USS WASHINGTON BB-56 Length overall: 222.1m Beam: 33m Displacement：35000t USS Washington BB-56 was laid down on 14 June 1938 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, commissioned on 15 May 1941. December 1941, Washington became the flagship for Rear Admiral John W. Wilcox, Commander, Battleship Division 6, and Commander, Battleships, Atlantic Fleet. On 4 April 1942, she was joining the British Home Fleet. The force got underway to engage in reconnaissance for the protection of the vital convoys running to Murmansk. 15 September 1942, Washington put to sea bound for a rendezvous with TF 17, the force formed around the aircraft carrier HORNET. In the fourth battle of Savo Island, Washington engaged Kirishima, in the first head-to-head confrontation of battleships in the Pacific war. In seven minutes, tracking by radar, Washington sent 75 rounds of 16-inch and 107 rounds of 5-inch at ranges from 8,400 to 12,650 yards, scoring at least nine hits with her main battery and about 40 with her 5-inchers, silencing the enemy battleship in short order. USS Washington earned 13 battle stars during World War II in operations that had carried her from the Arctic Circle to the western Pacific.