USS Minneapolis (CA-36) at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 11 April 1943 | |
History | |
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United States | |
Name | Minneapolis |
Namesake | City of Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Ordered | 13 February 1929 |
Awarded |
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Builder | Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Cost | $11,951,000 (limit of price) |
Laid down | 27 June 1931 |
Launched | 6 September 1933 |
Sponsored by | Miss Grace L. Newton |
Commissioned | 19 May 1934 |
Decommissioned | 10 February 1947 |
Reclassified | CA-36, 1 July 1931 |
Stricken | 1 March 1959 |
Identification |
|
Nickname(s) | "Minnie" [1] |
Honors and awards | 17 × battle stars |
Fate | Scrapped in Chester, Pennsylvania, July 1960 |
General characteristics (as built) [2] | |
Class and type | New Orleans-class cruiser |
Displacement | 9,950 long tons (10,110 t) (standard) |
Length | |
Beam | 61 ft 9 in (18.82 m) |
Draft |
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Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 32.7 kn (37.6 mph; 60.6 km/h) |
Capacity | Fuel oil: 1,650 tons |
Complement | 102 officers 817 enlisted |
Armament | |
Armor |
|
Aircraft carried | 4 × floatplanes |
Aviation facilities | 2 × Amidship catapults |
General characteristics (1945) [3] | |
Armament |
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Aviation facilities | 1 × Amidship catapults |
USS Minneapolis (CL/CA-36) was a New Orleans-class cruiser built for the United States Navy before the outbreak of World War II, the second ship named for Minneapolis, Minnesota. She served in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
The New Orleans-class cruisers were the last U.S. cruisers built to the specifications and standards of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Such ships, with a limit of 10,000 tons standard displacement and 8-inch calibre main guns may be referred to as "treaty cruisers." Originally classified a light cruiser, because of her thin armor, she was reclassified, soon after being laid down, a heavy cruiser, because of her 8-inch guns. The term "heavy cruiser" was not defined until the London Naval Treaty in 1930.
She was laid down on 27 June 1931 by Philadelphia Navy Yard; launched on 6 September 1933; sponsored by Miss Grace L. Newton; and commissioned on 19 May 1934, Captain Gordon W. Haines in command. [4]
After shakedown in European waters from July–September 1934 and alterations in Philadelphia Navy Yard, the new heavy cruiser departed on 4 April 1935 for the Panama Canal and San Diego, arriving on 18 April to join Cruiser Division 7 (CruDiv 7), Scouting Force. She operated along the west coast, aside from a cruise to the Caribbean early in 1939, until arriving at Pearl Harbor in 1940. [4]
When Japan attacked her base on 7 December 1941, Minneapolis was at sea for gunnery practice about 8 mi (13 km) from Pearl Harbor. She immediately took up patrol until late January 1942 when she joined a carrier task force about to raid the Gilberts and Marshalls. While screening Lexington on 1 February, she helped turn back an air attack in which three Japanese Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" medium bombers were shot down. She screened the carriers during their successful raids on 20 February and again on 10 March, when they attacked Japanese shipping at Lae and Salamaua, disrupting enemy supply lines to those garrisons. [4]
Minneapolis took part in the Battle of the Coral Sea from 4–8 May 1942, screening Lexington through the great air engagement and shooting down three Japanese bombers. She rescued survivors when Lexington was lost, part of the price for preserving the vital lines of communication to Australia and New Zealand and stopping further Japanese expansion southward. [4]
The cruiser was also engaged in the second key battle of the early phase of the Pacific War, the Battle of Midway from 3–6 June 1942, again protecting the carrier's task force from Japanese air attack. [4]
After replenishing and repairing at Pearl Harbor, Minneapolis sailed to protect the carriers as they covered the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi from 7–9 August. Remaining with the carriers, she went to the aid of Saratoga on 30 August, when the carrier took a torpedo hit, and towed her from the danger area. Through September and October, she supported landings west of Lunga Point and on Funafuti. [4]
As flagship of Task Force 67 (TF 67), she sortied on 29 November to intercept a Japanese destroyer force attempting to reinforce Guadalcanal. At 23:05 the next night, she spotted six Japanese ships, and the Battle of Tassafaronga was opened by her 8.00 in (203 mm) fire. [4] She scored many hits on the destroyer Takanami, which sank. [5] However, the gunfire failed to sink Takanami before she could fire her torpedoes, and in a twist of revenge two of these torpedoes hit Minneapolis, one on the port bow, the other in her number two fireroom, causing loss of power and severe damage; her bow collapsing back to the hawsepipes, her port side badly ruptured, and two firerooms open to the sea. [4] [6] [7] Of the battle, American naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, "It is a painful truth that the Battle of Tassafaronga was a sharp defeat inflicted on an alert and superior cruiser force by a partially surprised and inferior destroyer force." [8] Of her crew, 37 were killed in action while 36 were wounded. [9]
The ship was saved however by skillful damage control work and seamanship that kept her afloat and enabled her to reach Tulagi. There, camouflaged with palm fronds and shrubs to protect her from frequent air raids, she was temporarily repaired by her own crew with the help of Seabees of the 27th Naval Construction Battalion stationed on the island, and was able to sail for extensive repairs at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. [4] A new bow was built for her during her transit back to the shipyard and was almost ready to be mated on by the time of her arrival. While there she received a remodeling of her forward bridge and added new radars and numerous 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns.[ citation needed ]
By August 1943, Minneapolis was back in the Pacific for 20 months of frontline duty, which would include every major Pacific operation by American forces save Iwo Jima. Her first was the bombardment of Wake on 5 October, then from 20 November to 4 December she joined in the assault and capture of Makin in the Gilberts. In December, she screened a carrier group in the pre-invasion strikes against Kwajalein and Majuro, serving on in the capture of the Marshalls into mid-February 1944. With the carriers blasting the Marianas and the Carolines, Minneapolis continued to guard them through raids on the Palaus, Truk, Satawan, Ponape, and other key Japanese bases into April, including a surface action off Truk during Operation Hailstone where she assisted in sinking the destroyer Maikaze and the armed trawler Shonan Maru. [10] The latter raids were coordinated with the landings at Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura), New Guinea. [4]
In May, Minneapolis prepared at Majuro for the assaults in the Marianas, firing on Saipan in preinvasion bombardment on 14 June. As word came that a large Japanese force was sailing to attempt a disruption of the operation, Minneapolis rejoined TF 58 to screen the carriers during the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19–20 June. As American aviators won another great victory, Minneapolis screened the carriers and provided antiaircraft fire. After taking a bomb miss close aboard, her crew again patched her up. [4]
From 8 July to 9 August, Minneapolis brought her heavy guns to the support of the Marines winning Guam back from the enemy. Firing deep support, night harassing, and call fire, she won grateful praise from General Allen H. Turnage, commanding the 3rd Marine Division: "...a prime factor in the success of this operation...a job well done." From 6 September to 14 October, she gave similar essential aid to the capture of the Palaus, her operations at the close of that period preparing directly for the assault on Leyte. In the preinvasion bombardment force, she entered Leyte Gulf on 17 October, and she downed five enemy planes during the initial resistance to the assault. [4]
As the Japanese launched the three-pronged naval attack which would develop into the Battle for Leyte Gulf, Minneapolis was assigned on 24 October to Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf's bombardment group with other cruisers and older battleships. With them, she deployed across Surigao Strait that night, alert to any sign of contact with the enemy by the plucky PT-boats and destroyers fanned out ahead. As the Japanese ships steamed in column, they ignored the flank attacks of the smaller ships, heading straight for Oldendorf's battleline, which opened fire with an enormous coordinated salvo, quickly sinking the Japanese old battleship Yamashiro . The battleline, including Minneapolis, also crippled the heavy cruiser Mogami and the destroyer Shigure (the drifting Mogami was sunk by aircraft later that day). Admiral Oldendorf, in this Battle of Surigao Strait, had performed the classic maneuver of "crossing the T", meeting the individual fire of the enemy with his own massed fire. [4]
Continuing to alternate carrier screening and bombardment duties in the Philippines, Minneapolis was on the scene for the attack and landings at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon from 4–18 January 1945 and the landings on Bataan and Corregidor from 13–18 February. During March, she was assigned to Task Force 54 (TF 54) for the invasion of Okinawa, off which she arrived for preinvasion bombardment on the 25th. She fired at once on Kerama Retto, seized first in a move to provide a safe haven for ships during the assault on Okinawa proper. When the main invasion began 1 April, Minneapolis bombarded the Japanese airfield at Naha, rendering it useless to the enemy, then began call fire as ground forces pinpointed her targets by radio. [4]
After months of such action, her gun barrels were worn so badly as to need replacement, and she prepared to sail on 12 April. Her departure was delayed that day by the largest air attack yet of the Okinawa operation, during which she downed four would-be kamikazes and watched three others crash harmlessly into the sea. At nightfall, she sailed for Bremerton, Washington, where she repaired and replaced the linings of her gun barrels. Headed back for more action, she was in Subic Bay, Philippines, at the end of hostilities. [4]
She flew the flag of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid as he accepted the Japanese surrender of Korea on 9 September, then patrolled the Yellow Sea, covering the landing of Marines at Taku and Qinhuangdao, China. After carrying homeward bound veterans to the west coast, she sailed on 14 January 1946 for the Panama Canal and Philadelphia. Here she was placed in commission, in reserve, on 21 May, and out of commission on 10 February 1947. She was sold for scrapping on 14 August 1959 to Union Metals and Alloys Corp. [4]
Minneapolis received 17 [4] battle stars for World War II service, placing her among the most decorated US ships of World War II.
USS Biloxi was a Cleveland-class light cruiser of the United States Navy, which were built during World War II. The class was designed as a development of the earlier Brooklyn-class cruisers, the size of which had been limited by the First London Naval Treaty. The start of the war led to the dissolution of the treaty system, but the dramatic need for new vessels precluded a new design, so the Clevelands used the same hull as their predecessors, but were significantly heavier. The Clevelands carried a main battery of twelve 6-inch (152 mm) guns in four three-gun turrets, along with a secondary armament of twelve 5 in (127 mm) dual-purpose guns. They had a top speed of 32.5 knots.
USS New Orleans (CL/CA-32) was the lead New Orleans-class cruiser in service with the United States Navy. The New Orleans-class cruisers were the last U.S. cruisers built to the specifications and standards of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Such ships, with a limit of 10,000 long tons (10,160 t) standard displacement and 8-inch (203-millimetre) calibre main guns may be referred to as "treaty cruisers." Originally classified a light cruiser, because of her thin armor, she was reclassified, soon after being laid down, a heavy cruiser, because of her 8-inch guns. The term "heavy cruiser" was not defined until the London Naval Treaty in 1930.
Haguro (羽黒) was a Myōkō-class heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, named after Mount Haguro in Yamagata Prefecture. Commissioned in 1929, Haguro saw significant service during World War II, participating in nine naval engagements between 1942 and 1945. As a heavy cruiser, she was better armed and armored than most surface vessels, and had multiple battles during her combat career. In the early part of the war, she engaged in vigorous shore bombardment duties to support the Japanese invasions of the Philippines and Dutch East Indies, and took part in the destruction of the Allied cruiser force defending the Dutch East Indies at the Battle of the Java Sea from 27 February to 1 March 1942. With torpedo hits, Haguro sank the Allied flagship, the light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter, and the destroyer HNLMS Kortenaer, and with gunfire scored primary credit for sinking the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter, and was not damaged during the entire battle.
USS Pensacola (CL/CA-24) was a cruiser of the United States Navy that was in service from 1929 to 1945. She was the lead ship of the Pensacola class, which the Navy classified as light cruisers in 1929, with the Pensacola herself originally designated as "CL-24." Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, from 1931 on the class was re-classified as heavy cruisers, with the Pensacola being re-designated as "CA-24." The third Navy ship to be named after the city of Pensacola, Florida, she was nicknamed the "Grey Ghost" by Tokyo Rose. She received 13 battle stars for her service.
USS Fletcher (DD/DDE-445), named for Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher, was the lead Fletcher-class destroyer, and served in the Pacific during World War II. She received fifteen battle stars for World War II service, and five for Korean War service.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) of the United States Navy was a Brooklyn-class light cruiser active in the Pacific War. Honolulu was launched in 1937 and commissioned in 1938. She was the only cruiser to survive the Battle of Tassafaronga undamaged. Honolulu later served in the Battle of Kula Gulf, where she wrecked the destroyer Nagatsuki and helped to sink the destroyer Niizuki, and the Battle of Kolombangara where she helped to sink the light cruiser Jintsū but was crippled by a torpedo which blew off her bow. She then bombarded shores during the Battle of Peleliu. She was taken out of action by serious torpedo damage just before the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She was repaired, but not in time to rejoin the war. She was decommissioned in 1947 and was held in reserve until she was scrapped in 1959.
USS Northampton (CL/CA-26) was the lead Northampton-class cruiser in service with the United States Navy. She was commissioned in 1930, originally classified a light cruiser because of her thin armor but later reclassified a heavy cruiser because of her 8-inch guns. During World War II she served in the Pacific and was sunk by Japanese torpedoes during the Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November 1942. She was named after the city of Northampton, Massachusetts, the home of former President Calvin Coolidge.
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USS Ralph Talbot (DD-390) was a Bagley-class destroyer in the United States Navy, named for USMC Second Lieutenant Ralph Talbot (1897–1918), who was awarded the Medal of Honor during World War I. Talbot served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, from the attack on Pearl Harbor through the battle of Okinawa, earning 14 battle stars for her service.
Myōkō (妙高) was the lead ship of the four-member Myōkō class of heavy cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), which were active in World War II. She was named after Mount Myōkō in Niigata Prefecture. The other ships of the class were Nachi, Ashigara, and Haguro.
USS Hutchins (DD-476), was a Fletcher-class destroyer, of the United States Navy named after Naval aviator Lieutenant Carlton B. Hutchins (1904–1938), who though mortally injured, was able to remain at the controls of his aircraft and allow his surviving crew to parachute to safety and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
USS Converse (DD-509), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for George A. Converse (1844–1909).
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USS Ingersoll (DD-652) was a Fletcher-class destroyer in the United States Navy, serving from 28 June 1943 through 19 May 1974. Ingersoll saw action mainly in the Pacific Ocean Areas during World War II, and during the Korean War and Vietnam Wars.
USS Lardner (DD-487), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the second United States Navy ship to be named for Rear Admiral James L. Lardner, a Naval officer during the American Civil War. Lardner received 10 battle stars for World War II service.
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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.