Avenging Pearl Harbor: The Saga of America’s Battleships in the Pacific War

by Keith Warren Lloyd

It was a miracle three years in the making, a testimony to American fortitude and ingenuity—and perhaps the key to why the United States won a war that after Pearl Harbor seemed hopeless.

Impeccably researched deep in the archives at Pearl Harbor and Washington DC, Revenge of the Dreadnoughts is colorfully written, personal, chilling, visceral,

Historian Keith Warren Lloyd brings his gift for injecting life and personalities and heretofore untold stories of the men and women involved-–members of what became known as The Greatest Generation—whose heroism and sacrifice brought about the miraculous new life of a sleeping military force that was reeling and on its knees.

It is a story has never before been old in such detail and with such vibrancy.

On the night of 24 October 1944, a force of two battleships, one heavy cruiser and four destroyers from the Imperial Japanese Navy steamed into Surigao Strait in the Philippines. Their objective: to attack the invasion fleet of General Douglas MacArthur’s army in Leyte Gulf. Alerted by scouting PT boats, the U.S. 7th Fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf prepared a deadly trap. Waiting for the enemy force were five American battleships and supporting cruisers and destroyers. Oldendorf performed the classic naval maneuver of “crossing the T” which allowed the American ships to fire broadsides at the oncoming Japanese vessels, while the enemy could only fire with their forward turrets. When the smoke cleared, the Japanese fleet had been all but annihilated.

Only one destroyer escaped.

The victorious American battleships were the Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, California, and Tennessee, five of the eight dreadnoughts that had been sunk at Pearl Harbor.

The five ships had been raised, repaired, modified and re-manned. After three long years, they finally had their revenge.

Revenge of the Dreadnoughts takes readers from the attack on Pearl Harbor, telling the story of the severe damage dealt to each ship and the incredible acts of courage performed by the sailors of each crew that morning. It continues with how each ship was raised and repaired—Herculean in scope-- and the mustering of new commanders, officers and crewmen.

The final drama unfolds as of each ship returns triumphantly to the battle fleet, and the ultimate triumph at the battle of Surigao Strait.

Genres: World War II

352 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2021

About the author

Keith Warren Lloyd is an author and historian, a US Navy veteran, and a retired firefighter. Lloyd graduated from Arizona State University, where he studied history and political science. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Keith's newest work is The War Correspondents: The Incredible Stories of the Brave Men and Women Who Covered The Fight Against Hitler's Germany, released by Globe Pequot's Lyons Press in October 2025. He is also the author of the following titles:

Dark Nights, Deadly Waters: American PT Boats at Guadalcanal. (2023)

Avenging Pearl Harbor: The Saga of America's Battleships in the Pacific War. (2021)

The Great Desert Escape: How the Flight of 25 German Prisoners of War Sparked One of the Largest Manhunts in American History. (2019)

The Greatest POW Escape Stories Ever Told, an anthology of famous prisoner of war escape stories. (2020)

Above and Beyond: The Incredible Story of Frank Luke Jr., Arizona's Medal of Honor Flying Ace of the First World War. (2015)

Keith's When Heaven Was Falling, Cape Hatteras and On Island Time are historical novels, featuring fictional characters thrust into actual events and often interacting with real-life historical figures.

Reviews

[Bill Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading “Avenging Pearl Harbor,” I was generally aware that 6 of the 8 battleships damaged on December 7, 1941 had been repaired and put back in action, and that several of them were involved in the last battleship action in history, “crossing the T” against a Japanese battleship and heavy cruiser in the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944. What I didn’t know was what had happened to the six ships in the three intervening years.

Lloyd’s well-written book filled that gap. He explains in detail what actually happened on Battleship Row on December 7, 1941. Two of the ships were well and truly lost: Arizona, which exploded, and Oklahoma, which capsized. Surprisingly, the battleships Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee were made seaworthy in short order and then sent to shipyards in Bremerton and San Francisco for repairs. They rejoined the fleet within a couple of months.

Nevada, California and West Virginia were all sunk in the shallow harbor, but they were eventually refloated, repaired and completely overhauled—the superstructures of the ships were converted from World War I-vintage designs with cage masts to modern warships equipped with the latest antiaircraft arsenals, secondary batteries, torpedo blisters, radar gear, direction and range finding equipment, smoke stacks, and bridge. Lloyd does a good job of describing the challenges—and sometimes the horror—of salvaging these ships in Pearl Harbor.

Despite the striking changes to the ships’ silhouettes above the water, hull length and power plant were pretty fixed commodities—these old ships were slow (21 knots) and they could not keep up with fast carrier task forces or maneuver quickly enough to bring enemy battleships to action. So, what to do with them? Lloyd explains how these ships were used from the desperate days of 1942 until their fateful and decisive encounter with a Japanese fleet during the American invasion of the Philippines.

The book is not just about the six Pearl Harbor battleships, of course. It discusses how the temporary loss of these vessels at the outset of the war forced the US Navy to develop a truly effective offensive doctrine for its aircraft carriers, as well as how the costly invasion of Tarawa in November 1943 led to the development of more effective pre-invasion bombardments (in which the six Pearl Harbor veterans played a decisive role).

All and all, an interesting and well-written book on a topic that I had not seen explored in such detail.

[Patrick Pillow · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful narrative about the death and resurrection of the dreadnoughts of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in World War Two. It gives in-depth detail of each BB’s story on December 7th, their subsequent repair and refit and triumphal fleet action at Surigao Strait.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really fine author and the writing is very superb. I wanted a more concentrated look at the comeback of the battleship, but of course they were pretty much obsolete with the carrier coming in focus. This book had a little of that but lots of bits from other books I’ve read which is repetitive to me but someone else would probably find it pretty entertaining. Like I said, this author has excellent writing and is an engaging story teller.

[Jeff J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recap of the Pacific war.