SS26011 USS MASSACHUSETTS ON DECK (Paperback)
By David Doyle.

Affectionately known to her crew as 'Big Mamie,' the 35,000-ton
battleship USS Massachusetts was the third South Dakota-class
battleship authorized. Launched in September 1941, at Fore River
Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, she was rushed to completion
following Pearl Harbor and was commissioned on 12 May 1942. Armed
with nine 16-inch guns, 20 five-inch guns, and numerous smaller
weapons, she was one of the most formidable battleships in the
world at the time. Massachusetts participated in one of the few
battleship vs. battleship actions in WWII, when she fired upon
the Vichy battleship Jean Bart at Casablanca. Massachusetts
silenced the French warship with seven 16-inch hits. Moving to
the Pacific in early 1943, her big guns shelled Japanese shore
installations, while her burgeoning antiaircraft battery was
employed to protect aircraft carriers. Despite earning an
impressive 11 battle stars, none of her crew were killed in
action. Massachusetts was laid up in the reserve from 1947. In
1962 the ship was stricken from the Navy list, seemingly destined
for the scrap yard. Citizens of her namesake state and former
crewmembers rallied to save the ship, raising the funds to have
her preserved as a museum in Fall River. This book documents the
warship through an impressive collection of images and data
tables revealing the ship the ship and how it functioned as a
fighting machine as well as a home to her almost 1,800-man crew.
Illustrated with 286 photographs, and color profiles; 96 pages.
ISBN 978-0-89747-700-0, soft cover