Massachusetts

History

Design

The South Dakota-class battleships were the next evolution in battleship design from the previous North Carolina-class. Still designed in the late 1930s, they remained under the limitations imposed by the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty and the subsequent 1936 London Naval Treaty. Originally conceived to be more additions to the North Carolina-class ships, it was decided to delay their design by a year in order to implement some solutions to the shortcomings discovered on the preceding “fast-battleship” class.

The South Dakotas were the first “fast-battleship” class of the US Navy to implement sloped armor plating to address the issue of high angle oncoming shells from plunging fire, especially from 406mm shells. Due to the design itself being of an advanced phase already when this decision was made, only the main armor belt — located interior of the ship — was able to be angled inwards by 19 degrees, which stretched from the main deck down to the bottom plates. Moreover, the bottom plate armor and other major longitudinal armor sections were thickened in comparison to the North Carolina-class.

As a consequence of the additional armoring to increase the survivability of the South Dakota-class ships, they had to be made shorter to meet the displacement restrictions of 35,000 tons imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty. Subsequently, whey were roughly 14 meters shorter than their predecessors of the North Carolina class. The design requirements for the South Dakotas still required them to maintain the same top speed of 27 knots as the North Carolinas; more powerful propulsion systems were required and some creative design choices were made in order to fit everything into the more compact hull as a result. The machinery compartments were re-organized in order to squeeze in all of the boilers, turbines, and accompanying evaporating and distilling equipment, as opposed to North Carolina’s more dispersed engineering arrangement. Furthermore, the machinery rooms themselves took up to two deck spaces, as the boilers were placed on a level above the rest of the machinery to allow the propeller shafts — connected to their respective turbines — to run their full length, unhampered. One interesting design feature resulted from the changes: the bottom hull ended well before the stern of the ship, and the two outer propeller shafts formed a “skeg”, or an enclosure, around the inner propeller shafts. This had the added benefit of providing additional protection from torpedo damage.

The superstructure of the South Dakota-class was taller and narrower than previous American battleships. Due to the concentration of propulsion machinery in the midsection, the design required only one funnel as opposed to the usual two, saving some deck space. From the onset the South Dakota-class were designated the role of fleet flagships, therefore a flag bridge was placed above the ship's command bridge in the conning tower specifically for this purpose.

USS Massachusetts (BB-59), second-to-last of the South Dakota-class battleships, was laid down at Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts on 20 July 1939, launched 23 September 1941, and commissioned on 12 May 1942. She was the seventh ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the sixth state.

Service

Immediately after her shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, Massachusetts — lovingly dubbed "Big Mamie" by her crew — set sail for the Atlantic on 24 October 1942, where her formidable first mission would be serving as the flagship for Admiral Henry Hewitt during Operation Torch – the Allied invasion of French North Africa. Just over two weeks since she set sail from the USA, Massachusetts found herself in her first battle against Vichy French forces on 8 November when the Naval Battle of Casablanca begun. Supported by USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37), USS Wichita (CA-45), and four destroyers, Massachusetts came under fire from shore batteries outside Casablanca, and she responded by opening fire on French battleship Jean Bart anchored in Casablanca harbor.

Forced to retreat from mainland France to escape advancing German forces only to fall into hands of Vichy French forces, Jean Bart only had one of her two quadruple 15-inch turrets installed. At a range of 22,000 meters, Massachusetts pounded Jean Bart for an hour and a half, disabling Jean Bart’s only operational turret, and sinking a pair of merchant ships. Massachusetts unleashed her fury upon the Vichy French ships, also sinking a pair of L’Adroit-class destroyers and the Duguay-Trouin class light cruiser Primauguet. She moved on to bombard shore batteries and ammunition dumps, until she was ordered back to the United States on 12 November. She had fired 786 of the 800 16-inch rounds she carried, expending 98% of her ammunition, with several kills and a disabled battleship to her name.

Transiting via the Panama Canal, Massachusetts arrived at New Caledonia to fight in a new theater: the Solomon Islands campaign. Despite the Allied victories at the Coral Sea and Midway, the Solomons were a grueling stalemate that gradually turned towards the favor of the Allies. Massachusetts protected convoy lanes and supported operations from March 1943 onwards, providing cover for aircraft carrier strike groups across the Gilbert Islands. On 8 December 1943, Massachusetts joined a six-battleship strong force that bombarded the island of Nauru, a lynch pin in the Japanese efforts in the Solomons, causing severe damage to the vital shore installations, including a phosphate-production center.

Her next big mission was a daring and aggressive strike on the Japanese stronghold of Truk, in an attack dubbed Operation Hailstone. On 17 February 1944, Massachusetts joined the massive force including 5 fleet carriers and 4 light carriers, alongside six other battleships that fell upon Truk. The Japanese lost two light cruisers, four destroyers, over a dozen transport vessels and hundreds of aircraft, and were dealt a severe blow to their morale. As part of Task Force 38, Massachusetts defended her task force against heavy Japanese air attacks as her allied carriers raided Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. Much of Massachusetts’ duty with Task Force 38 was protecting allied carriers and supporting naval landings, and she kept this up until 1 May 1944, when she was finally able to retire to the mainland United States for a few months of crew leave and some much-needed maintenance.

Her refit complete, Massachusetts sailed from Pearl Harbor at the beginning of August with a fresh coat of paint to re-join the war in the Pacific. Sailing from her new base in the Marshall Islands on 6 October 1944, Massachusetts joined the final great naval battle of World War II: the Battle of Leyte Gulf. In the days before this, "Big Mamie" supported fleet strikes against Okinawa and Taiwan on 10-14 October. When the battle truly begun, Massachusetts provided anti-aircraft cover for Task Group 38.3, while American fleet carriers sunk four Japanese carriers off Cape Engaño. Aside from finding herself fighting Typhoon Cobra — which claimed 3 destroyers and hundreds of sailors from Task Force 38 — Massachusetts’ duties in the final years of the war were almost exclusively guarding carriers that struck Japanese-held islands across the Pacific, edging ever closer to the Japanese mainland itself.

On 1 July 1945, Massachusetts received her final mission: to join the Third Fleet’s last offensive against Japan. On 14 July, she joined an American/British/New Zealand force that bombarded Japanese mainland industrial facilities on Honshu around Tokyo. Her last bombardment was on 9 August, where Massachusetts herself fired the last 16-inch shell of World War II.

After the war, Massachusetts sailed to Puget Sound again, and following training operations off the California coast in 1946, she joined the Atlantic Fleet Reserve at Norfolk, Virginia on 27 March 1947. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register come 1 June 1962. Rather than heading to the breakers, however, "Big Mamie" was saved from the scrapyard by the joint effort of veterans and citizens of Massachusetts and was successfully transferred to the USS Massachusetts Memorial Committee on 8 June 1965. She sailed to Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, where she has remained ever since, barring a visit to a Boston shipyard in 1998-1999 for overhaul. Massachusetts is open today as a museum ship, owner of 11 battle stars, bearing the distinction of having fired the first and last American 16-inch shells of the war, and notable as the mightiest ship amongst the ensemble present and open at Battleship Cove.

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  USS Massachusetts (BB-59) under construction at Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

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  Massachusetts being launched on September 23, 1941.

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  Massachusetts being refueled at sea.

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  Massachusetts off the coast of Point Wilson, Washington.

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  Massachusetts off Casablanca, 8 November 1942.

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  A large ship resting on the water under a bridge, smaller boats are visible in the foreground along with a ripple effect on the water.

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  Massachusetts refuels two Fletcher-class destroyers, 1944.

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  Massachusetts shelling Kamaishi, Honshū, Japan on 14 July 1945. Outbound projectiles of a full broadside of her 16" guns are visible in upper left of photo.

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  Massachusetts, starboard stern quarter view.

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  Massachusetts in Battleship Cove in 2012.