USS Detroit (CL-8)
| USS Detroit | |
|---|---|
_off_Port_Angeles,_Washington_(USA),_on_14_April_1944_(19-N-63828).jpg)
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| period of service |
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| Ordered: | March 4, 1917 |
| Builder: |
Fore River Shipyard ( Bethlehem Shipbuilding ) |
| Keel laying: | November 10, 1920 |
| Launch: | June 29, 1922 |
| Commissioning: | July 31, 1923 |
| Decommissioning: | January 11, 1946 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1946 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Ship type : | Light cruiser |
| Displacement: | 7050 ts |
| Length: | 167.8 meters |
| Width: | 16.9 meters |
| Draft : | 6.1 meters |
| Drive : |
Steam turbines 90,000 WPS (66,200 kW) on 4 screws |
| Speed: | 34 knots |
| Crew: | 458 |
| Armament: | 12 × 6 inches (152 mm) guns (2 * 2 + 8 * 1) 4 × 3 inches (76.2 mm) Flak 6 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (2 * 3) After conversion: 10 × 6 inches (152 mm) Guns (2 * 2 + 6 * 1) 8 × 3 inches (76.2 mm) Flak 6 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (2 * 3) |
| Aircraft: | 2 |
The USS Detroit (CL-8) was an Omaha-class light cruiser of the United States Navy . It was the fourth US Navy ship named after the city of Detroit , Michigan , and one of the oldest American cruisers to serve in World War II .
1923-1940
After its commissioning in 1923, the Detroit was used in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean until 1931 , interrupted by several visits to Europe and short trips to the Pacific . From March 15, 1931, she was part of the Pacific Fleet with home port San Diego and operated for the next 10 years mainly on the American west coast, apart from a joint maneuver with the Atlantic Fleet in the Caribbean. During this time, was in a major reconstruction of the cruiser Flak intensified and two of six inches - individual guns away aft. Due to a bad planning in the design of the Omaha class , these guns in the lower casemates had proven to be unusable, as water penetrated the casemates due to the rolling movements of the ships and made it very difficult to operate the guns.
Second World War
In October 1940, the Detroit and the rest of the Pacific Fleet were demonstratively moved from their home base in San Diego to Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , in order to put pressure on Japan in the face of mounting tensions in Southeast Asia .
At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, the cruiser was moored at berth F-13 on the northwest side of Ford Island together with its sister ship USS Raleigh and the former battleship USS Utah , which had been converted into a training ship for anti-aircraft defense . At 8 a.m., 16 torpedo bombers of the type Nakajima B5N Kate of the first attack wave flew to the berths on the northwest side of the island. In accordance with their instructions to attack only battleships and aircraft carriers , most of the machines turned and looked for new targets, but some carried out their torpedo attack on these three ships and scored one hit on the Raleigh and two on the Utah , which capsized within 10 minutes . A torpedo, presumably aimed at the Detroit , passed 3 meters behind her stern and got stuck in the mud on the shore of Ford Island. Otherwise the cruiser was not damaged and sent its motorboat to the damaged USS Nevada to support it. Lying alongside the battleship, the boat was damaged by an explosion and sank. Two crew members of the cruiser were slightly injured. After the attack, the Detroit ran out immediately and searched in vain for a suspected Japanese invasion force together with other ships in the fleet.
In the following months, the old cruiser was used for escort duties between Pearl Harbor and the west coast; To this end, he led two convoys between Pearl Harbor and Pago Pago in September 1942 . In November, the Detroit was relocated to the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific . There she was involved in numerous patrol missions, the aim of which was to cut off the Japanese units on the islands of Attu and Kiska from their supplies. In April 1943 the cruiser fired at Attu as part of a combat group and took part in the reconquest of the island the following month. In August, the Detroit was used to support the invasion of Kiska, but the island was conquered without a fight, as the Japanese had since withdrawn their garrison unnoticed.
Even after the fighting in the Aleutians ended, the cruiser remained part of the American naval forces in the North Pacific, which protected the Aleutians, while the heaviest fighting in the course of the Allied offensives took place in the South and Central Pacific. The Detroit's last combat mission in the North Pacific was when it took part in the shelling of Japanese facilities on the Kuril Islands in June 1944 . At the end of June the cruiser ran to Bremerton on the west coast of the USA for repairs and became the temporary flagship of the Southeast Pacific Squadron after the repairs were completed. Until the end of the year she patrolled the west coast of South America , far from the fighting. After another stay in the USA, the ship reached the Ulithi Atoll on February 5, 1945 , which had become the main base of the American fleet in the western Pacific. There she became the flagship of the supply association that supported the fast carrier associations of the 5th US fleet. She held this position until the end of the war. On September 1, she entered Tokyo Bay with other naval units and was one of two ships that attended both the attack on Pearl Harbor and the surrender of Japan (the other ship was the USS West Virginia ). In October, the cruiser finally returned to the United States with returning American soldiers during Operation Magic Carpet . The Detroit received six Battle Stars awards for its missions in World War II .
On January 11, 1946, the Detroit in Philadelphia was decommissioned and sold for scrapping on February 27.