text:
Computer Music Center

The Computer Music Center (CMC) at Columbia University is the oldest center for electronic and computer music research in the United States. It was founded in the 1950s as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.

Location
The CMC is housed in Prentis Hall, 632 West 125th Street, New York City, across the street from Columbia's 17-acre Manhattanville campus. The facility consists of a large graduate research facility specializing in computer music and multimedia research, as well as composition and recording studios for student use. Projects to come out of the CMC since the 1990s include:

 * ArtBots
 * dorkbot
 * PeRColate
 * Real-Time Cmix

The director of the CMC is Seth Cluett, and the CMC offers classes taught by George E. Lewis, Seth Cluett, David Soldier, Anna Meadors, and Ben Holtzman, as well as visiting faculty who give seminars every year. In collaboration with the Visual Arts Program in the Columbia University School of the Arts, the Computer Music Center offers a Sound Art MFA Program directed by Miya Masaoka. The program was founded in 2014 by Douglas Repetto who served as Director until 2016.

History
The forerunner of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center was a studio founded in the early 1950s by Columbia University professors Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening, and Princeton University professors Milton Babbitt and Roger Sessions. Originally concerned with experiments in music composition involving the new technology of reel-to-reel tape, the studio soon branched out into all areas of electronic music research. The center was officially established with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1959 which was used to finance the acquisition of the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer from its owner, RCA.

The center's flagship piece of equipment, the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, was delivered in 1957 after it was developed to Ussachevsky and Babbitt's specifications. The RCA (and the center) were re-housed in Prentis Hall, a building off the main Columbia campus on 125th Street. Significant pieces of electronic music realized on the Synthesizer included Babbitt's Vision and Prayer and Charles Wuorinen's Time's Encomium, which was awarded the 1970 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 1964 Columbia Records released an album titled simply Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, which was produced principally on the RCA synthesizer.

Most of the luminaries in the field of electronic music (and avant-garde music in general) visited, worked, or studied at the Electronic Music Center, including Edgard Varèse, Chou Wen-chung, Halim El-Dabh, Michiko Toyama, Bülent Arel, Mario Davidovsky, Charles Dodge, Pril Smiley, Alice Shields, Wendy Carlos, Dariush Dolat-Shahi, Kenjiro Ezaki and Luciano Berio. The center also acted as a consulting agency for other electronic music studios in the Western Hemisphere, giving them advice on optimum studio design and helping them purchase equipment.

The staff engineers at the center under Peter Mauzey developed customized equipment to solve the needs of the composers working at the center. These include early prototypes of tape delay machines, quadraphonic mixing consoles, and analog triggers designed to facilitate interoperability between other (often custom-made) synthesizer equipment. The center also had a large collection of Buchla, Moog, and Serge Modular synthesizers.

By the late 1970s the Electronic Music Center was rapidly nearing obsolescence as its classical analog tape techniques were being surpassed by parallel work in the field of computer music. By the mid-1980s the Columbia and Princeton facilities had ceased their formal affiliation, with the Princeton music department strengthening its affiliation with Bell Labs and founding a computer music studio under Godfrey Winham and Paul Lansky (see Princeton Sound Lab).

The original Columbia facility was re-organized in 1995 under the leadership of Brad Garton and was renamed the Columbia University Computer Music Center. Garton served as Director from 1995 until 2021, when Seth Cluett became Director joined by Anna Meadors as Assistant Director.

Associates

 * Seth Cluett, Director, Lecturer in Computer Music and Sound Studies
 * Anna Meadors, Assistant Director
 * Brad Garton, Director Emeritus, Professor of Music
 * Miya Masaoka, Director of the Sound Arts MFA Program
 * Fred Lerdahl, Professor of Music
 * Chou Wen-chung, Professor of Music
 * George E. Lewis, Professor of Music
 * Zosha Di Castri, Assistant Professor of Music

title: Computer Music Center


text:
Woodrow Lloyd

Woodrow Stanley Lloyd (July 16, 1913 – April 7, 1972) was a Canadian politician and educator. Born in Saskatchewan in 1913, he became a teacher in the early 1930s. He worked as a teacher and school principal until 1944 and was involved with the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation, eventually becoming its president.

He was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan in 1944. He served as Education Minister and then Treasurer in Tommy Douglas's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation government between 1944 and 1961. He succeeded Douglas as Saskatchewan Premier in late 1961. Lloyd is best remembered as the man who piloted Canada's first Medicare program from legislation to implementation in 1962, and overcoming the Saskatchewan doctors' strike that summer strike to enable it to continue.

Lloyd was defeated in the 1964 Saskatchewan general election and served the next six years as the Leader of the Official Opposition. He stepped down as the New Democratic Party's leader in 1970 (the CCF changed its name in 1967), and from the Legislature in 1971. He was appointed to a United Nations post in South Korea, where he died of a heart attack in 1972.

Early life
Lloyd was born in Webb, Saskatchewan on July 16, 1913. He initially studied engineering, but due to the Great Depression, switched his studies to teaching and graduated with a BA from the University of Saskatchewan in 1936. He started teaching school that year, and eventually became a school principal in the early 1940s at Stewart Valley, Vanguard and Biggar. He was also active in the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation and held many positions in the organization including the presidency from 1940 to 1944. He also served on the University of Saskatchewan's Senate, and was the president of the Saskatchewan Educational Conference in the early 1940s.

Douglas government
In 1944, Lloyd was elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation member for the constituency of Biggar, a seat that he held until his retirement in 1971. Lloyd became the youngest cabinet minister in Saskatchewan history, up to that point, when he was appointed to cabinet as Minister of Education by new Premier, Tommy Douglas. Lloyd served as Minister of Education for the next 16 years and oversaw the complete overhaul of the Saskatchewan education system. The most controversial measure he introduced was the amalgamation of over 5000 of Saskatchewan's local school boards (units) into 56 larger school units in 1944–1945. The measure was instituted to create more equitable educational opportunities for students across the province by providing students greater opportunity to receive instruction by specialized teachers and access to increased education resources, including provincial grants.

However, the move was opposed by some in rural Saskatchewan who resented the loss of local control over schools, as the move to large school units resulted in the closure of nearly all rural one-room schools over the next two decades.

After the 1960 election, Douglas appointed Lloyd to be the provincial treasurer. In 1961, Douglas resigned as premier to assume the leadership of the newly-formed federal New Democratic Party (NDP). Lloyd was elected as leader of what was now called the Saskatchewan CCF-NDP, easily defeating Olaf Turnbull.

Premier of Saskatchewan
As Premier, Lloyd was responsible for implementing the universal health care plan that Douglas had introduced. Lloyd's government had to cope with the July 1962 Saskatchewan doctors' strike, when the province's physicians withdrew service in an attempt to defeat the Medicare initiative. Lloyd and his government refused to back down on the concept of a universal public health care system and persuaded the doctors to settle after 23 days.

Medicare was implemented, but the political turmoil did lasting damage to the Lloyd government and contributed to its defeat at the hands of Ross Thatcher's Saskatchewan Liberal Party in the 1964 provincial election. Medicare was later extended to all provinces and territories in Canada as a result of the Saskatchewan experiment.

Lloyd was the first premier of Saskatchewan to have been born in the province after its accession to Confederation in 1905.

Later life
After his government's defeat, Lloyd became Leader of the Opposition, a post he held until 1970 when Allan Blakeney was elected leader of the Saskatchewan NDP. On his retirement, Douglas gave him the ultimate compliment by saying that Lloyd was "the conscience of the government and the conscience of the party." After retirement from the Saskatchewan Legislature in 1971, Lloyd was appointed as representative for the United Nations Development Program in South Korea. However just months after assuming that post, he died suddenly in Seoul, South Korea.

Saskatchewan general elections, 1944 to 1960
Lloyd led the CCF in two general elections: 1964 and 1967. The CCF was defeated both times.

1964 General election
The 1964 election was very close in the popular vote, with a difference of only 660 votes between the Liberals and the CCF. The distribution of votes in the ridings gave the Liberals a majority, ending the CCF's seventeen year term in office. Ross Thatcher defeated Lloyd and became Premier. Lloyd became Leader of the Opposition.

1 Leader of the Opposition before election was called; Premier after election. 2 Premier when election was called; Leader of the Opposition after election. 3 Rounds to zero.

1967 General election
In the 1967 election, Lloyd again led the CCF, now re-named the NDP, against Ross Thatcher and the Liberals. The Liberals were returned to office, the last time the Liberals formed the government. Lloyd resigned as party leader before the next election, being succeeded by Alan Blakeney.

1 Premier before election was called; Premier after election. 2 Leader of the Opposition when election was called; Leader of the Opposition after election.

Saskatchewan constituency elections
Lloyd stood for election to the Legislative Assembly in seven general elections, all in the constituency of Biggar. He was elected in all seven elections, from 1944 to 1967.

1944 General election: Biggar
E Elected.

1948 General election: Biggar
E Elected. X Incumbent.

1952 General election: Biggar
E Elected. X Incumbent.

1960 General election: Biggar
E Elected. X Incumbent. 1 Rounding error.

1964 General election: Biggar
E Elected. X Incumbent.

1967 General election: Biggar
E Elected. X Incumbent.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Woodrow Lloyd


text: Template:Connecticut class battleship

title: Template:Connecticut class battleship


text: Template:New York class battleship

title: Template:New York class battleship


text: Template:Nevada class battleship

title: Template:Nevada class battleship


text:
Throb

Throb is an American sitcom that aired in syndication from September 6, 1986, to May 21, 1988. The series, created by Fredi Towbin, was produced by Procter & Gamble Productions in association with Taft Entertainment Television, and was distributed by Worldvision Enterprises. The series' rights are currently held by CBS Television Distribution.

Synopsis
The series revolved around a thirty-something divorcee named Sandy Beatty (Diana Canova), who gets a job at a small new wave record label, Throb. Beatty's boss is Zachary Armstrong (Jonathan Prince), who had a huge crush on Sandy. Beatty also has a 12-year-old son named Jeremy (played in the first season by Paul Walker and in season two by Sean de Veritch). Beatty's best friend was Meredith (Maryedith Burrell), a single teacher who lived in her building, and her co-workers included hip business manager Phil Gaines (Richard Cummings, Jr.) and British-born Prudence Anne Bartlett, who was nicknamed "Blue" (Jane Leeves).

During the second season, Sandy moved from her original apartment to the recently vacated penthouse in her building. She took in her co-worker Blue to help out with rent but the differences between straitlaced, somewhat conservative Sandy and the free-spirited Blue became more pronounced as they both lived and worked together. However, they were still friends.

Casting
This show was the first time many American TV viewers saw Jane Leeves, who later gained fame as Daphne Moon on Frasier. Paul Walker played Jeremy Beatty for the first season, and would become a leading man in Hollywood some 15 years later, particularly after his breakthrough role in The Fast and the Furious.

The creation of the Zachary Armstrong character, and the casting of Jonathan Prince in the role, was inspired by the (then) current rising fame of Michael J. Fox. Prince bore a strong physical resemblance to Fox, and played Zachary with many similar characterizations as Fox's Family Ties character, Alex P. Keaton. Like Alex Keaton, Zachary was also a young, diminutive overachiever on the fast track who found himself attracted to women who were both older and taller than he, the main object of his affection being Sandy.

Cast

 * Diana Canova - Sandy Beatty
 * Jonathan Prince - Zachary Armstrong
 * Maryedith Burrell - Meredith
 * Jane Leeves - "Blue" (Prudence Anne Bartlett)
 * Richard Cummings Jr. - Phil Gaines
 * Paul Walker - Jeremy Beatty (1986–87) (as Paul W. Walker)
 * Sean de Veritch - Jeremy Beatty (1987–88)

title: Throb


text:
La Moneda Palace

Palacio de La Moneda (, Palace of the Mint), or simply La Moneda, is the seat of the president of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: Interior, General Secretariat of the Presidency, and General Secretariat of the Government. Located in downtown Santiago, it occupies an entire block in the Civic District, bordered by Moneda street to the north, Morandé street to the east, Alameda del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins to the south, and Teatinos street to the west.

History
La Moneda, was the colonial mint house of the city during colonial times, was designed by the Italian architect Joaquín Toesca. Construction began in 1784 and was opened in 1805. The production of coins in Chile took place at La Moneda from 1814 to 1929.

In June 1845 during president Manuel Bulnes's administration, the palace became the seat of government and presidential residence. In 1930, a public square—named Plaza de la Constitución ("Constitution Square")—was built in front of the palace. After the presidency of Gabriel González Videla it ceased to serve as a presidential residence.

During the military coup d'état on September 11, 1973, the Chilean Air Force strafed the palace with unguided rockets and automatic cannon fire. The president Salvador Allende died in the palace at this time. Restoration projects of the damage caused were completed in March 1981, although some bullet marks have been preserved and can still be seen today. During the 1973–1980 restorations, an underground office complex (the so-called "bunker") was built under the front square to provide a safe escape for the dictator Augusto Pinochet in case of an attack.

Under the presidency of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the palace was painted white. During President Ricardo Lagos's administration, the palace's inner courtyards were opened to the public during certain hours of the day. Lagos also re-opened Morandé 80—a gate used by Chilean presidents to enter the palace since the early 20th century. It was eliminated during the restoration of the palace as not being in the original plans, but was restored because of the heavy symbolism attached to it as being the gate through which Chilean Presidents entered La Moneda skipping the main's gate guard protocol or, in other words, as ordinary citizens of the country. It was also the gate through which the body of President Allende was taken out after the 1973 coup.

A traditional changing of the guard ceremony takes place every two days on odd-numbered days in odd-numbered months, even-numbered days in even-numbered months, including Sundays, at 10 a.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. on weekends (as of June 2015). A formal ceremony dating back to the 1850s, it lasts about 30 minutes and includes a band playing, troops with horses parading into the square, and much pomp and circumstance. The Carabineros de Chile provides the guard unit and band for the ceremony, the guard unit being composed of a Foot Guards battalion and a Horse Guards squadron.

Construction
Joaquín Toesca had worked on many public buildings in colonial Chile, including the Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral, before he was engaged to design the new royal mint that would become the Palacio de la Moneda.

Works on the building started in 1784, with building materials arriving the following year from around Chile and the world: limestone from the Polpaico country estate; sand from the Maipo River; red stones from a quarry at the Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago; white stone from the neighbouring Cerro Blanco; oak and cypress wood from Valdivia; Spanish metal works from Vizcaya. Twenty varieties of brick were baked in Santiago for the construction of lintels, comers, floors, moldings, and of the solid walls more than a meter thick.

Toesca died in 1799, before seeing his work finished, and military engineer Agustin Cavallero took over the project. The “Mint House of Santiago de Chile” finally opened in 1805.

In 1929, an annex was commissioned the then President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo to give the palace a facade to face the Alameda Avenue, the main street of Santiago. The project was designed by Josué Smith strictly following the design of the original construction. The three-floor annex was built using part of the original construction that was occupied until that date by the mint, which was relocated to a site adjacent to Quinta Normal Park.

In 1940, a former mint pavilion, part of the original design of Toesca, was demolished to make way for the Patio de los Naranjos.

Architectural style
The Palacio de la Moneda is built in a pure neoclassical style with Roman Doric influences. The building's wide, horizontal shape and rectangular composition conveys strength and stability, according to the palace's listing on the UNESCO website. Its main façade faces Moneda street, and its rooms are distributed along the transverse and longitudinal axes forming several patios.

Behind this façade lie three patios: the Patio de los Cañones, which functions as an entrance hall; a covered patio; and finally the Patio de los Naranjos, where presidential ceremonies take place.

The architecture website ARQHYS.com states that the Palacio de la Moneda is “the only structure in the pure Italian neoclassical style that exists in Latin America.”

The building has been subject to several modifications throughout the years, made by different presidents. The last great restoration of the building was carried out after the 1973 military coup, when large portions of the building were destroyed or damaged.

Plaza de la Ciudadanía
To celebrate the bicentenary of Chile's independence in 2010, a new public square called the Plaza de la Ciudadanía (‘’Citizenry Square’’ in Spanish) was constructed on the south side of the palace stretching down to the Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins or “Alameda”. Construction began in May 2004 and the plaza was inaugurated in December 2005.

Designed by Undurraga Devés Arquitectos, the Plaza de la Ciudadanía has been called “one of the most important public works in the last century” by Chile's Plataforma Arquitectura website. Paths leading down from the plaza give access to the underground Palacio de La Moneda Cultural Center, which hosts a range of exhibitions on Chilean culture and history.

title: La Moneda Palace


text:
User:Fosse8

"A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
 * — Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto (1855)

Some Information About Me
Er, yes. Hello. I am a lawyer based in Cardiff, Wales; I've probably been here longer than you have, though you wouldn't know it from my edit count. I started adding & editing articles here in 2003, though the list under my contributions is really only a fraction of the number of edits I've made while not logged in (either through being automatically logged out, or through complete laziness). Entertainingly, a lot of these are made under various different proxy edits from NTL IPs in Cardiff, shared by hundreds of other people (mostly vandals or Doctor Who fans by the look of things... does anyone else on a proxy ever look to see what edits their "IP neighbours" have made? Er, anyway, I'm digressing). Basically, if an article connected to one of my AREAS! OF! INTEREST! listed below has been edited by a random Cardiff NTL IP - usually User:62.252.32.12, User:62.252.32.13, User:81.104.160.179 or User:81.110.86.44 - it was quite probably me. (Unless you thought the edit in question was rubbish, in which case it was someone else.) Happily I have no real interest in joining any communities or groups here, or doing anything else on Wikipedia other than adding or tidying up articles (or pointlessly padding out this vanity page), so it doesn't really bother me that lots of my edits aren't credited. In fact, I'm only now looking at this page for the first time in something like three and a half years. That's commitment for you. Yeah it is.

The name
"Fosse 8" has nothing to do with Bob Fosse; it was the name of a coal mine in northern France which was the site of some particularly vicious fighting during the Battle of Loos in 1915. Just so you know.

Some articles what I have done created
Literature
 * Louis Couperus
 * W. N. P. Barbellion
 * Maurice Leblanc
 * Alexander Texeira de Mattos

Émile Zola novels
 * Les Rougon-Macquart
 * Le Ventre de Paris
 * La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret
 * L'Assommoir

Noël Coward plays
 * Private Lives
 * Hay Fever
 * Blithe Spirit (play)
 * Design for Living
 * Bitter Sweet
 * Tonight at 8:30

Robert Browning's poetry
 * Dramatic Lyrics
 * Dramatic Romances and Lyrics
 * Men and Women (poetry collection)
 * Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society
 * Jocoseria
 * Ferishtah's Fancies

Sports
 * Jupp Derwall
 * Otto Nerz
 * Christian Gross
 * Iban Mayo
 * Axel Merckx

Film
 * Claude Berri
 * Mathieu Kassovitz
 * La Haine

Music
 * The Satintones
 * Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard
 * Nothing Can Stop Us

(I've been here a long time, and Wikipedia was a different place back in 2004, so lots of these would look like stubs if they were created like that now - I just happened to get there first. And quite often, I hadn't bothered to log in (which shows how long ago it was!).  There are lots more, those are just the ones I can remember, or see from my contributions...!)

Areas of Interest
Here are some of the things I am interested in, and have created articles about.

Robert Browning
The Victorian poet Robert Browning has always been a favourite of mine; a while back I rewrote his article here and started to create articles based on some of his major works and collections. The mission continues.

Noel Coward
Most of the articles on the plays and revues of Noel Coward have had some input from me, or were created by me in the first place. Yeah, *be* impressed.

Émile Zola
The French novelist Emile Zola is my favourite novelist, and given the general lack of English-language Zola resources on the internet, I want to eventually have an article here for every single Zola novel in existence. I started out with some basic sketches on the first few volumes in the Rougon-Macquart series; hopefully they'll eventually grow into something like a definitive guide.

Basketball
Unusually for a Brit, I am very interested in basketball; I joined WikiProject:National Basketball Association to try and improve the standard of pro basketball coverage on Wikipedia to something like encyclopaedic standards. It was a future project of mine to build a complete guide to the teams and seasons of the shortlived American Basketball Association along the same lines. I didn't do it, obviously. Obviously.

Motown
I am proud to be a great big Motown nerd.

Featured articles
You must be joking.

Links
There are no links.

title: User:Fosse8


text: Template:Pennsylvania class battleship

title: Template:Pennsylvania class battleship


text:
Ali Hassan Mwinyi

Ali Hassan Mwinyi (8 May 1925 – 29 February 2024) was a Tanzanian politician who served as the second president of the United Republic of Tanzania from 1985 to 1995. Previous posts included Minister for Home Affairs and Vice President. He also was chairman of the ruling party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) from 1990 to 1996.

During Mwinyi's terms, Tanzania took the first steps to reverse the socialist policies of Julius Nyerere. He relaxed import restrictions and encouraged private enterprise. It was during his second term that multi-party politics were introduced under pressure for reform from foreign and domestic sources. Often referred to as Mzee Rukhsa ("everything goes"), he pushed for liberalization of morals, beliefs, values (without breaking the law), and the economy.

Early life
Mwinyi was born on 8 May 1925 in the village of Kivure, Pwani Region, where he was also raised. He then moved to Zanzibar and got his primary education at Mangapwani Primary School in Mangapwani, Zanzibar West Region. Mwinyi then attended Mikindani Dole Secondary School in Dole, Zanzibar West Region. From 1945 to 1964 he worked successively as a tutor, teacher, and head teacher at various schools before deciding to enter national politics.

Concurrently, Mwinyi earned his General Certificate of Education through correspondence (1950–1954) and then studied for a teaching diploma at the Institute of Education at Durham University in the United Kingdom. He did not leave England until 1962, being appointed principal of Zanzibar Teaching Training College in Zanzibar West Region, upon his return.

Presidency
President Julius Nyerere retired in October 1985 and picked Ali Hassan Mwinyi to be his successor. Nyerere remained chairman of the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), until 1990, which would later cause tensions between the government and the party regarding economic reform ideology. When the transition of power took place, Tanzania's economy was in the midst of a slump. From 1974 to 1984, the GDP was growing at an average of 2.6% per year while the population was increasing at a faster rate of 3.4% each year. Rural incomes and urban wages had both fallen by the early 1980s, despite Tanzania's minimum wage laws. Furthermore, the currency was overpriced, basic goods were scarce, and the country had over three billion dollars of foreign debt. Agricultural production was low, and the general opinion was that Nyerere's Ujamaa socialist policies had failed economically.

Such policies included the nationalization of major production, the forced re-villagization of the rural population into communal farms, and the banning of any opposition parties. Nyerere's supporters were opposed to involving the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in domestic economic reforms, believing it would cause instability and conflict with their socialist values. Also, Tanzania's relationship with the IMF had been strained since Nyerere's government failed to meet the loan conditions from a 1980 financial package agreement.

Early in this political transition, many believed that Mwinyi was unlikely to deviate from Nyerere's policies since he was viewed as a loyal supporter of his predecessor. He and his followers called for economic and political reform to liberalize the market and review traditional socialist ideologies. He surrounded himself with reformists, even replacing three cabinet members and other ministers who were opposed to change. The prime minister at the time, Joseph Warioba, along with the finance minister Cleopa Msuya were also quite supportive of new policies. During his first address to Tanzania's Parliament in 1986, he promised to resume negotiations with the IMF and World Bank, assuming that any resulting agreement would be beneficial to the citizens of Tanzania.

Agreements with international financial institutions
In 1986, Mwinyi made an agreement with the IMF to receive a $78 million standby loan, which was Tanzania's first foreign loan in over six years. Bilateral donors approved this austerity plan and agreed to reschedule Tanzania's debt payments. They agreed to do so for a period of five years, requiring that Tanzania pay only 2.5% of their debts in the meantime. In an interview, Mwinyi urged donor countries to use Canada as an example and write off Tanzania's debts all together. If this request was not possible, he asked instead for a minimum of ten years to pay off loans, but said that 20 to 25 years was a more ideal range. He predicted that by this time, the country's economy would be recovered and they would be in a position to repay their debts without it hurting them. In the same interview, he also asked aid donors for lower interest rates.

Mwinyi claimed that his negotiations with the IMF were on behalf of the people: for example, he agreed to the Fund's request that he decrease the number of public institutions, but only when doing so was necessary and could be done gradually. Furthermore, he declined their recommendation to freeze pay raises within the government and to cut free public services.

The following year, Mwinyi negotiated Tanzania's first structural adjustment facility (SAF) with the IMF, followed by subsequent agreements in 1988 and again in 1990. In addition to these developments, the World Bank provided structural adjustment credits for reforms in the agricultural, industrial, and financial sectors. In 1989, President Mwinyi began the second phase of his reform program by continuing to liberalise trade and exchange rates and expanding reforms to include reforms in the banking system, agricultural marketing, the parastatal sector, government administration, the civil service and social sectors.

Multi-party politics
In 1991, the first stages of the transition towards multipartyism began when Mwinyi appointed Chief Justice Francis Nyalali to lead a commission to gauge the amount of popular support for the current single-party system. This commission submitted their report to the President in 1992, recommending that the government transition into a multi-party system. They made this recommendation for 21 percent of the 36,299 Tanzanians who favored this change. Of the 75 percent who supported the current system, 55 percent were in favor of some sort of reform. Justice Nyalali pointed to 20 specific laws that were in need of revision in order to comply with the requirements of a multi-party system. Mwinyi supported their recommendation and the CCM Extraordinary National Party Conference ratified changes through constitutional amendments in February 1992. Not all 20 of these laws were revised, including the controversial Preventative Detention Act that was leftover from colonial times.

Corruption
During the years of Julius Nyerere's presidency, corruption was viewed as a sort of oppression that undermined Tanzania's egalitarian values. But, reports of corruption increased along with the state's economic influence. During Mwinyi's presidency, corrupt practices worsened under his economically liberal policies. It became so endemic that some donors froze aid in 1994 in response. During Tanazania's multi-party election in 1995, the opposition parties used the people's resentments towards the ongoing corruption as political fuel. The CCM candidate Benjamin Mkapa was also able to use corruption in his favor, as he was viewed as untainted by any of the corruption scandals that marred the Mwinyi administration.

1993 Chavda scandal
Brothers and businessmen V.G. Chavda and P.G. Chavda received a $3.5 million loan from a debt conversion program (DCP) in 1993. They promised to use these funds to revamp rundown plantations in the Tanga Region. This included upgrading worker housing, repairing old machines, and replanting farmland. They claimed their projects would create 1,400 jobs and would generate $42 million in foreign exchange money. In reality, they had diverted the funds outside of the country through the purchase of fake machines and parts. It was later uncovered that high-ranking politicians had covered for them, including the Minister for Home Affairs, Augustine Mrema. They were able to evade prosecution.

Mohamed Enterprises
In early 1995, the well-known company Mohamed Enterprises was accused of allegedly distributing food that was unfit for consumption. Augustino Mrema claimed he would punish the company, but was demoted to Minister of Youth and Culture before he could take action. He criticized Mwinyi's administration for tolerating high levels of corruption and being complicit about anti-corruption enforcement. He was then removed from the cabinet, and later became a candidate for one of the opposition parties, NCCR-Mageuzi.

Views on apartheid
In a 1989 interview when asked about his views regarding apartheid, Mwinyi advocated for tough, comprehensive sanctions to be carried out against South Africa. He also called for Western nations to assist "frontline states" in dealing with any destabilization attempts made by the South African government against those who oppose them. He said that practicing these measures concurrently would help to dismantle apartheid. He called the Reagan administration's hesitance to enact tougher sanctions a "stumbling block", and expressed his hope that future U.S. leaders would take more action against South Africa's regime.

Personal life and death
Ali Hassan Mwinyi married Siti Mwinyi in 1960, with whom he had six sons and six daughters. In retirement, he stayed out of the limelight and continued to live in Dar es Salaam. He released his memoir, Mzee Rukhsa: The Journey of My Life, in 2021.

In November 2023, Mwinyi was hospitalized for a chest illness. He died of lung cancer at Mzena hospital in Dar es Salaam, on 29 February 2024, at the age of 98.

Awards

 * King Faisal Prize of Saudi Arabia for Service to Islam in 2022.

Legacy

 * Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road, one of the major roads in Dar es Salaam
 * Ali Hassan Mwinyi Stadium, Tabora
 * Schools:
 * Ali Hassan Mwinyi Islamic Secondary School in Tabora Region
 * Mwinyi Secondary School in Pwani Region
 * Ali Hassan Mwinyi Elite Schools (AHMES), which has a nursery and primary school in Dar es Salaam and a secondary school in Bagamoyo

title: Ali Hassan Mwinyi


text:
Nevada-class battleship

The Nevada class comprised two dreadnought battleships—USS Nevada (BB-36) and USS Oklahoma (BB-37)—built for the United States Navy in the 1910s. They were significant developments in battleship design, being the first in the world to adopt "all or nothing" armor, a major step forward in armor protection because it emphasized protection optimized for long-range engagements before the Battle of Jutland demonstrated the need for such a layout. They also introduced three-gun turrets and oil-fired water-tube boilers to the US fleet. The two Nevadas were the progenitors of the standard-type battleship, a group that included the next four classes of broadly similar battleships that were intended to be tactically homogeneous.

Nevada and Oklahoma deployed to Ireland in 1918 to escort convoys during World War I but saw no action. After the war, they were transferred to the Pacific Fleet, where they spent most of the 1920s and 1930s. During this period, they conducted extensive training operations and made several long-distance cruises, including to Australia and New Zealand in 1925 and Oklahoma's voyage to Europe in 1936. Both vessels were extensively modernized between 1927 and 1930, having their armament improved, protection scheme strengthened, and new boilers installed. They were moored in Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941; Oklahoma was sunk in the attack while Nevada was able to get underway before being forced to ground herself to avoid sinking in deeper water.

Only Nevada was salvageable, and she was repaired and modernized by mid-1943 when she joined the Aleutian Islands campaign. She then supported the Normandy landings in June 1944 and Operation Dragoon in August before returning to the Pacific in time for the Battle of Iwo Jima in February 1945, followed by the Battle of Okinawa from March to June. Worn out by the end of the war, she was allocated to Operation Crossroads in late 1945 for use in the nuclear weapons tests in mid-1946. She survived both of the Crossroads blasts and was ultimately sunk with conventional weapons off Hawaii in 1948. Oklahoma, meanwhile, was raised over the course of 1943, partially dismantled in 1944, and sold to ship breakers in 1946. While under tow to San Francisco in May 1947, she became separated from the vessel towing her and foundered.

Development
The design of the Nevada class took place in the context of strong political opposition to the continual growth (and thus increases in cost) of battleship building that had accelerated with the development of the dreadnought type. In the early 1900s, the Navy had settled on a program of two new battleships per year, a plan approved by President Theodore Roosevelt, but beginning in 1904, Congress began to reject the Navy's requests, frequently authorizing only one ship per year, and at times, no new vessels. William Howard Taft, Roosevelt's successor, attempted to pressure Congress to build more ships, but had little success, though he did secure a pair of ships for Fiscal Year 1912, which would become the Nevada class. Woodrow Wilson, who was elected in 1912, opposed what he saw as excessive naval spending and his Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, blocked proposals from the General Board for larger, more powerful ships as part of an effort to return to two vessels per year. The resulting stabilization of designs produced the standard-type battleship, of which the two Nevadas were the first.

Initial design
The General Board was not satisfied with the adoption of 5 and 6 twin-gun turrets in earlier dreadnoughts and so requested the next ship be equipped with three-gun turrets. Three-gun turrets would provide a main battery of twelve 14 in guns, two more than the preceding New York-class battleship, but with four turrets instead of five. Design work on the ships that would be authorized for FY1912 had begun in 1910, with the first sketch prepared by the Bureau of Construction and Repair (C&R) in May that was based on the preceding New Yorks. The aft superfiring No. 4 turret was removed, the amidships No. 3 turret was moved up to superfire over what had been No. 5 turret in an arrangement similar to contemporary British battlecruisers. It was a complicated arrangement that required an ammunition magazine to separate the engine and boiler rooms; the naval historian Norman Friedman suggests it may have been adopted to reduce the concentration of weight aft, which would have put greater stress on the hull and thus required significant strengthening of the hull structure. The ship would also carry four torpedo tubes and a secondary battery of seventeen 5 in guns, while belt armor was to be 11 in thick.

By this time, the Navy had come to the conclusion that naval engagements would be fought at very long range, and primarily with armor-piercing shells (AP) instead of high-explosive shells, since the latter would be defeated by even medium armor, and at long range, there was no ability to aim specifically at unarmored portions of ships. And because AP shells would easily perforate medium armor plate, only the thickest possible protection should be carried. Another important development that resulted from the assumption of long battle ranges was the adoption of thick deck armor. This was necessitated by the trajectory of the projectiles; as range increased significantly, the angle of impact increased, and thus shells would tend to strike the horizontal deck, not the heavily armored sides, an effect known as plunging fire. The result was the "all or nothing" principle of armor protection, which reserved armor protection only for the ship's vitals, including magazines, propulsion machinery spaces, and command spaces. The arrangement was made watertight to create an armored raft that contained enough reserve buoyancy to keep the ship afloat even if the unarmored ends were completely flooded. The Nevada design was the first of any navy to introduce the concept.

In June, the Board sent a set of requirements to C&R that incorporated the twelve-gun battery already projected, a minimum speed of 21 kn, and an armor layout based on the "all or nothing" concept. The engineers at C&R noted that the armor deck would considerably strengthen the hull, but pointed out that the 11-inch belt of the original design would be wholly insufficient to defeat the latest main guns in foreign navies. The Board suggested the addition of a 1.5 in splinter bulkhead behind the belt, which would contain shell fragments. In late 1910, before a final design was accepted, the Navy had to submit estimates for FY1912 to be voted on by Congress in 1911; they used figures based on the New Yorks, which were accepted by Congress, and in turn limited the size of the new ships to a displacement of around 27000 LT; this was too low for C&R's existing proposals, necessitating a redesign. By this time, the first generation of American dreadnoughts had begun to enter service, so experiences operating them could be incorporated into the redesign.

Redesign and approval
The first major change was the arrangement of the aft pair of turrets. The amidships magazine of the battleship USS Delaware (BB-28) had difficulty remaining cool, as it was adjacent to the boiler room and the steam lines for the propulsion system ran alongside it. Since the thicker deck increased hull strength, the initial arrangement proposed for Nevada could be abandoned in favor of a closely spaced superfiring pair. This shortened the length of hull that required armor protection, and thus reduced displacement. Experience with Delaware's propulsion system—which mixed coal and oil fired boilers—provided the next improvement: boilers that were exclusively oil fired. These would confer a number of advantages, including the ability to refuel at sea, a significant reduction in boiler room crews, greater fuel efficiency, and more compact boiler rooms, among others. Again, the smaller boiler rooms shortened the length of armor necessary to protect the vitals. C&R was not convinced, since coal bunkers had been used to reinforce the side armor, but the Board approved the change in November 1910. Even by that time, the engineers at C&R continued to lobby for their original design based on the New York class, but the Board refused to entertain the proposal. Next, the Board decided to return to steam turbines rather than triple-expansion engines, as they believed the greater efficiently of fuel oil would allow the notoriously voracious turbines to achieve the long cruising radius necessary for operations in the Pacific Ocean.

C&R submitted its next proposal on 13 February 1911; it generally aligned with the Board's ideas for the armor layout, but it retained some medium armor to protect the secondary guns and it incorporated triple-expansion machinery (though they noted that the engine rooms could accommodate Curtis turbines). The Board rejected it, leading the designers to remove the medium armor, producing a series of studies with speeds of 20 kn, 20.5 kn, and 21 knots and main batteries that ranged from eight to twelve guns. During this period, on 4 March, Congress authorized a pair of ships, designated BB-36 and BB-37 for FY1912. With the ships now authorized, the Board selected one of the ten-gun, 20.5-knot variations on 30 March, which had a belt that was increased to 14 in but included a series of tapers at the top and bottom edge to save weight. The Bureau of Ordnance pointed out that the belt could not be manufactured in a single strake with the tapers, so a joint between upper and lower strakes—a design weakness the engineers had been attempting to avoid—would have to be used. The problem was resolved in July, when C&R proposed removing the 1.5-inch splinter bulkhead in favor of increasing the belt to 13.5 in and incorporating only one taper at the lower edge.

The next issue to address was the triple turret that was the linchpin of the design, since the weight savings made the heavier belt possible and it corrected design defects present in the earlier 5- and 6-turret classes. The US Navy had never built a three-gun turret, and there were concerns that a single hit could disable all three guns, and that three holes in the turret face would weaken the armor too much. C&R suggested conducting firing trials with the old battleship USS Indiana (BB-1), but nothing came of the proposal. Daniels approved the finalized Nevada design on 31 March, without a completed turret design, which was a significant gamble because the turret design might not have been successful. An experimental turret was completed in August 1912, proving the concept, though it required some modifications to reduce shell interference. Since the finalized design adopted a ten-gun battery, only two of the four turrets would be triple mounts, one forward and one aft, with twin-gun turrets superfiring over them.

With the design nearly finalized, the Board began to circulate it with fleet officers for comment; Captain John Hood, who was soon to become a member of the Board, criticized the placement of the secondary battery, as experience with the early dreadnoughts had shown casemate batteries to be completely unusable in all but the calmest seas. The Board pointed out that the increasing range of torpedoes meant that the standard 5-inch /51 caliber guns could not effectively engage destroyers before they launched their weapons, so retaining the weapons at all might not be worthwhile. But there were no suitable alternative, so the Board decided to keep the 5-inch guns as they were. This proved to be the correct decision, as the development of fire-control systems improved the guns' ability to hit at longer ranges.

General characteristics and machinery

The ships of the Nevada class were 575 ft long at the waterline and 583 ft long overall. They had a beam of 95 ft and a draft of 27 ft at normal displacement and 29 ft at full load. They displaced 27500 LT as designed and 28400 LT fully laden. The ships had a ram bow and a forecastle deck that extended half of the length of the ship. As built, the ships had a minimal superstructure, consisting of a heavily armored conning tower directly aft of the forward main battery turrets. They were completed with two lattice masts fitted with spotting tops to assist in directing the main battery, a common feature of American capital ships of the period. They had a crew of 55 officers and 809 enlisted men.

Since the Board expected turbines to achieve greater efficiency, Nevada was equipped with a pair of direct-drive Curtis steam turbines, with steam provided by twelve oil-fired Yarrow water-tube boilers. Nevada was the first US capital ship to use reduction geared cruising turbines, which could be clutched into the high-pressure turbines to improve fuel economy at low speeds. Geared turbines were fitted in most subsequent US battleships, except those with turbo-electric propulsion. Oklahoma, meanwhile, received two vertical triple-expansion engines and twelve oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Oklahoma's reciprocating engines were prone to excessive vibration, prompting the Navy to consider converting her to double-acting, two-stroke diesel engines in 1925, but the great weight of diesels at the time led to the idea being abandoned. Both ships' boilers were ducted into a single funnel located amidships.

Nevada's engines were rated at 26500 shp, while those of Oklahoma were projected to produce 24800 ihp. Both ships had a designed top speed of 20.5 knots, though Nevada reached 20.9 kn from 26291 shp on speed trials upon completion. Their designed endurance was 8000 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. Under service conditions, Nevada was found to have an endurance of 5195 nmi at a speed of 12 kn, which fell considerably at 20 kn to 1980 nmi. With a freshly-cleaned hull, these figures improved slightly, to 6494 nmi and 2475 nmi, respectively. Nevada had a tactical diameter—the distance it took to turn the ship 180 degrees—of 825 yd at 15 kn and 580 yd at 19 kn. The only figure available for Oklahoma is her high-speed turning circle: 625 yd at 20 kn.

Armament

The Nevadas were equipped a main battery of ten 14-inch /45 caliber Mark III guns mounted in two twin and two triple turrets. To save weight and keep the mounts as compact as possible, the triple turrets had all three barrels supported by two trunnions, which required all three guns to be elevated as a unit. Both of the twin turrets had armored rangefinders installed atop their roofs, with a centralized fire control room in the conning tower.

The guns fired a 1400 lb armor-piercing (AP) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2600 ft/s. Trials with the triple turret revealed excessive dispersion caused by interference between the projectiles while in flight, so a system was adopted to fire each gun individually, separated by a tenth of a second apiece. The turrets allowed elevation to 15 degrees and depression to −5 degrees. At maximum elevation, the guns had a range of about 21140 yd. Two shell hoists serviced all three guns, which were electrically loaded and operated.

For defense against destroyers and torpedo boats, the ships carried a secondary battery of twenty-one 5-inch /51 caliber Mark VIII guns in individual mounts. Twelve of the guns were in casemates in the forecastle deck, six on either side, and another six were in casemates toward the stern at main deck level, with another weapon directly in the stern. These guns proved to be excessively wet in heavy seas and thus were frequently unusable, as experience with earlier vessels had already demonstrated. The last two guns were in open mounts on either side of the conning tower. The guns had a muzzle velocity of 3150 ft/s firing a 50 lb shell.

As was customary for capital ships of the period, both vessels were armed with a pair of 21 in torpedo tubes submerged below the waterline, one on each broadside. They were supplied with Bliss-Leavitt torpedoes of the Mark VII type; these carried a 321 lb warhead and had a range of 12500 yd at a speed of 27 kn. Nevada and Oklahoma were the first battleships to carry the Mark 7 torpedoes.

Armor
The Nevada class was protected by side armor that was 13.5 in thick in the central portion where it protected the ship's vitals, the magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. It was 17 ft wide, of which 8 ft was below the waterline. At the bottom edge, the belt was reduced to 8 in to save weight, relying on the assumption that shells that fell short and passed through the water would be slowed significantly, thus reducing their ability to penetrate heavy armor. On either end of the belt, both sides were connected by a transverse bulkhead that was 8 to 13 in thick. The bow and stern were left unarmored. The ships had a 3 in armored deck that consisted of special treatment steel (STS) in three layers over the central armored raft; further aft, the deck was increased in thickness to 6.25 in, where it covered the propeller shafts. The armor deck was connected to the top of the belt. One deck below, another layer of armor 1.5 in thick was intended to contain splinters from shells and bombs that were detonated by the upper deck. The sides of the deck sloped down and were increased slightly to 2 in thick, and they were connected to the bottom edge of the belt. The lower deck consisted of nickel steel.

The ships' main battery turrets received very heavy armor protection; the triple turret faces were 18 in thick, with 10 in sides and 5 in roofs. The twin-gun turrets had slightly thinner protection, consisting of 16 in faces and 9 in sides. Both turret types had 9 in rears and they rested atop barbettes that were 13 in thick. The conning tower had 16 in sides and a 8 in roof, the latter consisting of STS. The uptakes from the boilers to the funnel were protected by a conical mantlet that was 13 in thick.

Modifications

The ships underwent a series of changes over the course of their careers, particularly with regards to their secondary batteries, along with the addition of a tertiary anti-aircraft battery. The first such alteration, the addition of a pair of 3 in /50 cal. anti-aircraft guns, was made at the time the ships were completed. In 1918, Nevada had her seven aft-most 5-inch guns removed along with the two guns in open mounts; Oklahoma had the same reduction in her secondary battery, though she retained the centerline gun in the stern. These were used to arm merchant ships that would have a greater likelihood of encountering a German U-boat on the voyage to Europe. In 1919, both ships received flying-off platforms for aircraft on their superfiring turrets, but these proved to be problematic in service, as they prevented the guns from being fired without destroying the ramps and they severely limited the ability of the guns to be elevated and depressed.

In the late 1920s, both ships were substantially modernized. Both were re-boilered with six Bureau Express boilers that were significantly more efficient than the original twelve boilers. In addition, Nevada was re-engined using the turbines that had been installed in USS North Dakota (BB-29) in 1917 and removed before the latter was scrapped under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. Design speed remained the same, but designed horsepower fell slightly to 25000 shp for Nevada. She nevertheless achieved 31214 shp on trials, for a top speed of 20.22 kn. Fuel capacity was also substantially increased, to 3148 LT normally and 6274 LT for wartime conditions. This increased the ships' range to 15700 nmi at 10 knots and 6090 nmi at 15 kn. The re-boilering saved a considerable amount of weight that was used to increase the deck armor and add torpedo bulges that increased their beam to 107 ft. Both vessels' main armor deck was increased in thickness by 2 in, bringing the total to 5 inches, though because it consisted of layers, it was not as effective as a single plate of the same thickness.

Both vessels' armament was significantly improved. The main battery turrets were modified to allow elevation to thirty degrees, which increased their maximum range to 34300 yd. The remaining 5-inch casemates were plated over and the guns were moved a deck higher in an attempt to improve their ability to be used in heavy seas. The eight 3-inch anti-aircraft guns were replaced with an equal number of 5-inch /25 cal. guns, also in individual mounts. In addition, they received eight 0.5 in Browning machine guns. Both vessels had their torpedo tubes removed at this time. Their lattice masts were replaced with more robust tripod masts, and they had a pair of aircraft catapults installed, one of which was placed on the fantail, the other being mounted atop her rear superfiring turret. The alterations increased the ships' displacement to 30500 LT as designed and a maximum of 33901 LT at full load. The ships' crews increased to 1,374. At some point in 1941, Nevada was fitted with an SC air search radar.

In 1942, during repairs for the damage sustained in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Nevada was again heavily reconstructed. Her tripod mainmast was removed, along with her heavily armored conning tower, the former to clear up firing arcs for the anti-aircraft weaponry and the latter to save weight for further additions to the anti-aircraft battery. In place of the conning tower and mast, a large bridge structure was installed She had both her 51-cal. and 25-cal. guns removed. They were replaced with battery of sixteen 5-inch /38 cal. Mark 12 dual purpose guns in eight twin gun mounts. Four were mounted on either side of the vessel amidships. The guns fired a 55.18 lb shell to a maximum range of 17392 yd or a maximum altitude of 37200 ft at an elevation of 45 degrees. Her light anti-aircraft battery was completely replaced as well; she now carried thirty-six Bofors 40 mm guns in nine quadruple mounts and thirty-eight Oerlikon 20 mm autocannon in individual mounts. By the end of the war, she had received an additional quadruple 40 mm mount, while her 20 mm guns were reorganized into five single and twenty twin mounts, for a total of forty-five barrels. Unlike many of the other battleships rebuilt after the attack, Nevada did not receive fire-control radar for her main battery, but she was fitted with Mark 37 directors for her new secondary battery.

Early careers

After entering service in 1916, both vessels were assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. They were occupied with training exercises off the East Coast of the United States into early 1918, by which time the United States had entered World War I on the side of the Allies. Both vessels were sent to Ireland in August 1918 to escort troopship convoys against German warships that might try to break out of the North Sea to intercept them, though no such attacks materialized. Both were present for President Wilson's arrival in France to participate in the Versailles Conference at the end of the conflict. After the war, both vessels returned to the Atlantic Fleet, though in 1919, Nevada was transferred to the Pacific Fleet; Oklahoma joined her there in 1921.

Throughout the 1920s, both ships participated in a yearly routine of training exercises with the rest of the fleet, including shooting practice, tactical training, and annual, large-scale Fleet Problems, the latter providing the basis for the US Navy's operations in the Pacific War, and experience that demonstrated that the standard-type battleships were too slow to operate with aircraft carriers led to the development of the fast battleships built in the 1930s. They were also involved in cruises around the Americas and further abroad, such as a goodwill visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1925. Between 1927 and 1930, both ships were heavily modernized. The standard peacetime routine continued through the 1930s. In 1936, Oklahoma embarked on a training cruise to Europe; she was there when the Spanish Civil War broke out that year, and she went to Spain to evacuate Americans in the country.

As tensions with Japan began to rise in the late 1930s over the latter's waging of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the United States began to prepare for the increasingly likely prospect of war. In 1940, the Pacific Fleet was transferred from its homeport, San Pedro, California, to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in an effort to deter further aggression. Both ships were at anchor in Battleship Row along Ford Island in December 1941.

World War II

On the morning of 7 December 1941, the Japanese aircraft carriers of the 1st Air Fleet launched a surprise attack on the American fleet in Pearl Harbor. Oklahoma was struck by three torpedoes early in the attack and quickly began to capsize before receiving six more torpedo hits. As she rolled over, her superstructure prevented her from fully inverting and she came to rest on her port side. Her crew suffered heavy casualties in the sinking, with 20 officers and 395 enlisted men killed. Nevada was hit by a single torpedo in her bow early in the attack, but she nevertheless got underway, the only battleship to do so during the attack. She was hit by between six and ten bombs as she moved through the harbor and fears that she might sink in the channel out of Pearl Harbor, thus blocking the port, led her commander to decide to beach the vessel. She suffered relatively minor casualties, with 50 killed and 109 wounded. Nevada was refloated in February 1942 and was immediately dry-docked for repairs and modernization, while Oklahoma was too seriously damaged to be returned to service; she was righted in 1943 and partially dismantled in 1944 before being sold for scrap in 1946. While being towed from Pearl Harbor to San Francisco on 17 May 1947, she slipped her towing line and sank.

After returning to service in 1943, Nevada was primarily used to support amphibious operations. She took part in the Aleutian Islands campaign in April and May, before returning to the United States for further modifications in preparation for her role as a bombardment vessel for the Normandy landings. She steamed to Britain in April 1944 to join the assault fleet, which conducted the landing on 6 June; Nevada remained off the beaches for the next eleven days to bombard German positions as the Allied soldiers fought inland, withdrawing only once to replenish ammunition. She and several other vessels from the bombardment force were sent to shell other ports in occupied France, including Cherbourg before being reassigned to the force tasked with supporting Operation Dragoon, the landing in southern France conducted on 15 August. During the landings, she shelled the remnants of the French battleship FRENCH BATTLESHIP Strasbourg, scuttled in 1942, and now nothing more than a floating hull, scoring hits that inflicted further damage on the vessel.

Nevada then returned to the United States to have her badly-worn barrels relined before returning to the Pacific Fleet. She arrived in the advance base at Ulithi in January 1945 and began preparations for the next major operation, the landing at Iwo Jima the following month. She joined several other battleships for an intensive bombardment of the island for three days before the Marines went ashore on 19 February. The ship operated off the island providing fire support through 7 March, when she departed to prepare for the invasion of Okinawa. The initial bombardment began on 24 March and continued until the landing on 1 April, and Nevada remained off the island until 14 April when she was withdrawn for an overhaul. The ship returned for patrols in the East China Sea in July, though she saw no further action before the end of the war on 15 August.

Worn out after nearly thirty years of service by late 1945, she was slated for disposal in nuclear weapons tests in November 1945. She was allocated to the fleet of target ships to be used for Operation Crossroads in January 1946 and she arrived in Bikini Atoll in May. The target fleet included several other battleships, including the captured Japanese vessel JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Nagato. Nevada was used as the aiming point for the first test, an air-dropped bomb on 1 July, because the Navy deemed her to be the most resilient of the battleships. The bomb missed the target and inflicted minimal damage. Another test, an underwater blast, was conducted on 24 July, which also failed to sink the ship. She was taken to Pearl Harbor to be examined and was ultimately sunk off Hawaii in conventional weapon tests in 1948.

title: Nevada-class battleship


text: Template:New Mexico class battleship

title: Template:New Mexico class battleship


text:
New Mexico-class battleship

The New Mexico class was a class of three super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy in the late 1910s. The class comprised three ships: USS New Mexico (BB-40), the lead ship, USS Mississippi (BB-41), and USS Idaho (BB-42). Part of the standard series, they were in most respects copies of the Pennsylvania-class battleships that immediately preceded them, carrying over the same main battery arrangement of twelve 14 in guns, but now increased to 50-caliber. They incorporated several other improvements, including a better arrangement of the secondary battery that increased its usability, a clipper bow that improved seakeeping, and an experimental turbo-electric propulsion system adopted on New Mexico. Like the other standard-type battleships, they had a top speed of 21 kn that allowed the fleet to operate as a tactically homogeneous unit.

All three ships spent the bulk of their peacetime careers in the Pacific Fleet; throughout the 1920s and 1930s, they were involved in numerous Fleet Problems, which were large-scale training exercises that helped develop the doctrine later employed during the Pacific War. By 1941, the three ships were moved to the East Coast to join the Neutrality Patrols that protected American merchant ships from German U-boat attacks during the Battle of the Atlantic. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, they were quickly transferred back to the Pacific, though they spent most of 1942 escorting convoys off the west coast of the United States. Beginning in mid-1943, they supported amphibious operations during the Aleutian Islands, Gilbert and Marshall Islands, and the Mariana and Palau Islands Campaigns. The Philippines Campaign followed in late 1944, though Mississippi was the only member of the class to participate in the early stages of the campaign, the other vessels being under refit at the time. There, she was present for the Battle of Surigao Strait on 24 October, the last battleship engagement in history.

Mississippi and New Mexico took part in the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf, part of the Philippines Campaign, in early 1945 and both were hit by kamikazes. As they were both under repair, only Idaho participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima, but all three ships were part of the bombardment force for the Battle of Okinawa, where all were damaged by kamikazes. They were present for the occupation of Japan in August and September, thereafter returning to the United States. New Mexico and Idaho were quickly decommissioned and sold for scrap, but Mississippi remained in service, having been converted into a gunnery testing and training ship. In this capacity, her crew experimented with anti-aircraft missiles in the mid-1950s before the ship was sold to ship breakers in 1956.

Design

In the early 1910s, the US Navy began experimenting with 16 in guns as other navies began to move to 15 in weapons. As development of the new guns progressed, the Navy evaluated a series of proposals for ships incorporating 16-inch guns. The first was a ten-gun ship with five twin-gun turrets that also included improved armor compared to earlier battleships. Additionally, the secondary battery was increased from the standard US armament of 5 in guns to 6 in weapons. Another smaller version with eight 16-inch guns was also suggested, along with a design mounting the then-standard 14 in gun. As work on the new design progressed, the cost of the vessels increased significantly. Compared to the cost of a 14-inch-gunned ship—$12 million—the eight-gun ship was estimated to cost $16.5 million, while the price for the ten-gun ship rose to $19 million.

Even before trials of the new guns had been completed, Rear Admiral Joseph Strauss, then the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd), argued in 1913 that the 16-inch gun was not worth pursuing; he argued that at the expected battle ranges of the day, the 14-inch gun was capable of penetrating heavy armor plate just as effectively and that a ship carrying twelve of those guns had a much better chance of hitting than a ship with eight 16-inch guns. The General Board concurred and instructed the designers to work on the 14-inch ship. Existing turrets for those guns used a single recoil slide for all three guns, which caused concern that a single hit could jam it and thus disable all three guns. Strauss accordingly suggested that the designers at the Bureau of Construction and Repair, under Chief Constructor Richard Watt, incorporate independent slides.

The design staff submitted two proposals on 21 November 1913: a 35500 LT version and a 33200 LT variant. The first incorporated a secondary battery of twenty 6-inch guns, while the smaller one retained twenty-two of the standard 5-inch guns. Weight savings were also achieved by reducing the thickness of the barbette and belt armor by an inch, and reducing fuel capacity. The General Board preferred the larger of the two, citing the heavier armor as needed to defeat the latest 15-inch guns being adopted in foreign battleships and the stronger secondary battery, which they viewed as necessary to ward off long-range torpedo attacks by destroyers. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels disagreed, and on 3 January 1914, rejected the design owing to its higher cost. Instead, he ordered the Navy to accept a repeat of the preceding Pennsylvania-class battleship, which might be fitted with separate slides for the main guns.

Work on the design continued through the year; the designers were concerned that earlier battleships were too "wet" forward, leading to the adoption of a clipper bow to reduce the tendency to ship water in heavy seas. Additionally, experience with existing ships had revealed that the secondary battery, mounted in casemates in the forecastle deck, were effectively unusable in rough sea conditions. The designers therefore moved eighteen of the guns a deck higher and further aft, where they would be less prone to being washed out. Weight savings elsewhere allowed the designers to strengthen the main deck and the transverse bulkhead at either end of the belt. Daniels approved these changes on 2 July, and the following month, BuOrd suggested a newly developed 50-caliber version of 14-inch gun be used, which Watt authorized in September. The longer gun produced a higher muzzle velocity, which allowed the shells to penetrate an additional 2 in of armor at 10000 yd. By this time, work on the design stopped, as bids for the contracts were to be submitted starting on 6 October.

Despite the fact that the offer period had opened, one more major change to the design was made. At the time, the standard propulsion system for warships relied on steam turbines to turn propeller shafts, though turbines operated most efficiently at high speed, while the propellers generated thrust most effectively at relatively low speed. One solution to this problem was turbo-electric transmission, which used the turbines to generate electric power that in turn powered electric motors that drove the screws. The Bureau of Steam Engineering (BuEng) recommended the new system on 17 October, pointing out that it would have many advantages over traditional direct-drive systems, including greater fuel economy and lighter and smaller machinery, which could be used to shorten the armored box that protected the ships' vitals. Also, since the turbines would only need to spin in one direction, simpler machinery without reverse gears could be used. Daniels was convinced, and he approved the change for New Mexico on 10 November. Since this was an unproven technology, the other two members of the class received geared turbine systems.

Congress authorized two ships for the class—USS New Mexico (BB-40) and USS Mississippi (BB-41)—but in mid-1914, the two Mississippi-class battleship pre-dreadnoughts were sold to the Greek Navy, and the US Navy was able to use the funds generated by their sale to fund a third member of the class, USS Idaho (BB-42).

General characteristics and machinery

The ships of the New Mexico class were part of the standard series that began with the Nevada-class battleship; they featured similar characteristics, including speed, armor, armament, and the use of fuel oil rather than coal. They were designed as such to create a battle fleet of tactically homogeneous ships that would simplify command and control. They were 600 ft long at the waterline and 624 ft long overall. They had a beam of 97 ft and a draft of 30 ft. They displaced 32000 LT as designed and up to 33000 LT at full combat load. Their hulls featured a long forecastle deck that stepped down to main deck level at the main mast. As built, the ships were fitted with two cage masts with spotting tops for the main-gun battery.

Their crew numbered 58 officers and 1,026 enlisted men. Over the course of their careers, their crews expanded significantly as equipment was added. After their early 1930s refit, their crew numbered 82 officers and 1,371 enlisted, and by 1945, wartime improvements brought the crews to 129 officers and 1,850 enlisted. They carried a number of smaller boats for utility purposes while in harbor, as well as to assist with rescue efforts at sea. These included a number of motor launches of various lengths and motor whaleboats.

All three ships were powered by four Curtis turbines, with steam provided by nine oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. New Mexico's turbines were used to power electrical motors that drove the screw propellers; her system was rated for 27500 shp. The latter two ships, used reduction geared cruising turbines, which could be clutched into the high-pressure turbines to improve fuel economy at low speeds. These were rated at 32000 shp. All three vessels were rated for a top speed of 21 kn. Though the turbo-electric system was effective and it was repeated in the two following classes, the Navy ultimately decided that the system was too heavy and occupied too much space in the hull, and later ships reverted to traditional turbine propulsion.

The ships had storage capacity for 1467 LT of fuel oil for the boilers, though additional spaces in the hull could be used to increase capacity to 2200 LT, which provided a cruising range of 8000 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. As speed increased, their range decreased significantly: at 12 kn, they could steam for 6400 nmi, and at 20 kn, their range fell to 2414 nmi. Moreover, these figures were assuming the vessels had clean hulls free of marine growth that would inhibit their hydrodynamic efficiency. In service conditions where biofouling added drag to the hulls, their ranges were reduced even further to 5129 nmi and 1931 nmi, respectively.

Armament

The ships were armed with a main battery of twelve 14 in/50 caliber Mark IV guns in four, three-gun turrets on the centerline, placed in two superfiring pairs forward and aft of the superstructure. Unlike earlier American battleships with triple turrets, these mounts were true three-gun turrets, in that each barrel could elevate independently. They fired a 1400 lb shell with a 470 lb bursting charge. The guns had a muzzle velocity of 2800 ft/s. Early in their careers, the New Mexicos and the Tennessee class experienced excessive dispersion of shot. After extensive testing, it was eventually discovered to have been caused by overly lengthy chambers, which allowed a gap between the shell and the propellant charges. The problem was eventually corrected with the Mark VII gun. The guns were supplied with 100 shells each and they were capable of a rate of fire of about one salvo per minute, as demonstrated by extensive testing with Idaho in October 1942.

The secondary battery consisted of fourteen 5 in/51 caliber guns mounted in individual casemates clustered in the superstructure amidships. Initially, the ship was to have been fitted with twenty-two of the guns, but experiences in the North Sea during World War I demonstrated that the additional guns, which would have been placed in the hull, would have been unusable in anything but calm seas. As a result, the casemates were plated over to prevent flooding, leaving only the fourteen guns in the superstructure. Of these, ten were located on the forecastle deck and the other four were in open mounts on the shelter deck. Each gun position contained twenty-four rounds of ready-use ammunition, with further munitions stored in the magazines below. The guns were the Mark VIII type, which had a muzzle velocity of 3150 ft/s firing a 50 lb shell.

The secondary battery was augmented with four 3 in/50 caliber guns in high-angle mounts for anti-aircraft defense. The guns fired a 13 lb shell at a velocity of 2700 ft/s.

In addition to their gun armament, the New Mexico-class ships were also fitted with two 21 in torpedo tubes, mounted submerged in the hull, one on each broadside. Both tubes were located in a single torpedo room forward in the hull. Each tube was supplied with a total of six torpedoes, which were Bliss-Leavitt weapons of the Mark VII type; these carried a 321 lb warhead and had a range of 12500 yd at a speed of 27 kn.

Armor
As was standard for American battleships of the period, the New Mexico-class ships relied on the "all or nothing" principle that reserved armor protection only for a ship's vitals, creating an armored citadel that had enough reserve buoyancy to keep the vessel afloat even if the unarmored portions of the ship were flooded. The main armored belt was 8 – thick, with the thickest armor protecting the ammunition magazines and the propulsion machinery spaces. The transverse bulkheads that capped either end of the belt were the same thickness. The ships had two armored decks; the first, consisted of two layers of special treatment steel (STS) that were 1.75 in thick. Further aft, these were increased to a 1.75 in layer and a 4.5 in layer over the steering compartment. The lower armored deck also consisted of two layers, which were also composed of STS, the first 1 in thick and the second 2 in thick.

The main battery gun turrets had 18 in thick faces, with 10 in thick sides, 9 in rears, and 5 in roofs. They rested on 13 in barbettes that reduced to 4.5 in below the upper deck, where it was protected by the armored citadel. The conning tower had 16 in thick sides and a roof that consisted of two layers that were each 4 in thick.

Modifications

The members of the New Mexico class received a series of modifications even while under construction, including the already noted alterations to the secondary battery, which was authorized on 7 February 1918 by which time New Mexico had been completed with her original twenty-two guns. The other two ships had already had their casemates built into their hulls, so they were simply plated over, unlike the later Tennessees, which had their hulls faired in. Their conning towers were modified with a newly developed bridge arrangement that became standard for all American battleships of the period. It consisted of a fully enclosed navigation bridge on the forward side of the tower, with a large chart house located behind the bridge. Atop the structure was an enclosed torpedo defense station. Starting in 1921, the Navy began installing aircraft catapults on its battleships to allow them to operate floatplanes for aerial reconnaissance and fire observation, and the three New Mexicos were among the vessels to receive a Mark II catapult. The ships initially carried Hanriot HD.2 and then Vought UO-1s in the 1920s, which were replaced with Vought O2U Corsairs toward the end of the decade. These, and improved O3U variants served aboard the ships until 1938, when these were replaced with Curtiss SOC Seagulls. Beginning in August 1940, the ships began to receive Vought OS2U Kingfishers.

The three ships were heavily modernized in the early 1930s. Their received an additional 2 in of special treatment steel for their main deck armor, bringing the total thickness to 5.5 in. A second torpedo bulkhead was installed outboard of the original one, and all three ships received anti-torpedo bulges to further enhance their resistance to underwater attack. Both lattice masts were removed; a heavy tower bridge was built in place of the fore mast, and a light pole mast was erected in place of the main mast. During the installation of her new bridge, Idaho was fitted out as a flagship, which included the addition of a flag bridge for the admiral and his staff. The ships' armament was also revised, with the main battery turrets being modified to allow elevation to 30 degrees, greatly extending the range of the guns. Two of the 5-inch guns were removed, and eight 5-inch/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns were installed. These alterations greatly increased their displacement, to 33420 LT standard and 36157 LT full load. All three ships had their propulsion systems overhauled, receiving new Westinghouse turbines and six BuEng express boilers. Despite the increases in displacement resulting from the additional armor plating and the bulges, the new powerplant increased speed to 22 kn from 40000 shp. The ships' crews increased significantly, to 1,443.

Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 (while the New Mexico-class ships were in the Atlantic), the ships were docked for improvements to their anti-aircraft armament, receiving a battery of 1.1 in anti-aircraft guns. The ships also had Mark 3 fire-control radars installed. The Navy considered removing their heavily armored conning towers to compensate for the increased weight of the new equipment, but the work could not be accomplished in the eight-week overhaul period that had been scheduled, so they retained their original towers, unlike many of the other older battleships that were rebuilt early in the war. Since many of the American battleships had been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor, the three New Mexicos were too valuable to be removed from operational status for the necessary amount of time to substantially rebuild them. As a result of these limitations, New Mexico and Mississippi received a series of rolling changes over the course of late 1942 and into 1943; while at Pearl Harbor in October 1942, they had four of their 5-inch /51 guns removed, along with their directors, to free up space for a pair of quadruple Bofors 40 mm guns and the shielded tubs for the 1.1-inch guns were converted for use with the 40 mm mounts, though the 1.1-inch guns remained until 1943. Six 20 mm Oerlikon guns were added as well.

During a refit from 14 October to 28 December 1942, while her sisters received only modest alterations, Idaho underwent a more thorough modernization. This consisted of a new anti-aircraft battery of ten quadruple Bofors guns and forty-three Oerlikons, though the Oerlikons were added in stages. By the time the refit ended, she carried only sixteen of them, with eleven more added in January 1943, the remaining sixteen being added in February. The Mark 3 radars were replaced in 1944 by Mark 8 radars aboard Idaho, with New Mexico and Mississippi receiving Mark 28 radars for their light AA armament. Later that year, the ships began to receive Mark 27 backup fire-control radars as well.

From 22 October 1944 to 1 January 1945, Idaho received another major refit, which included the installation of ten 5-inch/38 caliber guns in individual, dual-purpose mounts in place of the old 25-caliber guns. She also received new Mark 8 radars for her main battery fire control system. In early 1945, while under repair for combat damage, Mississippi also received a new secondary battery. The old 51-caliber 5-inch guns were removed, and eight more of the 25-caliber anti-aircraft guns were installed, along with thirteen quadruple Bofors 40 mm mounts and forty 20 mm Oerlikon guns. To compensate for the added weight, the ship's armored conning tower was removed.

In 1946, Mississippi was converted into a gunnery training ship, and for this role she received a new gun battery. No. 1 turret was replaced by a twin 6-inch (152 mm)/47 caliber dual-purpose turret, the same as mounted on the Worcester-class cruiser anti-aircraft cruisers. No. 2 and No. 3 main battery turrets were also removed, but No. 4 turret was initially retained. Three twin 5-inch /38 caliber dual-purpose mounts, two single 5-inch/54 caliber dual-purpose mounts (as on the Midway-class aircraft carrier aircraft carriers), two twin 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber mounts, and two 40 mm Bofors quad mounts were installed. In 1952, the last main battery turret was removed and Mississippi had two new RIM-2 Terrier missile launchers installed in its place. She later tested the Petrel missile, a radar-homing weapon, in February 1956.

Pre-war careers

As the members of the class entered service, they initially operated in the Atlantic, and New Mexico escorted President Woodrow Wilson across the Atlantic to the Versailles Peace Conference that ended World War I. As the US Navy reorganized its fleet to emphasize a focus on affairs in Asia and the Pacific, the ships were reassigned to the Pacific Fleet in 1919, with New Mexico serving as the fleet flagship. Throughout this period, the fleet was based in San Pedro, California, but it frequently operated in Hawaiian waters, off the coast of Central and South America, and in the Caribbean Sea. In 1925, the Pacific Fleet embarked on a major cruise to visit Australia and New Zealand.

Beginning in 1923, the US Navy began a series of major exercises with Fleet Problem I, during which Mississippi sank the old battleship USS Iowa (BB-4), which had by then been converted into a target ship; Mississippi used aircraft to spot her shots at long range, the first time this had been done in the US Navy. The fleet problems were typically held once a year, and they provided the basis for the US Navy's operations in the Pacific War. Experience in the exercises that demonstrated that the standard type battleships were too slow to operate with aircraft carriers led to the development of the fast battleships built in the 1930s. Joint training with the Marine Corps provided experience that proved to be useful during the island-hopping campaign during the Pacific War. In 1937, the ships took part in training exercises in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to experiment with sub-arctic operations.

In mid-1940, the Battle Fleet was transferred from California to Hawaii in response to rising tensions between the United States and Japan over the latter's aggression in the Second Sino-Japanese War. By 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Neutrality Patrols to protect American shipping caught in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. All three New-Mexico-class ships were transferred from the Pacific to the Atlantic Fleet to reinforce the patrols in May that year. During this period, the ships escorted convoys between the United States and Iceland, though they saw no action with German U-boats that were waging an unrestricted submarine warfare campaign against merchant shipping in the North Atlantic.

World War II

Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy reassigned the three battleships to the Pacific Fleet to shore up the fleet's battleship strength. After arriving in California in January 1942, the ships spent the next several months patrolling the west coast of the United States and escorting convoys in the area. They took part in the Aleutian Islands campaign between May and July 1943, with Idaho serving as the flagship of the bombardment group that shelled the islands of Attu and Kiska. After maintenance and training at Pearl Harbor, the three New Mexicos then took part in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign that began in November, where they provided naval gunfire support to the Marines who stormed ashore at Tarawa, Kwajalein, and Eniwetok, among other islands in the archipelago. These operations continued into January 1944, at which point the fleet began preparations for the next major campaign, which would be directed against the Marianas Islands in the central Pacific.

New Mexico and Idaho took part in the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign beginning in June 1944, though Mississippi was out of service for a refit during the first part of the campaign. They shelled Japanese positions on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam as amphibious forces assaulted each island in turn. The two battleships remained with the invasion fleet to cover it from Japanese attacks while the Fast Carrier Task Force met and decisively defeated the Japanese 1st Air Fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. By September, Mississippi had returned to the fleet to relieve New Mexico for her own refit, and she and Idaho shelled the island of Pelelieu, the last battle of the Marianas campaign. The fleet thereafter withdrew to Manus Island to prepare for the coming invasion of the Philippines, while New Mexico departed for a refit at the Puget Sound Navy Yard.

Mississippi supported the invasion of Leyte in October as part of the bombardment group under Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf. The American invasion triggered the Japanese to launch Operation Shō-Gō 1, a major naval counterattack that resulted in the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 23–26 October, a complex battle that involved four separate actions. She was present at the Battle of Surigao Strait on the night of 24 October, which was one component of the battle. There, the Allied fleet destroyed the Japanese Southern Force consisting of a pair of old battleships, one heavy cruiser, and four destroyers; only one Japanese destroyer escaped the overwhelming Allied fleet. Mississippi, which still had her old Mark 3 radars, had difficulty in finding a target in the darkness and fired only one salvo in the last battleship action in history.

By January 1945, New Mexico had rejoined the fleet, the next target of which was the invasion of Lingayen Gulf on the island of Luzon; she and Mississippi supported the amphibious assault and during the battle both ships were struck by a kamikaze suicide plane. The two ships nevertheless remained in action until February when they departed for Pearl Harbor for repairs. By that time, Idaho had completed her refit and had rejoined the fleet in time to take part in the Battle of Iwo Jima. She shelled the island extensively before the Marines went ashore and continued to provide fire support during the battle. Repairs to New Mexico and Mississippi were completed quickly, and all three sister ships were reunited to support the invasion of Okinawa in May 1945. As Japan's military situation continued to deteriorate, they launched increasingly desperate kamikaze attacks. New Mexico and Mississippi were both hit by another kamikaze and Idaho was damaged by a near miss. New Mexico was also hit by a bomb, forcing her to withdraw for repairs. All three ships were repaired in time to participate in the initial occupation of Japan in August and September.

Postwar
New Mexico and Idaho returned to the east coast of the United States by October 1945, where they were both decommissioned. Initially slated to be kept in the reserve fleet, they were instead stricken from the naval register in 1947 and sold for scrap. Mississippi survived the postwar draw-down in naval strength through conversion into a gunnery training and evaluation ship to replace the older battleship USS Wyoming (BB-32). With the new hull number EAG-128 to designate her status as an auxiliary vessel, she was reconstructed at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard from November 1945 through April 1948 with a new armament that included a variety of different weapons, thereafter serving as the flagship of the Operational Test and Evaluation Force. She helped to evaluate anti-aircraft missiles in the mid-1950s before being decommissioned in February 1956 and sold to ship breakers. By that time, she had spent nearly 39 years in service.

title: New Mexico-class battleship