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. The crew was made up of â??green boysâ?â??new recruits who enlisted after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harborâ??who had no qualms about either their destination or the action they were likely to see. Brash and confident, the crew couldnâ??t get through the Panama Canal fast enough, and their captain, Thomas Gatch, made no secret of the grudge he bore against the Japanese. â??No ship more eager to fight ever entered the Pacific,â? one naval historian wrote.
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 IIâ??s most ferocious battles at sea. The ship would become one of the most decorated warships in U.S. Navy history and acquire a new moniker to reflect the secrets it carried. 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 aliveâ??stripping the South Dakota of identifying markings and avoiding any mention of it in communications and even sailorsâ?? diaries. When newspapers later reported on the shipâ??s remarkable accomplishments in the Pacific Theater, they referred to it simply as â??Battleship X.â?
That the vessel was not resting at the bottom of the Pacific was just one of the secrets Battleship X carried through day after day of hellish war at sea. Aboard was a gunner from Texas who would soon become the nationâ??s youngest decorated war hero. Calvin Graham, the fresh-faced seaman who had set off for battle from the Philadelphia Navy Yard in the summer of 1942, was only 12 years old.
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