USS Washington (BB-56) was an American battleship laid down in 1938, launched in June 1940, and commissioned in the US Navy in 1941. The ship was 222 m long, 33 m wide, and her full displacement - at the time of launching - 44,400 tons. The maximum speed of the USS Washington battleship was 26-28 knots. The main armament was 9 406 mm guns in three turrets of three guns each, and the secondary armament was mainly 20 127 mm guns.
USS Washington was the second and last battleship of the North Carolina class. This type of ships was one of the first modern US Navy ships of the World War II period. Their construction was not guided by any tractor restrictions, which resulted in a significant increase in displacement to the so-called standard battleships and the ability to mount powerful main and secondary weapons located in separate towers, not casemates. The new battleships also have improved performance over battleships such as Colorado and Pennsylvania. USS Washington (BB-56) underwent its baptism of fire in World War II in the waters of the Atlantic, operating with the British Home Fleet from March to July 1942. During this period, it also covered Arctic convoys from Great Britain to the USSR. However, in mid-1942, he was transferred to the Pacific, where he took part in the fighting in the Gudalcanal area. On November 15, 1942, it fought a victorious artillery fight with the battleship Kirishima, as a result of which the Japanese battleship had to be finished off by its own destroyers the next day. In 1944, the USS Washington took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. In February 1945, the ship supported the invasion of Iwo-Jima with its artillery fire, and in March it acted against port installations in the Japanese Islands. USS Washington (BB-56) was decommissioned in 1947 and sold for scrap in 1961.