Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Idaho

Back to Idaho

ClassNew Mexico class
TypeBattleship (BB)
HullBB-42
FateAfloat. Not sunk. Survived the war.
Armament (class)Four triple 14-inch turrets. New Mexico, Mississippi, and Idaho.
Command

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

The armament line is the class drawing, not a measurement of this hull.

Idaho
USS Idaho (BB-42) Fires the 14/50 guns of Turret Three at nearly point-blank range, during the bombardment of Okinawa, 1 April 1945. Photographed from USS West Virginia (BB-48). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Public domain.

USS Idaho (BB-42) was a New Mexico-class battleship of the United States Navy. She was a fleet battleship, one of the heavy-gun ships of that class.

Herbert John Grassie served as her captain from 2 August 1944. He remained in command until 16 August 1945, when he was relieved.

On 1 April 1945, during Grassie's time in command, Idaho was in the gunfire force off Okinawa. Her place that day was with the ships assigned to naval gunfire off the island.

She remained afloat through that duty. The fighting named for her is that gunfire assignment off Okinawa, and she came out of it still a ship in the force.

Idaho survived the war. The New Mexico-class hull BB-42 that had stood in the gunfire force off Okinawa was still afloat at the war's end.

The pictures on this page are the originals.