| North Carolina was laid down 27 October 1937 by New York
Naval Shipyard; launched 13 June 1940; sponsored by Miss Isabel Hoey, daughter
of Governor of North Carolina; and commissioned at New York 9 April 1941,
Captain Olaf M. Hustvedt in command. |
| First commissioned of the Navy's modern battleships, North
Carolina received so much attention during her fitting out and trials
that she won the enduring nickname "Showboat". North Carolina completed
her shakedown in the Caribbean prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, and after
intensive war exercises, entered the Pacific 10 June 1942. |
| North Carolina and the Navy began the long island-hopping
campaign for victory over the Japanese by landing marines on Guadalcanal
and Tulagi 7 August 1942. After screening Enterprise (CV-6) in the
Air Support Force for the invasion, North Carolina guarded the carrier
during operations protecting supply and communication lines southeast of
the Solomons. Enemy carriers were located 24 August, and the Battle for the
Eastern Solomons erupted. The Americans struck first, sinking the carrier
Ryujo; Japanese retaliation came as bombers and torpedo planes, covered
by fighters, roared in on Enterprise and North Carolina. In
an 8-minute action, North Carolina shot down between 7 and 14 enemy
aircraft, her gunners standing to their guns despite the jarring detonation
of 7 near-misses. One man was killed by a strafer, but the ship was undamaged,
The protection North Carolina could offer Enterprise was limited
as the speedy carrier drew ahead of her. Enterprise took three direct
hits while her aircraft severely damaged sea-plane carrier Chitose
and hit other Japanese ships. Since the Japanese lost about 100 aircraft
in this action, the United States won control of the air and averted a threatened
Japanese reinforcement of Guadalcanal. |
| North Carolina now gave her mighty strength to protect
Saratoga (CV-3). Twice during the following weeks of support to marines
ashore on Guadalcanal, North Carolina was attacked by Japanese submarines.
On 6 September, she maneuvered successfully, dodging a torpedo which passed
300 yards off the port beam. Nine days later, sailing with Hornet,
(CV-8), North Carolina took a torpedo portside, 20 feet below her
waterline, and 5 of her men were killed. But skillful damage control by her
crew and the excellence of her construction prevented disaster; a 5.5 degree
list was righted in as many minutes, and she maintained her station in a
formation at 25 knots. |
| After repairs at Pearl Harbor, North Carolina screened
Enterprise and Saratoga and covered supply and troop movements
in the Solomons for much of the next year. She was at Pearl Harbor in March
and April 1943 to receive advanced fire control and radar gear, and again
in September, to prepare for the Gilbert Islands operation. |
| With Enterprise, in the Northern Covering Group, North
Carolina sortied from Pearl Harbor 10 November for the assault on Makin,
Tarawa and Abemama. Air strikes began 19 November, and for 10 days mighty
air blows were struck to aid marines ashore engaged in some of the bloodiest
fighting of the Pacific War. Supporting the Gilberts campaign and preparing
the assault on the Marshalls, North Carolina's highly accurate big
guns bombarded Nauru 8 December, destroying air facilities, beach defense
revetments and radio installations. Later that month, she protected Bunker
Hill (CV-17) in strikes against shipping and airfields at Kavieng, Now
Ireland and in January 1944 joined Fast Carrier Striking Force 58, Rear Admiral
Marc Mitscher in command, at Funafuti, Ellice Islands. |
| During the assault and capture of the Marshall Islands, North
Carolina illustrated the classic battleship functions of World War II.
She screened carriers from air attack in preinvasion strikes as well as during
close air support of troops ashore, beginning with the initial strikes on
Kwajalein 29 January. She fired on targets at Namur and Roi, shere she sank
a cargo ship in the lagoon. The battlewagon then protected carriers in the
massive air strike on Truk, the Japanese fleet base in the Carolinas, where
39 large ships were left sunk, burning, or uselessly beached and 211 planes
were destroyed, another 104 severely damaged. Next she fought off an air
attack against the flattops near the Marianas 21 February splashing an enemy
plane and the next day again guarded the carriers in air strikes on Saipan,
Tinian and Guam. During much of this period she was flagship for Rear Admiral
(later Vice Admiral) Willis A. Lee, Jr., Commander Battleships Pacific. |
| With Majuro as her base, North Carolina joined in the attacks
on Palau and Woleai 31 March - 1 April, shooting down another enemy plane
during the approach phase. On Woleai, 150 enemy aircraft were destroyed along
with ground installations. Support for the capture of the Hollandia area
of New Guinea followed (13-24 April), then another major raid on Truk (29-30
April), during which North Carolina splashed yet another enemy aircraft.
At Truk, North Carolina planes were catapulted to rescue an American
aviator downed off the reef. After one plane had turned over on landing and
the other, having rescued all the airmen, had been unable to take off with
so much weight, Tang (SS-306) saved all involved. The next day North
Carolina destroyed coast defense guns, antiaircraft batteries and airfields
at Ponape. The battleship then sailed to repair her rudder at Pearl
Harbor. |
| Returning to Majuro, North Carolina cleared the islands
with the carriers to confront the Japanese 1st Mobile Fleet, tracked by
submarines and aircraft for the previous four days. Next day began the Battle
of the Philippine Sea, and she took station in the battle line that fanned
out from the carriers. American aircraft succeeded in downing most of the
Japanese raiders before they reached the American ships, and North
Carolina shot down two of the few which got thorugh. |
| On that day and the next5 American air and submarine attacks,
with the fierce antiaircraft fire of such ships as North Carolina,
virttually ended any future threat from Japanese naval aviation: threecarriers
were sunk, two tankers damaged so badly they were scuttled and all but 35
of the 430 planes with which hte Japanese had begun the battle were destroyed.
The loss of trainied aviators was irreparable, as was the loss of skilled
aviation maintenance men in the carriers. Not one of the American ships was
lost, and only a handful of American planes failed to return to their
carriers. |
| After supporting air operations in the Marianas for another two
weeks, North Carolina sailed for overhaul at Puget Sound Navy Yard.
She rejoined the carrieres off Ulithi 7 November as a furious typhoon struck
the group. The ships fought through the storm, and carried out air strikes
against western Leyte, Luzon and the Visayas to support the struggle for
Leyte. Druing similar strikes later in the month, North Carolina fought
off her first kamikaze attack. |
| As the pace of operations in the Philippines intensified, North
Carolina guarded carriers while their planes kept the Japanese aircraft
on Luzon airfields from interferring with the invasion convoys which assaulted
Mindoro, 15 December. Three days later the task force again sailed through
a violent typhoon, which capsized several destroyers. With Ulithi now her
base, North Carolina screened wide-ranging carrier strikes on Formosa,
the coast of Indo-China and China, and the Ryukyus in January, and similarly
supported strikes on Honshu the next month. Hundredcxs of enemy aircraft
were destroyed which migh otherwise have resisted the assault on Iwo Jima,
where North Carolina bombarded and provided call fire for the assaulting
Marines thorugh 22 February. |
| Strikes on targets in the Japanese home islands laid the ground-worek
for the Okinawa assault, in which North Carolina played her dual role
of bombarddment and carrier screening. Here, on 6 April, she downed three
kamikazes, but took a 5-inch hit from a frienldy ship during the melee of
antiaircraft fire. Three men were killed and 44 wounded. Next day came the
last deperate sortie of the Japanese Fleet, as Yamato, largest battleship
in the world, came south with her attendants. Yamato, a cruiser, and a destroyer
were sunk, three other destroyers damaged so badly that they were scuttled,
and the remaining four destroyers returned to the fleet base at Sasebo dadly
damaged. ON the same day North Carolina splashed an enemy plane and
she shot down two more on 17 April. |
| After overhaul at Pearl Harbor, North Carolina rejoined
the carriers for a month of air strikes and naval bombardment ont he Japanese
home islands. Along with guarding the carriers, North Carolina fired
on major industrial plants near Tokyo, and her socut plane pilots performed
a daring rescue fo a downed carrier pilot under heavy fire in Tokyo
Bay. |
| North Carolina sent both sailors and members of her Marine
Detachment ashore for preliminary occupation duty in Japan immediately at
the close of the wary, and patrolled off the coast until anchoring in Tokyo
Bay 5 September to reembark her men. Carrying passengers from Okinawa, North
Carolina sailed for home reaching the Panama Canal 8 October. She anchored
at Boston 17 October, and after overhaul at New York exercised in New England
waters and carried Naval Acaeemy midshipmen for a summer training cruise
in the Caribbean. |
| After inactivation, she decommissioned at New York 27 June 1947.
Struck from the Navy Lis t 1 June 1960, North Carolina was transferred
to the people fo Norht Carolina 6 Septemgber 1961. North Carolina is
berthed off the channel of the west bank of Cape Fear River, in full view
of downtown Wilmington. This imposing memorial to North Carolinans of all
services killed in World War II was dedicated 29 April 1962. Everything above
her main deck is open to the public -- officer's quarters, examples of the
crew's living compartments, combat information center and most impressive,
three huge 16-inch gun turrets. |
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