 During World War II Massachusetts was initially assigned to duty in the Atlantic Fleet during which she successfully crippled the Vichy French battleship Jean Bart in a gun duel during Operation Torch . Transferred to the Pacific fleet in 1943 , Massachusetts participated in the Solomon Islands campaign and the Philippines Campaign , and in the latter campaign took part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf . In 1945 she was one of several ships assigned to shell targets on Honshū , the largest of the Japanese Home Islands . Following the end of World War II , Massachusetts was involved in routine operations off the US coast and eventually reassigned to the Atlantic fleet . Decommissioned in 1947 , she was laid up in the reserve fleet at Norfolk , Virginia until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1962 . 
