What Was the Best Battleship Ever?

What You Need to Know: The USS New Jersey (BB-62), known as "Big J," is arguably the greatest battleship ever, renowned for her impressive combat record and longevity. Commissioned in 1943, New Jersey earned 19 Battle Stars, serving in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Lebanon.

-Her powerful 16-inch guns provided support from Pacific shores to Middle Eastern hillsides. Honorable mention goes to USS Washington (BB-56), the only U.S. battleship to single-handedly sink an enemy battleship, obliterating IJN Kirishima at Guadalcanal.

-While New Jersey is preserved as a museum in Camden, New Jersey, Washington was scrapped in 1960, an unfortunate fate for such a distinguished warship.

Was USS New Jersey the Greatest Battleship Ever? A Case for the ‘Big J’

It’s challenging enough to do a five Best List of historical or current weapons systems. They’re virtually guaranteed to generate controversy, no matter how much you justify your admittedly subjective opinions with solid objective facts, some military history buff out is still going to feel miffed because their favorite airplane/warship/firearm/tank/helicopter/whatever was omitted from the list. I reckon that factor increases exponentially when you narrow it down from a Top five to a single best.

That said, let’s go ahead and stir the pot a bit by asking: What was the best battleship ever? 

If we’re going to use the biggest and most powerful and the determining criteria, then the answer would be the WWII Imperial Japanese Navy’s (IJN) Yamato and Musashi, with their 72,000-ton displacements and nine 18-inch main guns; however, their actual combat performance turned out to be a tad overwhelming. 

If we’re going to go with fame in the eyes of the public as our rating yardstick, then I’d have to go with either the good ol’ U.S. Navy’s (USN) USS Missouri (BB-63), the Iowa-class battleship immortalized by serving as the site of the signing of Imperial Japan’s surrender that finally ended WWII, or the Nazi German Kriegsmarine Bismarck immortalized for Western pop culture fans in film and song alike. 

But if we go with sheer breadth and number of accomplishments, then the nod would have to go with one of “Mighty Mo’s” sister ships in the Iowa-class, the USS New Jersey (BB-62).

The Case for USS New Jersey (BB-62) as the Best Battleship

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): the USS New Jersey, affectionately nicknamed the “Big J,” is the most decorated battleship ever. She was laid down on September 16, 1940, launched on December 7, 1942, the 1st anniversary of the Pearl Harbor raid no less, and first commissioned on May 23, 1943.

She initially sported a fully laden displacement of 59,065 tons (later 61,000 tons), a primary armament of nine 16-inch guns (six fore, three aft), a secondary armament of twenty 5-inch guns (eventually reduced to twelve such guns to accommodate Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon antiship missiles, and the Phalanx close-in weapon system [CIWS]), and a crew complement of 1,921 commissioned officers and enlisted seamen, the laundry list of “Big J” reads as follows:

-She earned nineteen Battle Stars throughout four conflicts: WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Lebanon.

-During WWII, she shelled onshore targets on Guam and Okinawa and screened aircraft carriers conducting raids in the Marshall Islands.

-During the Korean War, she provided gunfire support to raids along the North Korean coast in Wongsan, Kangson, and Changjon.

-She was the only American battleship used to provide gunfire support during the Vietnam War, raining down 5,000 rounds from her 16-inch guns upon Communist forces.

-On December 14, 1983, she fired eleven of her behemoth 16-inch projectiles at hostile positions inland of Beirut, Lebanon, in retaliation for attacks on U.S. reconnaissance planes by Syrian/Druze antiaircraft batteries. Two months later, she lobbed an additional 300 16-inches Druze and Shi'ite positions in the hills overlooking Beirut, killing the general commanding Syrian forces in Lebanon and several other senior officers.

Alas, “Big J” missed out on Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, whilst her sister ships “Mighty Mo” and USS Wisconsin (BB-64) had shelled then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s troops who were occupying Kuwait. 

New Jersey was decommissioned for the last time on February 8, 1991, and stricken from the Naval Register on January 4, 1999.

Honorable Mention: The USS Washington (BB-56)

Having said all that for good ol’ New Jersey I’m going to take the initiative to employ a bit of artistic license to make a case for another USN battlewagon that, if not meriting a first-place tie with BB-62, at least deserves recognition for being a very close second: the North Carolina-class battleship USS Washington (BB-56).

Washington deserves a shoutout as she pulled off an accomplishment that no other warship can claim, not even the Bismarck: she was the only vessel to sink an enemy battleship one-on-one!

She pulled off the feat under the command of Vice Admiral Willis Augustus “Ching” Lee Jr., whom I consider to be the most unsung hero of all the USN admirals, though he’s finally getting proper recognition in the excellent book Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr, by Paul Stillwell. 

It happened on November 15, 1942, during the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal off the Solomon Islands. It was the first head-to-head confrontation of battleships in the Pacific War, and the victim was the IJN battleship Kirishima.

Washington annihilated Kirishima with over twenty hits from her 16-inch main guns and more than forty hits from her 5-inch secondary guns. For good measure, the USN battlewagon also sank the Japanese destroyer Ayanami in the same engagement. It was sweet revenge for the U.S. Navy,  as Kirishima’s 14-inch guns had been directly responsible for the killing of RADM Daniel J. Callaghan during the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

Where Are They Now?

The USS New Jersey, thankfully, has been preserved for posterity and lives on as a floating museum in Camden, New Jersey. To make a beautiful thing even better, the proud vessel recently underwent a $10 million restoration project. 

I’ve yet to have a tour, but I’ve toured her sister ship USS Iowa out in San Pedro, California multiple times, and can vouch that the tour never gets old.

Sadly, posterity did not smile so kindly upon USS Washington. She was sold for scrap on May 24, 1960, towed to the Lipsett Division of Luria Brothers, and broken up thereafter. I’m not aware of any of her relics, not even the ship’s bell, being saved. A crying shame.

About the Author: 

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS).

 Image Credit: Creative Commons and/or Shutterstock.