BatDiv

A BatDiv or BATDIV was a standard U.S. Navy abbreviation or acronym for "battleship division." The Commander of a Battleship Division was known, in official Navy communications, as COMBATDIV (followed by a number), such as COMBATDIV ONE.

One of the Battleship Divisions active during the First World War was United States Battleship Division Nine which augmented the striking power of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet in 1917-1918.

Pre-Second World War battleship divisions
Before the Second World War, the U.S. Navy battleship force was organized into five Battleship Divisions of three battleships each. Only two of these BATDIVs were composed of three battleships of the same class, but mixing battleships of separate two-ship classes to form three-ship BATDIVs was facilitated by the "Standard type battleship" concept of the US Navy, a design concept developed before 1922 calling for uniform top speed of 21 knots (39 km/h) and a tight tactical radius of 700 yards (640 m) for all battleships of the, , , and  classes.

Stationed at Pearl Harbor as part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were three battleship divisions: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) and USS Arizona (BB-39) with USS Nevada (BB-36) (BatDiv 1); USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS California (BB-44) with USS Oklahoma (BB-37) (BatDiv2); and USS Colorado (BB-45), USS Maryland (BB-46) and USS West Virginia (BB-48) (BatDiv 4). These nine battleships were intended to counterbalance the ten battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. At the time of the Pearl Harbor Attack, USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) was in dry dock and USS Colorado (BB-45) was being refitted at Bremerton Navy Yard, Washington State. USS Arizona (BB-39) was mated with USS Nevada (BB-36) and USS Oklahoma (BB-37) at that time.

The US Atlantic Fleet had a BATDIV (BatDiv 3) composed of USS New Mexico (BB-40), USS Mississippi (BB-41) and USS Idaho (BB-42) and a training division (BatDiv 5) made up of the older battleships USS New York (BB-34) and USS Texas (BB-35) with USS Arkansas (BB-33).

After the Pearl Harbor attack, the BATDIV was replaced by the Task Group (TG) as the operational wartime unit.

Battleship Division 1 was active in the Pacific at least until 1946, according to U.S. Navy records with the National Archives and Records Administration. On June 7, 1954, under the direction of Battleship Division 2, Norfolk, Virginia, the four battleships of the operated together for the only time.

On January 15, 1957, USS Wisconsin (BB-64) reported to Commander Fleet Training Group, Guantanano Bay, Cuba and Rear Admiral Henry Crommelin, Commander Battleship Division Two broke his flag in Wisconsin. On May 27, 1957 Rear Admiral Lewis S. Parks relieved Rear Admiral Crommelin as Commander Battleship Division Two.