| Massachusetts was laid down 20 July 1939 by Bethlehem Steel
Co., Quincy, Massachusetts; launched 23 September 1941; sponsored by Mrs.
Charles Francis Adams; and commissioned 12 May 1942 at Boston, Capt. Francis
E. M. Whiting in command. |
| After shakedown, Massachusetts departed Casco Bay, Maine,
24 October 1942 and 4 days later made rendezvous with the Western Naval Task
Force for the invasion of north Africa, serving as flagship for Adm. H. Kent
Hewitt. While steaming off Casablanca 8 November, she came under fire from
French battleship Jean Bart's 15-inch guns. She returned fire at 0740,
firing the first 16-inch shells fired by the U.S. against the European Axis
Powers. Within a few minutes she silenced Jean Bart's main battery;
then she turned her guns on French destroyers which had joined the attack,
sinking two of them. She also shelled shore batteries and blew up an ammunition
dump. After a cease-fire had been arranged with the French, she headed for
the United States 12 November and prepared for Pacific duty. |
| Massachusetts arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia, 4 March
1943. For the next months she operated in the South Pacific, protecting convoy
lanes and supporting operations in the Solomons. Between 19 November and
21 November, she sailed with a carrier group striking Makin, Tarawa, and
Abemama in the Gilberts; on 8 December she shelled Japanese positions on
Nauru; and on 29 January 1944 she guarded carriers striking Tarawa in the
Gilberts. |
| The Navy now drove steadily across the Pacific. On 30 January
Massachusetts bombarded Kwajalein, and she covered the landings there
1 February. With a carrier group she struck against the Japanese stronghold
at Truk 17 February. That raid not only inflicted heavy damage on Japanese
aircraft and naval forces, but also proved to be a stunning blow to enemy
morale. On 21 to 22 February, Massachusetts helped fight off a heavy
air attack on her task group while it made raids on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.
She took part in the attack on the Carolinas in late March and participated
in the invasion at Hollandia 22 April which landed 60,000 troops on the island.
Retiring from Hollandia, her task force staged another attack on Truk. |
| Massachusetts shelled Ponape Island 1 May, her last mission
before sailing to Puget Sound to overhaul and reline her gun barrels, now
well-worn. On 1 August she left Pearl Harbor to resume operations in the
Pacific war zone. She departed the Marshall Islands 6 October, sailing to
support the landings in Leyte Gulf. In an effort to block Japanese air attacks
in the Leyte conflict, she participated in a fleet strike against Okinawa
10 October. Between 12 and 14 October, she protected forces hitting Formosa.
While part of TG 38.3 she took part in the Battle for Leyte Gulf 22 to 27
October, during which planes from her group sank four Japanese carriers off
Cape Engano. |
| Stopping briefly at Ulithi, Massachusetts returned to the
Philippines as part of a task force which struck Manila 14 December while
supporting the invasion of Mindoro. Massachusetts sailed into a howling
typhoon 17 December, with winds estimated at 120 knots. Three destroyers
sank at the height of the typhoon's fury. Between 30 December and 23 January
1945, she sailed as part of TF 38, which struck Formosa and supported the
landing at Lingayen. During that time she turned into the South China Sea,
her tasks force destroying shipping from Saigon to Hong Kong, concluding
operations with airstrikes on Formosa and Okinawa. |
| From 10 February to 3 March, with the 5th Fleet,
Massachusetts guarded carriers during the raids on Honshu. Her group
also struck Iwo Jima by air for the invasion of that island. On 17 March,
the carriers launched strikes against Kyushu while Massachusetts fired
in repelling enemy attacks, splashing several planes. Seven days later she
bombarded Okinawa. She spent most of April fighting off air attacks, while
engaged in the operations at Okinawa, returning to the area in June, when
she passed through the eye of a typhoon with 100-knot wind 5 June. She bombarded
Minami Daito Jima in the Ryukyus 10 June. |
| Massachusetts sailed 1 July from Leyte Gulf to join the
3d Fleet's final offensive against Japan. After guarding carriers launching
strikes against Tokyo, she shelled Kamaishi, Honshu, 14 July, thus hitting
Japan's second largest iron and steel center. Two weeks later she bombarded
the industrial complex at Hamamatsu, returning to blast Kamaishi 9 August.
It was here that Massachusetts fired what was probably the last 16-inch
shell fired in combat in World War II. |
| Victory won, the fighting battleship sailed for Puget Sound and
overhaul 1 September. She left there 28 January 1946 for operations off the
California coast, until leaving San Francisco for Hampton Roads, arriving
22 April. She decommissioned 27 March 1947 to enter the Atlantic Reserve
Fleet at Norfolk, and was struck form the Naval Register 1 June 1962. |
| The next chapter, and the longest one in the history of this ship,
came when a group of former crew members and other interested parties joined
together to bring the "Big Mamie," as she was afdfectinately known, back
to her namesake "Bay State" as a war memorial. It was no small task in the
1960s to raise the needed half million dollars, obtain political support
and find a location that could serve as a permanent home for the 680 foot
long ship but on June 8, 1965 she was transferred to the Massachusetts
Memorial Committee as the Bay State's memorial to those who gave their lives
in World War II. |
| On November 4, 1998, the ship was towed from her home port at
Fall River, Massachusetts, to Boston for drydocking. This is the first time
in 33 years that the ship has moved from her berth at Battleship Cove. She
was under tow of the 6,300 HP tug Esther Moran, with the assistance
of the 3,300 HP tug Judy Moran, for the 300-mile voyage to Boston
while veteran northeast pilot Captain Bruce Fisher, and a riding crew of
15, supervised the undocking. Travelling at 3 to 4 knots around Cape Cod,
the tow arrived off Boston harbor at 0700, 7 November 1998. The two Moran®
tugs under the command of Moran's tow master, with their tow, were met at
the harbor entrance by four harbor assist tugs, two going on each side of
the battleship to move her slowly into drydock. |
| While in drydock, the ship's hull will be cleaned, surveyed and
painted. Hull plates and rivets will be replaced or repaired as necessary,
and 108 hull valve openings will be sealed. Upon completion of the drydock
repairs, the battleship will be returned by Moran to her place of honor at
Battleship Cove. |
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