WWII Maritime Art - USS Missouri and HMS Duke of York at the signing of the Japanese surrender by Artist Roger H. Middlebrook GAvA
In the early morning of 2nd September 1945 USS Missouri and HMS Duke of York lay at Anchor in the vicinity of Tokyo Bay. At 9.45am that day WWII would come to an end. Both ships portrayed had seen thick fighting with the older British ship playing a vital role in the sinking of the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst and then going on to have an outstanding record in the Pacific.
The USS Missouri or “Mighty Mo” as she has always been known was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in 1944. The Iowa class ships, of which she was one, had long and varied careers with the Missouri alone earning 11 Battle Stars through the conflicts of WWII, the Korean War and Gulf War I. Decommissioned in 1992 she became a museum ship in 1998.
