page_title: USS Massachusetts (BB-59)
section_title: Operations off Japan and later career
hierarchical_section_title: USS Massachusetts (BB-59) / Service history / Pacific war / Operations off Japan and later career
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59) replenishing from the ammunition ship USS Wrangell (AE-12). Wrangell then retired to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, for upkeep and repairs. Wrangell subsequently returned to the open sea on 8 July 1945 and rendezvoused with TG 30.8 (the redesignated TG 50.8) on the 17th. From 20 July to 1 August 1945, she rearmed 35 ships and hit a high point of transferring 700 tons of ammunition in a single day.
context_page_description: USS Massachusetts (BB-59) is the third of four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 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 guns, but refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons. 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.
context_section_description: By February, 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 10 February, and after conducting exercises off Tinian on 12 February and refueling on the 14th, began the attacks on Honshu on 16 February. Further raids are carried out the next day and on 18 February, 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 20 February. TF 58 withdrew to refuel on 24 February and then made additional strikes on the Tokyo area over the course of 25 and 26 February. They then steamed south to raid Okinawa on 1 March before withdrawing the next day to Ulithi, which they reached on 4 March.
  TF 58 sortied again on 14 March for another raid on Japan; Massachusetts was again assigned to TG 58.1. The ships refueled on the way on 16 March. 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 Vice Admiral Marc 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. 
  On 23 March, TF 58 steamed southwest to begin preparatory attacks on Okinawa in advance of the landing on the island. The next day, the carriers of TG 58.1 destroyed a convoy of eight transports off Kyushu and Massachusetts was detached in company with the battleships Indiana, New Jersey, and Wisconsin as TF 59 to shell Okinawa, thereafter returning to their carrier groups. The ship spent much of April operating off the island, helping to fend of heavy Japanese air attacks. Throughout this period, the carrier task groups rotated through the station, with two groups in action at any given time. Heavy and repeated kamikaze attacks hit numerous vessels over the course of the campaign, but Massachusetts was not targeted by the suicide craft. In late May, Third Fleet resumed command of the task force, and Massachusetts' unit was accordingly re-numbered TG 38.1. On 5 June, the ship passed through another typhoon that did not inflict serious damage to Massachusetts. Five days later, Massachusetts steamed to shell Japanese facilities on the island of Minami Daito Jima in the Rykukus. Following this bombardment, TF 38 withdrew to Leyte Gulf after three months of continuous operations.
  The fleet thereafter returned to Leyte Gulf to prepare for the next major operation off Japan. The fast carrier task force sortied on 1 July for attacks on Honshu, initially concentrating on the area around Tokyo. On 14 July, Massachusetts was detached to form TG 34.8.1. with Indiana, South Dakota, two heavy cruisers and nine destroyers. The ships were sent to bombard an industrial complex in Kamaishi that included the Japan Iron Co. and the Kamaishi Steel Works; this complex was Japan's second-largest iron and steel manufacturing center, and this was the first bombardment operation conducted against the Japanese Home Islands. Two weeks later, she repeated the bombardment, this time targeting industrial facilities at Hamamatsu. For this operation, they were joined by the battleship HMS King George V and three destroyers of the British Pacific Fleet. Another attack on Kamaishi followed on 9 August, this time TG 34.8 was reinforced by the battleship Alabama.
  Following the Japanese surrender on 15 Augu
caption: Massachusetts reloading ammunition from the ammunition ship USS Wrangell
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