The battleship USS Alabama and the formidable military museum around it

@ElentirENG ES 5·05·2024 · 23:41 0

As we have seen before, the United States is one of the countries with the most and best military museums. There are for all likes.

A tour inside the gigantic battleship USS Iowa, now a museum ship
The visit to Spain of the USS Iowa, a large battleship of World War II

One of the most difficult things in a military museum is collecting ships, planes and ground vehicles. That is precisely what the Battleship Alabama Memorial Park offers, a formidable military museum created around the battleship USS Alabama (BB-60), South Dakota class, a 210-meter ship launched on February 16, 1942 and retired from service on January 9, 1947.

Her participation in World War II began with her assignment to the Home Fleet of the British Royal Navy, along with her sister ship, USS South Dakota (BB-57) and five destroyers. After that service with the British Navy, at the end of 1943 the USS Alabama was assigned to the US Pacific Fleet, fighting in the battles of Tarawa, the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf.

The USS Alabama achieved a great record: it was never hit by any enemy attack and did not suffer a single casualty among its crew, but its anti-aircraft guns managed to shoot down 22 aircraft.

On September 5, 1945, the USS Alabama was one of the American ships that entered Tokyo Bay after Japan's surrender. Once removed from service, she was assigned to the US Navy Reserve Fleet until 1962, when she was ordered scrapped. However, a commission of Alabama citizens began organizing to save it and turn it into a museum ship. In 1964 the battleship was delivered to the state of Alabama, and she was converted into a museum ship the following year in the city of Mobile.

This battleship received a companion in 1969: the Gato-class submarine USS Drum (SS-228), another World War II veteran of 95 meters in length, which was launched on May 12. 1941 and retired from service on February 16, 1946. The park created around the battleship has another submarine, a replica of the HL Hunley of the Confederate Navy.

Little by little, the USS Alabama park grew. Today there is a Lockheed A-12 (the older brother of the SR-71), a P-51D Mustang fighter that belonged to the famous Tuskegee Airmen, a B-52 bomber, a Douglas C-47D transport aircraft, a B-25J Mitchell bomber, a A- naval bomber 6 Intruder, as well as F-4C Phantom II, MiG-17A, F-14A Tomcat and F-15A Eagle fighters, among other aircraft. You can also see one of the prototypes of the Northrop YF-17, the aircraft from which the F/A-18 Hornet was made.

In addition, this museum also exhibits tanks and artillery pieces, including historical pieces such as an M-26 Pershing, an M-4 Sherman, an M-48A1 Patton, an M-60A1, a T-55 Soviet and an M1 Abrams. If you want to see more, last year Erik Johnston published this video doing a tour of this huge museum:

A few days ago, High Seas Adventures took a tour of the part of the museum dedicated to aircraft:

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Photos: USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park.