When Divers Located The Ship That Survived Pearl Harbor, They Saw What Sank WWII’s Toughest Vessel

This wreck is the USS Nevada — and her story is remarkable. But the ship endured severe damage long before her mysterious sinking. For one thing, the massive battleship survived the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Then she went on to fight in WWII, where suicide bombers attempted to destroy her. Despite all this, though, the Nevada still returned home in a functional state.

From there, the military used the Nevada in their atomic bomb testing – but that didn’t bring her down to the depths of the Pacific, either. Instead, she sank in 1948, not as the result of any conflict or bomb-testing program. What was it that finally downed her? Well, thanks to a crew of modern-day explorers, we now have a clearer picture.

The USS Nevada was one of a pair of 27,500-ton battleships constructed in Quincy, Massachusetts, ahead of WWI. But after her commission in March 1916, it took two years for her to hit the open seas. Eventually, she headed to the British Isles to aid in the European conflict.

Then, at the end of the war, the ship sailed through the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific, completing various exercises and fleet drills along the way. Soon enough, the vessel reached her tenth anniversary of service – receiving modernizations between 1927 and 1930 to make her even tougher at sea.

These upgrades included a set of anti-aircraft guns, a secondary battery, a strengthened superstructure, and improved masts. All of this made the Nevada better in both her defenses and armory. And she got back to service on the Pacific Ocean, joining up with the U.S. Battle Fleet.

That meant the Nevada was in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. She was, in fact, the oldest battleship in the water that day – but she was still able to hold her own against the shower of bullets, bombs, and suicide planes beginning to fall.

As the Nevada moved slowly through the water, she became an easy target for the assailants overhead. Yes, dive bombers swooped and shot at the vessel, and a torpedo launched by the Japanese caused the ship to start leaking in spite of the updated anti-torpedo fittings. The damage that they caused was not enough to sink her, however.

The Nevada’s war wound didn’t stop her moving – even when gasoline fires began to break out on board. Instead, the ship lumbered on and nearly reached the Navy Yard before grounding on the side of the waterway. And while the battleship eventually sunk to the bottom, she was far from lost – because the water there was shallow.

Thankfully, the Navy later beached the Nevada and got to work repairing all of the damage that had been caused by the surprise attack. This had her back on the water in April 1942 – just four months after the invasion. And the assault on Pearl Harbor itself was the impetus for the U.S. joining the Allied forces in WWII.

But it seems the Nevada wasn’t quite ready to head straight into battle. Instead, repairmen ensured that she was functional enough to leave Pearl Harbor and head to the west coast of the United States. It was there that the Nevada underwent a year-long service to get her shipshape and back on the water with enhanced resources. Workers made sure to boost the anti-aircraft gun battery, for example.

With all of these fittings in place, the ship was ready to return to the front lines – and the Navy put her straight to work. She journeyed from the U.S. mainland to the Aleutian island chain in the North Pacific. There, American forces battled with the Japanese for control of a small island, Attu.

In June 1942 the Japanese occupied both Attu and the neighboring island of Kiska. They may have wanted the islands to shift the U.S. forces’ attention away from Midway Island, which they attacked in the same month. They may also have thought that having an Aleutian base would stop American troops from moving through the Pacific and onto Japan.

Either way, the Japanese held Attu from June 1942 until May 1943, which was when the Nevada – among other resources – regained control of the island. This certainly wasn’t the end for the ship, as the Navy then sent her on another critical mission in the WWII effort. And this time, the Nevada would have to sail halfway around the world to reach her next post.

The Nevada arrived off the coast of France to take part in the Normandy Invasion, which is also known as D-Day. Soldiers from the States, Canada, and the United Kingdom came together to fight for France’s freedom from Nazi control on June 6, 1944. It took until the end of August to liberate the northern portion of the country, and the Allies then regrouped to plan their march into Germany.

Throughout the Normandy Invasion and French liberation, the Nevada remained in the Atlantic. But the ship then shuttled to the south of the country for August and September 1944 before moving on to her next assignment back in the Pacific. Yes, she sailed a long way to reach another important WWII battle.

Back on the Pacific front, the Nevada helped the Allied forces in their final push to conquer Japan. That involved two major battles of 1945: Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Both conflicts resulted in thousands of deaths on both sides, and the Nevada didn’t make it out unscathed, either.

You see, a suicide plane dived into the ship on March 27, 1945. Then, about a week later, an artillery shell pierced the vessel. After all that damage, the Nevada was temporarily docked just off Okinawa for around two months. Then, as America prepared to invade Japan, she rejoined the war effort.

At the time, military officials called the scheme to invade Japan “Operation Downfall.” But they also knew that sending American troops into the country would result in massive losses. So, President Harry S. Truman authorized another course of action that didn’t involve sending in men on the ground.

On August 6, 1945, Truman gave the green light for American forces to fly over Hiroshima and drop “Little Boy,” the code name for the atomic bomb. Three days later, another atomic bomb called “Fat Man” fell on Nagasaki. This led to Japan’s unconditional surrender, meaning the Allied forces never had to complete the Operation Downfall invasion.

And the Nevada didn’t have to take part in any combat past the Iwo Jima and Okinawa invasions – WWII had ended when the Japanese signed their surrender. Still, the battleship kept busy nonetheless. She trekked from her final post in the Pacific toward Hawaii, at which point officials deemed the ship too old to rejoin the Naval fleet.

Instead, the Navy began to use the old warship for target practice – for atomic bomb tests, no less. The Nevada duly shuttled to the Marshall Islands, which sit between Hawaii and Australia. And once the tests began, radioactive weaponry damaged the veteran vessel in more ways than one.

Of course, atomic bombs caused physical wear and tear to the Nevada. But the tests also made the ship radioactive and unfit for service in the military altogether. In August 1946, then, the Navy decommissioned the 30-year-old ship. Her story didn’t end there, though.

No, after another two years, the former warship was taken out to sea one last time. She had returned close to the Hawaiian Islands, and she fell to her final resting place on the seafloor on July 31, 1948. And while historians had some of the puzzle pieces needed to solve the mystery of this ship’s demise, a 2020 discovery would shed more light on what really happened.

Although servicemen were there as the Nevada began to sink, they only recorded relative bearings to help relocate the vessel later on. So, rediscovering the shell of the former battleship would be a tough job – and a nearly impossible one if carried out by humans alone.

But in 2020 two companies joined forces to send the proper technology in search of the Nevada. SEARCH Inc collaborated with marine robotics specialists Ocean Infinity. Ocean Infinity then sent an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to capture photos and send them to SEARCH for analysis.

Of course, the AUV’s assignment was no small task. After the device hit the seafloor, it searched a 100-square-mile stretch of land near where eyewitnesses thought the ship had gone down. But while the tech scoured more than 15,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, it found something.

Soon enough, images of the Nevada flooded onto the screens of the land team’s computers. And after analyzing the photos, the experts could see that the battleship’s wreckage had landed on top of an underwater plain. Interestingly, the ship had settled upside down. There was also a 2,000-foot area of debris trailing from its hull.

Both the Nevada’s bow and stern had disappeared, too. But finding the busted, upside-down battleship meant a lot to many, including the men who worked on board. Former Nevada crewmate Richard Ramsey served in Normandy, Okinawa, and Iwo Jima. And in 2020 he told National Geographic, “It’s really a great thing that they found it.”

The researchers felt the same way. Maritime archaeologist James Delgado led the mission and served as SEARCH’s senior vice president. And he knew how important the Nevada was as a symbol of the American people.

Delgado said, “It struck me, if there was one ship to find that particularly now could speak to something about human nature and particularly Americans, it would be Nevada – stubborn, resilient.” Rediscovering the vessel – and seeing what it was that had brought her down – only proved how strong she had been.

Yes, historians knew a little bit about the events that left the old warship on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The Nevada – still a garish shade of orange after its days as an atomic bomb-drop target – had been towed out to sea. Then, cruisers and planes took part in a four-day naval drill.

Yes, the servicemen and women fired rounds and even dropped bombs onto the Nevada. But nothing could sink her until a plane’s torpedo finally did the trick. As National Geographic’s Kristin Romey put it, the blast “did what the Germans and Japanese could not: send Nevada to the bottom of the sea.”

But a new look at the Nevada has revealed that this may not be entirely accurate. After poring over the footage of the waterlogged vessel, Delgado thought instead that two torpedoes had actually brought down the battleship. He could see “a whole section of the hull just blasted open, exposing the armor, but with the outer skin just peeled back and torn.”

And the possibility that two torpedoes may have taken down the ship was a revelation for the researchers. As SEARCH’s president James Pochurek put it in a 2020 press release, “The discovery of the USS Nevada is another reminder of the powerful human stories lying beneath the waves waiting to be retold.”

Delgado added, “Rising from its watery grave after being sunk at Pearl Harbor, [the USS Nevada] survived torpedoes, bombs, shells, and two atomic blasts. The physical reality of the ship, resting in the darkness of the great museum of the sea, reminds us not only of past events but of those who took up the challenge of defending the United States in two global wars.”

And the prospect of rediscovering a piece of history was exactly why Delgado and his peers had dedicated themselves to such searches. He said, “This is why we do ocean exploration – to seek out those powerful connections to the past.” Their work in analyzing the sunken ship continues.

But Ramsey, who served on the Nevada himself, felt the vessel deserved a different send-off. He didn’t mince his words when he said, “They should not have sunk that ship.” And he argued that the Nevada’s role in a host of important battles should have helped make it a WWII memorial – just like another ship, in fact.

The USS Missouri was the battleship upon which the Japanese signed their official surrender. That vessel remains afloat – and, as Ramsey suggested for the Nevada – it has become a memorial of the war fought nearly a century ago. Ramsey even said that the sunken ship “should be tied up next to the Missouri.”

Although the ship’s entire story will eventually unfold, what we know now should be enough to inspire us, according to Ocean Infinity’s Shawntel Johnson. She said, “It is our hope that by sharing the USS Nevada’s story that it not only honors those who served in the Navy and fulfills an important educational role, but that in these challenging times it also serves as a symbol of perseverance and courage.”

The American soldiers were certainly courageous during WWII – especially in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese enemy was rampaging across the Pacific, taking over territories and destroying Allied ships and planes along the way. Defeat was on the horizon for America. But before that bleak day came, a turning point was reached. The U.S. registered an important victory that turned the tides in just a day — and it was mostly down to one special aircraft.

In the ten or so months after Pearl Harbor, it might have seemed like Japan was unbeatable. It more than doubled the span of its empire in that time, taking it to new places like the Philippines, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies, which we know today as Indonesia. The United States, meanwhile, seemed to be on the back foot.

According to some scholars, Japan’s victories throughout this period can be attributed to its advanced air technology. The empire had developed high quality planes by this point, plus they’d actually been flying them. Japanese pilots were experienced by this stage of World War II, whereas their American counterparts were only just setting out.

In the spring of 1942, however, things took a dramatic turn. A fierce battle played out in the skies and waters of a particular spot in the Pacific Ocean, which proved remarkably consequential. Having been relentlessly battered by Japan for so many months, the States was now about to register a major victory.

This period marked the point where the United States got a decisive grip on the Pacific War. But if it hadn’t been for a spot of engineering ingenuity, then things might have played out quite differently. If the Douglas SBD Dauntless aircraft hadn’t been flying, who’s to say America wouldn’t have lost the war?

The fear of losing must have been rife for Americans back on December 7, 1941. The assault on Pearl Harbor wasn’t expected, but now the States was pulled into the mire of World War II. The Japanese then moved to take over territories across the Pacific, while both Italy and Germany proclaimed war against America.

The damage at Pearl Harbor was a setback for America, but the Navy still had other battleships and submarines at its disposal. So in defense of the U.S. mainland, the Navy engaged in intense sea conflict with the Japanese. These encounters started out as basic raids, but eventually they intensified into outright battles.

Those initial months of America’s entry into World War II were tough. Japan was very much on the rise, with its empire growing at a rapid pace. It even took a part of Alaska, and was looking to disrupt America’s ally Australia. This was really problematic, as the States wanted to use Australia as a jumping-off point for its operations.

The Americans were really under pressure during those initial months. Eventually, though, they and their allies from Australia and New Zealand managed to gain a foothold and slow the Japanese down a little. The Allied side started to launch counter attacks from the sea, landing on the beaches of various territories in the Pacific. Operations like this soon became the norm.

The Allies soon started to pile pressure on Japan, trying to take over islands held by the empire. This saw American soldiers and their allies battling in places like the Philippines and New Guinea. They were hoping to take over more and more territories in the Pacific, in preparation for a move toward Japan itself.

Then the Americans and Japanese dramatically faced off during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May, 1942. This was a horrendous engagement, with both sides losing huge numbers of men. Over the course of just four days, the two sides were left battered.

The Battle of the Coral Sea represented a new phase in the history of warcraft. You see, scholars consider it to be history’s inaugural air-naval battle, which basically refers to the fact that none of the battleships actually shot at each other. Instead, the vessels just served as launching sites for aircraft to take off and fight each other in the air.

The Japanese probably emerged from the Battle of the Coral Sea in better shape than the Americans. Nonetheless, the States had challenged them like never before. Japan lost a significant number of their battle-hardened pilots, too, which set them back. In fact, they had to cancel some of their planned operations.

Even though Japan had suffered a blow, its military leadership was still confident of success. The commander of the empire’s Navy, Admiral Isaroku Yamamoto, was set on wiping out the Americans. So he planned a secret assault on the Midway Atoll, where the Allies had set up a base.

The Midway Atoll was an incredibly important place, strategically speaking. Made up of three primary isles and a number of lesser ones, the atoll is situated in the Pacific Ocean, nearly smack-bang in the middle of Japan and the U.S. mainland. Whichever side controlled the place, then, would clearly benefit.

Admiral Yamamoto’s plan to take Midway involved a number of phases. First, his forces would attack some islands off the Alaskan coast, which would serve as a diversion. Then, an assault on Midway would be launched from the air, followed by landings conducted by foot soldiers. Then, when American ships showed up to help out, the Japanese Navy would open fire.

This plan might have been effective, except the Americans had figured it all out before it was initiated. Weeks beforehand, U.S. codebreakers had intercepted Japanese communications which mentioned a planned attack on a location referred to as “A.F.” Suspecting that A.F. was, in fact, Midway, the Americans had a scheme to find out for sure.

The Americans transmitted a message about water supplies in the Midway Atoll, knowing the Japanese would hear it. Then, when the Japanese communicated a message about A.F.’s water situation through their own channels, the Americans knew they really were talking about Midway. That gave them the opportunity to secretly prepare for the Japanese assault.

On June 3, 1942, Japan initiated its plan. It started with the diversion near Alaska, before going ahead with the invasion of Midway. The Americans initiated their counterattack, though, and the two sides engaged. The historic Battle of Midway was now underway, the consequences of which would ultimately change the course of the whole war.

At the start of the following day, Japan sent planes to the sky to strike the base on Midway itself. These aircraft inflicted quite a bit of damage, but they then had to fly back to their launching ships to top up on fuel. This is when they became aware of an American fleet ready for battle.

The dramatic engagement that was about to unfold would arguably determine the course of the whole Pacific War. Many scholars highlight this battle as the point where things really started to change in the wider conflict. But if it hadn’t been for America’s Douglas SBD Dauntless aircraft, events might have unfolded quite differently.

The Douglas SBD Dauntless was the brainchild of Ed Heinemann, who designed it for bombing campaigns and intelligence-gathering purposes. It wasn’t the fastest airplane used by the States during World War II, nor was it the most technologically sophisticated. But by the end of the conflict, it was arguably the most important.

The Dauntless was used by different branches of the American military, with the Navy, Marines, and Army all flying it at one point or another. Plus, other countries made use of it, too. Members of New Zealand’s Air Force flew the plane over the Pacific, while various French forces also hopped into the Dauntless cockpit.

The Dauntless entered into production in the United States in 1940, not long before the country was pulled into the war. The plane flew for the first time in May of that year, which would be followed by many more flights over the next few years. Some 5,936 planes were created right up until 1944, when production ceased.

At 14,000 feet up in the air, the Dauntless could hit a top speed of 255 miles per hour. It could reach a higher altitude at lower speeds, though, with 25,530 feet said to be the maximum. It was capable of carrying around 2,250 pounds of explosives, while it was also equipped with machine guns.

In spite of its relative slowness, the Dauntless proved to be an exceptionally important plane for the Americans. It was adept at diving maneuvers, for one thing, while it was also really good for scouting missions. The aircraft had plenty of positives, then, but it really showed off during the Battle of Midway.

As we’ve seen, the Japanese had big plans to really hurt the Americans in a battle for the Midway Atoll. But they hadn’t counted on just how prepared the U.S. forces would be. So while they’d planned to catch the Americans off guard, the reverse is what actually came to pass.

The Americans dramatically beat back the Japanese during the Battle of Midway, with four Japanese aircraft carriers being wiped out. That was a massive loss for Japan, which left their plan in tatters. But how were so many carriers taken out? Well, it was all down to the Douglas SBD Dauntless.

Three of the Japanese carriers were sunk in a single wave of Dauntless attacks, but the fourth one survived for a while longer. This vessel was the Hiryū, from which the Japanese could launch more of their own aircraft to the sky. By the middle of the day, though, American fighter planes had managed to sink it. Boo-yeah!

In the days that followed the sinking of these carriers, the American attacks relentlessly continued. And eventually the enemy had to give in and leave Midway. By that time the Japanese had lost a lot of men and crafts, while the Americans had fared a lot better. A corner had been turned.

The Americans had stemmed Japanese expansion through the Pacific, forcing the enemy to take a more defensive stance. Rather than ceaselessly looking to take more and more control of the Pacific Ocean, Japan was now being pinned back. The consequences of this change in fortunes would prove to be dramatic.

Having emerged from the Battle of Midway as the victors, the American forces were now running high on confidence. The complete opposite was the case for the Japanese, who were left despondent and exhausted. A lot can be said for morale during a conflict as brutal as World War II.

The Dauntless had directly contributed to an incredibly important American victory, but that wasn’t all. The plane would continue to fly in more operations, helping the Allies on their path to ultimate victory. By the time of the war’s end, the Dauntless had taken out many more important ships in the Japanese fleet.

The Battle of Guadalcanal was another engagement in which the Dauntless played a central role. During the hostilities, the aircraft was responsible for sinking yet another of Japan’s aircraft carriers. And on top of that, it also managed to take out a number of smaller vessels in the enemy’s fleet.

The Dauntless didn’t just see action over the Pacific, as the aircraft was utilized in Europe, too. For one thing, the planes were used to assault German ships that were in the waters off Norway. Plus, they were also a part of the Allied foray into North Africa. Really, the Dauntless was used in every corner of the world.

As the war raged on, though, newer types of aircraft gradually came to take over. A plane known as the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver was produced more and more, eventually coming to replace the Dauntless. The Dauntless was still flown, of course, just not to the same degree as earlier in the conflict.

Despite its shiny newness, the Helldiver wasn’t actually liked very much by the pilots who flew it. They claimed the Dauntless had been able to handle more gradual speeds with much more finesse. That’s how the Helldiver came to pick up the nickname of the “Big-Tailed Beast,” not exactly complimentary.

Nonetheless, the Dauntless continued to be phased out towards the end of World War II. And that was also true for the other forces who used it. New Zealand, for example, had managed to acquire some 28 planes, yet it soon swapped them over for a model known as the F4U Corsair.

After World War II had ended, the French continued to make use of the Dauntless. That didn’t last for very long, though, and by 1947 the aircraft had been officially retired. After years of vitally important missions all over the globe, the Douglas SBD Dauntless was no longer in active service.

The Dauntless is remembered today as an aircraft that arguably turned the tide on America’s war in the Pacific. Had it not taken out so many Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway, then perhaps the Japanese Empire may not have faltered. History, as we know it today, might have played out very differently. But as we know, with victory on both the Eastern and Western fronts, American troops finally made it home, and the images of their ecstatic reunion with normalcy might be the most momentous of the entire war.