Gaining Relevance in the Face of Obsolescence: The USS Texas – a Battleship in the Second World War

• Main Author: Martin, Kali
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks@UNO 2012
• Subjects: United States Navy; USS Texas; Naval Gunfire; Battleship; Shore Bombardment; World War Two; Military History
• Online Access: http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1599; http://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2615&context=td

Despite the vast material that has been written about the Second World War, most literature mentions battleships in passing, giving little attention to a role that battleships filled- that of naval gunfire support for amphibious landings. The literature regarding the Navy’s older, obsolescent battleships such as the Texas is scarce. Using primary sources regarding the Texas and the evolution of naval gunfire doctrine from the pre-war and wartime periods, this study looks at the involvement of the Texas in the Second World War and how the Navy employed its oldest battleships. The amphibious landings of the war provided a role in which a ship’s speed and range became irrelevant when firing on fixed targets on an enemy beach. This work provides a look at a little discussed, though widely used aspect of the Second World War and helps further discussion regarding the evolution of the US navy.