General History: USS Utah (BB-31)
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- The forgotten victim of Pearl Harbor, in a lot of ways, is USS Utah. Generally glossed over in recountings of the attack, and with a memorial only open to military members. She was hardly a combat warship by that point, but it is still a shame how easily she slips by people.
Especially considering that her wreck still rests in Pearl Harbor itself, not that far from Arizona.
Do you want to support the channel? / sky_t65
I agree, the old girl (a mother to the Standard fleet, really) deserves more love. The cool news is that the new Virginia type SSN 801 Utah is on the way, if not completed. They skipped a few numbers to put her phone number code in!
Utah is forgotten often but as you said, the memorial is restricted from the public which is a major reason the general public doesn't appreciate her sacrifice.
Utah would have been a formidable AA fortress on Pearl Harbor Day if she hadn't been the very first ship to be attacked. She had no chance to even respond to anything. She had the most state-of-the-art 40mm Bofors, 20mm guns, and huge 5" dual purpose guns in small turrets on her while all the other battleships had minimal AA guns in comparison. If the Japanese had ignored her like planned and she was given 5-10 minutes to uncover her guns' covers and brought out the live ammo they could have done some heavy damage to the Japanese airplanes. It is shocking when reading about Utah's configuration on 12/7/41 how she was truly a AA gun fortress. She was not merely some "radio-controlled target ship". She was given a bunch of AA guns of all types in early 1941 so she could train all the Pearl Harbor ships' crew on how to use the upcoming brand new AA guns.
@@nogoodnameleft As hopeful as that is, I don't think that would have been the case. She wasn't fully staffed during the attack (for better or worse) so she would have only have been able to utilize a fraction of her full potential. However had she had the full compliment of crew aboard, she might have been another "Arizona". It's hard to tell but regardless, the torpedoes she took did spare damage to other ships.
You can see it if you take a Ford Island Bus tour. www.nps.gov/perl/ford-island-bus-tour.htm
Back in 1992 while I was an Enlisted Navy Police Office at Pearl I was assigned to the Ford Island ferry landing on the Main side next to the Arizona Memorial Bldg, A Navy Dentist had his Father with him and wanted to take the ferry to Ford Island to go to the Utah as his father was one of the crew members who was interned on the Utah.
Thank you for sharing, when I was on an exercise RimPAC 90 we were docked along side her. I was on LPD USS Juneau as a Marine. Semper Fi 86-91
As a youngster Navy brat living in Hawaii in the early 60s, my two brothers and I would often catch a launch over to Ford Island to ride our bikes around. We didn’t know any better and often swim out to the wreck of the Utah and climb all over what we could - ship wrecked sailors, pirates, etc. wonderful times to be there.
Just read today 12-7-22 of two brothers-brothers in law lost on the Utah whose bodies where just identified. Never forget
Yes, we can never forget the sacrifices that all the men and women who served during the World War’s made…I salute 🫡 you, the members of the greatest generation…may your sacrifices be remembered now, and forever more…I thank you all!!
I’m from Utah and one of my bucket list items is to visit the Utah. I’m retired Air Force so I can go onto Ford Island.
Note: The gangster Dillinger was a sailor aboard the USS Utah, but he went AWOL and never returned to service on the ship.
Note: One member of the crew and his wife had twin daughters, sadly one of whom died. The mother had the baby cremated so that her husband could spread her ashes upon the Pacific Ocean, but the Japanese attack took place before he could spread her ashes. In the heat of battle and the quick capsizing of the Utah, the baby girls ashes remained in the seaman’s locker, where they remain to this day. Periodically the surviving twin sister will go to the USS Utah and toss a wreath towards the ship and her sister.
An unsung hero. Silently resting, alone.
I reenlisted at the Utah Memorial last year. Good content man. Keep it coming
At Pearl harbor the Utah is all but corral now isn't it it's still where it sunk in the harbour, right,?
@@user-xt1ec6vq1r it’s mostly submerged and rusted through but the memorial goes to about 20 ft from the ship itself
@@WollyEZ-110 Thank you for at least honoring the Utah. It's a bit silly as someone from the state, but it's also a bit sad that the ship bearing the name of the state is one of the forgotten and can't even be honored by the public. So your service in remembering her and her sacrifice does mean a lot to this state whether you realize it or not. The main petty solace I can really take is that both the USS Utah and USS Salt Lake City technically out performed their sister ships, the USS Florida and USS Pensacola respectively. By out perform I mean both survived longer than the others. But again, as minor as it seems, thank you for honoring her, her lost crew, and her sacrifice.
@@steeljawX i totally get it. I’m from West Virginia, and though the USS West Virginia took 7 torpedoes amidships at Pearl Harbor, was salvaged, and went on to play a pivotal role in the last battleship confrontation in the Surigao Strait she has no memorial. Remembering these ships and their crews is keeps them alive
Funny/interesting thing about the Utah. So the USS Utah was the sister ship of the USS Florida and was a Florida-Class Dreadnought. . . . and the USS Salt Lake City was the sister ship to the USS Pensacola and was a Pensacola-Class heavy cruiser. . . . . .I didn't know the US Naval Command thought Utah was Florida's little sister through and through.
It's a shame that the USS Utah is only a minor step above the USS Montana in the fact that it was a battleship that actually existed at one point. But to be forgotten and overshadowed is kind of harsh. As devastating as the loss of the Arizona was, people ought to remember the one who took the first hits for the rest of the fleet.
I got to see her and her memorial when I was on shore leave there in PH
I read that the beams on her deck (that contributed to the rolling 11:20) led some Japanese pilots to think she was a carrier.
Target Ship at War, defending the fleet as a decoy. THAT'S front line duty.
The forgotten battleship of Pearl Harbor.
She was a battleship to the very end despite her losing her big guns and the Japanese sinking her as the first ship to be hit on that day was not exactly a waste of torpedoes considering she had the best AA guns in all of Pearl Harbor and if she had been ignored by the Japanese as planned and was able to uncover her guns and load them with ammo with her highly trained AA gun crew it wouldn't be a shock if she had been able to put up a helluva fight against the Japanese planes.
Utah would have been a formidable AA fortress on Pearl Harbor Day if she hadn't been the very first ship to be attacked. She had no chance to even respond to anything. She had the most state-of-the-art 40mm Bofors, 20mm guns, and huge 5" dual purpose guns in small turrets on her while all the other battleships had minimal AA guns in comparison. If the Japanese had ignored her like planned and she was given 5-10 minutes to uncover her guns' covers and brought out the live ammo they could have done some heavy damage to the Japanese airplanes. It is shocking when reading about Utah's configuration on 12/7/41 how she was truly a AA gun fortress. She was not merely some "radio-controlled target ship". She was given a bunch of AA guns of all types in early 1941 so she could train all the Pearl Harbor ships' crew on how to use the upcoming brand new AA guns.
Baby Nancy Wagner is
Entombed on USS Utah
Her father A U.S. Navy Chief Yeoman Albert Thomas Dewitt Wagner had been waiting for a chaplain to be assigned to the Utah, hoping for a proper burial ceremony at sea for his daughter when the Utah went out on maneuvers. An urn carrying her ashes was in his locker in the Utah's chief's quarters.
He survived the attack but was unable to retrieve the urn.
The ashes of Nancy remain in the care of the 54 men who died aboard the U.S.S. Utah.
Her father lived until 1975. He was buried at sea off the coast of San Diego, California.
Those 54 interred heroes cared for little Baby Wagner until Daddy came for her in 1975
As you leave the Arizona memorial, the motorboat that takes you out, rides past the Utah, and someone tells you a brief story on the ship's demise. This was in the 70s tho, not sure about nowadays
As of ten years ago, I know they did.
Didn't know much at all until i found this vid, thanks😊
Lot of people don't know that she was to sail Monday morning and that the ashes of a officer's daughter was to be spread out to sea that Monday morning an shes still aboard with the men that died that Sunday morning.
amazing video
The Navy's Senior Enlisted Academy at Newport, RI, is named in honor of WTC Tomich. Narragansett Bay
Given I’m from Utah. This really hits home.. lol. Very great content
Say what you want about the ship’s service; bottom line is there are still men in that ship whose lives were taken just the same as the men in the Arizona, and I think it’s sad that they so rarely are honored.
Thank your for your sacrifice crew of the USS Utah; you are not forgotten.
Very informative. Good job!
Love turret farms. More on the the Floridas, Delawares and the Wyomings please.
Wyoming and Arkansas were the oldest American battleships to see service in World War II and the only ones with twelve inch guns.
@@stevenpilling5318 *Arkansas was the only US Battleship with 12 inch guns in WW2. Wyoming was a training ship and her guns had long since been removed. (though she still served her country quite admirably in that role)
I didn't know that Wyoming had been disarmed.
@@stevenpilling5318 She was instrumental in training US personnel on how to counter kamikaze aircraft later in the war, and trained thousands on anti-aircraft throughout the conflict.
There was actually some consideration given to rearming her after the severe losses at Pearl Harbor, but this never came to pass.
@@ericmichaud1273 I was only aware that she was confined mainly to Chesapeake Bay and used heavily as a training vessel for Annapolis midshipmen. That would still make her the senior battleship of the Navy after the kids of USS Utah.
5:19 Slim though the chance might have been that Germany got a grosskreuzer out into the Atlantic in 1918, it was a possibility all the same, so assigning a spare battleship as convoy escort seems very sound to me.
Mind also the British battlecruisers had not exactly shown themselves as effective against the German grosskreuzers as the British had expected so it was not so clear that they could neutralize a grosskreuzer that did manage to get out. German 12'' gunfire had done much more damage to the likes of HMS Lion and Queen Mary than expected at the ranges involved, and while HMS Tiger a bit tougher than those two, it had also shown its armor was only just a bit tougher. With HMS Renown and HMS Repulse being less well-armored than previous ships and the German grosskreuzers having shown they were not especially vulnerable to 381mm fire already, this made even them not solid counters.
This makes the decision to assign US battleships to convoy escort more reasonable to me, because the battleships would only have to stay between the Germans and the convoy to be effective protection, unlike the battlecruisers that had to play a dangerous game of long-range dueling, praying that the Germans didn't get lucky again.
Who knows, it might have also been a bit of a safety measure against potential Soviet Baltic Fleets that happen to be sailing by.🤣
I was in Pearl Harbor, Drilling Naval Reservist, last year.
I walked past the USS Utah
I absolutely agree that the USS Utah stay out of the public eye AND LETS KEEP IT THAT WAY
A sobering experience.
🇺🇸🥺
I will be doing my "Two Weeks" Navy in Hawai'i... 2024
Looking forward to NAVSTA PEARL HARBOR
f you want to see the USS Oklahoma and USS Utah Memorials on Ford Island and do not have an Active-Duty Military ID, you must reserve seat/s for the Ford Island Bus Tour, as these sites are located on Ford Island, an active duty military base.
Supposedly was my grandfather's ship for a while.
Just confirmed, yeah cant go there by yourself.
Guess I was luck to go there 3 different times on field trips as a kid.
Well done👍
Beautiful ship Brave crew Sad fate
I've been to the USS Utah memorial. Not much to see.
Swam out to her in 1970 from ford island... AD 36 Bryce canon htfn
Utah first cage mast ship to be destroyed during the attack
She also was a heavily armed anti-aircraft gun fortress ship but sadly she was the first ship to be hit by the Japanese and sank and capsized immediately. Imagining her not being attacked first and left alone so she could be able to uncover her AA guns and load them with ammo and defend Pearl Harbor from the enemy is something very interesting to think about. She had the most state of the art AA guns that all of the other battleships in Pearl Harbor didn't even have like the 40mm Bofors and 5" dual-purpose guns in small turrets.