USS CALIFORNIA (BB-44), the second of two Tennessee Class turbo-electric battleships, was laid down on October 25th 1916, launched on November 20th 1919 and commissioned on August 10th 1921. At the time,CALIFORNIAwas the largest warship built at Mare Island Naval Shipyard inCalifornia.

In the raid on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941CALIFORNIAwas sunk by Japanese torpedo action. Following the crew's successful efforts that prevented capsize,CALIFORNIAwas refloated on March 25th 1942 and made forPuget Soundship yard for rehabilitation and modernisation, completed by January 1944. With sisterTennessee,CALIFORNIAparticipated in the invasions of Saipan, Guam and Tinian in June and July 1944, and in the Mariana andPalauislands invasions from June to November 1944.Tennesseecollided withCALIFORNIAin the Pacific on August 23rd 1944, both ships sustaining damage, with fatalities onCALIFORNIA. The naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 saw the sister ships in action again.

On January 6th 1945CALIFORNIAwas struck by Kamikaze' plane during the Lingayen Gulf campaign and returned toPuget Soundfor repairs.CALIFORNIAwas back in action in the western Pacific at Okinawa in June 1945, remaining in theEast China Seaon minesweeping duty.CALIFORNIAsupported the Allied occupation forces inJapanuntil October 1945 before returning home toPhiladelphiaPA.CALIFORNIAwas decommissioned in February 1947 and sold for scrap in July 1959.

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