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USS Oklahoma rammed USS Arizona indirectly leading to her sinking?


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On 22 October 1941 the USN battleships Oklahoma and Arizona collided during naval exercises. The USS Arizona took the brunt of the damage. 

I'm currently reading "To Wake the Giant" by Jeff Shaara, a historical novel about the build up to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941. Over all a good book. Per his narrative the USS Arizona was due to be in dry dock in Washington State in December 1941. Due to the damage from the collision repairs were made in Hawaii and the trip to Washington was delayed. If so the October accident indirectly ended up with the destruction of the USS Arizona . Would some other ship have been the victim if the USS Arizona was not there on that December day?

One nagging error Mr. Shaara makes several times in the book. He refers to the War Department as if it was the parent of the Department of Defense and had control of the Navy. The War Department for most of its life controlled only the U.S. Army and before the establishment of the Department of Defense the U.S. Army Corp or Army Air Forces. The War Department was split into the Department of Army and the Department of airdales. There was no equivalent of the Department of Defense as a civilian headed agency in that era. 

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3 hours ago, 17thfabn said:

On 22 October 1941 the USN battleships Oklahoma and Arizona collided during naval exercises. The USS Arizona took the brunt of the damage. 

I'm currently reading "To Wake the Giant" by Jeff Shaara, a historical novel about the build up to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941. Over all a good book. Per his narrative the USS Arizona was due to be in dry dock in Washington State in December 1941. Due to the damage from the collision repairs were made in Hawaii and the trip to Washington was delayed. If so the October accident indirectly ended up with the destruction of the USS Arizona . Would some other ship have been the victim if the USS Arizona was not there on that December day?

One nagging error Mr. Shaara makes several times in the book. He refers to the War Department as if it was the parent of the Department of Defense and had control of the Navy. The War Department for most of its life controlled only the U.S. Army and before the establishment of the Department of Defense the U.S. Army Corp or Army Air Forces. The War Department was split into the Department of Army and the Department of airdales. There was no equivalent of the Department of Defense as a civilian headed agency in that era. 

Yeah...one other minor error, the damage to both ships was fully repaired at the Pearl Harbor repair yard with work beginning 27 October. Arizona went in first to have the five voids and four oil tanks of its TDS repaired, which was a relatively minor job since none of the ship's structure was otherwise affected. It was all surface hull damage extending about 32 feet in total. The repair took less than two weeks and after she came out of the dry-dock Oklahoma went in to have her forepeak tank repaired.

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I understood that the damage was repaired in Pearl Harbor.

The story line in the book was that the USS Arizona was supposed to be going to Bremerton Washington for an overhaul. Since it was held up in Pearl Harbor due to damage it did not go. Perhaps another ship went into dry dock in November instead of the Arizona? There probably weren't that many dry docks that could handle a battle ship? The USN wouldn't want to waste dry dock availability. If the Arizona wasn't coming in November another ship probably went in it's place.

Here is an article that talks about this . Not much detail on when the USS Arizona was supposed to go to Bremerton.

http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2016/12/fateful-collision-uss-arizona-uss-oklahoma-october-22-1941/

 

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Yeah, again that is problematic. Arizona left Long Beach in early October 1940 for a major overhaul at the Bremerton Navy Yard and did not depart after her extensive refit until 19 January 1941, sailed to San Diego and then rejoined the fleet at Pearl on 3 February 1941. Why would she be going back to Bremerton nine months later?

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22 hours ago, 17thfabn said:

Would some other ship have been the victim if the USS Arizona was not there on that December day?

Possible but not that likely. Several other BB were hit by the Japanese AP bombs, Arizona herself twice. Almost always the bombs either failed to detonate at all or broke up and had low order detonations. It seems only two out of eight worked as intended and only one caused catastrophic damage.   

 

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I still can't find anything on a supposed trip to Bremerton for overhaul. She was fitted during her repair in late October with a platform for the CXAM radar, but it would have been sometime in 1942 before she would be scheduled to go to the States and have one fitted...and at the time that was usually at Mare Island rather than Bremerton.

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1 hour ago, RichTO90 said:

I still can't find anything on a supposed trip to Bremerton for overhaul. She was fitted during her repair in late October with a platform for the CXAM radar, but it would have been sometime in 1942 before she would be scheduled to go to the States and have one fitted...and at the time that was usually at Mare Island rather than Bremerton.

The book is historical fiction. Sounds like this part of the story line is fiction.

If some one had access to USN records there should be something saying the USS Arizona was scheduled to go to the US west coast in November or so 1941. 

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13 hours ago, RichTO90 said:

Yeah, again that is problematic. Arizona left Long Beach in early October 1940 for a major overhaul at the Bremerton Navy Yard and did not depart after her extensive refit until 19 January 1941, sailed to San Diego and then rejoined the fleet at Pearl on 3 February 1941. Why would she be going back to Bremerton nine months later?

Agreed that after  USS Arizona had an overhaul in 1940 that she would have one on 1941. 

The only reason I can think of is for an anti-aircraft guns up grade. Were they due to get new anti-aircraft guns that were not available in early 1941?

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They had an overhaul October 1940-January 1941, basically three months in the yard and nearly four months away from the Fleet. There is no reason they would have been scheduled for another yard overhaul so soon.

Um, no they weren't scheduled to get an AA upgrade since the Bremerton overhaul had been primarily to give the AA suite an upgrade. 😁

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