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USS Indiana (BB-58)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Indiana (BB-58)

USS Indiana (BB-58), 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, USS Indiana (BB-58) was damaged in a night collision with USS Washington (BB-56).

In April and May 1944, following repairs, USS Indiana (BB-58) 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. While USS Indiana (BB-58) sailed to the west of Saipan and Tinian, waves of Japanese planes began to appear on radar screens at 1800 on 15 June 1944. The carriers launched their fighters and intercepted two enemy formations 30 and 60 miles out, respectively, claiming the destruction of 11 Japanese planes. USS Indiana (BB-58) received word of the Japanese agreement to unconditional surrender at 0805 on 15 August 1945, while she steamed en route to support air strikes against the Tōkyō area. 

The Japanese formally surrendered on board USS Missouri in Tōkyō Bay on 2 September 1945. On 5 September USS Indiana (BB-58) triumphantly entered Tōkyō Bay, anchoring in berth F66 at 0734. During the morning of 8 September her crew assembled for inspection by Rear Adm. Shafroth. USS Indiana (BB-58) served as a transfer point for emaciated Allied POWs liberated from Japanese camps, receiving and then transferring a total of seven naval officers, 47 enlisted men, 28 enlisted marines, 64 naval civilians, and a number of U.S. and Canadian soldiers through 12 September.

After an overhaul, USS Indiana (BB-58) 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, USS Indiana (BB-58) 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.

For a complete history of USS Indiana (BB-58) please see its DANFS page.