Japan sank the USS California battleship at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Years later, it was rebuilt and returned to strike in history's last battleship duel

Japan sank the US Navy battleship USS California (BB-44) at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, with two torpedoes and a bomb, killing 104 crew members. But the battleship returned to take revenge. Salvage teams refloated it in March the next year, and the US Navy spent more than two years rebuilding the ship with radar and new guns. In October 1944, it fired 63 shells at Surigao Strait, marking the final battleship-versus-battleship fight in history.

After the reconstruction, USS California emerged wider and heavier, equipped with new anti-aircraft guns and modern radar. The rebuilt ship could fire an 18,000-pound armor-piercing broadside. At the Battle of Surigao Strait, USS California discharged 63 of its 1,500-pound shells into the Japanese formation. The ship earned seven battle stars before returning to the US. Its overall career lasted from August 10, 1921 to February 14, 1947.

The original USS California

USS California was laid down in October 1916 at Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, according to the US Navy. But wartime demand for smaller vessels slowed down the construction process. The hull was launched on November 20, 1919, and the Navy commissioned the battleship nearly five years after work had begun.

The ship measured 624 feet overall, had a 97-foot beam, and drew roughly 30 feet of water at full load. The warship's armored belt reached 13.5 inches, and turret faces carried 18 inches of armor. Its original complement was about 1,083 officers and enlisted sailors. USS California served much of the interwar period as Battle Fleet flagship, took part in the US Navy’s Fleet Problems, and joined the 1925 cruise to Australia and New Zealand.

USS California's main battery sat in 4 triple turrets. During the 1930s, the battleship received rebuilt Mark 11 guns. Each weapon weighed 179,614 pounds with breech and measured 59.5 feet, according to information from NavWeaps. Besides, every three-gun turret weighed between 897 and 958 tons, requiring a crew of nearly 100. The ship also featured fourteen 5-inch/51 guns, four 3-inch anti-aircraft guns, as well as two submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes.

The Pearl Harbor attack

Around 8:05 am on December 7, 1941, USS California was moored at berth F-3 on Battleship Row when Japanese planes attacked. The ship settled into the harbor bottom over the coming three days, near the wreckage of USS Arizona.

The final data from the US Navy stated that 104 crew members were killed and 61 were left injured. US Navy's Jackson C. Pharris, Herbert C. Jones, Thomas Reeves, and Robert R. Scott received the Medal of Honor for their actions during the raid, according to Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

The reconstruction of USS California

Salvage crews fixed the torpedo openings in the ship, pumping out water and mud. The battleship floated again in March 1942. After temporary repairs, California left Pearl Harbor on October 10, 1942, and reached Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington ten days later.

The Navy then opted for a full reconstruction: Workers removed the old superstructure, widened the hull, and installed radar, modern fire control, and new boilers. The rebuilt USS California displaced over 40,000 long tons at full load, carrying 114 officers and 2,129 enlisted personnel.

It received sixteen 5-inch/38 dual-purpose guns, forty 40 mm Bofors barrels, and forty-three 20 mm Oerlikons. USS California left the Puget Sound Yard on January 31, 1944.

A few months later, in June 1944, USS California joined the invasion of the Mariana Islands, bombarding Spain and exchanging fire with Japanese shore batteries. A 4.7-inch shell hit the ship on June 14 of the year, killing one sailor and injuring several others, but USS California survived the attack. The battleship then supported landings at Guam and Tinian.

On the night of October 24-25 in 1944, USS California joined five other American ships across the northern end of Surigao Strait. California’s Mark 8 fire-control radar generated a firing solution while the Japanese formation remained unable to see the US line clearly.

USS California fired 63 armor-piercing rounds in six-gun salvos and marked its participation in the last direct battleship fight between opposing forces.

In January 1945, USS California moved to Lingayen Gulf to aid the invasion of Luzon. On the 6th of that month, a Japanese suicide plane crashed near the mainmast and anti-aircraft positions, killing 44 people and injuring more than 150. The ship stayed there to support landings before sailing to Puget Sound for repair work. It returned to the Western Pacific in June 1945, joining the final stages of the Okinawa campaign.

Sale to Bethlehem Steel in 1959

USS California reached Philadelphia exactly four years after it was struck at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1945. The battleship entered reserve on August 7, 1946, and was decommissioned on February 14, 1947.

The US Navy struck the ship off the register on March 1, 1959, selling it for $859,999 to Bethlehem Steel in July that year. The company dismantled USS California at Sparrows Point in Maryland. The ship’s 350-pound bronze bell had already returned to California, where then governor Earl Warren accepted it at Capitol Park in Sacramento. The bell remains on display at the Capitol Park till date.