They made enemies face to face

Endure tragedies and enjoy victories

They went down in history due to the bravery crews

They are the ships that deserve to be called

NAVAL LEGEND

U.S.S ALABAMA

In this episode USS Alabama

the long life for the lucky A

the battleships define the mines effectiveness in the naval fleet

And major sea power in the first half of the 20th century

these vessels incorporated the latest scientific and technical achievements

each new ship receives the thick armor

and more powerful large-caliber gun

the battleships were becoming real sea Giants

to put a stop to the naval arms race a conference was convened in Washington in 1922

the major see powers reached an agreement to reduce the number battleships

limit their primary armament caliber the displacement and other characteristics

despite the strict limitations imposed by the Treaty

scientific progress allowed participating countries to continuously upgrade the speed

the armor on the armament up their battleships

the US battleships and the South Dakota Class one of the most successful examples are the new design approach

included four vessels

USS Alabama being the last to them

we're standing on the deck in a battleship USS Alabama maybe sixty there

was actually a

the keel was laid February first 1940

Took over 3000 men and women working 24 hours a day

30 months to build a ship she was launched February 16 1942 *

she was commissioned and into the United States Navy on August 16th 1942

she served four and a half years

Earned 9 Battle Stars

Total displacement: 44,500 tons

Length: 207.4 meters

Beam: 33 meters

Draft: 11 meters

Armament

primary armament: 9 MK.6 guns in three turrets

Caliber: 406mm

Range of fire: armor-piercing shells 33 km

high-explosive shells 36 km

Dual-purpose artillery: 10 MK.28 turret with 2 MK. 12 guns each

Caliber: 127mm

Anti-Aircraft Artillery: 12 quadruple Bofors guns

48 Oerlikon MK. 2 3 4 78 cannons

Air group: from 2 to 3 OS2U floatplanes

Armor: belt 310mm

Primary armament turrets: from 184 to 457 mm

Conning tower from 102 to 406 mm

Maximal speed: 27 knots

Range: 13,000 nautical miles at 15 knots

US engineers managed to give the new battleships quite a high-speed

And impressive sustainability the vessels were agile enough to escort aircraft carriers

and the cruising range allow them to sail halfway around the globe

the key to this insurance was the main power plant to the Alabama

installed in four engine rooms

much as you can see, basic what appears to be operational turbans and steam generators the actual boilers are…

Follow me, this way

When fully operational, the peak can pass to 230,000 brake horsepower

you know that's added drove over 45,000 tons

or 90,000,000 pound ship plus 31 miles an hour, 28 knots

USS Alabama’s armaments is worthy of special attention

Only 2 ship classes will more powerfully arm

The newest US Iowa Class and the Japanese Yamato Class, the biggest battle ships in the world

The Alabama's main battery consisted of nine guns with 16 inches caliber

Installed in 2 forward turrets and 1 aft turret

The primary elements magazine is located two levels below the main deck

This is the area called barbette and this is one of the stations where the big 16 inches shells were loaded and put up a hoist above me here

and loaded into the big guns to be fired, big 16 inches guns

you see the front and the back a battleship

it was very very difficult work, very hot conditions in here

The pictures that around this room, the photographs shows many big kind burly man with big arms

Because you need a lot of strength to work in here

They will put chains around these shells

and then put them into the hoist and send them up to be fired

A sophisticated system with gyro, scope and analog calculators was responsible for targeting

Gunners supplied the system with necessary data, such as Target characteristics, speed and direction of the wind

and where I to the barrels

USS Alabama had from two to three floatplanes on board for air reconnaissance and spotting

when the ship was firing the sure targets

Surface targets were tracked and aimed with the help of radars

pride and joy of the US Navy

This place for radars, racial aid and radio contact all came together

And also sonar

and so what you have here this kinda brain trust for the nervous system with the ship

so all the information was collected here and dispersed to the rest to the ship

the dual-purpose MK. 12 guns were designed to destroy both enemy ships and aircrafts

they use shells equipped with non-contact fuses

That dramatically increasing the efficiency of the anti-aircraft fire

the battleships anti-aircraft armaments during the war

also included ever-increasing number 40mm Bofors and 20mm Oerlikon automatic guns

headed up anti-aircraft power shut down 22 aircrafts

That’s confirm 22 the crews said they shut down twice that many

but you know, who knows

to increase the defensive the ship without exceeding the displacement limit

The all-or-nothing approach was adopted

the armor protected only the vital component so the vessel

such as the conning tower, the primary armament, machinery spaces

and the rudder gear the ship and remind unarmored

to further save weight an inner armor belt was introduced in the design

it represented a relatively thin plating reinforced steel covering the main belt of armor

the construction was sufficiently light and was considered to be very effective against the armor-piercing shells

but regardless all these innovations

the engineers still had to shorten the vessel's hull by 20 meters compared to the North Carolina battleship

officers were accompanied in double cabins the crew quarters house 2, 3 and even 4 tier berths

Still, despite of the space-saving, the American design is managed to find a place

for a dentist's office, an operating room, a barber shop, a store and even a pantry

25 hundred man on the ship any one time in World War Two

so he would have had a breakfast, lunch and dinner, the three meals a day

and in front of you now you're seeing the breakfast side

We got all kinds of things this for the guys to eat here so you saw sausage patties

we have bread baking in the oven and over here behind those gentlemen we've got things like rice and also they also had grits once on the morning

we also have breakfast cereal in things like how fresh fruit

whenever they went port they got fresh supplies to help things like apples and oranges

the battleships made the ice cream had the gear on scene and sold ice cream float things like that

one statistic is it sold about 100 gallons of ice cream

and or soda were severed or give to enlisted crews and officers per day here on the ship

so 100 gallons of ice cream and soda, that’s a lot for one day

this is the barber shop for the enlisted crewmen's, not for the officers

you would have 3 master barbers down here men who cut hair

and then they had 2 apprentice

if the men want a certain style or something like that there was allowed by Navy military

rigid discipline was maintained on the ship

but considering the number of people aboard, more than 2,500

minor offenses were inevitable

what's called the Temporary brig, some people call panned or the slammer

because the slam of jail door

and this was a about temporary jail area for guys that were crewmen who eventually were on leave

either got drunk and came back or are they were in a fight, something minor

Down blow us 1 deck, we have the actual brig where for major offenses

they weren’t allowed to have a lot of things except for maybe a little bit a reading material

or some cards or something like that as you would see it here

the her commissioning

USS Alabama was sent to the Atlantic Ocean the US battleships were tasked with holding back the German fleet in the north

while the British ships moved to the Mediterranean to prepare the assault on Sicily

In July 1943, the Alabama joined the ride on Norwegian shores

the Allied forces attempted to lure out the Tirpitz

but the German battleship preferred to stay undercover fear arms

neither the Tirpitz nor the Alabama had a chance to find a comparable ships in their careers

these battleships, Giants created to assure superiority in the naval rounds

never engaged in a serious battle with the similar type opponent to people's tracks

USS Alabama however managed to distinguish herself during one of the major engagements in the Pacific Ocean

the largest aircraft carrier battle between the US and Japan

known as the battle for the Mariana Islands or the battle in the Philippine Sea

In case the Americans captured the Mariana Islands

they could regularly bomb Japanese cities and cut off the Land of the Rising Sun from strategic resources in the West Indies

Japan could not afford to lose them and send almost all its carrier-borne aviation to fight off the enemy’s fleet

the USS Alabama, transferred early into the Pacific Ocean

joined the battle as part of the screen force for the aircraft carriers

thanks to her state-of-the-art radar

the battleship was able to detect approaching Japanese a profit at a distance of almost 160 miles

In 1944 it was inconceivable

None of the task force ships could confirm the target

and only at a distance of 140 miles to the battleship Iowa confirmed the detection

upon receiving confirmation the US fleet commander

ordered his aircraft carriers to launch their fighters

one of the pilots from the aircraft carrier Lexington described disengagement as a whole time turkey shoot down

this nickname stocks in the battle went down in history as the great Mariana turkey shoot

US pilots and ships destroyed more than 500 Japanese lines and kill the majority of experienced pilots

in fact the Japanese carrier-borne aviation ceased to exist

It is after the battle the Philippine Sea to the Japanese command had to resort to that last trump in the Pacific War

Kamikaze attacks

Eventually US military operations in the Pacificand the Soviet offensive in Manchuria force the Japanese to lay down arms

the surrender of the Land of the Rising Sun was signed aboard the US battleship Missouri

USS Alabama also had an honorary role

the ship pride was after the surrender documents were signed on September the 2nd 45

the next day, that Alabama led the American fleet in Tokyo Bay

pretty soon after world war two

it became obvious the giant battle fleet did not meet the requirements of modern warfare

no matter how big the guns there were no match for the range destructive power aircraft and missiles

little by little battleships were decommissioned

USS Alabama’s turn in the beginning in the 1960s

she was turned to her common birth in Mobile Bay

and became the main exhibit the exposition dedicated to the US Armed Forces and their role in world war two

we've been open actually to the public since 1965 hosting more than 40 million visitors

we've been very happy to see that over the last several years

The younger audiences are very appreciative over learning the history of what made America great

and also what made these vessel so important there

USS Alabama was nicknamed “the Lucky A”

because she did not receive any damage during her service

nor did she lose a single crew member to enemy fire

now she keeps watch

helping to preserve the memory of the greatest naval warfare of whole time