa campaign for almost two months. The work demanded sustained gunnery, ammunition handling, maintenance, air defense, and coordination with forces ashore rather than a short exchange between capital ships. [2]

Texas survived kamikaze attacks and remained in service through the Japanese surrender. She then helped return American personnel home. The Navy credited the ship with five battle stars for the Second World War, a record that spanned North Africa, western Europe, and the central Pacific. [2]

From battleship to historic ship

Texas was decommissioned on 21 April 1948 and transferred to the State of Texas as a permanent memorial. Preservation saved a ship that otherwise would probably have been scrapped, but it also created a continuing engineering responsibility. Steel hulls, machinery, coatings, drainage systems, and interior spaces require sustained conservation long after military service ends. [2] [4]

The Battleship Texas Foundation describes the ship as a veteran of both world wars and the last surviving dreadnought. Her public value comes from more than age. Visitors can connect the scale of the 14-inch battery, the crowded working spaces, the layered results of modernization, and the human labor required to operate the ship. [4]

Texas deserves hero-ship treatment because her history crosses several major transitions: the dreadnought race, coalition service with the Grand Fleet, early naval aviation, interwar reconstruction, amphibious warfare in two oceans, and the difficult work of preserving a very large steel artifact. Few surviving ships provide that breadth in one hull. [2] [3] [4]