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Photo # 80-G-323307: USS Wyoming underway in the Atlantic, 30 April 1945

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Wyoming (Battleship # 32, later BB-32 and AG-17), 1912-1947

USS Wyoming, lead ship of a class of two 26,000-ton battleships, was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Commissioned in September 1912, she operated along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean during her first year of service and made a brief deployment to the Mediterranean Sea in October-November 1913. The following year, Wyoming took part in the later stages of the Vera Cruz intervention. Her western Atlantic and Caribbean activities continued from then until well after the United States entered the First World War in April 1917. Late in that year, she crossed the Atlantic to join the Grand Fleet in the North Sea, where she was employed with the Sixth Battle Squadron until a month after the November 1918 Armstice ended the fighting.

During the first decade of the post-war era, Wyoming took part in the regular operations of the U.S. Navy's battleship fleet. She was in the Atlantic area until mid-1919, then went to the Pacific, where she remained for two years. In July 1920, she received the designation BB-32 and in early 1921 cruised south to visit Chile. She returned to the Atlantic in August 1921, but periodically transited the Panama Canal for Pacicific ocean exercises. Wyoming steamed to Europe on a midshipmen cruise in the summer of 1924. In 1927, she was modernized, exchanging her coal-fired boilers for new oil-burning types, losing her after "basket" mast and receiving improvements to protection, armament and machinery.

Under the terms of the 1930 London Treaty, Wyoming was "demilitarized" in early 1931, becoming a training ship, with the new hull number AG-17. With half of her twelve-inch guns removed, she served in that function for the rest of the decade, and beyond, making midshipmen cruises across the Atlantic on several occasions. She also took part in a number of amphibious landing exercises, providing experience that would be vital to the Navy and Marine Corps during the 1940s.

In November 1941, with formal U.S. participation in the Second World War clearly in the offing, Wyoming took on the mission of training thousands of sailors in the art and science of gunnery. Throughout the war, she operated in the Chesapeake Bay area, reportedly firing off more ammunition than any other U.S. Navy ship. Wyoming's remaining big guns were replaced with more five-inch and smaller weapons in early 1944, reflecting an increasing emphasis on anti-aircraft requirements. In July 1945 she became an experimental gunnery ship with what soon became the Operational Development Force, serving in that capacity until August 1947, when she decommissioned and handed the function over to USS Mississippi (AG-128). USS Wyoming was sold for scrapping in October 1947.

This page features selected views of USS Wyoming.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 60576

USS Wyoming (BB-32)


Steaming at high speed, possibly during her trials, circa 1912-13.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 119KB; 740 x 555 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 73825

USS Wyoming (BB-32)


Passing through the Galliard Cut, Panama Canal, 26 July 1919.
View looks south.

Collection of Colonel J. Willcox, USMC(Retired).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 143KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-466464

USS Wyoming (BB-32)


Underway at sea, with ten of her 12"/50 guns trained out to starboard, 24 March 1930.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 90498

USS Wyoming (AG-17)


Photographed circa 1935.

Collection of Rear Admiral Bradford Bartlett, 1979.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 570 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-30947

USS Wyoming (AG-17)


Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, 6 June 1942.
She is wearing a Measure 12 (Modified) camouflage scheme, and is still armed with six 12"/50 guns, plus a variety of five-inch and smaller guns.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 550 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-68191

USS Wyoming (AG-17)


Photographed on 18 April 1944, after replacement of her twelve-inch gun turrets with 5"/38 twin gun mounts, but before her "cage" foremast was removed.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-323307

USS Wyoming (AG-17)


Underway in the Atlantic Ocean, 30 April 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 53320

USS Wyoming (BB-32)


Staff of Rear Admiral Charles J. Badger, Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, in a planning session on board Wyoming in 1913.
Those present around the table are (from left to right):
Lieutenant Gardner L. Caskey, USN;
Lieutenant Commander Walton R. Sexton, USN;
Lieutenant Commander Frank R. McCrary, USN;
Lieutenant Stanford C. Hooper, USN;
Major Albertus W. Catlin, USMC; and
Commander Carl T. Vogelgesang, USN.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 460 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 83693

USS Wyoming (AG-17)


Ship's crew portrait, taken circa 1932.
Her Commanding Officer, Captain Benjamin Dutton, is seated in the center of the front row of officers. Seated by his side are the Executive Officer, Commander Rufus King, and Lieutenant Commander Wilder D. Baker.

Collection of Vice Admiral Wilder D. Baker, USN (Retired).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 48407

USS Wyoming (AG-17)


Press and radio women pose with Wyoming's Commanding Officer, Captain Van Leer Kirkman, atop her forward 12"/50 gun turret, while visiting the ship during a press tour of Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Virginia, 10 October 1941.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-334378

USS Wyoming (AG-17)


Chief Gunner's Mate Eugene Metzel, USN, who has served 24 years on board Wyoming, looks at the bronze plaque commemorating her First World War service with the Grand Fleet. Photographed in 1945.
Chief Metzel is wearing the World War II era service dress grey uniform.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 70KB; 595 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 


The lead ship in the following photograph is either USS Wyoming or her sister, USS Arkansas:

Photo #: NH 105079

Battleships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet


Steaming in column formation, circa 1914.
Photographed by Enrique Muller, New York.
The leading ship is either USS Wyoming (BB-32) or USS Arkansas (BB-33).
Note the dense smoke produced by these coal-burning ships.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image size: 124KB; 900 x 675 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 19 December 2000
New image added 19 December 2007