North Carolina Battleship Summary

This is a 3D printed game piece from EBard Models.

The North Carolina class included two fast battleships, North Carolina and Washington, built in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The design of a new battlship class was heavily constrained by international treaty limitations, which included a requirement that all new capital ships have a standard displacement of under 35,000 LT. This restriction meant that the navy could not construct a ship with the firepower, armor, and speed they desired, and the balancing these key features resulted in fifty widely varying designs.

In addition to treaty limitations, the design had to have a beam of less than 110 ft (34 m) by the width of the locks of the Panama Canal, and to a draft of no more than 38 ft (12 m) to use as many anchorages and shipyards as possible.

The eventual design called for a 27-knot ship with twelve 14-inch guns in quadruple turrets and protection against guns of the same caliber. In a major departure from traditional American design practices, this design prioritized firepower at the cost of speed and protection. After construction had begun, the United States invoked a so-called "escalator clause" in the international treaty to increase the class' main armament to nine 16-inch (406 mm)/45 caliber Mark 6 guns.

To save weight, the North Carolina was built using the new technique of welded construction. Her machinery arrangement was unusual in that there were four main spaces, each with two boilers and one steam turbine connected to each of the four propeller shafts. This arrangement served to reduce the number of openings in watertight bulkheads and to conserve the space to be protected by the armor plate. The long sweeping flush deck of the North Carolina and her streamlined structure made her far more graceful than earlier battleships. Her large tower forward, tall uncluttered stacks, and clean superstructure and hull were a sharp break from the elaborate bridgework, heavy tripod masts, and casemated secondary batteries which characterized her predecessors.

As the first newly designed American battleship class to be built in two decades, the North Carolina was built using the latest in shipbuilding technology and would still represent a big improvement over previous classes.

The North Carolina was the first newly constructed American battleship to enter service during World War II. Both she and Washington saw extensive service during World War II primarily in the Pacific Theater. Washington also participated in a surface engagement, the naval battle of Guadalcanal, where its radar-directed main batteries fatally damaged the Japanese battleship Kirishima. Both battleships were damaged during the war, with North Carolina taking a torpedo hit in 1942 and Washington colliding with Indiana in 1944. North Carolina was to become the most highly decorated American battleship of World War II, accumulating 15 battle stars.

After the war, both ships remained in commission for a brief time before being laid up in reserve. In the early 1960s, North Carolina was sold to the state of North Carolina as a museum ship, and Washington was broken up for scrap.

Ships of Class:

• North Carolina
• Washington

Insignia can be added to each deck decal. Select from your choice of roundel images.

Early War	Mid War	ETO

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