USS Houston (CL-81)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Houston.

USS Houston (January 1944)
History
United States
Name	USS Houston (CL-81)
Namesake	City of Houston, Texas
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia
Launched	19 June 1943
Commissioned	20 December 1943
Decommissioned	15 December 1947
Stricken	1 March 1959
Fate	Sold for scrap on 1 June 1961
General characteristics
Class and type	Cleveland-class light cruiser
Displacement	Standard: 11,744 long tons (11,932 t) Full load: 14,131 long tons (14,358 t)
Length	610 ft 1 in (185.95 m)
Beam	66 ft 4 in (20.22 m)
Draft	24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
Installed power	4 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 100,000 shp (75,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × steam turbines 4 × screw propellers
Speed	32.5 kn (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range	11,000 nmi (20,000 km; 13,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	1,285 officers and enlisted
Armament	12 × 6 in (152 mm) Mark 16 guns 12 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber guns 24 × 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 21 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns
Armor	Belt: 3.5–5 in (89–127 mm) Deck: 2 in (51 mm) Barbettes: 6 in (152 mm) Turrets: 6 in (152 mm) Conning Tower: 5 in (127 mm)
Aircraft carried	4 × floatplanes
Aviation facilities	2 × stern catapults

USS Houston (CL-81) was a Cleveland-class light cruiser of the United States Navy built in the mid-1940s during World War II. The class was a development of the earlier Brooklyn-class cruisers, with minor changes to keep design and construction time to a minimum so large numbers of ships could be built for wartime service. 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 (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph).

She was active in the Pacific War and survived two separate aerial torpedo hits in October 1944.

Design

Main article: Cleveland-class cruiser

Houston was 610 feet 1 inch (186 m) long overall and had a beam of 66 ft 4 in (20.22 m) and a draft of 24 ft 6 in (7.47 m). Her standard displacement amounted to 11,744 long tons (11,932 t) and increased to 14,131 long tons (14,358 t) at full load. The ship was powered by four General Electric steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Rated at 100,000 shaft horsepower (75,000 kW), the turbines were intended to give a top speed of 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph). Her crew numbered 1285 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 6 in /47 caliber Mark 16 guns in four 3-gun turrets on the centerline. Two were placed forward in a superfiring pair; the other two turrets were placed aft of the superstructure in another superfiring pair. The secondary battery consisted of twelve 5 in (127 mm) /38 caliber dual purpose guns mounted in twin turrets. Two of these were placed on the centerline, one directly behind the forward main turrets and the other just forward of the aft turrets. Two more were placed abreast of the conning tower and the other pair on either side of the aft superstructure. Anti-aircraft defense consisted of twenty-four Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) guns in four quadruple and four double mounts and twenty-one Oerlikon 20 mm (0.79 in) guns in single mounts.

The ship's belt armor ranged in thickness from 3.5 to 5 in (89 to 127 mm), with the thicker section amidships where it protected the ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. Her deck armor was 2 in (51 mm) thick. The main battery turrets were protected with 6.5 in (170 mm) faces and 3 in (76 mm) sides and tops, and they were supported by barbettes 6 inches thick. Houston's conning tower had 5-inch sides.

Service history

Houston was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia on 4 August 1941, originally under the name Vicksburg. On 12 October 1942, she was renamed Houston; some five months before, on 30 May, 1,000 Navy recruits, known as the Houston Volunteers, were sworn in at a dedication ceremony in downtown Houston but with a nineteen-month period between then and commissioning, only one served aboard the new Houston. and the completed hull was launched on 19 June 1943. Fitting-out work was completed by December that year, and she was commissioned on the 20th. Captain William W. Behrens Sr. served as the ship's first commander. The ship got underway on 1 February 1944 to begin her shakedown cruise. She initially sailed to the Caribbean Sea, and then returned north for initial training off Boston. On 16 April, she left for the Pacific Ocean to join the war effort there. She passed through the Panama Canal and sailed north to San Diego, before continuing on to Pearl Harbor. She arrived there on 6 May and carried out further training exercises for the next few weeks.

World War II operations

Houston departed from Hawaii later in May and arrived in Majuro Atoll on the 31st, where she joined the anti-aircraft screen for the aircraft carriers of the Fast Carrier Task Force. She and the rest of the fleet then began the invasion of the Mariana and Palau Islands. The fleet got underway on 5 June and began air strikes on the islands on 12 June to prepare for the amphibious invasion, which started with the invasion of Saipan on 15 June. For their part, the Japanese launched their counter-attack with the recently formed 1st Mobile Fleet. In the resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 June, Houston contributed her anti-aircraft guns to the fleet's defense. After American air strikes on the 1st Mobile Fleet sank two of the Japanese carriers, the Japanese withdrew, allowing the American fleet to return to operations in support of the Marianas campaign. On 26 June, Houston joined the shore bombardment unit that targeted Guam and Rota. During the bombardment, she destroyed ten aircraft, the airstrip they occupied, and a radar installation. Houston thereafter sailed for Eniwetok to replenish ammunition for the next operation.

Houston joined Task Group 38.2, part of the Fast Carrier Task Force, which departed on 30 August to begin air strikes on the Palau Islands to prepare for the upcoming invasion of Peleliu. The carriers struck the islands on 6 September, after which Houston and several destroyers bombarded Peleliu and other islands in the area. The Fast Carrier Task Force then sailed west to neutralize Japanese airfields in the Philippines before returning for another series of attacks on Peleliu from 17 to 19 September to support American ground forces that had landed on the island on the 15th. The fleet then departed for Ulithi atoll to prepare for the next offensive, arriving there on 1 October.

Returning to Ulithi on 1 October 1944, Houston and her task group steamed five days later for an operation into the western Pacific, with airstrikes against Okinawa on 10 October. Two days later, the task force moved toward Formosa.

The Battle of Formosa, consisted of Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter sweeps which were intercepted by airborne Japanese aircraft and anti-aircraft fire. Japanese forces retaliated with land-based air attacks against the fleet and Houston claimed four aircraft shot down on 12 October. The following day USS Canberra was hit by an aerial torpedo and Houston took over her station. On 14 October, Houston and other ships endured another air raid claiming three of the attacking twin-engined torpedo bombers, but a fourth aircraft's torpedo hit her forward engine room flooding all four machinery spaces and causing the loss of propulsive power.

During the night Boston took her in tow for retirement to Ulithi. Houston continued with damage control work including jettisoning 122 tons of topside equipment, throughout the fifteenth and the morning of the sixteenth. By noon of the sixteenth, all second deck compartments were dry and several third deck compartments had been made watertight and she was riding easily in tow, now from the fleet tug, Pawnee.

Second torpedo strike on Houston.

Late that afternoon, a Japanese airstrike from Formosa, struck Houston directly on her stern with another torpedo, parallel to her No.2 shaft, flooding her hangar and setting fire to the starboard fuel tank for her scout planes. Ten men were blown over the side by the explosion. Of these, six were killed and the others wounded, one man was killed and six more wounded on board by falling debris.

Evacuating all non-essential crew to the escorting ships, the damage control parties were able to keep Houston afloat. The Japanese believed "Cripple Division I" was the remnants of a Task Force 38 (TF 38) and Admiral William F. Halsey hoped to lure them into an attack to finish off the two damaged cruisers. Part of the Japanese fleet did sortie from the Inland Sea, Japanese home islands, but after air attack, returned to port.

Houston and Canberra were now out of range of Japanese land-based aircraft, and they arrived at Ulithi on 27 October. After temporary repairs, Houston proceeded to Manus Island, and a floating dry dock to begin more substantial repairs, arriving there on 20 December. She steamed first to Pearl Harbor then to New York Navy Yard, due to insufficient repair capacity available on the West Coast and arrived in New York on 24 March 1945.

Houston received three battle stars for World War II service.

Post-War service

A H Vedel onboard the USS Houston 1946

After extensive work in New York, Houston steamed out of New York harbor on 11 October 1945. Following refresher training in the Caribbean Sea, she took part in training exercises from Newport, Rhode Island. She steamed on 16 April 1946 for an extended goodwill tour of European and African ports, visiting cities in Scandinavia (Oslo, Gothenburg, Stockholm and Kopenhagen), the Benelux (Antwerpen, Rotterdam), Portugal, Italy, and Egypt.

Houston returned to the US on 14 December 1946 and engaged in training and readiness operations until 17 May 1947, when she steamed with Cruiser Division 12 (CruDiv 12) for a Mediterranean Sea voyage.

Returning to Philadelphia on 16 August 1947, Houston was decommissioned on 15 December 1947, and then was placed in reserve for over a decade, and then finally stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1959 and scrapped. Her nameplate is on display at the Freedom Park (Omaha, Nebraska).

References

• Friedman, Norman (1980). "United States of America". In Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 86–166. ISBN 978-0-87021-913-9.
• Friedman, Norman (1984). U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-739-5.
• Hornfischer, James D. (2006). Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-80390-7.
• "Houston III (CL-81)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. 20 June 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
• Miller, John Grider (1985). The Battle to Save the Houston, October 1944 to March 1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-119-8.

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Houston at NavSource Naval History
• hazegray.org: USS Houston
• Biography of Houston's first CO
• Official report on torpedo damage off Formosa, 14 and 16 October 1944