Book summarizes story of USS Arkansas' duty

"Arky: The Saga of the USS Arkansas" by Ray Hanley and Steven Hanley
"Arky: The Saga of the USS Arkansas" by Ray Hanley and Steven Hanley

In the era when battleships ruled the seas, before aircraft carriers became the new naval monarchs, the USS Arkansas saw active duty in both World Wars.

In 1918, it dodged a torpedo from one of the German Kaiser's U-boats in the North Sea.

In 1944, the ship bombarded Nazi German defenses on Normandy's Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings, helping the bold invasion take hold.

In 1945, it survived repeated kamikaze attacks by Japanese suicide planes off Okinawa, firing tens of thousands of rounds at the suicidal enemy.

Then the ship was sunk by her own side in 1946 during one of the early atomic bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean.

Now the USS Arkansas brings pleasure to intrepid scuba divers who venture to the remote atoll of Bikini, where the remains lie beneath 150 feet of water.

The USS Arkansas is the subject of Arky, a $29.95 volume by Ray Hanley and Steven Hanley, longtime producers of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Arkansas Postcard Past feature.

Packed with nearly 150 illustrations and subtitled The Saga of the USS Arkansas, the paperback is published by Butler Center Books.

It relates an impressive history, spanning a third of a century, that is barely known to most Arkansans today. Excerpts from journals and letters written by crewmen give the narrative a personal touch.

When commissioned in 1912, the Arkansas was a state-of-the-art capital ship (then called a " dreadnought"). Some 562 feet long, it carried a dozen 12-inch guns, plus a secondary battery of 21 5-inch weapons. Its top speed was 21 knots (about 24 mph), with a crew of about 1,600 officers and men.

The ship's first combat took place in April 1914, when members of the crew went ashore in Veracruz, Mexico, to deal with violence stemming from one of that country's revolutions. Two seamen died during the skirmishing, while two officers received the Medal of Honor for heroism.

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the Arkansas was dispatched to Scottish waters to join the British Grand Fleet. Arky recounts what happened when a submarine periscope was sighted en route:

"Building up to her top speed of 21 knots, the battleship changed course, bringing the German U-boat astern. ... The obscure target was peppered with 35 rounds of blunt-nosed shell. The Arkansas swung hard to avoid an oncoming torpedo. ... The Arkansas' lookouts soon saw the periscope's wake disappearing in the distance."

After two decades of peacetime duty flying the U.S. flag around the globe, the Arkansas was among the Navy's oldest vessels, nearing age 30. Late in 1941, it was ordered to harbor in Maine, "to await a summons to the retirement list, decommissioning and, in all likelihood, a final voyage to the scrapyard."

Then came the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly it became a valuable vessel, overhauled to become lighter and faster, then dispatched for convoy duty in the North Atlantic.

As the Allied invasion of Hitler's Europe loomed, the Arkansas was sent with several other aged battleships to do shore bombardment for Operation Overlord. The Hanleys report that when the main guns opened fire at 5:52 a.m. June 6, 1944, it was the first time they'd been used in combat (as opposed to practice) in three decades of service.

Assigned to the Pacific theater in 1945, the Arkansas bombarded hidden Japanese positions during the bloody battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Crewmen witnessed the epic raising of the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.

Off Okinawa, the ship survived repeated kamikaze attacks. One inadvertently caused the greatest number of wounded men aboard, when anti-aircraft shells from the battleship New York hit amidships.

As one sailor described it: "We had about 20 guys that got shells. No one was killed, but we have had 20 guys who have got Purple Hearts from friendly fire."

The Hanleys display an apt tone of dismay at the final fate of the Arkansas. They concede that as the oldest Navy battleship, it was a prime candidate for the 1946 atomic bomb tests.

After the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought Japanese surrender in August 1945, U.S. authorities were eager to test the power of their new ultimate weapon.

One unknown was the bomb's possible impact on enemy ships. The Arkansas was one of the vessels sent to the Bikini test site in hope of finding out. It joined three other obsolete battleships, two aircraft carriers, 11 destroyers, eight submarines and assorted smaller vessels.

Amazingly, it took two A-bomb detonations to sink the Arkansas. The first bomb, dropped from a B-29 Superfortress, left the ship afloat with extensive damage to its upper structure.

More amazingly, about 100 of her sailors were sent back aboard just three hours later, some to live on the radioactive vessel for three weeks until the second test. The damage to their health was never really determined.

Detonated underwater, A-bomb No. 2 crushed the starboard side of the hull: "The 562-foot ship, three times as long as the lagoon was deep, seemed to lift straight up, her bow pinned to the sea floor, her stern protruding 350 feet into the air." It then "toppled backward into the water, topside down."

Today, the Arkansas rests in Bikini's silt beneath 150 feet of water, an attraction for scuba divers seeking adventure in far-flung locations. The Hanleys end their text on an elegiac note.

"We would like to think the site is a shrine to the memory of the thousands of sailors and Marines who boarded the Arkansas in the service of the United States of America to help win two World Wars and free millions of people from tyranny."

Ray Hanley, co-author of Arky: The Saga of the USS Arkansas, will speak about the book and show photographs at 6 p.m. May 21 in the Darragh Center at the Central Arkansas Library System's Main Library, 100 Rock St. Admission is free.

Style on 05/03/2015

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