The following quiz can be used to test your knowledge of battleships
in general, and US battleships in particular.
Name the battleship that sailed from Bremerton, Washington to
Florida around South America to engage the Spanish Fleet in Cuba in 1898. (1 point)
BB3 - USS Oregon
What battleship was not a "battleship" when it was sunk at
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941? (2 points)
BB31 - USS Utah. At the time she was
designated AG16 - a gunnery training ship.
Only one pre-Dreadnought battleship is preserved today. Name it. (1
point) Bonus: What is its role in history? (1 points)
IJN Mikasa (Albiet afloat in concrete.) She was the flagship of Admiral
Togo at the battle of Tsushima in 1905.
What battleship bears the nickname "The Big Jay"? (1
point)
BB62 - USS New Jersey
Name the two largest battleships ever built. (1 point each)
IJN Yamato and IJN Musashi
| What is the only US Battleship not named for a State? (1 point)
BB5 - USS Kearsarge
|
The USS Kearsarge
|
What states have never had commissioned battleships/battlecruisers
named for them? (2 points each)
Montana (BB51 and BB67) and Hawaii
(CB3), were never completed, therefore never commissioned.
What battleship was known as the "Lone Queen of the
North"? (1 point)
The Bismarck's sister ship, the Tirpitz.
The US entered the "battlecruiser" race late, after
"fast battleships" forced them to be reclassified as "large cruisers."
Name the six ships of this class, and the name of the two completed. (total of 8 points)
CB1 - USS Alaska (completed)
CB2 - USS Guam (completed)
CB3 - USS Hawaii
CB4 - USS Philippines
CB5 - USS Puerto Rico
CB6 - USS Samoa
Name the only United States World War I battleship still afloat. (1
point)
BB35 - USS Texas
Name the two Dreadnoughts sunk at sea by Japanese aircraft in early
December, 1941. (1 point each)
HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse
True or False: The "old battleships" (pre-Washington
treaty) never had a successful surface engagement with enemy battleships in World War II.
(1 point)
False! One example is the "old
battleships" engaged and sank the Fuso and Yamashiro at the battle of Surigao
Straight in the Philippines in 1944. Several of these battleships were those raised and
rebuilt after being sunk at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
True or False: The "new battleships" (post-Washington
treaty) never had a surface engagement with enemy battleships in World War II. (1 point)
False! One example is the USS South
Dakota and USS Washington engaging and sinking the Kirishima of Guadalcanal in 1942.
The USS Arizona was not deployed in England with the Grand Fleet in
World War I, unlike other US battleships. Why? (2 points)
She was too new and burned oil. England
had an oil shortage, but an abundance of coal. Therefore, only coal-burning battleships
were deployed with the Royal Navy.
On September 9th, 1943, a battleship was sunk by a guided missile.
Name the ship. (1 point) Bonus: Name the nation that launched the attack to sink her. (1
point)
The Italian battleship Roma was sunk by
the Germans on her way to surrender at Malta.
Which nation completed the most battleships between 1-Sep-1939 and
2-Sep-1945? (1 point) Bonus question: Name them. (1 point each)
The United States!
BB55 - USS North Carolina
BB56 - USS Washington
BB57 - USS South Dakota
BB58 - USS Indiana
BB59 - USS Massachusetts
BB60 - USS Alabama
BB61 - USS Iowa
BB62 - USS New Jersey
BB63 - USS Missouri
BB64 - USS Wisconsin
What battleship was nicknamed "McKinley's Bulldog"? (1
point) Bonus question: Why was she called a "bulldog"? (2 points)
BB3 - USS Oregon. She was called a
"bulldog" at the battle of Santiago (Cuba), where the name stuck. She appeared
as a tough dog, speeding into a fight, and the white wake off her bow was said to appear
as a "bone" clenched in her teeth.
What was the former battleship designation of Gunnery Training Ship
AG17? (2 points)
BB32 - USS Wyoming
What was the former battleship designation of Gunnery Training Ship
EAG 128? (2 points)
BB41 - USS Mississippi
What battleship was rushed into battle with the Bismarck when barely
complete? (1 point)
HMS Prince of Wales
What battleship sank the Scharnhorst (in WW2)? (1 point)
HMS Duke of York
What was the only battleship to get underway during the Pearl Harbor
attack? (1 point)
BB36 - USS Nevada
Name the battleships known as the "big five." (1 point
each)
BB43 - USS Tennessee
BB44 - USS California
BB45 - USS Colorado
BB46 - USS Maryland
BB48 - USS West Virginia
(they were the last, and largest, of the pre-Washington Treaty Battleships)
True or false: It was not until the "second generation"
battleships of the North Carolina class that the US Navy had 16 inch guns in service. (1
point)
False! The Colorado Class also had 16
inch guns.
Name the three cruisers that engaged the Graf Spee, and damaged her
enough to result in her scuttling. (1 point each) Bonus: What was the main armament of
each? (1 point each correct answer)
HMS Exeter - 8 inch guns in three twin
turrets
HMNZS Achilles - 6 inch guns in four twin turrets
HMS Ajax - 6 inch guns in four twin turrets
| Why were American battleships limited to a beam of 108 feet? (1
point)
To fit through the Panama Canal which is
110 feet wide.
|
The USS Iowa transiting the Paname Canal
|
The original USS Idaho (BB24) and USS Mississippi (BB23) were sold
to what country? (1 point) Bonus question: What happened to them? (1 point)
Greece. The Kilkis and Lemnos (as they
were renamed) were sunk by German dive bombers in World War 2.
True or false: No American battleship has ever been lost at sea -
they were all sunk in port. (1 point)
True. (All were anchored or moored.)
Six weeks into the Second World War Britain lost one of her
battleships. Which one? (1 point) Bonus: How was she lost? (1 point)
The HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed and sunk
at Scapa Flow by the German submarine U-47.
How many battleships are on active duty with any navy anywhere in
the world today? (1 point)
Absolutely None.
Of all battleships built in the last hundred years, how many are
preserved as floating museums? (2 points) Bonus: Name them. (1 point each)
Five (or maybe four, depending on how
you count)
BB35 - USS Texas
BB55 - USS North Carolina
BB59 - USS Massachusetts
BB60 - USS Alabama
IJN Mikasa - (Technically, encased in concrete. Is that afloat?)
Since this quiz was written, the US Navy has
disposed of the USS MIssouri and USS New Jersey and donated them to museum organizations.
Where was the USS Missouri (BB63) anchored on September 2nd, 1945?
(1 point)
In Tokyo Bay to accept the Japanese
surrender, thus ending World War Two.
The Germans call the ships Deutschland, Admiral Scheer and Admiral
Graf Spee "Panzerschiff." What does this mean? (1 point) Bonus: And by what
diminutive nickname were they known to the allies? (1 point)
Panzer = Armor, Shiff = Ship. Thus they
were known simply as "Armored Ships." The allies chose to refer to them as
"Pocket Battleships" due to their very small size, and some battleship
characteristics.
Six Panzerschiff were planned to mount two turrets with three eleven
inch guns each. Although all twelve turrets were completed, only three Panzerschiff were
completed. Where did the other six turrets end up? (1 point)
Three each on the Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau.
Four first world war Japanese battlecruisers were re-engineered
between the wars to emerge as fast battleships. Name them. (1 point each)
IJN Haruna
IJN Hiei
IJN Kirishima
IJN Kongo
True or False: When the British battlecruiser Hood blew up, broke in
half, and sank during the engagement with the Bismarck, this was the first time that a
British battlecruiser was lost so suddenly. (1 point)
False. Several British battlecruisers
met the same fate at the battle of Jutland in 1917.
What happened to the bulk of the German Navy's battleships after the
First World War? (1 point)
They were surrendered to the Allies,
interned at Scapa Flow, and scuttled by their crews as an act of defiance and to preserve
the dignity of the German Navy in 1919.
Name the French battleship sunk by allied gunfire after the fall of
France. (2 points)
The Bretagne.
Name the battleships engaged in Operation Desert Storm. (1 point
each)
BB63 - USS Missouri
BB64 - USS Wisconsin
Britain built three "oddball" battlecruisers with large
guns but very little armor. Named the Courageous, Furious, and Glorious, they were known
by what derisive nickname? (1 point) Bonus: How did they serve in the Second World War? (1
point)
These three ships were dubbed the
"Outrageous Class." They served in the Second World War as aircraft carriers.
Additional Bonus: What became of the guns from the Courageous and
Glorious? (1 point)
The turrets from the Courageous and
Glorious (two turrets each) became the four turrets mounted on the HMS Vanguard.
|
The HMS Vanguard fires the guns from the
Courageous and Glorious.
|
Two United States "Dreadnoughts" were designed before the
HMS Dreadnought, and construction began before the HMS Dreadnought, but were completed at
a leisurely pace. Therefore the HMS Dreadnought lent her name to the all big gun
battleship. What were the names of these two American pioneers? (1 point each)
BB26 - USS South Carolina
BB27 - USS Michigan
What Spanish-American war veteran battleship was preserved as a
floating museum for a time, then reclaimed as "scrap metal" during World War II,
used as a dynamite barge to tow munitions to Guam, broke away for several weeks and
several hundred miles during a storm before being found, and was eventually scrapped in
Japan? (1 point)
BB3 - USS Oregon. (Sad but true
- "McKinley's Bulldog", after sailing around South America at a record pace and
then rushing into battle to defeat the Spanish Navy was preserved until the Second World
War. Then she was sold for scrap, and now she is gone -lost for all time... )
