The Japanese, it turned out, were convinced the vessel had been destroyed at sea, and the Navy was only too happy to keep the mystery alive-stripping the South Dakota of identifying markings and avoiding any mention of it in communications and even sailors’ diaries. Navy history and acquire a new moniker to reflect the secrets it carried. The ship would become one of the most decorated warships in U.S. In less than four months, the South Dakota would limp back to port in New York for repairs to extensive damage suffered in some of World War II’s most ferocious battles at sea. “No ship more eager to fight ever entered the Pacific,” one naval historian wrote. Brash and confident, the crew couldn’t get through the Panama Canal fast enough, and their captain, Thomas Gatch, made no secret of the grudge he bore against the Japanese. The crew was made up of “green boys”-new recruits who enlisted after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor-who had no qualms about either their destination or the action they were likely to see. With powerful engines, extensive firepower and heavy armor, the newly christened battleship USS South Dakota steamed out of Philadelphia in August of 1942 spoiling for a fight.
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