Hi all,
as most part of you will imagine, building the Tennessee did not cost a great effort to me
, nevertheless I thought that she “had” to be realised for filling the USN order of battle (specially for the mission-makers, another “real” sitting duck for a Tora Tora Tora scenario). But don’t worry, others are coming…
The class was made of two ships, USS Tennessee BB 43 and USS California BB 44; these ships were the first American battleships built to a "post-Jutland" hull design, retaining the New Mexico-class boats clipper bow but showing a larger bridge, two smaller stacks and discarding all secondary battery recesses in hull. As a result of extensive experimentation and testing, their underwater hull protection was much greater than that of previous battleships; both her main and secondary batteries had fire-control systems.
These ships had not been modernised at the outbreak of Pacific War, just some improvement in AA armament and they (and the three Colorado vessels) still kept the distinctive cage masts, typical feature of all dreadnought and “super dreadnought” USN ships.
Both were anchored along the battleship row on December 7, 1941. Whereas the California was sunk during the attack, the Tennessee was stricken by two bombs, suffering slight damage.
During repair, in early 1942, Tennessee had her cage mainmast replaced by a small tower control, as that eventually fitted on Colorado and Maryland. Once re-entered service she was used to patrol the western US coast until August of that year.
Tennessee joined the Solomon Islands and participated to the Guadalcanal operation for a very short time.
In late August, the Tennessee sailed for the Puget Sound Navy yard having been selected for a radical modernization, the same to which were eventually submitted her sister ship and the West Virginia.
Emerging from the navy yard on 7 May 1943, the Tennessee bore virtually no resemblance to her former self.
During the hostilities, Tennessee participated to several pre-invasion bombardment and had the honour to participate to the last battleship to battleship fight of the history, the Surigao Strait battle.
Theatres of operation:
Pearl Harbour
Kiska (Aleutian Islands)
Tarawa
Kwajalein
Eniwetok
Kavieng
Saipan
Guam
Tinian
Anguam
Leyte
Surigao Strait
Iwo Jima
Okinawa
She was placed out of commission on 14 February 1947, and sold for scrapping on 10 July 1959.
The Tennessee received ten battle stars for her World War II service.
Some Technical Data and FeaturesUSS Tennessee BB 43
Built by New York Naval Yard.
Laid down 14 May 1917, launched 30 April 1919, commissioned 3 June 1920.
Main features (as built):
Displacement: 32,300 tons normal; 36,450 tons full load
Dimensions: 624 x 97.3 x 31 feet/190.2 x 29,72 x 9,4 meters
Propulsion: Turbo-electric, 8 285 psi boilers, 4 shafts, 28,600 shp, 21 knots
Crew: 1080
Armour: 8 -13.5 inch belt (203 -343 mm), 3.5 inch decks (89 mm), 4.5 -13 inch barbettes (114 -330 mm), 5 -18 inch turrets (127 -457 mm), 4 -16 inch CT (102 -406 mm)
Aviation: none (Catapults fitted in 1924)
Armament: 4 triple 14"/50 cal, 14 5"/51cal, 4 3"/50 cal AA, 2 21 inch torpedo tubes (submerged)
Armament at the time of Pearl Harbour’s attack :
4 triple 14"/50 cal, 12 single 5"/51cal, 8 single 5"/25 cal AA, 4 quadruple 1.1”/75 cal AA, 5 to 8 0.50 Browning AA Mgs.
If you don’t dislike her, this is the downloading linkhttp://www.4shared.com/rar/2iO-8wsF/USSTennessee.htmlCredit:
Gofo: 3D model, mapping and texturing
asheshouse: classfiles and priceless tutoring (and endless patience too…)
Installation procedure is quite simple and fully detailed in the Readme file within the USS Tennessee’s folder.
N.B. This Mod was initially created for the 4.10 but it's working even on 4.09.
Author
Topic: the USS Tennessee joins the Pacific Fleet (Read 2059 times)