A Texas Tail

[Dave Grubb]

The Battleship USS Texas, which Ben has been posting about as it is being restored, played a crucial part on D Day.

At 5:50 AM on the morning of June 6, 1944, the USS Texas, lying 11 km off Omaha Beach, fired the first of a fusillade of 255 14-inch shells into Pointe du Hoc to soften the Nazi defenses in preparation for the invasion.

Eventually the USS Texas moved to a position just 3.7 km off the beach. To get more range from their guns the crew partially "sank" the USS Texas by controlled flooding:

The solution devised by the crew was both innovative and daring. By intentionally flooding the torpedo blisters on one side of the ship, they could list the USS Texas to an angle. This list effectively increased the elevation angle of the guns on the opposing side, thereby extending their range.

The torpedo blisters were compartments designed for absorbing and mitigating the impact of torpedo strikes, and by controlling the amount of water taken into these compartments, the crew could precisely manage the degree of list.

The flooding was carefully calculated and executed, allowing the USS Texas to provide more effective fire support to the troops onshore. The enhanced range of her guns meant that the battleship could reach German fortifications and defensive positions further inland, which were previously out of reach.

After the third day the USS Texas returned to Britain to reload---their ammunition spent

[Truckman]

The act of flooding the seaward side torpedo blisters worked very well that day as German emplacements were dug in prepared to stay entrenched against a ground attack when the USS Texas cut loose with its 14 inchers and ruined their whole day...Not knowing that was as far as seagoing artillery would be able to reach, the Germans retreated far further than necessary and in a haphazard broken line which weakened their defenses even more so......Ben

[UTAH]

I never tire of hearing the many ways our soldiers successfully handled themselves on D-Day. Someday I need to visit the USS Texas to honor the role it and its crew played during the war.

Hunter

[Truckman]

Many little known facts surface in my studies of BB-35...In its 100+ year history, and its participation in the invasion of North Africa from the Mediterranean, the Normandy Invasion from the Atlantic and the battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific, only one crew member lost his life in combat...

Even the press benefited from the ship's history...

A young Walter Cronkite was on board for the battle, working as a war correspondent for United Press. Hoping to beat a rival reporter back to the US so he could publish his stories first, on the return trip to the United States, Cronkite flew off the ship early with a pilot named Frederick Dally. Cronkite went straight to work and beat the other reporter, publishing the first uncensored stories from North Africa.

...Ben