Product Review

The USS Missouri is perhaps the most famous battleship of WWII, not so much for its wartime activities - which were heroic enough - but because on September 2nd, 1945, the formal surrender of the Japanese was signed upon the Missouri's deck, finally bringing an end to the worst war the world has yet known. The USS Missouri was commissioned in June 1944, and after shakedown in the Atlantic spent most of her career in Pacific. She arrived at Okinawa on April 1st, 1945, in time to take part in the storming of the island by American forces. Twice she was hit by Kamikaze planes: The first - a zeke fighter plane - crashing into the starboard side about 20 feet behind the number three gunmount and the second, a damaged plane that spun out of control, hitting the aircraft crane and exploding. In both cases, damage to the ship was superficial. After operations in Okinawa and Japan proper, the ship was used for the momentous signing of the Japanese surrender. When the Korean war broke out, the USS Missouri Battleship, was the only battleship operational at the time and was the first to become involved in the operations there. Placed out of commission in reserve on February 26, 1955, the USS Missouri remained at the Puget Sound shipyards until 1984 when plans for the battleship's re-activation began. Currently the USS Missouri Battleship is on display at Pearl Harbor.