USS New Jersey (BB-16) - World War I

World War I

During World War I, New Jersey made a major contribution to the expansion of the wartime Navy, training gunners and seamen recruits in Chesapeake Bay. After the Armistice she began the first of four voyages to France, from where she had brought home 5,000 members of the American Expeditionary Force by 9 June 1919. New Jersey was decommissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard on 6 August 1920, and was sunk along with Virginia off Cape Hatteras on 5 September 1923 in Army bomb tests conducted by Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. The film of this bombing was used as stock footage for many years, notably in the 1936 Three Stooges short Half Shot Shooters.