USS Missouri (BB 63)
Ship details: The U.S.S. Missouri was a United States Navy battleship. She is currently a historic memorial at Pearl Harbor.
She was one of the Iowa class "fast battleship" designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. The Missouri was ordered in June, 1940 and the keel was laid at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York on January 6, 1941. She was launched on January 29, 1944 and commissioned on June 11 as BB63. The ship was the fourth and last of the Iowa class as well as the final battleship to be commissioned by the Navy.
The "Mighty Mo" was dispatched to Pearl Harbor from Norfolk, Virginia in November, 1944 under the command of William M. Callaghan and first saw combat operations in January, 1945 as part of the protective force for the aircraft carrier Lexington. The battleship was then involved in operations around Iwo Jima and the Ryukyus from mid-February before being assigned to the Yorktown fast carrier group in March, operating in the Inland Sea. In late March the battleship was assigned to the operations around Okinawa. On April 11 the Missouri was struck by a Zero kamikaze aircraft but suffered little damage. On May 5 the Missouri was dispatched to Guam via Ulithi to pick up Admiral William Halsey, Jr. before returning to Okinawa by May 27. The fleet finally retired from Okinawa in June, arriving at Leyte on June 13. On July 13 the Missouri was part of the fleet that attacked Honshu and Hokkaido, shells from the Missouri aiding in the destruction of the Nihon works at Muroran and on targets around Hichiti. The battleship was involved in strikes on northern Honshu when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The Missouri entered Tokyo Bay on August 29.
The final surrender of Japan was accepted aboard the Missouri on the morning of September 2, 1945 by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu. The Missouri returned to Pearl Harbor on September 20.
During training on January 17, 1950 the vessel ran aground on the Thimble Shoals and was not refloated until February 1. The Missouri was deployed during the Korean War in September, 1950 and conducted shore bombardment around Samchok on September 15 before becoming part of the escort for the Valley Forge and conducting further bombardments in October (Chonjin and Tanchon) and December (Hungnam). The Missouri conducted further operations in the area until March, 1951 when she returned to Norfolk and was assigned to the Atlantic fleet. She returned to Korea in October, 1952 to conduct a series of shore bombardment operations as flagship of the 7th Fleet. Her operations around Korea continued until March 25, 1953 with the bombardment near Kojo. She returned to the Atlantic fleet in mid May.
She was decommissioned and moved to the Bremerton group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet on February 26, 1955 following a final series of visits to Portugal, Spain and Guantanamo Bay. She was reactivated and modernised from May 1985 and recommissioned on May 10, 1986. The Missouri was active in the Persian Gulf from June, 1987 and provided with additional smaller calibre weapons to deal with smaller threats. She was deployed during the Gulf War from January 1991 for shore bombardment and 28 Tomahawk missile attacks.
The Missouri was finally decommissioned on March 31, 1992 and returned to Bremerton. She was removed from the Naval Register on January 12, 1995. The vessel was donated to the Missouri Memorial Association in 1996 and transferred to Hawaii in 1998, she officially joined the Battleship Row memorial in Pearl Harbor on January 29, 1999.
Designated crew: 1,851 officers and men
Length: 270.4 metres
Beam: 32.98 metres
Draft: 11.58 metres
Height: 63.9 metres
Displacement: 41,000 tonnes (empty), 53,000 tonnes (full)
Power: 212,000 s.h.p. from four turbines
Maximum speed: 32 knots (with 10,584 gallons of fuel burned per hour)
Armament: 9 of 16" (406 mm) in three turrets; 20 of 5" (127 mm); 80 of 40 mm Bofors; 60 of 20mm Oerlikons. 1980s upgrade: 32 of Tomahawk missile launchers; 16 of Harpoon missile launchers; 4 of CIWS 20 mm
turrets. [Reference]
Radio station: At the end of events associated
with the Pacific War, His Majesty Hirohito, the Showa Emperor of Japan,
announced on radio on August 15 1945 that the war was over. The Peace Ceremony
was signed on board the navy vessel "Missouri"
nearly three weeks later, on September 2. The role that radio played in
these events forms an important and interesting chapter in international radio
history.
At the time of the signing ceremony on the aircraft carrier
"Missouri", there were 260 Allied navy vessels at anchor in Tokyo Bay.
The "Missouri" itself lay at anchor eighteen miles out in the bay and
six miles off the coast of Yokohama. An armada of 1900 planes, airforce and navy,
flew overhead.
The USS Missouri was launched in January 1944, the
fourth navy vessel to bear this title. It was noted on the air in that era by
shortwave listeners in the United States, New Zealand and Australia with the
callsign, NCBL.
Another navy vessel, the USS Iowa,
also played a major role in the relay of radio signals at the time of the
historic events in Tokyo Bay. This ship, the "Iowa", was launched in
August 1942, and it was often noted on air under the callsign KU1M calling KU5Q
on the island of Guam.
At the time of the signing ceremony, many radio circuits were activated to
ensure reliable worldwide coverage. The originating point was the main ship
transmitters, NCBL, on the "Missouri".
Nearby was the "Iowa" which acted as the network control for these
broadcasts with its shortwave transmitters under the callsign KU1M.
The four shortwave transmitters of Radio Tokyo at Nazaki in Japan carried a
relay of the broadcast for long distance coverage, which was picked up in Guam,
the Philippines and Hawaii for onward relay to the receiving stations in
California and elsewhere. And from there of course, the relay became a worldwide
radio broadcast phenomenon.
It was on September 2, 1945, at 9:02 am local time that General Douglas
MacArthur stepped before the microphone that was set up on the landing deck of
the "Missouri" for this historic worldwide broadcast. His wife Jean,
was still in the Philippines at the time, living in the German embassy on the
edge of Manila. She heard her husband's radio broadcast on a shortwave radio.
There is only one known QSL from these ships in this era. A QSL letter was
received by Ray Simpson, the shortwave columnist for the Australian magazine,
"Radio & Hobbies". This letter, verifying the reception of KU1M on
the "Iowa" in March 1947, was received from the radio section at navy
headquarters in California. At the time, the "Iowa" was on navy
manoeuvres off the coast of California and it was noted on 9670 kHz. [Story
by Dr. Adrian Peterson]
Location: Tokyo Bay