The New Mexico class further improved on the basic design introduced three years earlier with the Nevada class. The twelve-gun main battery of the preceding Pennsylvania class was retained, but with longer 14"/50 guns in improved triple turrets. Hull design was also upgraded, with a "clipper" bow for better seakeeping, and one ship was fitted with a new propulsion system, in which steam turbines turned electrical generators and the ship's propellers were driven by electric motors. Though eight secondary battery guns were located in very wet bow and stern positions and were soon removed, the rest of the ships' five-inch guns were mounted in the superstructure, a great improvement over the earlier arrangements.
Completed during and soon after the First World War, the New Mexico class were active members of the Battle Fleet during the decades between the World Wars. All were rebuilt in 1931-34, receiving entirely new superstructures, modern controls for their guns, new engines and improved protection against air and surface attack. Anti-torpedo "bulges" increased their width to 106" 3" and displacement went up by a thousand tons or more.
In order to counter the German threat, these ships were transferred from the Pacific to the Atlantic in 1941, leaving the Pacific Fleet inferior in battleship strength to the Japanese Navy. Sent back to the Pacific after the Pearl Harbor Raid devastated the Pacific Fleet's battle line, they were active in the war with Japan until final victory was achieved in August 1945. Their heavy guns provided vital assistance to the many amphibious invasions that marked the Pacific conflict, and Mississippi took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last time in history that battleships fought each other. New Mexico and Idaho were disposed of soon after the War ended, but Mississippi was converted to a training and weapons trials ship and served for another decade. The Navy's first generation of ship-launched guided missiles, the replacements for most of the guns that had long been the focus of her career, first went to sea aboard this old former battleship.
The New Mexico class numbered three ships, all built
on the east coast:
New Mexico class "as-built" design characteristics:
This page features a modest selection of photographs of New Mexico class battleships, plus images related to these ships' basic design features, and provides links to more extensive pictorial coverage of the individual ships.
For coverage of other classes of U.S. Navy battleships, see: Battleships -- Overview and Special Image Selection.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 73983 USS Idaho (BB-42) Underway in about 1920. Note semaphore signalman atop her second turret. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 480 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97362 USS Mississippi (BB-41) Operating at sea during the later 1930s. She has three SOC aircraft on her catapults. The original photograph is dated 20 March 1951, about a dozen years after it was actually taken. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 94650 USS Idaho (BB-42) Anchored in Hvaeldefjord, Iceland, October 1941. Collection of Vice Admiral Robert C. Giffen, USN. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-275940 New Mexico class battleships at Pearl Harbor, 17 December 1943 Photographed from USS Natoma Bay (CVE-62), shortly after the conclusion of the Gilberts Campaign. The three battleships, in an anchorage protected by anti-torpedo nets, are (from left to right): USS Idaho (BB-42); USS New Mexico (BB-40); and USS Mississippi (BB-41). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-K-3706 (Color) USS New Mexico (BB-40) At sea with two other battleships and an amphibious force command ship (AGC), probably at the time of the Iwo Jima or Okinawa operations, circa February-April 1945. Battleship in the center background is USS Idaho (BB-42). The one further to the left is either Tennessee (BB-43) or California (BB-44). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-K-14228 (Color) USS New Mexico (BB-40) 14-inch projectiles on deck, while the battleship was replenishing her ammunition supply prior to the invasion of Guam, July 1944. The photograph looks forward on the starboard side, with triple 14"/50 gun turrets at left. Note floater nets stowed atop the turrets. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 159KB; 590 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-K-3829 (Color) USS Idaho (BB-42) Bombarding Okinawa with her 14"/50 main battery guns, 1 April 1945. Photographed from USS West Virginia (BB-48). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-K-17878 (Color) USS Mississippi (EAG-128) Fires a "Terrier" surface-to-air missile during at-sea tests, circa 1953-55. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 505 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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For more views of New Mexico class battleships, see:
For coverage of other classes of U.S. Navy battleships, see: Battleships -- Overview and Special Image Selection.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 29 October 2000
Coding updated 26 March 2001