USS Texas, BB-35

USS Texas, the second battleship to bear the name, was laid down at Newport News, Virginia, on 17 April 1911, launched on 18 May 1912, and commissioned on 12 March 1914 under Captain Albert W. Grant. Without a shakedown cruise, she sailed for Mexican waters in response to the Tampico Incident and later joined the Atlantic Fleet. During World War I she served with the Grand Fleet, then returned to the Atlantic Fleet at war's end, and between the wars she also served with the Pacific and Scouting Fleets. Her first major combat came off North Africa in Operation Torch. In April 1944 she began training for D-Day, and with ten 14-inch guns, six 5-inch guns, and nearly one hundred antiaircraft guns, she sailed for Normandy in the gunfire-support group for Omaha Beach. At 0550 on 6 June 1944, she and USS Arkansas opened a bombardment of Pointe du Hoc and fired more than 600 rounds between them. After lifting fire as the 2nd Rangers assaulted the cliff, Texas carried out four more shoots before midday that helped neutralize German defenses at the Vierville exit and supported attacks on Longueville and Formigny. Rear Admiral Carleton F. Bryant recalled that during the crisis on the beach, with men pinned near a gully where nothing was moving inland, he obtained permission from Rear Admiral Alan Kirk to send a few 14-inch shells from Texas up the gully; the rounds had immediate effect, Germans soon came down with their hands up, and American men, guns, and trucks began moving inland. On D+1 and D+2, the battleship's guns were seldom silent, and her fire against enemy strong points in and around Trévières and Insigny helped drive the Allies inland. After expending so much ammunition that she sailed for England on 9 June to replenish, she returned two days later and resumed firing in support of the inland advance of V Corps. Rear Admiral John L. Hall Jr. called the support of Texas's 14-inch guns invaluable.

Bedford, Virginia · United States