1421. St. Elizabeth's Flood: A seawall on the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands collapses, c. 10,000 die
1944. A young general came to Washington, sent from the Southwest Pacific with the mission of explaining to Army Chief-of-Staff George C. Marshall how Gen. Douglas MacArthur wished to fight the war against the Japanese.
The young general made an impressive presentation, albeit that it was much too long Worse, the presentation was not very cogent. Needless to say, it was also not particularly convincing. When he concluded, the general added, "I will stake my military reputation on the soundness of these plans."
At that, Marshall, who could explain the strategic, logistical, and tactical problems of the American Civil War in under 20 minutes, leaned across the table and asked acidly, "Just what is your military reputation?"
1989. Last US battleship is retired.
Beginning in 1895 with the second class battleships Texasand Maine, the United States Navy would eventually put into commission 61 battleships, more than any other fleet save the Royal Navy. By the time the four sisters of the Iowa Class were stricken from the Navy List, nearly 110 years later, various American battleships had seen wartime service in six wars: that with Spain in 1898, the world wars of 1917-1918 and 1941-1945, Korea, 1950-1953, Vietnam, 1968-1969, and Operation Desert Storm, 1991, not to mention occasional more limited operations, such as the Vera Cruz landings in 1914.
In the course of their active careers, these vessels suffered the loss of over 2,400 sailors killed in the line of duty.
Some 260 men perished when the Maine exploded on February 15, 1898, an incident which, despite strenuous – and often strident – claims to the contrary has still not been adequately explained.
Nearly 300 other battleship sailors were killed in various shipboard accidents, about half of them in turret explosions,
Kearsarge (BB-5) April 12, 1906 10 killed
Georgia (BB-15) July 15, 1907 10
Mississippi (BB-41) June 12, 1924 48
Missisippi (BB-41) November 20, 1943 43
Iowa (BB-61) April 19, 1989 47
Nearly 2,000 American battleship men were killed by Japanese air attack. Most of these men, about 1,500, perished at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Of those who died that day, over a thousand were crewmen of the USS Arizona (BB-39) and the rest were serving aboard the other six battleships present. In the course of the 44 months of war that followed Japanese air attacks, notably kamikaze, killed over 400 American battleship men. In addition, approximately 30 American battleship sailors were killed by “friendly fire” during enemy air attacks.
During World War II and later conflicts American battleships were occasionally struck by enemy coast defense fire during shore bombardments. Several of these resulted in casualties, but it seems that only one man was killed; On February 17, 1945, during the preliminary bombardment of Iwo Jima , the USS Tennessee (BB-43) received a hit on one of her 5”/38 gun mounts, which killed Seaman First Class Leon Andrew Giardini and wounded four others.
Apparently only 38 American battleship sailors were killed in surface combat. This occurred off Guadalcanal on the night of November 14-15, 1942. This was a wildly confusing action that saw the South Dakota (BB-57) and the Washington (BB-56) take on HIJMS Kirishima. During the action the “Sodak” was struck by numerous enemy 5-, 6-, and 8-inch rounds, plus one – possibly two – 14-inchers. The 14" round – or rounds – that South Dakota collected on this occasion make Kirishima the only enemy battleship ever to lay a glove an American one.
But then, there were only two other occasions when American battleships engaged enemy ones.
The first encounter between an American battleship and an enemy one occurred on November 8, 1940, just a week before the Guadalcanal shoot-out, when the USS Massachusetts (BB-59), sister to the South Dakota, swapped rounds with the French Richelieu at Casablanca, to the misfortune of the latter; the “Big Mamie” received one hit in return during this action, but it was from a French shore battery, not the battleship, and she suffered no casualties from the experience.
The third, and last time, American battleships engaged enemy ones occurred during the Battle of Surigao Strait (October 24-25, 1944), during which Mississippi (BB-41), Maryland (BB-46), West Virginia (BB-47),Tennessee (BB-43), California (BB-44), and Pennsylvania (BB-38) engaged the Japanese Fuso and Yamashiro, with most of the work being done by the first three plus flocks of cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats that were in support; PennsylvaniA did not fire.