Owing to the cancellation of the Montana -class battleships, Iowa is the last lead ship of any class of United States battleships and was the only ship of her class to serve in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. When transferred to the Pacific Fleet in , Iowa shelled beachheads at Kwajalein and Eniwetok in advance of Allied amphibious landings and screened aircraft carriers operating in the Marshall Islands.
Halsey 's flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. During the Korean War , Iowa was involved in raids on the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets , better known as the "mothball fleet.
In April , an explosion of undetermined origin wrecked her No. Iowa was decommissioned for the last time in October after 19 total years of active service, and was initially stricken from the Naval Vessel Register NVR in , before being reinstated from to to comply with federal laws that required retention and maintenance of two Iowa -class battleships. McCrea in command. With the advent of air power and the need to gain and maintain air superiority came a need to protect the growing fleet of Allied aircraft carriers ; to this end, Iowa was fitted with an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns to defend Allied carriers from enemy airstrikes.
On 24 February , Iowa put to sea for a shakedown cruise in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast. She got underway on 27 August for Argentia, Newfoundland , to counter the threat of the German battleship Tirpitz which was reportedly operating in Norwegian waters, before returning to the United States on 25 October for two weeks of maintenance at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
Porter DD , a destroyer that was part of Iowa ' s anti-submarine screen, accidentally discharged a torpedo toward Iowa during a drill. Following warnings from the destroyer and her own lookouts, Iowa turned hard to avoid the torpedo, which detonated approximately yards astern in the ship's wake.
