Summary and Key Points: Steve Balestrieri profiles USS Wisconsin (BB-64), the Iowa-class battleship launched December 7, 1943, that screened Task Force 38 off the Philippines, bombarded Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Japan Steel Works, and in March 1952 answered a North Korean 152 mm hit off Songjin with all nine 16-inch guns. Recommissioned in 1988 with 32 Tomahawks and 16 Harpoons, “Big Wisky” took an Iraqi platoon’s surrender via Pioneer drone and fired the last battleship salvos in 1991.
Editor’s Note: All interior photos are from our recent visit to the USS Wisconsin several days ago.
Iowa-Class Battleship USS Wisconsin: 55,000 Tons of US Navy History
USS Wisconsin Iowa-Class Battleship Tour. Photo by 19FortyFive Reporter Christian D. Orr.
The USS Wisconsin (BB-64) was an Iowa-class battleship built for the United States Navy (USN) during World War II. Her sailors nicknamed her “The Big Whisky, ” and she was built at the Philadelphia Shipyard and completed in 1944. The ship served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, where she participated in the Philippines campaign and the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The battleship shelled the Japanese home islands shortly before the end of the war in September 1945.
During the Korean War, Wisconsin shelled North Korean and Chinese targets in support of United Nations and South Korean ground operations, after which she was decommissioned. It was there in 1952 that the North Koreans learned the folly of trying to attack her with 152 mm artillery.
She was reactivated in 1986 during the Reagan administration’s Navy buildup; after a modernization program, she participated in Operation Desert Storm in January – February 1991.
Retired again in 1991, the Wisconsin still serves as a museum ship in Norfolk, VA.
The Iowa-Class Battleships Were The Biggest Ever Built By The US
The Iowa-class battleships were the last and largest battleships the United States built. The Navy initially planned to build six of these battleships, but it built only four. World War II showed that the aircraft carrier was the future.
However, during the war, the big battleships more than proved their worth, especially during amphibious landings. Their 16-inch (406 mm) guns could pound coastal defenses and surface ships, and the battleships could launch 2,700-pound projectiles more than 20 miles inland.
After the war, the big battleships became an afterthought, and the Navy relegated them to the ‘mothball fleet’. However, when North Korea invaded the South in 1950, the battleships would be called upon once again.
USS Wisconsin Iowa-Class Battleship Tour. Photo by 19FortyFive Reporter Christian D. Orr.
The USS Wisconsin (BB-64) In World War II
The USS Wisconsin (BB-64) was the second battleship named after the state. Her keel was laid on January 25, 1941, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard; she was launched exactly two years after Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1943; and commissioned on April 16, 1944, with Capt. Earl E. Stone in command.
After shakedown cruises in the Caribbean, she, along with a Navy task force consisting of the light cruiser Pasadena (CL-65), the destroyer escort Moore (DE-240), and the destroyers Collett (DD-730), Haynsworth (DD-700), Waldron (DD-699), and Charles S. Sperry (DD-697), transited the Panama Canal.
In mid-December 1944, she joined Admiral Halsey’s fleet off the coast of the Philippines. The Wisconsin performed escort duty for Task Force 38’s fast carriers during air strikes against Formosa, Luzon, and the Nansei Shoto, to neutralize Japanese forces there and to cover the unfolding Lingayen Gulf operations.
Those strikes, lasting from January 3 through 22, 1945, included a foray into the South China Sea, in the hope of drawing major units of the Japanese Navy into battle.
USS Wisconsin Iowa-Class Battleship Tour. Photo by 19FortyFive Reporter Christian D. Orr.
In mid-February, the Wisconsin approached the Japanese coast while carrier aircraft conducted airstrikes against the Japanese homeland. From there, she joined the invasion task force off Iwo Jima.
In March, the USS Wisconsin, Missouri, and New Jersey bombarded Okinawa in the prelude to the invasion of the island. Throughout the spring and into the summer, the big battleship remained off Japan’s coast and bombarded the Japan Steel Works.
After Japan surrendered on August 15, she joined the fleet sailing into Tokyo Harbor for the official surrender in September. After shuttling troops home during “Operation Magic Carpet,” the Wisconsin sailed back to the US East Coast and served as a training ship for cadets. On July 1, 1948, the Navy placed her on inactive status and assigned her to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
The USS Wisconsin Was Reactivated For The Korean War
The Korean War began in June 1950, as Korean and US troops were pushed south. The Navy reactivated the battleships Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin from reserve status and prepared them for Korea.
The battleships were 887.3 feet long at the waterline and displaced roughly 55,000 tons. They carried nine 16-inch 50-caliber Mark 7 naval guns that could fire high-explosive and armor-piercing shells. Secondary armaments included six 5-inch/38-caliber Mark 12 guns, which could fire bombardment or anti-aircraft shells.
The United States and South Korean forces were pushed to the southern peninsula in June 1950 by huge numbers of North Koreans. But General Douglas MacArthur executed a brilliant amphibious operation at Inchon. The combined UN forces quickly pushed the North Koreans back to near the border with China.
Then, the Chinese entered the fray with the release of more than a quarter of a million troops, which shocked the Americans and later resulted in a stalemate that continued until the end of the conflict.
USS Wisconsin Iowa-Class Battleship Tour. Photo by 19FortyFive Reporter Christian D. Orr.
The battleship Missouri was the first battlewagon in action, firing volleys of 16-inch projectiles to cover US soldiers’ retreat from the Chinese border along the coastline.
Soon after, the USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, and USS Wisconsin joined the war. The battleships used both their sixteen-inch main armament and their five-inch secondary armament to pound Chinese and North Korean positions along the coast.
These positions included cave systems, concealed artillery, and command posts. As with the end of the Second World War, the battleships also hit strategic and operational targets, including railways, industrial parks, and transport centers.
“Don’t Mess With Big Wisky…Temper, Temper”
The USS Wisconsin was off the coast of Songin in March 1952 and was bombarding entrenched North Korean positions ahead of an amphibious landing by the U.S. Marines.
Her gunfire collapsed a tunnel through which a North Korean supply train was running. The major tunnel collapse cut off the resupply and reinforcements of the North Koreans.
The North Koreans tried to send counter-battery fire with a single 152mm artillery piece. They directly hit the USS Wisconsin, but due to the massive armor of the big battlewagon, the ship was undamaged, and no fatalities were suffered, although three sailors were wounded.
The USS Wisconsin identified the North Korean position and turned all nine of her 16-inch guns to bear on the pinpointed North Korean artillery piece. The nine shells obliterated the position.
USS Wisconsin Iowa-Class Battleship Tour. Photo by 19FortyFive Reporter Christian D. Orr.
The ships offshore accompanying the USS Wisconsin knew the battleship’s legendary reputation as an aggressive warship. They sent signals to the ship: “Temper, temper.”
The moral of the story is don’t mess with ‘Big Wisky.’
The battleship returned to the “mothball fleet” after the Korean War, but the United States would call on her again and again to defend itself against adversaries. The big Iowa-class battleships had more than proved their worth.
Big Wisky Returns In the 1980s For Operation Desert Storm
On Oct. 22, 1988, the Wisconsin was recommissioned following nearly two years of refits. Upgrades included four Mk-141 quad cell launchers for 16 AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, eight armored box launcher (ABL) mounts for 32 BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles, and four of the Navy’s Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS) 20-mm Gatling guns to defend against enemy anti-ship missiles and aircraft.
The USS Wisconsin also received eight remotely controlled RQ-2 Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), used to spot for its 16-inch guns.
On Feb. 6, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, the Wisconsin’s 16-inch guns destroyed an Iraqi artillery battery in Kuwait. The big battlewagon would continue to bombard additional targets in Kuwait.
An extraordinary event occurred on Feb. 23, when a platoon of Iraqi troops surrendered to the USS Wisconsin’s UAV as it scouted a line of fortifications on Kuwait’s Faylaka Island.
USS Wisconsin Iowa-Class Battleship Tour. Photo by 19FortyFive Reporter Christian D. Orr.
It’s believed to be the first time in history that an aerial drone has captured enemy personnel. The Big Wisky’s final shots, fired on Feb. 28, were the last salvos ever delivered in combat by a battleship.
The fast, powerful, and heavily armed battleships first envisioned for the upcoming war with Japan fired their guns in anger, to great effect in Korea and, more than fifty years later, in Desert Storm, a testament to how great these ships were.
Today, the USS Wisconsin is a museum ship moored at Nauticus, a maritime museum in Norfolk, Virginia. She stands in mute testament that no one messes with “the Big Wisky.” Again, all the interior photos in this article came from a 19FortyFive visit to the USS Wisconsin a few days ago.
About the Author: Stephen Balestrieri
Steve Balestrieri is a National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing on defense, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.
