The task group was divided into two sections: Bombardment Group One, led by USS Nevada (BB-36), and Bombardment Group Two, which included Texas, USS Arkansas (BB-33), USS Barton (DD-722), USS O’Brien (DD-725), and USS Laffey (DD-724). After a week of minor repairs and replenishment in England, Texas left Portland on June 25 with Task Group 129.2. In the week and a half which followed the invasion, she remained off Omaha beach, providing fire support, supplies, and medical assistance for troops ashore. Baker, had covered the Allied landings at Normandy, providing gunfire support primarily for the Rangers attempting to destroy enemy guns at Pointe du Hoc. On June 6, 1944, Texas, commanded by Captain Charles A. It was this new role that resulted in the only major damage and crew casualty inflicted by enemy forces in her 34 year service in the US Navy. But the Texas found new life in World War II, providing naval gunfire support for amphibious landings in three theaters. Battleships continued the naval tradition of “ships of the line,” their name in fact being a shortened version of the term “line of battle ship.” The Texas, however, was never put to use against an enemy fleet as naval warfare evolved in the decades after her commissioning, rendering her obsolete for her intended purpose. The first American battleship commissioned with 14-inch main guns, she boasted 10 in five turrets of two. When the USS Texas (BB-35) was commissioned on March 12, 1914, she was considered the most powerful ship on the seas.
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