USS Missouri (BB-63) is an Iowa-class battleship and was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the U.S. state of Missouri. Missouri was the last battleship commissioned by the United States and is best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, which ended World War II.

Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theater of World War II, she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, and she later fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets (the "Mothball Fleet"), but reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Missouri received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned in 1992 after serving a total of 17 years of active service, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor.

Pictured here is a 1:1250 scale diecast replica of the US battleship Missouri as it appeared in 1944. Now in stock!

Dimensions:
Length: 6-1/2-inches
Width: 1-inch

Release Date: February 2022

Historical Account: "Big Mo" - Missouri arrived at Ulithi on May 9th, 1945, and thence proceeded to Apra Harbor, Guam, on the 18th. That afternoon Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander 3d Fleet, broke his flag in Missouri. She passed out of the harbor on the 21st, and by the 27th was again conducting shore bombardment against Japanese positions on Okinawa. Missouri now led the 3rd Fleet in strikes on airfields and installations on Kyushu from June 2nd-3rd. She rode out a fierce storm on the 5th and 6th that wrenched off the bow of the cruiser Pittsburgh. Some topside fittings were smashed, but Missouri suffered no major damage. Her fleet again struck Kyushu on the 8th, then hit hard in a coordinated air-surface bombardment before retiring towards Leyte. She arrived San Pedro, Leyte, on the 13th, after almost three months of continuous operations in support of the Okinawa campaign.

Here she prepared to lead the 3rd Fleet in strikes at the heart of Japan from within its home waters. The mighty fleet set a northerly course on July 8th to approach the Japanese mainland. Raids took Tokyo by surprise on the 10th, followed by more devastation at the juncture of Honshu and Hokkaido on the 13th and 14th. For the first time a naval gunfire force wrought destruction on a major installation within the home islands, when Missouri closed the shore to join in a bombardment on the 15th that rained destruction on the Nihon Steel Co. and the Wanishi Ironworks at Muroran, Hokkaido.

During the night of the 17th, Missouri bombarded industrial targets in the Hichiti area, Honshu. Inland Sea aerial strikes continued through the 25th, and Missouri guarded the carriers as they struck hard blows at the Japanese capital. As July ended the Japanese no longer had any home waters. Missouri had led her fleet to gain control of the air and sea approaches to the very shores of Japan.

Strikes on Hokkaido and northern Honshu resumed on August 9th, 1945, the day the second atomic bomb was dropped. Next day, at 20:54, Missouri's men were electrified by the unofficial news that Japan was ready to surrender, provided that the Emperor's prerogatives as a sovereign ruler were not compromised. Not until 07:45 on August 15th, was word received that President Truman had announced Japan's acceptance of unconditional surrender.