What are the names of the four battle ships that got bombed in Pearl Harbor?

Answer 1

There were eight US battleships in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and all of them got bombed to some extent. Four of them sank - the USS Arizona, the USS Oklahoma, the USS West Virginia and the USS California.

The West Virginia and the California were later raised, repaired and modernized, and saw action during the last half of the war. The water in Pearl Harbor is relatively shallow and these two ships had settled to the bottom on an even keel, making it relatively easy to refloat them.

The Oklahoma was hit at almost the same time by numerous torpedoes, all hitting on the port side. This was also what happened to the West Virginia, but on the "Wee Vee" a quick-thinking damage controlman counterflooded the ship, causing it to settle on an even keel. No one thought to do this on Oklahoma and she turned over, burying her superstructure in the mud of the Harbor bottom. Over 400 of her crew were trapped inside the armored hull, and for days the Navy tried to cut them out with acetylene torches, but only about 35 were rescued. It took the Navy until 1947 to get the Oklahoma afloat again. She was put under tow, to be taken to the mainland and cut up for scrap metal, but she started leaking again on the way and the towship had to cut her loose and she sank again, in deep water.

The Arizona was hit by a large bomb which penetrated deep within her. When this bomb exploded it caused the ship's own powder magazine to detonate, exploding tons of propellant for the ship's main guns. This destroyed the forward half of the ship. About half the men killed in the attack were killed on the Arizona in this one second. The Arizona remains on the bottom in Pearl Harbor, along with the USS Utah, and these are the only two ships sunk during the attack which are still where they sank. The Utah was an old former battleship which had been converted into a target ship. Its guns were removed and its deck covered with massive, heavy timbers, so other ships could shoot non-exploding, dummy shells at her. The Japanese may have mistaken her for an aircraft carrier. She sank on the opposite side of Ford Island from the Arizona.

The USS Maryland, USS Tennessee, USS Nevada and USS Pennsylvania were also in the Harbor that morning. Pennsylvania was in drydock, out of the water, perched on huge blocks, but was still hit by several bombs, but not seriously damaged. Maryland was pinned against the concrete mooring quays when its outboard neighbor, Oklahoma, capsized. It took a lot of work the get Maryland loose. Nevada was the only large US ship to get underway during the attack. Its engineroom already had steam up when the Japanese appeared, and in a little while they were able to get going, to try to get out of the Harbor into open ocean, where they could maneuver. They got going just as the Japanese second wave appeared, and the Japanese concentrated on Nevada, like a swarm of angry hornets, hoping to sink her in the channel and thus bottle up all the ships in the Harbor, as it would be impossible for other ships to go in or out with Nevada's wreckage blocking the shallow channel. Nevada's crew realized what the Japanese were wanting, and they took so much damage they ran their own ship aground, bow first, on Hospital Point, to keep her from sinking in the channel.