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By Richard E. Miller, July 2003 | |
| | | 1. Battleship X Marker (reverse) | | |
Inscription. [Marker Front, not shown]
On June 7, 1941, Vera Bushfield, wife of the governor of South Dakota, smashed a bottle of champagne against the towering bow of a new battleship and proudly proclaimed, “I christen thee South Dakota!” While an 80 piece band from Sioux Falls’ Washington High School played “Anchors Away” and “The Star Spangled Banner,” the huge hull of the battleship slowly slid into the Delaware River at Camden, New Jersey. The U.S.S. South Dakota was longer than two football fields, cost almost $73 million, and would weigh 35,000 tons. After a year of fitting out, commissioning, and rigorous training of a green crew, the ship was ordered to the Pacific war zone.
The heavily armed but untested South Dakota mounted more than 100 antiaircraft guns. Her first engagement with Japanese planes occurred during the Battle of Santa Cruz on October 26, 1942. Even though her gunners shot down 20 of the first wave of raiding enemy planes, in a later attack, one plane eluded antiaircraft fire and hit the South Dakota with a 500 pound bomb. Gunner’s Mate Hubert P. Chatelain was her first battle fatality, and Captain Thomas L. Gatch was critically wounded by shrapnel. However, the carrier Enterprise was protected and saved because of the efforts of the South Dakota and her baptism in | | | | 
By Richard E. Miller, July 2003 | |
| | | 2. USS South Dakota Memorial | | Ship's original mainmast is seen behind symbolic bridge/turret structure and other features on grass representing the ship's deck. | | |
battle was a stunning success.
[Marker Reverse]
The ship participated in the Battle of Guadalcanal, a night action off Savo Island, on November 13-14, 1942. This was one of only two Japanese battleship against American battleship duels in World War II. In the ferocious fighting, 34 torpedoes were fired at the South Dakota and another U.S. battlewagon [the U.S.S. Washington], but all missed. Although she held her own, U.S.S. South Dakota took a pummeling, suffering 27 major shell hits; 38 crew members were killed in the encounter and were buried at sea. For security reasons, and because the Japanese believed they had sunk her, the Navy gave the hot shooting battleship the code name “Battleship X.”
In 1943 the South Dakota joined the British Home Fleet in convoy duty. They also attempted to lure the German battleship Tirpitz from a Norwegian fjord but without success. After she returned to the Pacific Theater later that year, her massive 16-inch guns fired one-ton projectiles to bombard enemy territory in nine separate operations, including the first time that the Japanese homeland was shelled. By the end of the war, the South Dakota had steamed 246,970 miles, destroy 64 enemy planes, and was awarded 13 Battle Stars.
Vera Bushfield who had christened the ship 26 years earlier, was in attendance at the dedication of | | | | 
By U.S. Navy, 1942 | |
| | | 3. U.S.S. South Dakota | | |
this memorial on September 7, 1969, to hear speaker Vice Admiral Bernard Roeder declare, “This grand memorial shall stand in quiet tribute to a man-o-war, a Navy fighting ship that did its best for her country.”
Erected by Minnehaha County Historical Society, State of South Dakota.
Location. 43° 32.616′ N, 96° 45.755′ W. Marker is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in Minnehaha County. Marker is on West 12th Street (South Dakota Route 42) just west of South Kiwanis Avenue, on the right when traveling east. Click for map. Marker is in Sherman Park at the USS South Dakota Memorial, approx. 0.9 miles east of I-29/SD Rte. 38. Marker is in this post office area: Sioux Falls SD 57104, United States of America.
More about this marker. A satellite view of the USS South Dakota Memorial well shows the ship's outline.
Also see . . .
1. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - USS South Dakota II (BB-57). (Submitted on December 22, 2008.)
2. Wikipedia entry for the USS South Dakota. (Submitted on December 21, 2008, by Richard E. Miller of Oxon Hill, Maryland.)
3. the second South Dakota-class began shortly before World War II. in a smaller length-to-beam ratio that negatively affected speed and endurance. To achieve the desired 27 knots (50 km/h) the machinery was designed to produce 9,000 horsepower (7 MW) more than that of the "North Carolina"-class, no small feat considering the equipment had to be compact enough to fit within a smaller hull. The South Dakotas were consequently more cramped vessels than their predecessors.
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By Shelby Murdoc, February 6, 2009 | |
| | | 4. USS South Dakota Battle Map | | Battle Map of Major Operations in which the USS South Dakota participated in during World War II. | | |
Compared with her three "sisters", South Dakota had extra command facilities and 40mm AA mounts in exchange for two fewer 5 inch (127 mm) twin gun mounts, as a weight-saving measure.
Massachusetts and Alabama became museum ships. South Dakota and Indiana were scrapped. (Submitted on May 30, 2009, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina.)
Additional keywords. BB-57, "Old Nameless", William F. Halsey
Credits. This page originally submitted on December 21, 2008, by Richard E. Miller of Oxon Hill, Maryland. This page has been viewed 1,103 times since then. Photos: 1, 2. Submitted on December 21, 2008, by Richard E. Miller of Oxon Hill, Maryland. 3. Submitted on May 30, 2009, by Richard E. Miller of Oxon Hill, Maryland. 4. Submitted on June 17, 2009. • Kevin W. was the editor who published this page. |
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