USS Indiana, hull number BB-58, was the second of four 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 guns, but refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of . 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 as wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries significantly increased their crews.
Indiana entered service in April 1942, by which time the United States was engaged in World War II, and the ship was immediately pressed into action in the Pacific War against Japan. Her first combat came in late 1942 when she supported marines fighting during the Guadalcanal campaign. Over the next three years, she was occupied with two primary roles: naval gunfire support for amphibious assaults across the Pacific and anti-aircraft defense for the fast carrier task force. She shelled Japanese positions during the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943 and the Battle of Kwajalein in February 1944. During the latter operation, she collided with the battleship and was forced to withdraw for repairs.
After returning to the fleet in April 1944, she took part in the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, bombarding Saipan and helping to defend the fleet during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Engine problems prevented her from participating in the Battle of Peleliu in September, but she was present for the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. In the latter action, she shot down a number of kamikazes. Following the Japanese surrender in August, she contributed men to the occupation force before returning to the United States in September. After a final refit, she was placed in reserve and remained inactive in the Navy's inventory until 1962 when she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and sold for scrap the following year.
Design
The was ordered in the context of global naval rearmament during the breakdown of the Washington treaty system that had controlled battleships construction during the 1920s and early 1930s. Under the Washington and London treaties, so-called treaty battleships were limited to a standard displacement of and a main battery of guns. In 1936, following Japan's decision to abandon the treaty system, the United States Navy decided to invoke the "escalator clause" in the Second London treaty that allowed displacements to rise to and armament to increase to guns. Congressional objections to increasing the size of the new ships forced the design staff to keep displacement as close to 35,000 LT as possible while incorporating the larger guns and armor sufficient to defeat guns of the same caliber.
Indiana was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced as designed and up to at full combat load. The ship was powered by four General Electric (GE) steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by eight oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Rated at , the turbines were intended to give a top speed of . The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of . She carried three Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes for aerial reconnaissance, which were launched by a pair of aircraft catapults on her fantail. Her peace time crew numbered 1,793 officers and enlisted men, but during the war the crew swelled to 2,500 officers and enlisted.
The ship was armed with a main battery of nine 16"/45 caliber Mark 6 guns guns in three triple-gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair forward, with the third aft. The secondary battery consisted of twenty 5-inch /38 caliber dual purpose guns mounted in twin turrets clustered amidships, five turrets on either side. As designed, the ship was equipped with an anti-aircraft battery of twelve guns and twelve .50-caliber (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns, but she was completed with a battery of seven quadruple Bofors guns in place of the 1.1 in guns and thirty-five Oerlikon autocannon instead of the .50-cal. guns.
The main armored belt was thick, while the main armored deck was up to thick. The main battery gun turrets had thick faces, and they were mounted atop barbettes that were thick. The conning tower had thick sides.
Modifications Indiana received a series of modifications through her wartime career, consisting primarily of additions to anti-aircraft battery and various types of radar sets. The first addition was the installation of SC air search radar in 1941, fitted in the foremast, which was later replaced with an SK type set. At the same time, an SG surface search radar was installed on the forward superstructure; a second SG set was added to the main mast after experiences during the Guadalcanal campaign in 1942. In 1943, she received a Mark 3 fire-control radar, mounted on her conning tower to assist in the direction of her main battery guns. The Mark 3 was quickly replaced with more modern Mark 8 fire-control radar, and Mark 4 radars for the secondary battery guns. She later received Mark 12/22 sets in place of the Mark 4s. Indiana also received a TDY jammer. In 1945, her traditional spotting scopes were replaced with Mark 27 microwave radar sets.
The ship's light anti-aircraft battery was gradually expanded. Three more 40 mm quad mounts were added in late 1942. By January 1943, she had another eighteen 20 mm guns installed, bringing the total to fifty-three of the guns. Two more 40 mm quadruple mounts were added in February, and another seven 20 mm guns were added later that year for a total battery of sixty barrels. By July 1944, Indiana had had five of the 20 mm guns removed; three more had been removed by the end of the war in mid-1945.
Service history
Construction The new battleship was authorized on 27 March 1934 by the Vinson-Trammell Act, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the name Indiana on 21 September 1938. The keel for Indiana was laid down on 20 November 1939 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Newport News, Virginia. The completed hull was launched on 21 November 1941, with the christening performed by Margaret Robbins, the daughter of the Governor of Indiana, Henry F. Schricker. Indiana was completed by April 1942 and was commissioned into the fleet on the 30th. Then-Captain Aaron S. Merrill was the ship's first commanding officer. During the elaborate commissioning ceremony, which was attended by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, the ship flew the flag from the old battleship that had been used during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in 1898.
Fitting-out work continued at Newport News through 20 May, and the following day Indiana departed on sea trials. Initial trials were conducted in Chesapeake Bay from 26 to 29 May; on the 31st, she departed for Hampton Roads, Virginia. Speed trials followed on 1 June, during which she was escorted by the destroyers , , , and . Trials, gunnery training, and various exercises continued into September, and on the 29th she departed for Casco Bay in Maine for more gunnery training. The ship was declared fit for combat service on 9 November, and she departed for the Panama Canal that day. By this time, the United States had been at war with Germany and Japan for nearly a year, and was in the midst of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific; Indiana was ordered to join the forces engaged there.
Pacific Theater operations Battles of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Kwajalein
On 14 November, Indiana was assigned as the flagship for Task Group (TG) 2.6, which included the light cruiser and the destroyers and . The four ships then proceeded to Tonga, arriving on the afternoon of 28 November. After refueling, Indiana transferred to TG 66.6 two days later and continued on to Nouméa, arriving on 2 December. There, she took part in exercises with ships from Task Force (TF) 64. The ship served as a replacement for her sister , which had been badly damaged during the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal; while operating off Guadalcanal, Indiana provided gunfire support to American forces ashore.
By January 1943, the ship had been joined by the fast battleships and ; the three battleships were grouped together as TF 64 under Rear Admiral Willis Lee, and they covered convoys to support the fighting in the Solomons into the next year. These operations included covering a group of seven transports carrying elements of the 25th Infantry Division to Guadalcanal from 1 to 4 January 1943. During another of these convoy operations later that month, the battleships were too far south to come to aid of the American cruiser force during the Battle of Rennell Island at the end of the month. During the invasion of New Georgia, the battleship force, which now included Indiana, North Carolina, and , was assigned to cover the invasion fleet against possible Japanese attacks. Indiana supported the carrier task force that raided Marcus Island on 31 August – 1 September. She took part in the invasion of Tarawa on 20–23 November and provided part of the anti-aircraft screen for the aircraft carriers of Task Group 50.2 off Makin Atoll, including , , and . During operations in the area, Indianas anti-aircraft gunners claimed their first Japanese aircraft. On 8 December, Indiana, four other battleships, and twelve destroyers bombarded Japanese positions on Nauru. Between the five battleships, a total of 810 sixteen-inch shells were fired at the island.
On 1 January 1944, Indiana was assigned to TG 37.2, and on 16 January she took part in gunnery practice with South Dakota and the destroyers , , and . The five ships, joined by North Carolina, Washington, and three more destroyers, then got underway on 18 January for the next major amphibious operation the Pacific, the Marshall Islands campaign. While en route, the ships conducted training with their anti-aircraft batteries. They rendezvoused with the carriers and Monterey at sea, and after arriving in Funafuti on 20 January the unit was redesignated as TG 58.1. By this time, the group had grown to include the carriers Enterprise, Yorktown, Belleau Wood, and several more cruisers and destroyers. Further training took place from 25 to 28 January, including more anti-aircraft practice; Indiana also served as a target for simulated air attacks from the carrier aircraft. During the operation, Indiana served as the flagship of Battleship Division 8 (BatDiv), commanded by Rear Admiral Glenn B. Davis.
In late January, Indiana took part in operations to prepare for the invasion of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. On 29 January, the ship attacked Maloelap Atoll, along with Washington and the aircraft carriers Enterprise and , and the following day the ships began bombarding Kwajalein to soften Japanese defenses. On 30 January, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Washington, escorted by four destroyers, were detached to shell Kwajalein as part of the invasion bombardment. They reached their firing positions early the next morning and Indiana opened fire at 09:56; she and the other ships sank a submarine chaser and five guard ships that were moored in the atoll. Japanese artillery batteries engaged the American ships, but Indiana was not hit. She continued to bombard Japanese positions around the island until 14:48 before departing at 17:15 to return to the carriers. She had fired some 306 shells from her main battery and 2,385 rounds from her 5-inch guns.