USS Arizona
The
USS Arizona (BB-39) was a Pennsylvania-class battleship of
the United States Navy. The vessel was the third to be named in honor of
the 48th state, though the first since its statehood was actually
achieved. She was commissioned in 1916 and saw action in World War I.
The USS Arizona is best known for her cataclysmic and dramatic
sinking, with the loss of 1,177 lives, during the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the event that brought about U.S.
involvement in World War II. The wreck was not salvaged, and continues
to lie at the floor of the harbor. It is the site of a memorial to those
who perished on that day.
What do you know about the USS Arizona?
Take this World War II Quick Quiz.
1. When was the USS Arizona launched?
- October 17, 1915
- October 17, 1916
- October 17, 1917
2. The USS Arizona operated out of Norfolk
throughout the war, serving as a gunnery training ship and patrolling
the waters of the eastern seaboard from the Virginia Capes to New York.
An oil-burner, she had not been deployed to European waters owing to a
scarcity of fuel oil in the British Isles.
3. Arriving in Europe after the war, who did the
Arizona escort into the harbor of Brest, France?
- President Woodrow Wilson
- President Theodore Roosevelt
- President Warren G. Harding
4. What was the 1935 James Cagney film for Warner
Brothers was the Arizona featured?
- Here Comes the Navy
- Navy Goes Home
- Anchor's Away
5. Scheduled to receive tender availability,
Arizona took the repair ship Vestal alongside on Saturday, December 6.
The two ships were thus moored together on the morning of December 7;
among the men on board Arizona that morning were Rear Admiral
Kidd and the battleship's captain, Captain Franklin van Valkenburgh.?
6. What time did the ship's air raid alarm go off?
7. Shortly after 08:00 a bomb dropped by a
high-altitude Kate bomber from the Japanese carrier Kaga
hit the side of the #4 turret and glanced off into the deck below. It
started a small fire. How much damage did it cause?
- Minimal damage
- Moderate damage
- Maximum damage
8. At 08:06 a bomb from a Hiryū Kate
hit between and to starboard of Turrets #1 & 2. The subsequent
explosion, which destroyed the forward part of Arizona, was due
to the detonation of the ammunition magazine, located in an armored
section under the deck. Most experts seem to agree that the bomb could
hardly have pierced the armor.[3] Instead, it seems widely accepted that
the black powder magazine (used for aircraft catapults) detonated first,
igniting the smokeless powder magazine (used for the ship's main
armament).
9. Lieutenant Commander Samuel G. Fuqua, the
ship's damage control officer, whose coolness in attempting to quell the
fires and get survivors off the ship earned him the Medal of Honor.
Posthumous awards of the Medal of Honor also went to Rear Admiral Isaac
C. Kidd, the first flag officer killed in the Pacific war, and to
Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh, who reached the bridge and was
attempting to defend his ship when the bomb hit on the magazines
destroyed her.
10. How many of the ship's crew were lost on
December 7?
- 1,177 men
- 1,400 men
- 1,675 men
11. The USS Arizona remains perpetually in
commission, like the USS Constitution.
|
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License.
