page_title: USS Alabama (BB-60)
section_title: Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
hierarchical_section_title: USS Alabama (BB-60) / Service history / Pacific operations / Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: A June 1943 Division of Naval Intelligence, Identification and Characteristics Section print of a 1 December 1942 photo of USS Alabama (BB-60).
context_page_description: USS Alabama (BB-60) is a retired battleship. She was the fourth and final member of the South Dakota class of fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to 16-inch guns, but Congressional refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons. A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships. Overcrowding was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased their crews.
  After entering service, Alabama was briefly deployed to strengthen the British Home Fleet, tasked with protecting convoys to the Soviet Union. In 1943, she was transferred to the Pacific for operations against Japan; the first of these was the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign that began in November that year.
context_section_description: Alabama sortied with the rest of TF 58 in early June, now as part of TG 58.7; the fleet had arrived off the initial target, Saipan, by 12 June. The next day, Alabama took part in a preparatory bombardment of the island intended to weaken Japanese defenses so that minesweepers could begin to clear approaches to the landing beach. Alabama's gunners were not as experienced with shore bombardment as other dedicated bombardment ships, and her shooting was not particularly effective. She thereafter screened the carriers as they struck Japanese positions around the island, and ground troops landed on the island on 15 June. The landing was a breach of Japan's inner defensive perimeter that triggered the Japanese fleet to launch a major counter-thrust with the 1st Mobile Fleet, the main carrier strike force.
  The Japanese fleet arrived on 19 June, leading to the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Alabama was the first vessel to pick up the incoming Japanese aircraft on her radar, 141 nautical miles (261 km; 162 mi) away, at 10:06. The battleship Iowa quickly corroborated the report, and 40 minutes later the Japanese aircraft arrived over the fleet. A total of seven waves hit the American fleet, though only three of them hit TG 58.7. Of those, Alabama was able to engage Japanese aircraft in two of the attacks. During one of the attacks, a pair of aircraft penetrated the Combat Air Patrols and attacked South Dakota, and Alabama was among the vessels that fired on them. About an hour after that attack, two torpedo bombers attempted to attack South Dakota again, but Alabama helped to drive them off with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire. During this latter attack, a single dive bomber was able to use the gunners' distraction with the torpedo bombers to approach Alabama, but the pilot nevertheless missed with his bombs and caused no damage. Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, the TG 58.7 commander, commended Alabama's radar operators for their prompt detection of the Japanese aircraft, which allowed the American carriers to launch their fighters with enough time to intercept the attackers away from the fleet.
  Alabama remained on station, escorting the carriers while they raided Saipan, Guam, Tinian, and Rota throughout the campaign. She was then detached from the fleet to Eniwetok in the Marshalls for periodic maintenance. The ship then became the flagship of Rear Admiral Edward Hanson, the commander of Battleship Division (BatDiv) 9, and left the island on 14 July in company with Bunker Hill. The next stage in the campaign, the invasion of Guam, began on 21 July and Alabama performed her role of carrier escort during operations there for the next three weeks. On 11 August, she left to return to Eniwetok before embarking on the next assault on 30 August, code-named Operation Stalemate II; this consisted of a series of landings on Pelelieu, Ulithi, and Yap. By this time, the fast carrier task force had been transferred from Fifth Fleet to Third Fleet and accordingly renumbered as TF 38, so Alabama was now part of TG 38.3. She escorted the carriers while they launched a series of strikes on the islands from 6 to 8 September to prepare for the amphibious assaults.
caption: Aerial recognition photo of Alabama, c. 1942
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