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BB-45 “Colorado” Battleship
This battleship was built soon after WWI ended. She was
being built from May 29, 1919 to March 21, 1921. She was the first American
battleship class carrying eight 406mm guns in four two-gun turrets (a similar
BB-46 “Maryland” was launched even earlier, on February 20, 1920, so the
“Colorado” class is sometimes called “Maryland” class). The ship’s displacement
was
32,300
tons, she was 190 meters long. Immediately upon completion of construction and
manning in late 1923 “Colorado” went to Europe to demonstrate America’s achievements
in ship building.
Americans love nicknaming everything, so they called the last superdreadnaughts of the fading epoch, including “Colorado”, “The Great Five”, and were very proud of them. They embodied USA’s naval power during all the peace period, practically without modernization.
On December 7, 1941 in Pearl Harbor, “Colorado’s” siblings “West Virginia” and “Maryland” fell victims to the Japanese assault. “Colorado” herself was in “Puget Sound” docks in Bremerton, Washington. Americans loved their battleships deeply, so both damaged battleships were repaired and modified. “Colorado” herself was undergoing modifications in the mother country, and thus avoided the common fate.
By the middle of the war veteran battleships were no longer
a match for their younger rivals, and the crown of naval battles went to
carriers. So “Colorado’s” first strike on Japanese was on November 20, 1943,
when it rained tons of metal and explosives on the Japanese fortifications
on the Tarawa atoll, acting as a floating artillery battery. Fire support
for the landing parties was the main job for old battleships from that
point. “Colorado” has destroyed Japanese fortifications on Kwadgelein, Saipan
and Guam, on Tinian and Marcus, in the Leyte and Lingaen bays, on the Okinawa
isle.
“Colorado” was among the first American ships to enter Japanese waters on August 27 and cast anchor in the Nagami bay, from where she proceeded into the Tokio bay, where the last Japanese battleship “Nagato” stood still lonely.
After Japan’s capitulation on September 2, 1945 the battleship went back to USA, where she was laid up on January 7, 1947, and sold for demolition on July 23, 1959.
BB-45 “Colorado” Battleship in the "Pacific Storm"
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