A NAVY SECOND TO NONE 1922 - 1941

The battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) had spotting for her twelve 14-inch guns was done by her floatplane spotting aircraft and from the top level of her tripod masts.  The "clock" on the forward leg of her forward leg of her foremast was in fact a range indicator, so that the ship ahead would know the range of Arizona's target.

Folks this is a 'long' article....actually it is a 'two parter'....so what I'm going to do here is provide the first page what I call the 'lead-in'....  Now to me this is one damn good article....plenty of data..pictures...and just a general understanding of "why" we (USA) was the best of the best....we never considered 'second best'...  So...here is the lead in....and the links of getting to both parts.

When the governments of the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Italy, and France signed the Five-power Pact limiting naval armaments in February 1922, the U.S. Navy was at last second to none. The treaty allowed the United States a navy the equal of that of the British Empire and superior to that of the Empire of Japan. Yet the U.S. Navy was like a man caught straddling a fence - not quite out of one world and not entirely safe in a new position. The treaty had frozen much of the Navy in place, cut off much of the massive building program authorize in 1916, and curtailed the planned investment in the ship of the future - the aircraft carrier. The result was a powerful navy, but not powerful enough to gain control of both the
Pacific and the Atlantic if the United States were to fight a two-ocean war.  One goal of the Washington Treaty had been to keep any navy a party to it from building up enough strength to overcome its main rival with one major offensive. The treaty therefore left Japan strong in the western Pacific while conceding dominance of the e stern Pacific and the Caribbean to the United States. In the event of a conflict between them, neither navy could be sure of defeating the other with just its treaty strength. The treaty also constrained the advance of naval technology. The three major naval technologies that showed great promise in World War I

PART I

PART II

Hope you enjoy the article