USS California (BB-44)

USS California (BB-44) at sea, mid-1930s
History
United States
Name	California
Namesake	California
Ordered	28 December 1915
Builder	Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California
Laid down	25 October 1916
Launched	20 November 1919
Commissioned	10 August 1921
Decommissioned	14 February 1947
Stricken	1 March 1959
Identification	Hull symbol: BB-44
Fate	Broken up, 1959
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Tennessee-class battleship
Displacement	Normal: 32,300 long tons (32,818 t) Full load: 33,190 long tons (33,723 t)
Length	600 ft (180 m) lwl 624 ft (190 m) loa
Beam	97 ft 5 in (29.69 m)
Draft	30 ft 2 in (9.19 m)
Installed power	8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 28,600 shp (21,300 kW)
Propulsion	2 × Westinghouse electric generators 4 × electric motors 4 × screw propellers
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range	8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	57 officers 1,026 enlisted
Armament	4 × triple 14 in (356 mm) guns 14 × single 5 in (127 mm) guns 4 × single 3 in (76 mm) guns 2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 8–13.5 in (203–343 mm) Barbettes: 13 in (330 mm) Turret face: 18 in (457 mm) Conning tower: 16 in (406 mm) Decks: 3.5 in (89 mm)
General characteristics (1943)
Displacement	34,858 long tons (35,417 t) (design) 40,345 long tons (40,992 t) (full load)
Complement	114 officers 2,129 enlisted
Armament	4 × triple 14 in guns 8 × twin 5 in/38 cal guns 11 × quadruple, 6 × twin 40 mm (1.6 in) AA guns 43 × single 20 mm (0.79 in) AA guns
Aircraft carried	3 × floatplanes
Aviation facilities	2 × catapults

USS California (BB-44) was the second of two Tennessee-class battleships built for the United States Navy between her keel laying in October 1916 and her commissioning in August 1921. The Tennessee class was part of the standard series of twelve battleships built in the 1910s and 1920s, and were developments of the preceding New Mexico class. They were armed with a battery of twelve 14-inch (356 mm) guns in four three-gun turrets. California served as the flagship of the Battle Fleet in the Pacific Ocean for the duration of her peacetime career. She spent the 1920s and 1930s participating in routine fleet training exercises, including the annual Fleet Problems, and cruises around the Americas and further abroad, such as a goodwill visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1925.

California was moored in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 when the Japanese attacked the port, bringing the United States into World War II. The ship was moderately damaged by a pair of torpedoes and a bomb, but a fire disabled the ship's electrical system, preventing the pumps from being used to keep the ship afloat. California slowly filled with water over the following three days and eventually sank. Her crew suffered heavy casualties in the attack and four men were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the attack. She was raised in April 1942, repaired and heavily rebuilt, and returned to service in January 1944.

The ship thereafter supported the amphibious operations conducted during the Pacific War, including the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign (though she was damaged in a collision with Tennessee and thus missed the Battle of Peleliu) and the Philippines campaign, during which she took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait. She was hit by a kamikaze during the invasion of Lingayen Gulf in January 1945, but after undergoing repairs, she rejoined the fleet supporting troops fighting on Okinawa during the Battle of Okinawa. Her crew took part in the occupation of Japan after the end of the war, and after returning to the United States via the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, was laid up in Philadelphia in 1946. She remained in the fleet's inventory until 1959, when she was broken up for scrap.