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'USS ''Texas'' (BB-35)' is a ''New York''-class battleship, and the second ship of the United States Navy named to honor Texas, the 28th state. ''Texas''’s keel was laid down on 17 April 1911 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company. She was launched on 18 May 1912 sponsored by Miss Claudia Lyon, and commissioned on 12 March 1914 with Captain Albert W. Grant in command.
During her career ''Texas'' saw action in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident", and escorted Allied convoys across the Atlantic Ocean during World War I. When the United States formally entered World War II, ''Texas'' resumed her role of escorting war convoys across the Atlantic, and later shelled Axis-held beaches for the North African campaign and the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theater late in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battle of Iwo Jima and Battle of Okinawa.
''Texas'' was decommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II, and is presently a museum ship near Houston, Texas. Among the world's remaining battleships, ''Texas'' is notable for being the oldest remaining dreadnought.^[1] She is also noteworthy for being one of only two remaining ships to have served in both World War I and World War II.^[2] Among U.S. built battleships, ''Texas'' is notable for her sizable amount of firsts: the first battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers (analog forerunners of today's computers), the first battleship to launch an aircraft, the first to receive a commercial radar in the U.S. Navy, and the first battleship to become a museum ship.^[3]

Contents

1914-1920

World War I

Post World War I

World War II

Operation Overlord

Rehearsal

D-Day

Bombardment of Cherbourg

Bombardment of Iwo Jima and Okinawa

Museum Ship

Media

Notes and references

External links

1914-1920

On 24 March 1914, ''Texas'' departed the Norfolk Navy Yard and set a course for New York City. She made an overnight stop at Tompkinsville, New York, on the night of 26 March and entered the New York Navy Yard on the next day. She spent the next three weeks there undergoing the installation of the fire control equipment.^[4]
During her stay in New York, President Woodrow Wilson ordered a number of ships of the Atlantic Fleet to Mexican waters in response to tension created when a detail of Mexican Federal troops detained an American boat crew at Tampico. The problem was quickly resolved locally, but Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo sought further redress by demanding an official disavowal of the act by the Huerta regime and a 21-gun salute to the American flag.
President Wilson saw in the incident an opportunity to put pressure on a government he felt was undemocratic. On 20 April, Wilson placed the matter before the United States Congress and sent orders to Rear Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher, commanding the naval force off the Mexican coast, instructing him to land a force at Veracruz and to seize the customs house there in retaliation for the celebrated "Tampico Incident." That action was carried out on 21 April and 22 April.
Due to the intensity of the situation, when ''Texas'' put to sea on 13 May she headed directly to operational duty without benefit of the usual shakedown cruise and post-shakedown repair period. After a five-day stop at Hampton Roads between 14 May and 19 May, she joined Rear Admiral Fletcher's force off Veracruz on 26 May. She remained in Mexican waters for just over two months, supporting the American forces ashore. On 8 August, she left Veracruz and set a course for Nipe Bay, Cuba, and thence steamed to New York where she entered the Navy Yard on 21 August.
The battleship remained there until 6 September when she returned to sea, joined the Atlantic Fleet, and settled into a schedule of normal fleet operations. In October, she returned to the Mexican coast. Later that month, ''Texas'' became station ship at Tuxpan, a duty that lasted until early November. The ship finally bade Mexico farewell at Tampico on 20 December and set a course for New York. The battleship entered the New York Navy Yard on 28 December and remained there undergoing repairs until February 16, 1916.
In 1916, ''Texas'' became the first U.S. battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns and the first to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers, analog forerunners of today's computers.

World War I

USS ''Texas'' in World War I. The two large steel towers are her cage masts, which were replaced with a single tripod foremast during her modernization overhaul in 1925.

Upon her return to active duty with the fleet, ''Texas'' resumed a schedule of training operations along the New England coast and off the Virginia Capes alternated with winter fleet tactical and gunnery drills in the West Indies. That routine lasted just over two years until the February-to-March crisis over unrestricted submarine warfare catapulted the United States into World War I in April 1917.
The 6 April declaration of war found ''Texas'' riding at anchor in the mouth of the York River with the other Atlantic Fleet battleships. She remained in the Virginia Capes-Hampton Roads vicinity until mid-August conducting exercises and training naval armed-guard gun crews for service on board merchant ships.
In August, she steamed to New York for repairs, arriving at Base 10 on 19 August and entering the New York Navy Yard soon thereafter. She completed repairs on 26 September and got underway for Port Jefferson that same day. During the mid-watch on 27 August, however, she ran hard aground on Block Island. For three days, her crew lightened ship to no avail. On 30 August, tugs came to her assistance, and she finally backed clear. Hull damaged dictated a return to the yard, and the extensive repairs she required precluded her departure with Division 9 for the British Isles in November.
By December, she had completed repairs and moved south to conduct war games out of the York River. Mid-January 1918 found the battleship back at New York preparing for the voyage across the Atlantic. She departed New York on 30 January; arrived at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland on 11 February; and rejoined Division 9, by then known as the 6th Battle Squadron of Britain's Grand Fleet.
''Texas's service with the Grand Fleet consisted entirely of convoy missions and occasional forays to reinforce the British squadron on blockade duty in the North Sea whenever German heavy units threatened. The fleet alternated between bases at Scapa Flow and at the Firth of Forth in Scotland. ''Texas'' began her mission only five days after her arrival at Scapa Flow where she sortied with the entire fleet to reinforce the Fourth Battle Squadron, then on duty in the North Sea. She returned to Scapa Flow the next day and remained until 8 March when she put to sea on a convoy escort mission from which she returned on 13 March. ''Texas'' and her division mates entered the Firth of Forth on 12 April but got underway again on the 17th to escort a convoy. The American battleships returned to base on 20 April. Four days later, ''Texas'' again stood out to sea to support the Second Battle Squadron the day after the German High Seas Fleet had sortied from Jade Bay toward the Norwegian coast to threaten an Allied convoy. Forward units caught sight of the retiring Germans on 25 April but at such extreme range that no possibility of bringing the enemy to battle existed. The Germans returned to their base that day, and the Grand Fleet, including ''Texas'', did likewise on the next.
''Texas'' and her division mates passed a relatively quiescent May in the Firth of Forth. On 9 June, she got underway with the other warships of the Sixth Battle Squadron and headed back to the anchorage at Scapa Flow, arriving there the following day. Between 30 June and 2 July, ''Texas'' and her colleagues acted as escort for American minelayers adding to the North Sea mine barrage. After a two-day return to Scapa Flow, ''Texas'' put to sea with the Grand Fleet to conduct two days of tactical exercises and war games. At the conclusion of those drills on 8 July, the fleet entered the Firth of Forth. For the remainder of World War I, ''Texas'' and the other battleships of Division 9 continued to operate with the Grand Fleet as the Sixth Battle Squadron. With the German Fleet increasingly more tied to its bases in the estuaries of the Jade River and the Ems River, the American and British ships settled more and more into a routine schedule of operations with little or no hint of combat operations. That state of affairs lasted until the armistice ended hostilities on 11 November 1918. On the night of 20 November, she accompanied the Grand Fleet to meet the surrendering German Fleet.
The two fleets rendezvoused about 40 miles (60 km) east of May Island near the mouth of the Firth of Forth and proceeded together into the anchorage at Scapa Flow. Afterward, the American contingent moved to Portland Harbour, England, arriving there on 4 December.

Post World War I

Eight days later, ''Texas'' put to sea with Divisions 9 and 6 to meet President Woodrow Wilson embarked in ''George Washington'' on his way to the Paris Peace Conference. The rendezvous took place at about 0730 the following morning and provided an escort for the President into Brest, France, where the ships arrived at 1230 that afternoon. That evening, ''Texas'' and the other American battleships departed Brest for Portland where they stopped briefly on 14 December before getting underway to return to the United States. The warships arrived off Ambrose light station on Christmas Day, 1918, and entered New York on the 26th.
Following overhaul, ''Texas'' resumed duty with the Atlantic Fleet early in 1919. On 9 March, she became the first American battleship to carry an airplane when Lieutenant Commander Edward O. McDonnell flew a British-built Sopwith Camel off the warship. That summer, she was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet. On 17 July 1920, she was designated BB-35 as a result of the Navy's adoption of the alpha-numeric system of hull classification symbols.
''Texas'' served in the Pacific until 1924 when she returned to the east coast for overhaul and to participate in a training cruise to European waters with Naval Academy midshipmen embarked. While operating in the Atlantic she sank the incomplete battleship ''Washington'' so the U.S. would be in compliance with the Naval Arms Limitation Treaty of 1922. That fall, she conducted maneuvers as a unit of the Scouting Fleet. In 1925, she entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for a major modernization overhaul during which her cage masts were replaced with a single tripod foremast. She also received the very latest in fire control equipment. Following that overhaul, she was designated the flagship of the U.S. Fleet and resumed duty along the eastern seaboard. She kept at that task until late in 1927 when she did a brief tour of duty in the Pacific between late September and early December. In 1927 ''Texas'' set another first by inaugurating the use of "talking" pictures for crew entertainment.

''Texas'' in the Gatun Locks, while transiting the Panama Canal en route to the U.S. east coast, 21 June 1937.

Near the end of the year, ''Texas'' returned to the Atlantic and resumed normal duty with the Scouting Fleet. In January 1928, she transported President Calvin Coolidge to Havana, Cuba, for the Pan-American conference and then continued on via the Panama Canal and the west coast to maneuvers with the fleet near Hawaii.
She returned to New York early in 1929 for her annual overhaul and had completed it by March when she began another brief tour of duty in the Pacific. She returned to the Atlantic in June and resumed normal duty with the Scouting Fleet. In April 1930, she took time from her operating schedule to escort SS ''Leviathan'' into New York when that ship returned from Europe carrying the delegation that had represented the United States at the London Naval Conference. In January 1931, she left the yard at New York as flagship of the United States Fleet and headed via the Panama Canal to San Diego, California, her home port for the next six years. During that period, she served first as flagship for the entire Fleet and, later, as flagship for Battleship Division (BatDiv) 1. She left the Pacific once during that time, in the summer of 1936, when she joined in a midshipman training cruise in the Atlantic. Upon completion of that assignment, the battleship immediately rejoined Battle Force in the Pacific.
In the summer of 1937, she once more was reassigned to the east coast, as the flagship of the Training Detachment, United States Fleet. Late in 1938 or early in 1939, the warship became flagship of the newly organized Atlantic Squadron, built around BatDiv 5. Through both organizational assignments, her labors were directed primarily to training missions, midshipman cruises, naval reserve drills, and training members of the Fleet Marine Force. During 1939 ''Texas'' received the first commercial radar in the U.S. Navy.

World War II

Soon after war broke out in Europe in September 1939, ''Texas'' began operating on the "neutrality patrol," established to keep the war out of the western hemisphere. Later, as the United States moved toward more active support of the Allied cause, the warship began convoying ships carrying Lend-Lease material to the United Kingdom. Early in 1941 the First Marine Division was founded aboard ''Texas''. On 1 February 1941 Admiral Ernest J. King hoisted his flag as Commander-in-Chief of the reformed Atlantic Fleet aboard ''Texas''. That same year, while on "Neutrality Patrol" in the Atlantic, ''Texas'' was stalked unsuccessfully by the German submarine U-203.
Sunday, 7 December 1941, found the battleship at Casco Bay, Maine, undergoing a rest and relaxation period following three months of watch duty at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. After ten days of Casco Bay, she returned to Argentia and remained there until late January 1942 when she got underway to escort a convoy to England. After delivering her charges, the battleship patrolled waters near Iceland until March when she returned home. For the next six months, she continued convoy-escort missions. Her destinations were various. On one occasion, she escorted Guadalcanal-bound marines as far as Panama. On another, the warship screened service troops to Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. More frequently, she made voyages to and from the United Kingdom escorting both cargo- and troop-carrying ships.
On 23 October, ''Texas'' embarked upon her first major combat operation when she sortied with Task Group (TG) 34.8, the Northern Attack Group for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. The objective assigned to this group was Mehedia near Port Lyautey and the port itself. The ships arrived off the assault beaches early in the morning of 8 November and began preparations for the invasion. ''Texas'' transmitted General Dwight D. Eisenhower's first "Voice of Freedom" broadcast, asking the French not to oppose allied landings on North Africa. When the troops went ashore, ''Texas'' did not come immediately into action to support them. At that point in the war, amphibious warfare doctrine was still embryonic; and many did not recognize the value of a pre-landing bombardment. Instead, the Army insisted upon attempting surprise. ''Texas'' finally entered the fray early in the afternoon when the Army requested her to destroy an ammunition dump near Port Lyautey. For the next week, she contented herself with cruising up and down the Moroccan coast delivering similar, specific, call-fire missions. Thus, unlike in later operations, she expended only 273 rounds of 14 inch (356 mm) and six rounds of 5 inch (127 mm). During her short stay, some of her crew briefly went ashore to assist in salvaging some of the shipping sunk in the harbor. During her time off Morroco ''Texas'' put Walter Cronkite ashore to begin his career as a war correspondent. On 16 November, she departed North Africa and headed for home in company with ''Savannah'', ''Sangamon'', ''Kennebec'', four transports, and seven destroyers.

Operation Overlord

Throughout 1943 ''Texas'' carried out the familiar role of convoy escort. With New York as her home port, she made numerous transatlantic voyages to such places as Casablanca and Gibraltar, as well as frequent visits to ports in the British Isles. That routine continued into 1944 but ended 22 April of that year when, at the European end of one such mission, she remained at the Clyde estuary in Scotland and began training for the invasion of Normandy.

Rehearsal

During the next 12 days, ''Texas'' carried out many 14-inch gun-firing exercises with British battleships HMS ''Ramillies'' and HMS ''Rodney''. The firing was done in conjunction with Royal Air Force airplanes as spotters, which would provide the spotting during the invasion. On 29 April ''Texas'', ''Nevada'', and ''Arkansas'' relocated to Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland. In Belfast Lough final preparations were made, including the removal of the airplane catapult. Additional radio equipment was added, including a device to detect and jam radio guided missiles.^[5] Final exercises were carried out to the south in Dundrum Bay. During the final preparations, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower came aboard on 19 May to speak to the crew. On 31 May the ship was sealed and a briefing given to the crew about the upcoming invasion . For the invasion, ''Texas'' was designated Bombardment Force Flagship for Omaha Beach, in the Western Taskforce. Her firing area of Omaha was the western half, supporting the U.S. 1st Infantry Division (known as "The Big Red One" for their shoulder patch) on the eastern half of Omaha, the U.S. 29th Infantry Division on the western half of Omaha, the U.S. 2nd Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc, and the U.S. 5th Ranger Battalion, which had been diverted to Western Omaha to support the troops at Pointe du Hoc.^[6][7]
The bombardment force consisted of the American battleships ''Texas'', which would be responsible for the western half of Omaha Beach, ''Arkansas'', which would be responsible for the eastern half of Omaha Beach, the destroyers ''Frankford'', ''McCook'', ''Carmick'', ''Doyle'', ''Emmons'', ''Baldwin'', ''Harding'', ''Satterlee'', ''Thompson'', the British light cruiser ''Glasgow'', the British destroyers ''Tanataside'', ''Talybont'', ''Melbreak'', and the French Light Cruisers ''Georges Leygues'' and ''Montcalm'', which took up station on the eastern end of Omaha Beach.
On 3 June, at 2:09 AM, the Western Taskforce to which ''Texas'' was assigned sailed from Belfast Lough for Normandy. In sight, on a parallel course was a group of British ships, including the battleships ''Warspite'' and HMS ''Ramillies''. On 4 June, at 7:10 AM, the taskforce had to reverse course due to unacceptable weather in the Normandy. Later that evening, off Lundry Island, the taskforce reversed course and headed for the invasion fleet gathering in Area Z. Joining up at Area Z, the invasion fleet headed south toward Normandy and the German minefield. Minesweepers had cleared channels through the mines and not a single Omaha Beach vessel was lost.

D-Day

At 3:00 AM on 6 June 1944 ''Texas'' and the British cruiser HMS ''Glasgow'' entered the Omaha Western fire support lane and into her initial firing position, at 4:41 AM, 12,000 yards (11 km) offshore near Pointe du Hoc, along with battleships ''Arkansas'' and ''Nevada'', and three US heavy cruisers, along with a combined US-British flotilla of battleships, five cruisers and 22 destroyers.
The initial bombardment commenced at 5:50 AM, against the site of six 155-mm (approximately 6 in) guns, atop Point du Hoc. When ''Texas'' ceased firing at the Point, at 6:24 AM, 255 14-inch shells had been fired in 34 minutes for a rate of fire of 7.5 shells a minute. This was also the longest sustained period of firing for ''Texas'' in WWII. While shells from the main guns were hitting Point du Hoc, the 5-inch guns were firing on the area leading up to Exit D-1, the route to get inland from Western Omaha. At 6:26 AM ''Texas'' shifted her main battery gunfire to the western edge of Omaha Beach, around the town of Vierville.
Meanwhile, her secondary battery went to work on another target on the western end of "Omaha" beach, a ravine laced with strong points to defend an exit road. Later, under control of airborne spotters, she moved her major-caliber fire inland to interdict enemy reinforcement activities and to destroy batteries and other strong points farther inland.
By noon, the assault on Omaha Beach was in danger of collapsing due to stronger than anticipated German resistance and the inability of the Allies to get needed armor and artillery units on the beach. In an effort to help the infantry fighting to take Omaha, some of the destroyers providing gunfire support closed near the shoreline, almost grounding themselves to get at the Germans. ''Texas'' also closed to the shoreline; At 12:23 PM, ''Texas'' closed to only 3,000 yards (2.7 km) from the water's edge, firing her main guns at almost 0 degrees of elevation to clear the western exit D-1, in front of Vierville. Among other things, she fired upon snipers and machine gun nests hidden in a defile just off the beach. At the conclusion of that mission, the battlewagon took an enemy anti-aircraft battery located west of Vierville under fire.
On 7 June the battleship received word that the Ranger battalion at Point Du Hoc was still isolated from the rest of the invasion force with low ammunition and mounting casualties; in response, ''Texas'' launched two small boats with provisions for the Rangers. Upon their return the boats brought 34 wounded Rangers to ''Texas'' for treatment, along with a handful of German prisoners who were interrogated aboard the battleship before being loaded aboard an LST for transfer to England.
Later in the day her main battery rained shells on the enemy-held towns of Surrain and Trevieres to break up German troop concentrations. That evening, she bombarded a German mortar battery which had been shelling the beach. Not long after midnight, German planes attacked the ships offshore, and one of them swooped in low on ''Texas''’s starboard quarter. Her anti-aircraft batteries opened up immediately but failed to score on the intruder. On the morning of 8 June, her guns fired on Isigny, then on a shore battery, and finally on Trevieres once more.
After that, she retired to Plymouth to rearm, returning to the French coast on 11 June. From then until 15 June, she supported the army in its advance inland. By 15 June the troops had advanced to the edge of ''Texas''’s gun range; her last fire support mission was so far inland that to get the needed range, the starboard torpedo blister was flooded with water to provide 2 degrees of list. With combat operations beyond the range of her guns on 16 June ''Texas'' moved on to another mission.

Bombardment of Cherbourg

A heavy German coast artillery shell falls between ''Texas'' (in the background) and ''Arkansas'' while the two battleships were engaging Battery Hamburg during the bombardment of Cherbourg, France, 25 June 1944.

On the morning of 26 June, ''Texas'' closed in on the vital port of Cherbourg and, with ''Arkansas'', opened fire upon various fortifications and batteries surrounding the town. The guns on shore returned fire immediately and, at about 12:30 PM, succeeded in straddling ''Texas''. The battleship continued her firing runs in spite of shell geysers blossoming about her; however, the enemy gunners were stubborn and skilled. At 1:16 PM a 280 mm shell slammed into her fire control tower, killed the helmsman, and wounded nearly everyone on the navigation bridge. ''Texas''’s commanding officer, Captain Baker, miraculously escaped unhurt and quickly had the bridge cleared. The warship herself continued to deliver her 14 inch (356 mm) shells in spite of damage and casualties. Some time later, another shell struck the battleship. That one, a 240 mm armor-piercing shell, crashed through the port bow and entered a compartment located below the wardroom, but failed to explode. Throughout the three-hour duel, the Germans straddled and near-missed ''Texas'' over 65 times, but she continued her mission until 4:00 PM when, upon orders to that effect, she retired.
''Texas'' underwent repairs at Plymouth, England, and then drilled in preparation for the invasion of southern France. On 16 July, she departed Belfast Lough and headed for the Mediterranean Sea. After stops at Gibraltar and Oran, Algeria, the battleship rendezvoused with three French destroyers off Bizerte, Tunisia, and set a course for the French Riviera. She arrived off St. Tropez during the night of 14 July. At 4:44 AM on 15 July, she moved into position for the pre-landing bombardment and, at 6:51 AM, opened up on her first target, a battery of five 155 mm guns. Due to the fact that the troops ashore moved inland rapidly against light resistance, she provided fire support for the assault for only two days. ''Texas'' departed the southern coast of France on the evening of 16 August. After a stop at Palermo, Sicily, she left the Mediterranean and headed for New York where she arrived on 14 September 1944.

Bombardment of Iwo Jima and Okinawa

At New York, ''Texas'' underwent a 36-day repair period during which the barrels on her main battery were replaced. After a brief refresher cruise, she departed New York in November and set a course, via the Panama Canal, for the Pacific. She made a stop at Long Beach, California, and then continued on to Oahu. She spent Christmas at Pearl Harbor and then conducted maneuvers in the Hawaiian Islands for about a month at the end of which she steamed to Ulithi Atoll. She departed Ulithi on 10 February 1945, stopped in the Marianas for two days' invasion rehearsals, and then set a course for Iwo Jima. She arrived off the target on 16 February, three days before the scheduled assault. She spent those three days pounding enemy defenses on Iwo Jima in preparation for the landings. After the troops stormed ashore on 19 February, ''Texas'' switched roles and began delivering naval gunfire support and on-call fire. She remained off Iwo Jima for almost a fortnight, helping the Marines subdue a well dug-in and stubborn Japanese garrison.
Though Iwo Jima was not declared secured until 16 March, ''Texas'' cleared the area late in February and returned to Ulithi early in March to prepare for the Okinawa operation. She departed Ulithi with TF 54, the gunfire support unit, on 21 March and arrived in the Ryukyus on the 26th. ''Texas'' did not participate in the occupation of the islands but moved in on the main objective instead, beginning the pre-landing bombardment that same day. For the next six days, she fired multiple salvos from her main guns to prepare the way for the US Army and the US Marine Corps. Each evening, she retired from her bombardment position close to the Okinawan shore only to return the next day and resume her poundings. The enemy ashore, preparing for a defense-in-depth strategy as at Iwo Jima, made no answer. Only air units provided a response, as several kamikaze raids were sent to harass the bombardment group. ''Texas'' escaped damage during those small attacks. After six days of aerial and naval bombardment, the ground troops' turn came on 1 April. They stormed ashore against initially light resistance. For almost two months, ''Texas'' remained in Okinawan waters providing gunfire support for the troops ashore and fending off the enemy aerial assault. In performing the latter mission, she claimed one kamikaze kill on her own and three assists.
Late in May, ''Texas'' retired to Leyte in the Philippines and remained there until after the Japanese capitulation on 15 August. She returned to Okinawa toward the end of August and stayed in the Ryukyus until 23 September. On that day, she set a course for the United States with homeward bound troops embarked as part of the ongoing Operation Magic Carpet. The battleship delivered her passengers to San Pedro, California, on 15 October, and celebrated Navy Day there on 27 October before resuming her mission to bring American troops home. She made two round-trip voyages between California and Oahu in November and a third in late December.

Museum Ship

''Texas'', photographed in August 2005 at her berth near Houston

On 21 January 1946, the warship departed San Pedro and steamed via the Panama Canal to Norfolk where she arrived on 13 February. She soon began preparations for inactivation. In June, she was moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she remained until the beginning of 1948. ''Texas'' was towed to San Jacinto State Park, near Houston, where she was decommissioned on 21 April 1948, and turned over to the state of Texas to serve as a permanent memorial. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 April 1948. The decommission date of 21 April is significant in that it was the date in 1836 of the decisive Battle of San Jacinto that ended the War for Texas Independence and led to the creation of The Republic of Texas, which was annexed as a US state in 1845.
In 1948, ''Texas'' became the first battleship memorial museum in the U.S. That same year, on the anniversary of Texas Independence, the battleship was presented to the State of Texas and commissioned as the flagship of the Texas Navy. In 1983, ''Texas'' was placed under the stewardship of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and is permanently anchored on the Buffalo Bayou and the busy Houston Ship Channel near the San Jacinto Monument.^[8]
In 1988 the battleship was closed to the public and moved under tow to a drydock for a 24-month overhaul that sought to restore the ship to her 1945 condition. Among other things, this overhaul resulted in a restoration of her Measure 21 blue camouflage paint, currently seen on the ship today. The ship officially reopened to the public on 8 September 1990. ''Texas'' is a National Historic Landmark. ''Texas''’s reciprocating marine steam engines are National Historic Engineering Landmarks.
By hull number, ''Texas'' was the first of an eventual total of eight US battleships that have become floating museums; the other battleships honored in this way are ''Massachusetts'', ''Alabama'', ''North Carolina'', ''New Jersey'', ''Missouri'', and ''Wisconsin''.^[9][10]

Media

''Texas'' has appeared in two films since her retirement. Her cinema debut was the 2001 film ''Pearl Harbor'', in which she portrayed the battleship ''West Virginia'' in the scenes depicting Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Doris Miller. Some of the ship's interiors were also used to portray the interior of the aircraft carrier ''Hornet'' in the film. ''Texas'' also appears as herself in the 2006 film ''Flags Of Our Fathers''; the ship is depicted shelling Iwo Jima in preparation for the Marines' amphibious assault.
The ship serves as the center of the Cold War science fiction novel ''The Ayes of Texas'' by the late Daniel da Cruz. In the novel, Gwilliam Forte, a disabled war veteran turned wealthy entrepreneur, lends both his fortune and his vast knowledge of technology to the defense of Texas (and the United States), which are facing subjugation by an approaching attack fleet of high-tech Soviet superships. As the countdown to confrontation begins, Forte and his crew of veteran technologists secretly convert''Texas'' from a shabby museum exhibit to a nuclear-powered, ultramodern battleship armed with the latest in beam weaponry. Sabouteurs and politics interfere with the crash program, but when the Soviet fleet begins its attack, the ancient battlewagon breaks free of its moorings and stands alone against the enemy armada.^[11]

The original opening scenes for the 1966 Steve McQueen film were shot on the USS ''Texas'', but were never used in the finished edition of the movie.^[12]

Notes and references

1. Although ''Texas'' is the oldest remaining dreadnought-type battleship, she is not the oldest remaining battleship: The Japanese battleship ''Mikasa'', a pre-dreadnought battleship, is older than ''Texas''.
2. The other remaining vessel to hold the distinction of serving in both World Wars is the ''Medea'', which served both the French Navy and Royal Navy.
3. Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide- USS Texas
4. USS Texas (BB 35) History
5. Anti-ship missiles such as the Fritz X were among the first instances of short range guided missiles during the Second World War. The German Luftwaffe used them to some effect against Allied shipping, and sank or damaged some large warships successfully before the Allies devised countermeasures, principally radio jamming.
6. BATTLESHIP TEXAS (BB-35)
7. History of the US Navy, p.162, chapter "Carrying the War to Hitler", section "The Landings in France". Author: James M. Morris
First Edition, copyright 1984 Bison Books, 1st American Edition by Exeter Books (a trademark of Simon & Schuster) ISBN 0-671-06980-2 Dewey Decimal: 359.00973 MOR
8. Battleship TEXAS State Historic Site
9. Fighting Ships of World War II, p.23, chapter 1 "The Battleship". Author: J.N. Westwood Copyright 1975 (Edition not noted - presumably 1st edition) by John Westwood and Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd. (Follett Publishing Company) Dewey Decimal: 359.83 WES
10. The missing eighth battleship is USS ''Iowa'', which has been placed on donation hold for transfer to Stockton, California, where she will become a museum ship.
11. ''The Ayes Of Texas'', Daniel da Cruz (1921-1991); New York, Del Rey Books, 1982. ISBN 978-0345332820
12. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060934/trivia



★ Johnston, Ian and McAuley, Rob. ''The Battleships''. Channel 4 Books, London ISBN 0-7522-6188-6

★

External links

★ USS Texas Historic Site

★ Maritimequest USS Texas BB-35 photo gallery

★ Texas Navy hosted by The Portal to Texas History. A survey of the Texas Navy during the Texas Revolution and the Republic Era. Includes maps, sketches, a list of ships of the Texas Navy, and a chronology. Also includes photographs of 20th century U.S. Navy ships named after Texans or Texas locations. See photos of the USS Texas.

★ USS Texas (Battleship Number 35, later BB-35), 1914-1948

★ NavSource Online: Battleship Photo Archive BB-35 USS TEXAS 1911 - 1919