USS Baltimore (CA-68)
_anchored_in_Guantanamo_Bay_on_22_September_1954_(NH_52422).jpg) The Baltimore in Guantanamo Bay, September 1954 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Keel laying | May 26, 1941 |
| Launch | July 28, 1942 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | April 15, 1943 |
| Decommissioning | May 31, 1956 |
| Whereabouts | Wrecked in 1972 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
14,704 tons |
| length |
205.26 meters |
| width |
21.59 meters |
| Draft |
8.18 meters |
| crew |
1,142 |
| drive |
4 propellers, driven by 4 steam turbines; 89,000 kW |
| speed |
33 knots |
| Armament |
|
The USS Baltimore (CA-68) was a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser and lead ship that entered service in April 1943. The ship served in the United States Pacific Fleet during the Pacific War . Between July 1946 and November 1951, the Baltimore was in the reserve fleet before it was reactivated and henceforth used for training missions. After its final decommissioning in May 1956, the ship was another fifteen years in the reserve fleet before it was removed from the Naval Vessel Register in February 1971 and scrapped in Portland (Oregon) in 1972 .
history
The Baltimore was laid down on May 26, 1941 in the shipyard of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation and launched on July 28, 1942. Godmother was the wife of the then mayor of Baltimore , Howard W. Jackson. The heavy cruiser was commissioned on April 15, 1943 under the command of Captain WC Calhoun.
Shortly after its commissioning, the ship took part in operations in the Pacific War. From November 1943 to June 1944 she gave fire support to troops off the Makin archipelago . This was followed by further missions during the invasion of Kwajalein , Operation Hailstone and the capture of Eniwetok , all between January and March 1944. Until June 1944, the Baltimore also provided fire support for attacks on the Mariana Islands , Minami-Torishima (also known as Marcus Island) and Wake, and the Jayapura and Saipan invasions .
The ship had another important mission from June 19 to 20, 1944 in the battle of the Philippine Sea . In July 1944, the Baltimore transported the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a meeting with Chester Nimitz and Douglas MacArthur in Pearl Harbor and then to Alaska , where he left the ship on August 9th.
In November 1944, the Baltimore returned to active combat and served from then on in the United States Third Fleet. There she took part in attacks on Luzon , Formosa and Okinawa until January 1945 . On January 26, the ship moved to the United States Fifth Fleet and was used there before Honshū and Iwojima .
After the war ended, the Baltimore took part in the repatriation of American troops as part of Operation Magic Carpet . The ship then remained in Japan as an occupying power until February 1946, before it returned to the United States and joined the reserve fleet there on July 8, 1946.
After more than five years, the Baltimore was reactivated on November 28, 1951 and in the following years was mainly used for training missions. Among other things, she participated as part of the United States Sixth Fleet on trips to the Mediterranean in 1952, 1953 and 1954. In June 1953, the ship represented the United States Navy in the Spithead Fleet Parade .
On May 31, 1956, the Baltimore ended her active service and switched again to the reserve fleet. After spending almost fifteen years there, she was removed from the Naval Vessel Register on February 15, 1971, and was scrapped at the Zidell Companies shipyard in Portland, Oregon, from September 1972.
Web links
- Entry on Baltimore on navsource.org (English)
- Entry on Baltimore on navysite.de (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ USS Baltimore CA-68. In: Historycentral. Accessed May 31, 2019 .