Evening star., 1948-07-25
Pearl Harbor Ghost, ,
Famed Old Nevada, Is
Cast in Final Role
BY the Assoeioisd Press


BY the Assoeioisd Press /
PEARL HARBOR, July "a
Burial on the high seas with 16-inch
guns pounding out a death knell
Will climax next week the saga
of the U. S. S. Nevada-a fighting
battleship.
The dreadnaught that weathered
two atomic bomb blasts at Bikini
is cast again In a guinea pig role.
Behind a security curtain, ordnance
experts are scheduled 10 start test
ing new, nonatomic explosive on
her tough hide tomorrow.
Next Thursday Navy planes will
rip her with bat bombs-gliders
packed with explosives and guided
by radar. The battleship Iowa and
the cruisers Astoria, Pasadena and
Springfield will close in Friday to
hnish her of with heavy guns.
The 32-year-old veteran awaits
her end in the garish shroud of
orange paint that marked her as
the bull's-eye ship at Bikini She
is deadly radioactive. Her stack is
crushed, her radar gear and one
yardarm are missing.
Stern Is Low in Water.
The WORKOUT ship, her stern al
ready low in the water, may give
up the ghost ahead of schedule
like the battleship New York on
July 7. But the Nevada already
has proved she can take more than
any one ships share of punish
ment.
The japanese thought they had
finished her when they left her
burning and aground at Pearl Har-
Dor. She came back from that
funeral pyre to haunt and plague
her enemies, belching a savage re-
venge.
She was the only capital ship
to clear her berth under the rain
Of Japanese fire December 7. She
lunged toward the open sea even
though heavy bomb and torpedo
hits had crippled her and set fire
to her bow and bridge.
Direct hits finally forced her cap
tain to run her aground to keep
from jammng the harbor channel
Relocated and Repaired.
The Navy refioated the Nevada
and patched her up at Bremerton,
Wash, in time for her to ride the
Aleutian battle line. At Attu, she
displayed the deadly aim and rapid
fire that won her fame as the Annie
Oakley of the fleet.
Next she opened up on the coast
of France during the Normandy
invasion. There, in 1914, the old
lady became defiant monster,
spewing an unending shower of
death.
Heat from her own guns burned
her paint black. Conclusion ratified
her like tin toy. In one opera
ton after another, empty shell cases
piled high on her decks and spilled
into the sea.
German shore batteries straddled
the Nevada q times during the
Cherbourg bombardment. But the
battlewagon scraped through with
Normandy coast and Southern
France.
She reached the Pacific the next
year for another crack at the Japa-
nese. The scrappy old lady nosed
in close to the beaches to pulverize
shore defenses at Two Jima and
again at Okinawa.
Drives for Revenge.
There was no stopping the ghost
Of Pearl Harbor in her drive for
revenge.
One suicide plane at Okinawa
swept out Of the early morning
darkness and dived head-on for
her bridge. The Nevada's anti
aircraft guns almost blasted the
plane apart, making it swerve into
the main deck aft of the bridge.
Seven Marines in the 20-mm
battery which saved the ships vital
midsection died at their stations.
Their little guns were heard bark
ing until the second :. the suicide
plane hit" the Navy recorded.
The weary ship retired to quieter
waters that evening ITO bury her
dead-l0 enlisted men and one off,
GER. Despite go casualties and
severe damage, she steamed back to
her place on the firing line the
next morning.
Receives Five Hits.
A shore battery, trying to shoot
1t out with her week later, landed
five direct hits. Like a tormented
animal the Nevada turned and in
18 minutes pumped II rounds from
her 14-inch main battery alone.
When the smoke cleared, her target
"resembled a gravel quarry after a
weeks blasting" the Navy said.
Again, burying her dead and max
ing repairs during the night, the
Nevada returned at dawn to the
firing line.
She found more action in the
Marshalls and along the China
coast and was preparing to carry her
fight to the Japanese home waters
when the war ended.
!, The atomic bomb explosions at
Bikini two years ago were supposed
TO crumple the Nevada like a tin
can. When smoke cleared and the
battlewagon still rode at anchor,
old Navy salts said you can't keep
1T