USS Indiana (BB 58)
USS Indiana, a 35,000-ton South Dakota class battleship built at Newport News, Virginia, was commissioned in April 1942. After shaking down in the Atlantic, she joined the war against Japan, operating in the South Pacific from late November 1942 into October 1943. Indiana then moved to the Central Pacific, where she participated in the invasions of the Gilbert Islands in November 1943 and the Marshalls in January 1944. While engaged in the latter operation on 1 February 1944, she was damaged in a night collision with USS Washington (BB-56).
In April and May 1944, following repairs, Indiana escorted carriers in raids on Japanese positions in the Carolines. Beginning in June, she took part in the the Marianas campaign, including pre-invasion bombardment of Saipan and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The battleship screened the fast carriers into the Autumn of 1944, assisting in strikes on the Palaus and Philippines. After an overhaul, Indiana returned to the Western Pacific in January 1945, in time to participate in the invasion of Iwo Jima, carrier raids on the Japanese Home Islands and the Ryukyus invasion. She passed through a typhoon in June and used her sixteen-inch guns to shell targets in Japan during the last weeks of the Pacific War. Returning to the U.S. soon after the Japanese surrender, Indiana was placed in reserve status in September 1946 and formally decommissioned a year later. She saw no further active service and was sold for scrapping in October 1963.
