The Ships of Battlegroup: United States New Jersey (BB-62)

Displacement	48,425 tons	Belt Armor	12 inches
Overall Length	860 feet	Deck Armor	8.75 inches
Beam	108.25 feet	Main Turret Armor	18 inches
Speed	33 knots	Main Guns	9 × 16″/50 calibre

Prior to building BB-62, there was an earlier battleship named New Jersey, BB-16, a pre-dreadnought launched in 1906. 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 and all battleships were assigned a hull number from 1920 that was normally displayed on the hull. The first modern United States battleships built since the 1920s were the two North Carolinas and the four South Dakotas, all of which could manage at least 27 knots and were among the most powerful battleships in the world. Next, the U. S. Navy wanted a class of battleships capable of more than 32 knots for independent operations or for accompanying the fast aircraft carriers. The Iowa was the name ship of this “fast” battleship class; of which four ships were completed (in addition to New Jersey, the others were Missouri and Wisconsin). Compared to New Jersey and her sisters, only the two larger Japanese Yamato class battleships, with their 18-inch guns and thicker armor could claim to match or excel them, although the Japanese vessels were much slower, had much inferior radar and would probably have fared poorly in a gun duel with their American counterparts. The New Jersey was laid down on September 16, 1940; launched on December 7, 1942 and commissioned on May 23, 1943.

After commissioning, the New Jersey spent the rest of 1943 in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Early in 1944, the ship was transferred to the Pacific. On January 23, 1944 she sortied as part of the antiaircraft screen of the carrier task force during the Marshalls invasion. In February, she was the Fifth Fleet flagship for Admiral Raymond A. Spruance (1886–1969) during devastating attacks on the Japanese base at Truk. During the rest of 1944, BB-62 was constantly in action in raids on Japanese bases, the Marianas invasion and the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the invasion of the Philippines. From August 1944, including the decisive Battle of Leyte Gulf, she was the Third Fleet flagship for Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey, Jr. (1882–1959). In 1945, New Jersey participated in the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. During World War Two, she steamed more than 220,000 miles and was credited with shooting down 20 enemy aircraft.

She returned to the Atlantic in 1947 and was placed in reserve at Bayonne, New Jersey in June 1948. The Korean War saw the New Jersey re-commissioned in November 21, 1950 for service as a bombardment vessel. She was again placed out of commission in August 1957. The Vietnam War saw the New Jersey once again recalled to duty; the only battleship to serve in that war. Re-commissioned in April 1968 with minimal modernization, she conducted bombardments from off the Vietnamese coast for 120 total days from September 1968 through April 1969 and fired 5,688 rounds from her big guns before being once again decommissioned in December 1969. The Reagan administration’s naval defense buildup saw all four of the Iowas once again at sea, this time with major modernizations and long-range cruise missiles added to the muscle of their big guns.

The New Jersey was re-commissioned in December 1982. She once again fired her big guns in anger during the Lebanon crisis of 1983–1984 and sailed most of the world’s oceans for the next eight years. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and, her mission accomplished with another “Well done,” the battleship was decommissioned on the west coast for the last time in February 1991. In 1999, she was towed from the Pacific Ocean to the coast of her namesake state to become the present museum and memorial in Camden, New Jersey.

The New Jersey usually accompanied the fast carriers, including: Enterprise, Hornet, Intrepid, Lexington and Yorktown .

Where did we get all these fascinating historical tidbits and factoids? See the Bibliography for the culprits.