USS Massachusetts (BB-59) is the third of four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to 16-inch (406 mm) guns, but refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t). A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships, a problem that was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased their crews.

On completion, Massachusetts was sent to support Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, in November 1942. There, she engaged in an artillery duel with the incomplete French battleship Jean Bart and neutralized her. Massachusetts thereafter transferred to the Pacific War for operations against Japan; she spent the war primarily as an escort for the fast carrier task force to protect the aircraft carriers from surface and air attacks. In this capacity, she took part in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in 1943 and early 1944 and the Philippines campaign in late 1944 and early 1945. Later in 1945, the ship supported Allied forces during the Battle of Okinawa and thereafter participated in attacks on Japan, including bombarding industrial targets on Honshu in July and August.

After the war, Massachusetts returned to the United States and was decommissioned and assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in 1947. She remained out of service until 1962, when she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. Three years later, she was transferred to the Massachusetts Memorial Committee and preserved as a museum ship at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. Some material was removed in the 1980s to reactivate the Iowa-class battleships, but the ship otherwise remains in her wartime configuration.

Pictured here is a 1:1250 scale diecast replica of the US battleship Massachusetts as it appeared in 1941. Now in stock!

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

Release Date: February 2022

Historical Account: "Off Japan" - By February 1945, the fast carrier task force had reverted to Fifth Fleet command, and Massachusetts was now part of TG 58.1. The ship carried on in her role as an escort for the fleet carriers during a series of strikes on Honshu; these were made to support the upcoming invasion of Iwo Jima. The task force departed Ulithi on February 10th, and after conducting exercises off Tinian on February 12th and refueling on the 14th, began the attacks on Honshu on February 16th. Further raids are carried out the next day and on February 18th, the ships of TG 58.1 withdrew to refuel at sea. The carriers also raided Iwo Jima during battle there, with TG 58.1 contributing its firepower beginning on February 20th. TF 58 withdrew to refuel on February 24th and then made additional strikes on the Tokyo area over the course of February 25th to the 26th. They then steamed south to raid Okinawa on March 1st before withdrawing the next day to Ulithi, which they reached on March 4th.

TF 58 sortied again on March 14th for another raid on Japan; Massachusetts was again assigned to TG 58.1. The ships refueled on the way on March 16th. Two days later, the carriers began another series of attacks on mainland Japan, starting with targets on the island of Kyushu to weaken Japanese forces before the invasion of Okinawa in April. A large counter-attack consisting of 48 kamikazes hit the fleet, but the attacks were concentrated on TG 58.4 and as a result Massachusetts was not heavily engaged. The next day, during raids on the Kure area, Japanese bombers attacked the fleet and badly damaged the carrier Wasp, part of TG 58.1, though Massachusetts was not hit. Heavy damage inflicted on other units by bombers and kamikazes prompted Mitscher, the commander of TF 58, to withdraw his fleet and reorganize it. Massachusetts remained in TG 58.1, but two cruisers were detached to escort Wasp back to Ulithi.