The Ships of Battlegroup: United States Maryland (BB-46)

Displacement	32,600 tons	Belt Armor	16 inches
Overall Length	624.5 feet	Deck Armor	3.5 inches
Beam	97.5 feet	Main Turret Armor	18 inches
Speed	21 knots	Main Guns	8 × 16″

Laid down on April 4, 1917, launched on March 20, 1920 and commissioned on July 21, 1921, the ship carried a main armament of eight of the new 16 inch main guns mounted two per turret; two centerline superfiring forward and two centerline superfiring aft. Maryland was part of the four-ship Colorado class, of which those two and the West Virginia were completed. The Colorados were the last American battleships to be completed prior to the “naval building holiday” imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and, aside from their bigger guns, were very similar to the preceding Tennessee class. All United States dreadnought battleships were named after states, a custom that went back to the naming of wooden ships of the line during the age of sail. Also, all battleships were assigned a hull number (from 1920) that was normally displayed on the hull. During most of the “tween wars” period, Maryland and her sister ships were based in the Pacific. In 1928, Maryland carried President-elect Hoover on a trip to South America.

Extensive modernization was slated for the class and Colorado was already in dock when war came to America. West Virginia and Maryland were both at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941—West Virginia was sunk by six or seven torpedo hits and settled into the mud (and was later raised and extensively modernized over two years) but Maryland was only slightly damaged by two bomb hits. Maryland went to the dockyards for repairs and the same updates as Colorado, including adding torpedo bulges, and was ready for action again in February 1942. In company with other older battleships, she cruised the Pacific during 1942; they "trailed their sleeves"—revealed themselves from time to time to give the Japanese something to worry about and to provide some surface security to convoys. With the other older battleships, Maryland assumed shore bombardment duties as the Pacific offensive built up steam with the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943 followed by many other invasions. While bombarding Saipan on June, 22 1944, Maryland was hit with an aerial torpedo that did not endanger the ship but required dockyard repairs. In September she blasted Palau and Leyte was lashed by her guns in October. On October 25, 1944, at the Battle of Surigao Strait, in concert with PT boat and destroyer torpedo attacks plus the big guns of California, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia, Maryland destroyed Japanese battleships Fuso and Yamashiro in addition to all but one of their escorts. This particular segment of the Battle of Leyte Gulf was the last battle in history where battleship fired on battleship and all of the American battlewagons, except for Mississippi, had been at Pearl Harbor. Struck by a kamikaze on November 29, 1944, Maryland was seriously damaged and returned to Pearl Harbor for repairs. During the Okinawa invasion, BB-46 was again struck by a kamikaze on April 7, 1945 and returned to Puget Sound for repairs that lasted until Japan surrendered.

Put into mothballs on April 3, 1947, Maryland was scrapped starting on August 1959.

For contemporary Japanese battleships with 16 inch guns, see: Mutsu and Nagato .

For a further discussion of what happened to the battleships of World War One, see the Introduction to these articles.