# Battleship "X" (1943), the Army Newsmap that named the U.S.S. South Dakota

An Army Newsmap wall sheet of 1943 tells soldiers the story of the U.S.S. South Dakota, the ship earlier identified only as Battleship "X." A painting, a ship's history, a crew photograph and diagrams of armament and armor fill the sheet, which the War Department's Army Orientation Course prepared (NAID 513922).

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      Battleship "X": Story of the U.S.S. South Dakota

      Battleship "X" (1943), the Army Newsmap that named the U.S.S. South Dakota
      A 1943 Army Newsmap tells troops the story of the U.S.S. South Dakota, once called only Battleship "X," with a painting, record and diagrams. NAID 513922.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Card stacking
      Date1943Made byWar Department, Army Service Forces, Army Orientation Course, Morale Services Division (Newsmap)MediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 513922; Record Group 44SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) War Department, Army Service Forces, Army Orientation Course, Morale Services Division (Newsmap). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-453 (NAID 513922).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  An Army Newsmap wall sheet of 1943 tells soldiers the story of the U.S.S. South Dakota, the ship earlier identified only as Battleship "X." A painting, a ship's history, a crew photograph and diagrams of armament and armor fill the sheet, which the War Department's Army Orientation Course prepared (NAID 513922).

## A ship's record on one wall sheet

The archive describes four kinds of material on one sheet. A painted scene shows the battleship shooting down an attacking aircraft. A text history gives her building and battle record. A photograph shows the crew, with the ship's tally painted on a conning tower. Diagrams and tables cover armament, armor, mobility, size and the jobs battleships do.

Battleship "X"

STORY OF THE U.S.S. SOUTH DAKOTA

[...]

HER RECORD

Manned by a comparatively green crew, the SOUTH DAKOTA has gained an enviable battle record in the Southwest Pacific Theatre. During the Battle of Santa Cruz (Oct. 26, 1942) she was credited with shooting down 32 attacking Japanese dive and torpedo bombers. [...] These individual achievements of the warship at that time identified for security reasons as only the Battleship "X" contributed heavily towards thwarting the supreme effort made by the Japanese battle fleet to regain control of the Solomon Islands.

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 513922, local id 44-PA-453, Record Group 44. GPO imprint dated 1943, number 559110.

## An Army sheet about a Navy ship

The issuer line is the War Department, not the Navy. The Newsmap came from the Army Orientation Course of the Morale Services Division, Army Service Forces. FRAME sets the audience as "Own forces" and the purpose as "Reassure."

Most of the text is reference. Per the sheet, the ship was ordered in December 1938 as Battleship No. 57, was 680 feet long, and was launched on June 7, 1941, at the New York Ship Building Company yard in Camden, New Jersey. The tables give approximate ranges for modern battleships in general.

## A name held back, then printed

The sheet's own wording records a security practice: at the time of her 1942 fights the ship was "identified for security reasons as only the Battleship 'X.'" By the time this Newsmap was printed in 1943, the Army was willing to put the real name in the heading.

The archive tags card stacking, and calls it faint. The record reports successes only: 32 bombers credited at Santa Cruz, three major Japanese surface units sunk in the night action of November 14 to 15, 1942. The only cost it mentions is a commanding officer wounded and recovered. The phrase to watch is "credited with": it reports a credit, and the sheet gives no source for it.

For a sheet the Navy issued itself, see Deliver for "D" Day, a 1944 poster from its Industrial Incentive Division. The Roosevelt administration essay sets out which wartime offices held which powers.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Battleship "X": Story of the U.S.S. South Dakota, 1943. War Department, Army Service Forces, Army Orientation Course, Morale Services Division (Newsmap). Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-453, NAID 513922, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/battleship-x-newsmap-south-dakota-1943/