(Vanilla) USS Iowa BB-61, Late 1944

Crux shipyard presents. This ship as become a preset ship in the vanilla game. The Battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) USS Iowa (BB-61) is the lead ship of her class, and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named after the state of Iowa. Ordered in July 1939,She was laid down at New York Naval Shipyard in June 1940. She was launched on 27 August 1942, sponsored by Ilo Wallace (wife of Vice President Henry Wallace), and commissioned on 22 February 1943 with Captain John L. McCrea in command. Owing to the cancellation of the Montana-class battleships, Iowa is the last lead ship of any class of United States battleships. USS Iowa was the only ship of her class to serve in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. She carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic to Mers El Kébir, Algeria, en route to a conference of vital importance in 1943 in Tehran with Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom and Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. When transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, Iowa shelled beachheads at Kwajalein and Eniwetok in advance of Allied amphibious landings and screened aircraft carriers operating in the Marshall Islands. She also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Admiral William F. Halsey's flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. USS Iowa's main battery consisted of nine 16 in (406 mm)/50 caliber Mark 7 guns, which could fire 2,700 lb (1,200 kg) armor-piercing shells 20 nmi (23 mi; 37 km). Her secondary battery consisted of twenty 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal guns in twin mounts, which could fire at targets up to 12 nmi (14 mi; 22 km) away. With the advent of air power and the need to gain and maintain air superiority came a need to protect the growing fleet of Allied aircraft carriers; to this end, Iowa was fitted with an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns to defend Allied carriers from enemy airstrikes. General characteristics (Late 1944) Displacement(Standard):45,000 tons Displacement(Full