December 28th - The Day of Infamy, Part XXII

Aftermath

Admiral Halsey was publically hailed as a hero, but his seniors felt he was too reckless. He was decorated, promoted, and then quietly transferred to a shore post. Admiral Spruance was also recognized for his role in the battle, and succeeded Halsey as the Navy’s senior forward commander.

The destruction of the IJN gave the US great freedom in pursuing its future campaigns. The old battleships were dispatched to the Atlantic, where in July they helped shoot ashore the massive amphibious assault on Normandy. Throughout the fall and winter of 1944 the US along with the rest of the Allies rolled forward in both the Pacific and Europe.

Germany surrendered on June 20th, 1945, as Soviet and Canadian forces reached Berlin.

By the summer of 1945, Japan was starving inside a blockade of submarines and aircraft. Only desperate attacks by the infamous Kamikazes and other suicide troops seemed able to even slow the US advance, and nothing could stop it. In August, the world’s first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Kokura, the final act in a strategic bombing campaign that had gutted Japan’s cities. Japan formally signed an unconditional surrender on September 1st, 1945.

The Second World War was over.

USS Lexington had served in almost every major engagement of the war and countless minors ones. Her aircraft had often played a key role in those battles. The ship herself was called the “Lady Lex” “Lucky Lex” and “Lady Luck” by her crew for the numerous times she had escaped damage, and in recognition of the fact that she was the only pre-war US carrier to survive the war. She remains the most decorated ship ever to serve in the US Navy. She was decommissioned in 1947 and became a museum ship in New York. Her name lived on – the USN’s first atomic-powered aircraft carrier was named the USS Lexington, and in the 1960’s a popular TV series featured a space ship with the same name. While the series only ran for three years, spin offs, sequels, and movies made it into one of the largest TV franchises in history.

The Japanese had their own-mega franchise, which began in the 1970’s with an anime show about using a raised and rebuilt Yamato as a space ship. Sequels would eventually bring Shinano and even Musashi (after lengthy reassembly) into space as well.

The six Iowa-class battleships were retained after the war, though all were cycled through the reserve fleet in mothballs at some point. Still, there were always at least two in service up until the end of the 1980s, when they were finally replaced by the new Montana-class battleships. At least one Iowa-class participated in every conflict the US was involved in from WWII until their retirement.