There were no operational battleships in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor. New Mexico departed Maine and Mississippi and Idaho departed Iceland two days later by way of Norfolk for San Francisco, arriving 22/31Jan42, six weeks later. The three formed Task Force 1 based out of San Francisco to patrol and escort convoys to Hawaii. Tennessee and Maryland were repaired and sailed from Puget Sound Navy Yard 26Feb42. Colorado finished overhaul a month later, at about the same time as Pennsylvania finished repair. The new construction North Carolina arrived in June restoring the battle fleet and to its prewar number. The new construction Washington and South Dakota arrived in August and Indiana arrived later in the year.
The newest battleship, Washington (BB-56) and newest carrier, Wasp CV-7, were involved in the prewar Atlantic fiction of neutrality patrol. Both departed to reinforce the British Home Fleet as soon as they could, in March 1942, while new carrier Hornet CV-8 departed for the Pacific about the same time to make Doolittle's Raid on Tokyo. Washington performed convoy escort to northern Russia and North Atlantic; Wasp made two ferry runs through Gibraltar to Malta. When Lexington CV-2 was lost at Coral Sea, Wasp was hurried home to replace her. Wasp and new battleship North Carolina BB-55 departed Norfolk while the Battle of Midway was going on, where Yorktown CV-5 was lost in June. New South Dakota BB-57 was ready to depart for the Pacific in mid-August, followed a week later by Washington who had been recalled when the leadership became convinced that the Pacific War deserved more of the new equipment. But, the Navy was down to one active battleship in an active combat zone for a few weeks, twice, late in 1942. N. Carolina had been torpedoed 6Sep and was in repair at Pearl. S. Dakota was damaged in the defeat at Santa Cruz, 26 Oct, and under repair at New Caldonia. Only Washington BB-56 was active in the South Pacific. The older Colorado BB-45 was rushed to Fiji by 8Nov. Washington and partially repaired S. Dakata fought in the second night of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal,13-14 Nov, where S.D. was again badly damaged and returned to NY. Washington was again the lone fast BB until 28Nov when Indiana BB-58 arrived fresh from shakedown. Old battleships Arkansas BB-33, New York BB-34, and Texas BB-35 remained in the Atlantic, joined by Nevada BB-36 in mid-1943, where their slower speed of 21 knots was not a handicap for troop convoy escort service. The six early war battleships (BB-55 - BB-60) had speeds of 27.5 knots and even these "fast battleships" could not keep up with carriers at combat speeds (CV 33 knot ; CVL 31 kn.). Only the last four, late war Iowa class battleships could reach 33 knots.
