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Photo #  NH 60576:  USS Wyoming steaming at high speed, circa 1912-13

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIP TYPES -- BATTLESHIPS --

Wyoming Class (BB-32 and BB-33),
1910 Building Program

Designed after the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's 1907-09 World cruise, the two Wyomings were nearly twenty-percent larger than their immediate predecessors, with more extensive armor protection. They had two more twelve-inch guns, for a total of a dozen, mounted in six twin turrets, the largest number of individual turrets in any U.S. "all-big-gun" battleship. A flush-deck hull, raking in an essentially straight line from a high bow to a rather lower stern, allowed the midships five-inch secondary battery to be located higher (and therefore dryer) than in earlier ships. This same general arrangement would be repeated in the next class, the New Yorks of 1911, though with a change to fourteen-inch guns. The Wyoming class were the last U.S. battleships to be driven by direct drive steam turbines.

Their coal-fired boilers allowed both Wyoming and Arkansas to operate with the British Grand Fleet in the then-oil-deprived North Sea during World War I. Before the war, they served in the Atlantic Fleet and afterwards in both the Atlantic and Pacific, with modernization following in 1925-27. That work gave them broader beams, greater displacement and thicker deck armor. New oil-burning boilers and newer gunfire controls produced a change in silhouette to a single smokestack and only one "basket" mast. Some of their five-inch guns were remounted in the superstructure.

In 1931, Wyoming was converted to a training ship, with her armor and six of the twelve-inch guns removed. Arkansas was also largely employed on training service, though she formally remained a battleship. The two ships served through World War II. Arkansas, refitted with a new tripod foremast, performed escort and training duties in 1941-44 and conducted shore bombardment at Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa after that. Wyoming was a gunnery training ship throughout the conflict. In 1944, she lost all her big guns, and later her "basket" foremast. Now carrying more dual-purpose five-inch gun mounts, she was better suited for urgently-needed anti-aircraft training. In 1945-47, she was also employed as an experimental gunnery ship and then scrapped. Arkansas was sunk as a target in the July 1946 Bikini atomic bomb tests.

The Wyoming class numbered two ships, both built along the Delaware River:

  • Wyoming (BB-32), built at the Cramp shipyard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Keel laid in February 1910; launched in May 1911; commissioned in September 1912.
  • Arkansas (BB-33), built by the New York Ship Building Company, Camden, New Jersey. Keel laid in January 1910; launched in January 1911; commissioned in September 1912.

    Wyoming class "as-built" design characteristics:

  • Displacement: 26,000 tons (normal)
  • Dimensions: 562' (length overall); 93' 3" (extreme beam)
  • Powerplant: 28,000 horsepower steam turbines, four propellers, 20.5 knot maximum speed
  • Armament (Main Battery): Twelve 12"/50 guns in six twin turrets
  • Armament (Secondary Battery): Twenty-one 5"/51 guns in single casemate mountings; soon reduced to sixteen 5"/51 guns.

    This page features a modest selection of photographs of Wyoming class battleships, plus images related to these ships' basic design features, and provides links to more extensive pictorial coverage of the individual ships.

    For coverage of other classes of U.S. Navy battleships, see: Battleships -- Overview and Special Image Selection.

    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 60576

    USS Wyoming (BB-32)


    Steaming at high speed, possibly during her trials, circa 1912-13.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 119KB; 740 x 555 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 #: 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 #: 19-N-30947

    USS Wyoming (AG-17)


    Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, 6 June 1942.
    She is wearing a Measure 12 (Modified) camouflage scheme, and is still armed with six 12"/50 guns, plus a variety of five-inch and smaller guns.

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

    Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 550 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 80-G-323307

    USS Wyoming (AG-17)


    Underway in the Atlantic Ocean, 30 April 1945.

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

    Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: NH 63636

    USS Arkansas (BB-33)


    Firing the 12"/50 guns of Turret # 4, prior to World War I.
    Note rangefinder in use atop Turret # 5 and large number of sailors on deck observing the shoot.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-231250

    Normandy Invasion, June 1944


    USS Arkansas (BB-33) fires her 12-inch guns at German positions, while supporting the Omaha Beach landings, 6 June 1944.

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

    Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 600 pixels

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

     

    For more views of Wyoming class battleships, see:

  • USS Wyoming (BB-32);
  • USS Arkansas (BB-33).

    For coverage of other classes of U.S. Navy battleships, see: Battleships -- Overview and Special Image Selection.


    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.

    Coding updated 26 March 2001