QUINCYBUILT. The USS Massachusetts (BB59) launched from the Fore River Shipyard on Sept. 23, 1941. Early in World War II she supported Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa in 1942, taking out enemy targets in Casablanca. Big Mamie transferred to the Pacific, where she participated in many of the most major encounters of the war, including Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and eventually fired on the Japanese home islands. The USS Massachusetts navigated through a direct hit by Typhoon Cobra in December 1944. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and today is the centerpiece of the floating Battleship Cove Museum in Fall River, Mass. The USS Massachusetts has a unique claim to fame: she earned 11 battle stars during World War II, yet never lost a single man.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 13:23:20 +0000