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USS Nevada underway, sometime after her 1942 reconstruction.
Career (US)
Laid down:	4 November 1912
Launched:	11 July 1914
Commissioned:	11 March 1916
Decommissioned:	29 August 1946
Status:	Sunk as a target 31 July 1948
General characteristics
Displacement:	27,500 t
Length:	583 ft (178 m)
Beam:	85.3 ft (26 m)
Draft:	28.5 ft (8.7 m)
Speed:	20.5 knots (38 km/h)
Complement:	864 officers and men
Armament:	10 × 14 in (356 mm) guns, 21 × 5 in (127 mm) guns, 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes

The second United States Navy Nevada (BB-36) was a battleship and the lead ship of her class of two (The Oklahoma being the other). The Nevada was a radical departure from former battleship designs, as previous battleships had armor of various thickness, depending on the importance of the area it was protecting. In contrast, the Nevada had maximum armor over critical areas (magazines, engines, etc.) and none over less important places. This become known as the "All or Nothing" principle, and was adopted by all major navies by the outbreak of World War II, except Germany's. Also, battleship designs traditionally mounted most of their armor weight vertically to protect against horizontal, low trajectory shells while largely neglecting protection against long range, plunging trajectory shells. The Nevada class was part of a trend toward better vertical protection, with heavier deck armor than most earlier designs.

Nevada authorized 4 March 1911; laid down 4 November 1912 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts; launched 11 July 1914; sponsored by Miss Eleanor Anne Seibert, niece of Governor Tasker Oddie of Nevada and descendant of Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert; and commissioned 11 March 1916, Capt. William S. Sims in command. (Later Admiral Sims of World War One fame).

Nevada joined the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in Newport, Rhode Island on 26 May 1916 and operated along the east coast and in the Caribbean until the entry of the United States into World War I. After training gunners out of Norfolk, Virginia, she sailed 13 August 1918 to serve with the British Grand Fleet, arriving Bantry Bay, Ireland 23 August. She made a sweep through the North Sea and escorted the transport George Washington, with President Woodrow Wilson embarked, during the last day of her passage into Brest, France, before sailing for home 14 December.

Nevada served in both Atlantic and Pacific Fleets in the period between the wars. In September 1922 she represented the United States in Rio de Janeiro for the Centennial of Brazilian Independence. From July to September 1925, she participated in the U.S. Fleet's goodwill cruise to Australia and New Zealand, which demonstrated to these allies, and to the Japanese, US ability to make a self-supported cruise to a distance equal to that to Japan. Modernized at Norfolk Naval Shipyard between August 1927 and January 1930, Nevada served in the Pacific Fleet for the next decade.

Memorial to the USS Nevada in Pearl Harbor

On 7 December 1941, Nevada was moored singly off Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, and thus had a freedom of maneuver denied the other eight battleships present during the attack. As her gunners opened fire and her engineers got up steam, she was struck by one torpedo and two, possibly three, bombs from the Japanese attackers, but was able to get underway. While trying to flee the harbor she was struck again. Fearing she might sink in the channel, blocking it, she was beached at Hospital Point. Gutted forward, she lost 50 killed and 109 wounded.

The USS Bayfield (APA-33), flagship for the "Utah Beach" landings, lowers LCVPs for the assault, 6 June 1944; the USS Nevada (BB-36) is in the far right distance.

Refloated 12 February 1942, Nevada was repaired at Pearl Harbor and Puget Sound Navy Yard, then sailed for Alaska where she provided fire support for the capture of Attu 11 May to 18 May 1943. In June she sailed for further modernization at Norfolk Navy Yard, and in April 1944 reached British waters to prepare for the Normandy Invasion. In action from 6 June to 17 June, and again 25 June, her guns pounded not only permanent shore defenses on the Cherbourg Peninsula, but ranged as far as 17 miles (27 km) inland, breaking up German concentrations and counterattacks. Shore batteries straddled her 27 times, but did not diminish her fire.

Between 15 August and 25 September, Nevada fired in the invasion of Southern France, dueling at Toulon with shore batteries of 13.4-inch (340 mm) guns taken from French battleships scuttled early in the war. Her gun barrels were relined at New York, and she sailed for the Pacific, arriving off Iwo Jima 16 February 1945 to give Marines invading and fighting ashore her gunfire support through 7 March.

On 24 March, Nevada massed off Okinawa with the mightiest naval force ever seen in the Pacific, as pre-invasion bombardment began. She pounded Japanese airfields, shore defenses, supply dumps, and troop concentrations through the crucial operation, although 11 men were killed and a main battery turret damaged when she was struck by a kamikaze suicide plane 27 March. Another two men were lost to fire from a shore battery 5 April. Serving off Okinawa until 30 June, from 10 July to 7 August she ranged with the 3rd Fleet which not only bombed the Japanese home islands from the air, but came within range for Nevada's guns during the closing days of the war.

Nevada received 7 battle stars for World War II service.

Returning to Pearl Harbor after a brief occupation duty in Tokyo Bay, Nevada was surveyed and assigned as a target ship for the Bikini atomic experiments. The tough old veteran survived the atom-bomb test of July 1946, returned to Pearl Harbor to decommission 29 August, and was sunk by gunfire and aerial torpedoes off Hawaii 31 July 1948. As of 2006 the wreck of the Nevada has not yet been discovered.

• Capt. W S. Sims
  11 Mar. 1916 - 30 Dec. 1916
• Capt. J. Strauss
  30 Dec. 1916 - 14 Feb. 1918
• Capt. A.T. Long
  14 Feb. 1918 - 14 Oct. 1918
• Capt. W.C. Cole
  14 Oct. 1918 - 07 May 1919
• Capt. T.P. Magruder
  08 May 1919 - 23 Oct. 1919
• Capt. W.D. Mac Dougall
  23 Oct. 1919 - 04 May 1920
• Capt. L. Mc Namee
  04 May 1920 - 19 Sept. 1921
• Capt. D.E. Dismukes
  11 Oct. 1921 - 30 Dec. 1922
• Capt. J.M. Luby
  30 Dec. 1922 - 07 Sept. 1924
• Capt. D.W. Todd
  07 Sept 1924 - 11 Jun. 1926
• Capt. C.S. Kempff
  11 Jun. 1926 - 20 Sept. 1927
• Capt. H.H. Royall
  14 Jan. 1928 - 12 Jul. 1930
• Capt. J.J. Hyland
  12 Jul. 1930 - 30 Apr. 1932
• Capt. W.S. Pye
  30 Apr. 1932 - 04 Dec. 1933
• Capt. A. Staton
  04 Dec. 1933 - 25 Jun. 1935
• Capt. R.L. Ghormley
  25 Jun. 1935 - 23 Jun. 1936
• Capt. C.B. Mayo
  23 Jun. 1936 - 02 Oct. 1937
• Capt. R.A. Theobald
  02 Oct. 1937 - 10 May 1939
• Capt. F.W. Rockwell
  10 May 1939 - 04 Jun. 1941
• Capt. F.W. Scanland
  04 Jun. 1941 - 15 Dec 1941
• Capt. H.L. Thompson
  15 Dec. 1941 - 25 Aug. 1942
• Capt. H.F. Kingman
  25 Aug. 1942 - 25 Jan. 1943
• Capt. W.A. Kitts,III
  25 Jan.1943 - 21 Jul. 1943
• Capt. P.M. Rhea
  21 Jul. 1943 - 04 Oct. 1944
• Capt. H.L. Grosskopf
  04 Oct.1944 - 28 Oct. 1945
• Capt. A.W. Adell
  28 Oct. 1945 - 01 Jul. 1946

USS Nevada 1916-1946 Editor: Lt. (j.g.) William S. Wyatt, USNR
Published by the Ship's Welfare Department of the USS Nevada
San Francisco: The James H. Barry Company, 1946.

Note: Lt. Cmdr. James H. Barry, USNR served as Supply Officer of the USS Nevada during World War II. He was the scion of the James H. Barry Company.

See Daniel Madsen's Resurrection-Salvaging the Battle Fleet at Pearl Harbor. U. S. Naval Institute Press. 2003, for a detailed account of her salvage.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Photo tour of Pearl Harbor attack on USS Nevada

• Navy photos of Nevada (BB-36)
• Navy photos of Nevada during the Pearl Harbor attack
• Maritimequest USS Nevada BB-36 Photo Gallery
• Video footage of Bikini atoll tests with some scenes of the Nevada

• NavSource Online: Battleship Photo Archive BB-36 USS NEVADA 1912 - 1926

See USS Nevada for other Navy ships of the same name.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.