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The Resurgence of Naval Giants: Iowa-Class Battleships in the Korean War

These were the twilight months of World War II, when U.S. Navy battleships, including the then-new Iowa class, pounded Japan’s industrial, military, and logistical centers. These all-but unopposed steel behemoths were straining at the leash, if you will, during the war’s dénouement. While the U.S. Army Air Force’s bombers held primary credit for the blow against urban Japan, much came from the efforts of the Navy’s battleships and cruisers.

During the post-war era, most battleships were scrapped, sunk as targets, or decommissioned. But this unexpected and sudden Korean War in June 1950 came with warranted urgent response necessary in reactivation, hence, four Iowa-class battleships were reactivated: the USS Missouri, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Being the most prized and massive firepower in the fleet, they answered the call for support to U.S. military operations against North Korea.

But that first North Korean offensive found the U.S. Navy flatfooted, and a response was not long in coming. The battleship USS Missouri-the only battleship that had remained operational since World War II-arrived in Korean waters on September 19, 1950, and began quite extensive shore bombardments forthwith. The intensity of these attacks proved quite instrumental to U.S. troops, particularly in their retreat from the surprise offensive launched by the People’s Liberation Army in December.

While the US Navy refused to send the heavy cruisers of the Des Moines class to the Pacific, deeming them too valuable for the Cold War containment of the Soviet Union, the decision was made to reactivate the remaining Iowa-class battleships. So well were the Iowa-class ships maintained in reserve that only a minimum of changes were needed to put the vessels back into active service. Probably the most significant and visible change was replacing the World War II-era floatplanes with helicopters. New Jersey recommissioned in November 1950, Wisconsin in March 1951, and Iowa in August 1951.

For much of the Korean War, Iowa-class battleships served as flagships and waged a campaign of cyclic bombardments against Communist positions. Employing their sixteen-inch main batteries and five-inch secondary armament, these vessels targeted cave systems, masked artillery, command posts, railways, industrial parks, and other transportation hubs. Their bombardment, laid as far as twenty miles inland, routinely disrupted Communist supply lines, although they never stopped resupply entirely.

Extensive mines laid in the Yellow Sea restricted battleship operations. At the same time, Communist aircraft, a threat early in the war, were soon driven from the skies by UN air and naval superiority. Coastal artillery continued to be a menace, but the battleship bombardments revealed the vulnerability of North Korean coastal defenses.

By 1958, all four Iowa-class battleships had rejoined the reserve fleet. While good ships, were expensive to operate and man, relative to the smaller, cheaper heavy cruisers. Only the USS New Jersey was reactivated for service in the Vietnam War, and then only in partial commission. The remaining thirteen battleships were stricken from the U.S. roster in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The legacy of the Iowa-class battleships’ performance in Korea impacted North Korean naval strategies, placing a high priority on the development of robust coastal defense capabilities. These battleships will never fire a shot in anger again, but their impact on naval doctrine reverberates on. In any future conflict on the Korean Peninsula, U.S. Navy surface ships armed with land attack cruise missiles will undoubtedly remain central in the ongoing tradition of naval dominance crafted by the Iowa-class behemoths.

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