Thanks so much, fellas!
Most of the World War Two-era photos I have access to simply don't show the area of the navigating bridge deck aft of the enclosed (or open) bridge of any ship of the class very well. None of the photos show any deck grating at all in any WW2 photos. From the few photos that do show the area, and poorly at that, what can be seen appears to be either painted steel deck or solid rubberized matting over steel deck.
The best photos I have are these two of
Missouri taken in 1945, shown here. The deck appears to be either bare steel or covered in solid rubberized matting, just as William Smallshaw remembered.
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BB-63 1945.10 .jpg [ 158.05 KiB | Viewed 145951 times ]
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BB-63 1945.10 from DD-499 Navy Day.a.jpg [ 153.34 KiB | Viewed 145951 times ]
Shown here is a 1944 plan for asbestos mats placed on the interior of the enclosed bridges, and other platforms, of all ships of the class. Note that it shows BB-61 and BB-62 with open bridges. This confirms that asbestos mats were installed on decks and platforms exposed to the weather, not just interior spaces. Therefore, any mats laid aft of the enclosed bridge may have had an asbestos component to them, too. This also suggests that fire and/or radiant heat protection was a serious enough consideration that some decks and platforms were covered in asbestos, at least those that were associated with a permanent standing watch.
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1403AP uF Asbestos Mats on Bridge.jpg [ 337.86 KiB | Viewed 145951 times ]
The photo below shows the pilot house roof of USS
New Jersey BB-61, one deck above the navigating bridge deck. In this 1943 photo, no wood gratings are present and it appears that no asbestos matting was present on this level. Photos of other ships of the class are consistent, in that no wood grating or matting was present on the pilot house roof (O5 level) of any ship of the class during World War Two.
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File comment: The pilot house roof (one deck above the navigating bridge deck) is bare steel in this photo of New Jersey.
BB-62 1943.10.29 016232d.jpg [ 89.52 KiB | Viewed 145951 times ]
As of this writing, I'm of the opinion that most likely, during World War Two, there was no wood deck grating installed on the navigating bridge of these ships. Wood grating was most likely a post-war addition. Happy to be proven wrong so please keep looking through your references and let us all know what you find.