The “13 Rugged Old Ladies” were the thirteen pre-war battleships of the U.S. Navy — the older dreadnoughts and standard-type battleships that stood in sharp contrast to the new fast battleships commissioned during the war. Eight of them were present at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; those that survived were repaired and returned to the fight. Unlike the fast battleships that screened the carrier task forces, these older ships excelled at the grinding work of shore bombardment, battering island fortifications with their heavy guns in support of Marine and Army landings at the Marshalls, the Marianas, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. By July 1945 they were preparing for the largest operation of all — the assault on the Japanese home islands. This six-page feature in All Hands told the story of these veteran battlewagons and the men who served in them.
Click to enlarge
