TRINKET DISH-SOLID BRASS-MUSEUM SOUVENIR USS MASSACHUSETTS-FALL RIVER MA.

Description

a nice collectable that is fairly scarce
On completion, Massachusetts was sent to support
Operation Torch
, the invasion of French North Africa, in November 1942. There, she engaged in an artillery duel with the incomplete French battleship
Jean Bart
and neutralized her. Massachusetts thereafter transferred to the
Pacific War
for operations against Japan; she spent the war primarily as an escort for the
fast carrier task force
to protect the
aircraft carriers
from surface and air attacks. In this capacity, she took part in the
Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
in 1943 and early 1944 and the
Philippines campaign
in late 1944 and early 1945. Later in 1945, the ship supported Allied forces during the
Battle of Okinawa
and thereafter participated in attacks on Japan, including bombarding industrial targets on
Honshu
in July and August.
After the war, Massachusetts returned to the United States and was decommissioned and assigned to the
Atlantic Reserve Fleet
in 1947. She remained out of service until 1962, when she was stricken from the
Naval Vessel Register
. Three years later, she was transferred to the Massachusetts Memorial Committee and preserved as a
museum ship
at
Battleship Cove
in
Fall River, Massachusetts
. Some material was removed in the 1980s to reactivate the
Iowa-class battleships
, but the ship otherwise remains in her wartime configuration.