USS Boston (CA-69)
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|
|
| period of service |
|
|---|---|
| Ordered: | July 1, 1940 |
| Keel laying: | June 30, 1941 |
| Launch: | August 26, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | June 30, 1943 |
| Decommissioning: | May 5th 1970 |
| Fate: | Disassembled |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement: | 17,031 to 17,685 ts |
| Length: | 205.3 meters |
| Width: | 21.6 meters |
| Draft: | about 8 meters |
| Drive: | 4 propellers, driven by 4 steam turbines; 120,000 shaft horsepower |
| Crew: | Up to 80 officers, 1500 men |
The USS Boston (CA-69 / CAG-1 / CA-69) was a heavy cruiser in the United States Navy and belonged to the Baltimore class . Shortly after commissioning in 1943, the ship was deployed in World War II . From 1952, the Boston was converted into the world's first guided missile cruiser. As such, it was used in the Vietnam War.
After its decommissioning, the cruiser was dismantled.
technology
For more detailed information on technology, see the Baltimore class .
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As a unit of the Baltimore class , the Boston was around 207 meters long and 22 meters wide. They displaced 17,000 ts . The ship, powered by four propellers, could reach speeds of up to 33 knots, the output of the propulsion system operated with four boilers was 120,000 shaft horsepower .
When the Boston was launched, its armament consisted of three triple turrets of 20.3 cm caliber and 55 caliber length for attacking land or sea targets, as well as six multifunctional twin turrets 12.7 L / 38. For air defense, the ship also had 48 40-mm anti-aircraft guns and 24 20-mm automatic cannons, but these were disarmed soon after the end of World War II and replaced by first twelve, then eight 7.6-cm anti-aircraft guns. In addition, there were still two seaplanes for reconnaissance missions on catapults at the stern of the Boston during World War II . These were also removed later.
From 1952 the Boston was converted into a guided missile cruiser. For this, the aft turret was removed and replaced by two Mk 4 twin-arm launchers for the RIM-2 Terrier anti- aircraft missile . In addition, one of the 12.7 cm towers had to be taken off board. The magazine in the aft ship could hold 144 missiles. In addition, the superstructures were slightly changed. Here the two chimneys have been combined into a thicker one to reduce the top-heaviness . The conversion also went hand in hand with the installation of new radar and fire control systems , which the terriers needed to find their targets.
When the Terrier , a first generation anti-aircraft missile, was withdrawn from service while the Boston was still in service , the cruiser no longer had guided missiles, only the launch system was retained.
Name and classification
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At the time of the Second World War, the US Navy still had firm traditions in the system of naming ships. Part of this was to name cruisers after American cities, larger units such as battleships were given states as patrons. In keeping with this tradition, CA-69 was named after the city of Boston , Massachusetts . This made CA-69 the sixth USS Boston in US Navy history.
At the beginning of her service the Boston was classified as CA-69 . This originally stood for armored cruiser ( armored cruiser ), but was later also used for the heavy cruiser , i.e. the heavy cruiser, to distinguish it from the CL light cruiser . After the conversion, the identifier was changed to CAG-1 , with the added G standing for guided missile . The retention of the A , in contrast to the later CG , should indicate that the cruiser still carried large-caliber guns in addition to the guided missiles. After the Terriers were deactivated , the G was deleted and the identification number changed back to 69 .
Since its conversion to a guided missile cruiser, the Boston also carried an insignia. This was round, on the lower edge the ship's name and identification were noted, in the center it showed two ascending guided missiles, which pull golden tails behind them.
history
Construction and planning
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Planning for the Baltimore class began in September 1939, with the Boston becoming the second ship in this class. It was part of the first package of four units that was commissioned on July 1, 1940. The contractor for the construction of CA-69 was the Bethlehem Steel Company , which laid the keel of the cruiser on June 30, 1941 at their Fore River Shipyard in Quincy , Massachusetts . The construction of the cruiser took just over a year, and Boston was launched on August 26, 1942 . The ship was christened on this date. The ship's godmother was the wife of Maurice J. Tobin , the then mayor of the city of Boston, who was chosen as the namesake, and later US Secretary of Labor .
After completing the final equipment and the first test drives, the Boston was officially put into service with the US Navy on June 30, 1943. She spent the first six months of her service with practice drives in the Pacific.
Second World War
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With the entry into Pearl Harbor started for Boston preparing for military service on December 6. In January 1944 she was assigned to Task Force 58 , with which she entered into acts of war from the end of January. It could be used for air protection for battleships and aircraft as well as for coastal shelling. From January 30, she took part in the battles for the Marshall Islands , she supported the landings on Kwajalein , Majuro and Eniwetok until February 28 . Together with the TF 58, the Boston fought its way further west, towards the Japanese main islands. In April, the group attacked Western New Guinea and the Hollandia naval port . In June she was involved in the Battle of Saipan and the Battle of the Philippine Sea . From mid-July to mid-August, the Boston was used as part of the conquest of Guam . On September 15, the cruiser was involved in the landing on Morotai . In September and October, the Boston also served during the attacks on the Philippines and the Battle of Peleliu .
On October 10, the Boston transferred to the 3rd Fleet and was involved in attacks on Okinawa , Formosa and Luzón . From October 24th to 26th, the cruiser took part in the sea and air battle in the Gulf of Leyte under Admiral William F. Halsey . After further attacks on Luzón in November and December and on Formosa and the Chinese coast in January 1945, attacks on the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Honshu followed in February . After sailing in the Pacific for over a year, the ship returned to home waters in March and began an overhaul at Long Beach Naval Shipyard on March 25th .
This ended in June, immediately afterwards Boston was sent back to the Pacific theater of war, where it rejoined TF 38 on July 20 and was involved in attacks on the main Japanese islands until the armistice on August 15. After the formal surrender of Japan on the USS Missouri (BB-63) was signed on September 2, in the presence of the Boston , the Boston stayed in the Far East, where it helped with the occupation of Japan. On February 28, 1946, the cruiser returned to the US West Coast and was taken out of service on March 12 and placed in reserve in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard .
modification
The Boston then remained mothballed in Bremerton , Washington, for around six years . At the beginning of the 1950s, the cruiser was selected to carry guided missiles in addition to the original armament after a conversion. With the reclassification from the heavy cruiser with the identification CA-69 to the guided missile cruiser CAG-1 on January 4, 1952, the conversion of the ship was heralded. In February, the ship was towed from Bremerton into Philadelphia Harbor and rebuilt shortly afterwards at New York Shipbuilding in Camden , New Jersey . On November 1, 1955, the Boston was put back into service, and in early 1956, test drives began in the Caribbean. At the end of February, Boston was serving as the flagship of the CRUDIV 6 while it was still being tested . In the summer and autumn of the year the cruiser carried out guided missile tests, in October and November an Atlantic maneuver was due.
Mediterranean cruises
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In late November 1956, the Boston relocated for the first time as a guided missile cruiser. The destination of the ship, now stationed on the east coast in Norfolk , Virginia , was the Mediterranean Sea. The voyage lasted until March 1957. Later that year, the Boston carried out a training voyage for midshipmen to Cuba and then Chile, followed by a NATO maneuver in the North Atlantic and then from the end of November a docking time for maintenance at Norfolk Naval Shipyard . This lasted, including test drives, until June 1958, when the second Mediterranean voyage began. During this mission, the Boston was also on site during the Lebanon crisis to cover the evacuation of US citizens. In August 1959, a third mission to the region of the Sixth Fleet followed, and from February 1960 a maintenance period in the Charleston Naval Shipyard . In October the Boston moved to the Mediterranean for two months. In April 1961, the cruiser was part of the combat group that was kept ready off the coast during the failed US invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The order to deploy this group did not materialize. In the fall of that year, the Boston was then docked in Charleston for a few weeks for maintenance work. At the end of 1961 she moved to the Mediterranean for the fifth time and returned to the east coast in March 1962. The next voyage to the Sixth Fleet followed just five months later , during which the Boston was the flagship of the fleet for six weeks in September and October .
In 1963, more modern radar systems were installed in the Boston Naval Shipyard , which were then tested in the Caribbean. In 1964 a trip to European waters followed. The cruiser sailed on European waters for the last time in 1965/1966.
Vietnam War
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In April 1967, Boston returned to the Pacific through the Panama Canal to serve in the Vietnam War . These included air defense for the aircraft carriers, for example at Yankee Station , for which the guided weapons could be used, but also coastal fire using the barrel weapons. A second Vietnam mission began for Boston with the arrival in Southeast Asian waters in April 1968. During this time, the Terrier was officially decommissioned throughout the fleet , so the Boston received its old CA-69 code back on May 1st . In June, the ship fell victim to friendly fire by United States Air Force planes : Two Fast Patrol Crafts reported that they had been attacked by North Vietnamese helicopters, whereupon the USAF parked jets to shoot them down. When the aircraft were on site, however, the helicopters had already fled, the pilots now held the Boston and the accompanying HMAS Hobart (D39) for the enemy air targets and attacked them. While a missile hit the Boston , but the warhead did not detonate, the Hobart had two fatalities from a missile hit . The only slightly damaged Boston was able to continue its operation and did not return to the east coast until October, where the terriers were then removed.
The Boston owes it to the existence of its guns and their use in the Vietnam War that they have not yet been decommissioned. Instead, she went to the Pacific one last time in May 1969 to bombard Vietnamese coastal positions; the cruiser fired the last salvo on October 7th and returned to Boston on November 15th.
Last years
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Since the Leahy , Belknap , Charles F. Adams and Farragut classes, some of the cruisers and destroyers planned as guided missile ships were in service, modernizing the old Boston again was not an option. Instead, she was decommissioned on May 5, 1970 and assigned to the reserve fleet. She stayed there for a few years, during which, among other things, a sale of the ship to Turkey was considered, but this was never carried out. Ultimately, the Boston was sold in 1975 and demolished.
Web links
- Boston in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- Galleries on history.navy.mil (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ History of CAG-1 on ussboston.org (English)
- ^ Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Cruiser of the US Navy . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, page 258.
