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The battleship USS Pennsylvania as it appeared in June 1944. The island in the background is Saipan in the Marianas, where Marines landed June 15.During its long combat career, the Pennsylvania was credited with shooting down and destroying on the ground more Japanese planes than any other battleship.At Leyte, the Pennsylvania drew the attention of CBS correspondent Willey Edwards. He said in a radio broadcast:The boys call the Pennsylvania ‘Old Falling Apart’ because she turns out such a volume of gunfire you’d think she was falling to pieces. Actually, she is solid and sound although one of the oldest U.S. bat-tlewagons. Recently in a Pacific bombardment action somebody yelled to me. ‘Come here and look; the old Pennsy's hit and she’s on fire.’ It turns out the old gal shoots so fast and so much that at times she really does look like she’s on fire.On Feb. 11,1944, a powder can exploded in the Turret One magazine, killing four men.Lloyd E. Lachtrupp of Cincinnati was on his way to relieve one of the men but stopped to read a letter from his mother he had just received. He was 10 seconds away from the magazine when it exploded. He lived to get married Feb. 11,1950. and had four children.Many considered the Pennsylvania a lucky ship. Not only had it escapeddestruction at Pearl Harbor, but it also suffered only minor damage throughout the war.A week after the June 15,1944, invasion of Saipan, a Japanese torpedo bomber nar rowly missed the Pennsylvania but hit the Maryland behind her. At one point off Tinian, the Pennsylvania had held a position on fire watch duty for 30 hours and was relieved by the Colorado, which moored in the same spot. Within 30 minutes the Colorado took 22 hits from a shore battery.In December 1944 off Wake Island, a shore battery scored several hits on the Pennsylvania. One 5-inch shell went through a radar shack without exploding.missing the radar operator’s head by a foot.The Pennsylvania’s luck ran out in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, on Aug. 12,1945 less than three days before the end of the war. An enemy plane slipped in at dusk and hit the stern of the Pennsylvania with its torpedo. One crewman wrote home that “we did not get the Jap plane, but we sure busted the hell out of his torpedo.”The Pennsylvania limped home, assisted by tugs, and spot repairs were made. She was stripped of all but her main batteries and taken to Bikini Atoll to be used as a target ship for atomic bomb tests in July 1946.The Pennsylvania was still afloat but highly radioactive following the tests. She was towed to Kwajalein Lagoon anddecommissioned Aug. 29,1946. After lengthy radiation and structural studies, the Pennsylvania was towed to deep water and sunk Feb. 10,1948.It was the end of a glorious career,Yet the name USS Pennsylvania lives on in the U.S. Navy. The name was given to a nuclear submarine built at Groton, Conn., and commissioned at New London, Conn., on Sept. 9,1989.The ceremony was attended by mem bers of the USS Pennsylvania Battleship Association, including Ted Baldwin of Conemaugh Township, Somerset County, and his wife, Sara. The late Gov. Robert Caaey represented the state.Next week: What it was like.
Newspaper Details
Johnstown Tribune Democrat
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, US
Sun, Feb 03, 2002
Page 3
Full Page
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Anonymous
AL, USA 18 Feb 2019
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