Please Report Any Broken Links Or Trouble You Might Come Across To The Webmaster
Please Take A Moment To Let Us Know So That We Can Correct Any Problems And Make Your Visit As Enjoyable And As Informative As Possible.
1938 - 1941 / Construction - Shakedown
Sept. - December 1942 / Guadalcanal & Fourth Battle of Savo / Island
Jan. 1943 - Sept 1945 / War in the Pacific
Post WW-II
| Click On Image For Full Size Image |
Size | Image Description | Contributed By And/Or Copyright |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
61k | Washington (BB-56) at Hvalfjord, Iceland in early 1942. | USN photo | |
 |
65k | Washington (BB-56) in mid-Atlantic, while en route to operate with the British Home Fleet. Photo is dated 22 April 1942, over two weeks after Washington's arrival at Scapa Flow. | Official U.S. Navy Photograph, USNHC # 80-G-21029, now in the collections of the National Archives. | |
 |
35k | Washington (BB-56), and HMS King George V at sea in convoy escort duty in April, 1942. | USN photo courtesy The Battleships by Ian Johnston & Rob McAuley, submitted by Mike Green. | |
 |
126k | Washington (BB-56), HMS Victorious, HMS King George V and an unidentified British heavy cruiser are seen at anchor at Iceland in April, 1942. | USN photo courtesy The Battleships by Ian Johnston & Rob McAuley, submitted by Mike Green. | |
 |
74k | Washington (BB-56) and HMS Victorious, as seen from the aft main turret of HMS King George V. | USN photo courtesy of Mike Green. | |
 |
71k | Port broadside view of the Washington (BB-56) at sea, as seen on 14 May 1942. | USN photograph from the Authors Collection. | |
 |
94k | HMS King George V in the lead followed by Washington (BB-56) during convoy escort duty 16 May 1942. | USN photograph from the Authors Collection. | |
 |
58k | Washington (BB-56) at sea, as seen from HMS Victorious. (5/29/42-6/3/42). | USN photograph from the Authors Collection. | |
 |
70k | June 1942 photo of the ship, in the Atlantic, while on duty with the British Fleet. Anchored at Scape Flow with the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious. | USN photo. | |
 |
106k | King George VI inspects the crew of Washington (BB-56), 7 June 1942. Note Vought OS2U floatplane on the ship's starboard catapult. | Official U.S. Navy Photograph, USNHC # 80-G-24783, now in the collections of the National Archives. | |
 |
47k | Britain's King George VI inspects the Marine detachment of Washington (BB-56), on 7 June 1942. From left are: RAdm Robert C. Giffen, commanding Task Force 39; King George; Adm Harold R. Stark, special naval observer; and Capt Howard H. Benson, commander of the Washington . Commanding the Marine Detachment is Capt James D. Hittle, who retired as a brigadier general; commanding the 1st Platoon is 1stLt Jonas M. Platt, who retired as a major general; commanding the 2d Platoon is 2dLt Robert Knox. | Photo from Marines in World War II Commemorative Series, A DIFFERENT WAR: Marines in Europe and North Africa by Lieutenant Colonel Harry W. Edwards, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret), courtesy of The Admiralty, London & nps.gov. |
|
 |
35k | Oil on canvas painting by the artist Anthony Saunders, entitled "
Arctic guardian - Washington".
In the Spring of 1942, Washington (BB-56) was the first of America's fast battleship fleet to participate in combat operations when she was briefly assigned to the Royal Navy. On the 28th June 1942, together with HMS Duke of York, HMS Victorious and an accompanying cruiser and destroyer force, she formed part of the distant covering force to convoy PQ-17 bound for Russia. |
Text and drawing courtesy of naval-art.com | |
 |
58k | An unidentified American freighter framed by the battleships HMS Duke of York and the Washington (BB-56) off Iceland, sometime around 28th June 1942. | USN photograph courtesy of Robert Hurst. | |
 |
78k | Washington's (BB-56) crew on shore leave. | USN photo courtesy of Pieter Bakels. | |
 |
96k | August, 1942 photo just before leaving the East coast for the Pacific. A Kingfisher seaplane is visible at the stern, getting ready to be hoisted aboard. | Photograph USNHC # 19-N-33803 from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. | |
 |
135k | Detail shot of the tower foremast taken 18 August 1942 at New York Navy Yard just prior to her transfer to the Pacific. Of notable interest is the location of the surface search radar SG unit on the forward face of the tower. This location caused problems during the upcoming battle off Guadalcanal as it left an arc of 80 degrees that was blind to radar search. During the battle, the South Dakota (BB-57) was in this blind area and valuable time was lost ensuring that the target that was being tracked was the Japanese battleship Kirishima and not the South Dakota . When the Japanese illuminated the South Dakota with searchlights, the picture immediately cleared and the Kirishima was reduced to a wreck by the Washington's main and secondary armament. |
USN photo. | |
 |
54k | Photo taken 18 August 1942 at New York Navy Yard just prior to her transfer to the Pacific. View taken from main deck on starboard looking inboard and upward showing new 20mm gun & ready service chest locker located on 3rd level above superstructure. | USN photo courtesy of Pieter Bakels. Photo added 03/10/08. | |
The contact listed, Was the contact at the time for this ship when located. If another person now is the contact, E-mail me and I will update this entry. These contacts are compiled from various sources over a long period of time and may or may not be correct. Every effort has been made to list the newest contact if more than one contact was found.
| Back To The Main Photo Index | Back To The Battleship Photo Index Page |