Naval History Blog

USS Oregon (BB-3) was commissioned in San Francisco, California, in 1896, and was serving on the West Coast in 1898 when she was ordered to the Atlantic for service in the impending Spanish-American War. Departing San Francisco on 19 March, Oregon coaled in Peru, Chile, Brazil, and Barbados, and experienced severe weather along the way that included a dangerous storm in the confining Strait of Magellan. Oregon arrived in Florida on 24 May, 66 days and 14,000 miles out of San Francisco, and by 1 June was in the war zone off Cuba. This epic voyage—conducted without radar, radio, or… Read the rest of this entry »

During the furious kamikaze attacks off Okinawa in 1945, the battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43) was struck by a Japanese suicide plane. 22 Americans died in the attack, and another 107 were wounded. This combat footage, filmed during the attack on 12 April 1945, shows the moment of impact. The film opens with a quick shot of another American battleship, possibly USS Idaho (BB-42). At 0:26 seconds of the film, one of the five suicide aircraft that attacked Tennessee (but missed) can be seen exploding in the water, off the port side of the battleship. At 0:37, another Japanese kamikaze begins… Read the rest of this entry »