The USS Texas BB-35 is the second of the two New York class battleships; commissioned in 1914, she was a WWI dreadnought era battleship. The USS Texas saw extensive service during WWII firstly escorting convoys in the Atlantic and later in the Pacific theatre of war.

The battleship provided in North Africa and the Normandy D-day landings in the European theatre before transference to the Pacific theatre providing naval gunfire support for the Iwo Jima and Okinawa marine landings. This ship had a large crew with 1042 crew and officers, I was surprised at the number of crew but need to keep in mind this battleship saw action in WWI so was already outdated by the start of WWII.

Placed in naval reserve in 1946, the USS Texas was decommissioned and struck from the naval register in 1948; now residing in San Jacinto, Houston, Texas as a museum ship open to the public. So this battleship did not last long after the second world war, they had plenty of ships with the four Iowa class battleships still in service so there was no shortage of options.

On my next trip to the United States, I hope to be touring through Texas and will be sure to visiting this floating WWII museum. I have never been to Texas before, I never had the chance on my last trip so I am really looking forward to climbing all over this naval museum, it is an old battleship, it not an Iowa class but I don’t think I will care.