NATIONAL PEARL HARBOR MEMORIAL PARADE AND PUBLIC CEREMONY
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PRESENTING SPONSOR HISTORY® / A+E NETWORKS
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USS Nevada: 1916 - 1948
USS Nevada was a 27,500 ton battleship built at Quincy, Massachusetts. She was commissioned in March of 1916 and served in the British Isles during World War I. In 1927 - 1930, Nevada was modernized with new masts, a new superstructure, and significant improvements to her firepower. During the next decade she operated as part of the Battle Fleet in the Pacific Ocean.
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
After the Attack on Pearl Harbor began, the USS Nevada, which was the oldest of all the battleships at Pearl Harbor, was the only American ship to get underway even after she was hit by a torpedo. While leaving Battleship Row, she received heavy fire from the Japanese, bombs causing her to sink and become beached. During the attack, 50 of Nevada's crew were killed.
USS Nevada after the Pearl Harbor attack
Nevada received temporary repairs following the attack that allowed her to sail to the mainland to receive permanent repairs and improvements. She was involved in the Attu landings in Alaska in May of 1943 and then later that year was sent to the Atlantic. Her much improved weaponry were used during the Normandy Invasion in June of 1944 and in the Southern France operation in August and September. Nevada then returned to the Pacific to assist in the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. During the spring of 1945, she was hit by a kamikase plane and then by artillery. Even though she was damaged, she remained on duty at Okinawa and spent the rest of the war preparing for the invasion of Japan. Follwowing the War, Nevada served as a target during the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Two years after being decommissioned in 1946, she was towed to sea off of Hawaii and was purposely sunk with torpedo and gunfire.
