"South Dakota"s keel was laid on 5 July 1939 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 7 June 1941 and commissioned on 20 March 1942. She went on a shakedown cruise in June after her fitting out was complete. In August–September, the battleship voyaged from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Panama Canal; she struck a coral reef soon after arriving in the Tonga Islands and had to sail to the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for repairs, which took about a month. "South Dakota" was then assigned to escort the aircraft carrier as part of Task Force (TF) 16; joined by TF 17 soon after, the combined fleet—now known as TF 61—was ordered to "make a sweep of the Santa Cruz Islands and then move southwest to block any Japanese forces approaching Guadalcanal." This led to the Battle of Santa Cruz, where in escorting "Enterprise", "South Dakota" was credited with shooting down 26 Japanese planes. The battleship was hit once by a -bomb on Turret I during the action.