![]() New Mexico and Idaho were quickly decommissioned and sold for scrap, but Mississippi remained in service, having been converted into a gunnery testing and training ship. They were present for the occupation of Japan in August and September, thereafter returning to the United States. ![]() As they were both under repair, only Idaho participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima, but all three ships were part of the bombardment force for the Battle of Okinawa, where all were damaged by kamikazes. Mississippi and New Mexico took part in the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf, part of the Philippines Campaign, in early 1945 and both were hit by kamikazes. ![]() There, she was present for the Battle of Surigao Strait on 24 October, the last battleship engagement in history. The Philippines Campaign followed in late 1944, though Mississippi was the only member of the class to participate in the early stages of the campaign, the other vessels being under refit at the time. Beginning in mid-1943, they supported amphibious operations during the Aleutian Islands, Gilbert and Marshall Islands, and the Mariana and Palau Islands Campaigns. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, they were quickly transferred back to the Pacific, though they spent most of 1942 escorting convoys off the west coast of the United States. By 1941, the three ships were moved to the East Coast to join the Neutrality Patrols that protected American merchant ships from German U-boat attacks during the Battle of the Atlantic. All three ships spent the bulk of their peacetime careers in the Pacific Fleet throughout the 1920s and 1930s, they were involved in numerous Fleet Problems, which were large-scale training exercises that helped develop the doctrine later employed during the Pacific War.
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