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Photo # NH 64508:  USS Arkansas at anchor, during the early 1920s

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Arkansas (Battleship # 33; later BB-33), 1912-1946

USS Arkansas, a 26,000 ton Wyoming class battleship, was built at Camden, New Jersey. Commissioned in September 1912, she spent her first seven years of service with the Atlantic Fleet. In 1913, Arkansas cruised in the Mediterranean, and in 1914 she participated in the U.S. intervention in Mexico. During July-December 1918, she operated with the British Grand Fleet as World War I approached and reached its conclusion.

Transiting the Panama Canal in July 1919, Arkansas joined the Pacific Fleet, remaining there for two years before returning to the Atlantic. She carried Naval Academy midshipmen on cruises to Europe in 1923 and 1924, and to the west coast in 1925. After the latter voyage, the battleship underwent extensive modernization, receiving new oil-fired boilers, additional deck armor and a changed appearance, with only one smokestack and "basket" mast in place of the previous two of each. Through the next two decades, Arkansas primarily served in the Atlantic area, making annual Midshipmen's cruises to Europe in 1929-31 and 1934-37. In 1932-34, she operated along the west coast on training operations, a mission that largely occupied her through the 1930s.

After war broke out in Europe in 1939, Arkansas continued her training duties, and, as relations with Germany deteriorated, took part in "operations short of war". In the summer of 1941, she escorted occupation forces to Iceland and was present when President Roosevelt met Prime Minister Churchill at the Atlantic Charter Conference. Once the United States formally entered the war in December 1941, Arkansas was employed escorting Atlantic convoys, as well as performing more training work. An overhaul in March-June 1942 again changed her appearance, with a new tripod foremast replacing the previous "basket" type. Her combat experience began in June 1944, when she used her twelve-inch guns to support the Normandy invasion and in bombardments of German defenses at Cherbourg. In August, she participated in the invasion of Southern France.

Arkansas went to the Pacific in November 1944, crossing the ocean to the war zone early in the next year. In February-May 1945, she supported the conquests of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Once Japan had surrendered, she transported veterans home from bases in the Pacific. By now thoroughly obsolete, the old battleship was assigned a final mission, to serve as a target ship for atomic bomb tests at Bikini, in the Marshalls. She survived the initial test, an air-burst, but was anchored in close proximity to the bomb used in the 25 July 1946 underwater shot. Arkansas was engulfed in the column of water driven up by the powerful blast and quickly sank. She remains on the bottom of Bikini Atoll to this day.

This page features, and provides links to, selected views concerning USS Arkansas (BB-33).

For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Arkansas (Battleship # 33; later BB-33) -- Part II.

    For a photographic album concerning this ship's cruise to the Mediterranean in 1913, see:

  • USS Arkansas (Battleship # 33) Photo Album: "Our European Cruise. October 25th, to December 15th, 1913".


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 57682

    USS Arkansas (BB-33)


    In the middle chambers of the Gatun Locks, Panama Canal, on 25 July 1919 while en route to the Pacific.
    USS Texas (BB-35) is at right.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 565 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 64508

    USS Arkansas (BB-33)


    Anchored in harbor during the early 1920s.

    Donation of Franklin Moran, 1967.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 128KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 61322

    USS Arkansas (BB-33)


    Photographed during the late 1920s or early 1930s, following modernization.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 510 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-464618

    USS Arkansas (BB-33)


    Anchored off Portland, Maine, in February 1942, shortly before the overhaul that replaced her "basket" foremast with a tripod.
    Photographed from USS Wasp (CV-7).

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-35097

    USS Arkansas (BB-33)


    Off the New York Navy Yard, New York, 23 September 1942.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-229753

    USS Arkansas (BB-33)


    Underway off the U.S. east coast, 11 April 1944.
    Photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-11.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 160KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-74310

    USS Arkansas
    (BB-33)

    Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 5 November 1944.
    She is painted in camouflage Measure 31a, Design 7B.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 47KB; 740 x 560 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-74312

    USS Arkansas
    (BB-33)

    Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 5 November 1944.
    She wearing camouflage Measure 31a, Design 7B.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 615 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-77075

    USS Arkansas (BB-33)


    Anchored in San Pedro harbor, California, on 1 January 1945.
    A tanker and a Navy attack transport (APA) are in the background.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     


    The lead ship in the following photograph is either USS Arkansas or her sister, USS Wyoming:

    Photo #: NH 105079

    Battleships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet


    Steaming in column formation, circa 1914.
    Photographed by Enrique Muller, New York.
    The leading ship is either USS Wyoming (BB-32) or USS Arkansas (BB-33).
    Note the dense smoke produced by these coal-burning ships.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image size: 124KB; 900 x 675 pixels

     


    For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Arkansas (Battleship # 33; later BB-33) -- Part II.

    For a photographic album concerning this ship's cruise to the Mediterranean in 1913, see:

  • USS Arkansas (Battleship # 33) Photo Album: "Our European Cruise. October 25th, to December 15th, 1913".


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 5 December 2000
    New image added 19 December 2007