USS Marblehead (CL-12)
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| period of service | |
| Ordered: | 1918 |
| Keel laying: | 4th August 1920 |
| Launch: | October 9, 1923 |
| Commissioning: | September 8, 1924 |
| Decommissioning: | November 1, 1945 |
| 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 on 4 screws |
| Speed: | 34 knots |
| Crew: | 458 |
| Armament: | 12 × 6- inch (152-mm) guns (2 * 2 + 8 * 1) 4 × 3-inch (76-mm) flak 6 × 533-mm torpedo tubes (2 * 3) After conversion: 10 × 6 in. (152 mm) guns (2 * 2 + 6 * 1) 8 × 3 in. (76 mm) Flak 6 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (2 * 3) |
| Aircraft: | 2 |
The USS Marblehead (CL-12) was an Omaha-class light cruiser of the United States Navy . It was the third U.S. Navy ship named after the city of Marblehead , Massachusetts , and one of the oldest American cruisers to serve in World War II .
history
1924-1941
After commissioning, the Marblehead went on her maiden voyage in 1924 to Great Britain and the Mediterranean . In 1925 a trip through the Pacific followed with visits to Australia , Samoa and the Galapagos Islands . After another long voyage in 1926, the ship was used for the first time in the American intervention in the resurrected civil war in Nicaragua the following year . After completing this assignment, the Marblehead sailed to Pearl Harbor , where she met with her sister ships USS Richmond and USS Trenton . The three cruisers then drove together to Shanghai , where their presence was supposed to ensure the security of American interests while the city was being taken by Chiang Kai-shek's troops . In addition, the Marblehead spent two months on the Yangtze , which it ran up to the height of Wuhan . As part of friendship visits, she also called at several Japanese ports.
The cruiser remained in Asia until March 1928, after which it was relocated back to the USA, with a stopover in Nicaragua in support of the preparations for the elections agreed in the Treaty of Tipitapa . This was followed by five years of service in the Atlantic Fleet (1928–1933) and in the Pacific Fleet (1933–1938). In the spring of 1938, the Marblehead was assigned to the Asian fleet and moved to Cavite in the Philippines . In the following years, the cruiser patrolled the Philippines and the China Sea , while tensions in this area due to the Second Sino-Japanese War triggered by the Japanese expansionist efforts and the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in the shadow of the Second World War that broke out in Europe steadily increased increased.
Pacific War 1942
On November 24, the Chief of Naval Operations , Admiral Harold R. Stark , sent a war warning to all commanders in the Pacific, advising them that aggressive action by Japan was expected in the next few days. Malaysia , Thailand , the Philippines, Borneo and Guam were named as possible targets for a Japanese attack . All commanders in the Pacific were instructed to take appropriate measures to prepare their troops for war, but not to carry out any offensive action themselves as long as Japan did not undertake open warfare against the United States.
Because of the exposed location of the Philippines and the weakness of the US forces stationed there, the commander of the Asian Fleet, Admiral Thomas C. Hart , decided to distribute his ships to the less endangered southern areas. Therefore, Admiral Hart moved the Marblehead together with eight destroyers to Tarakan on Borneo, where they arrived on November 29 and awaited further orders. After the outbreak of hostilities as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , she became part of the ABDA fleet , the combined naval forces of Australia , Great Britain , the Netherlands and the USA , which in the following months tried unsuccessfully as part of the ABDA forces to carry out the Japanese invasion To stop Southeast Asia .
In the following weeks, the cruiser was used for numerous escort duties in the area of the Dutch East Indies . In January 1942, the Marblehead, together with the light cruiser USS Boise and six destroyers , was supposed to attack the Japanese forces from Timor , which were landing in Balikpapan at that time . However, the association was unlucky: First the Boise ran into an unmapped obstacle in the Strait of Sapeh, causing a leak. She was forced to return to Java with a destroyer as escort . Then on January 24, the Marblehead itself suffered severe turbine damage , which reduced its top speed to 15 knots and made it impossible to participate in the attack. Together with the destroyer USS Bulmer , she stayed behind, while the remaining four destroyers carried out the attack alone. In the sea battle off Balikpapan they managed to surprise the Japanese and sink several transporters. However, due to the weakness of the attacking bandage, the damage done was minor. The battle would remain the only success the ABDA fleet had in a major battle.
Six days later the Marblehead was supposed to be together with the cruisers Mr. Ms. De Ruyter , Mr. Ms. Tromp and USS Houston, plus three Dutch and four American destroyers, attack Japanese transports off Kendari , but the Japanese force withdrew before the Allied ships arrived. The unit then changed course to attack another larger Japanese convoy that had been sighted in the Makassar Strait . However, the ships were discovered by Japanese scouts and massively attacked from the air in the battle in the Strait of Makassar . The first three waves of attack survived the cruiser undamaged, but in the fourth obtained dive bomber type Aichi D3A Val two hit and a Nahtreffer to port. Large fires broke out as a result of the direct hits and the rudder blocked in the hard port position , leaving the ship with no choice but to run in circles at full power. The port on the bow underwater explosion of the near hit acted like a sea mine and caused severe water ingress in the bow, which caused the Marblehead to list to port and to the bow. A total of 15 seafarers were killed as a result of the hits, and 84 other crew members were injured. After the attacks ended, the fires were brought under control; Another three hours later it was also possible to correct the rudder position from hard port to 9 ° port , which made it possible to steer the ship using the screws and to retreat through the Lombok Strait . Despite 26 fully and 8 partially flooded compartments, the ship managed to bring the ship to 20 knots, a high speed for such a badly damaged ship, but which was considered necessary due to the risk of further air attacks. To support the pumps fighting against the flooding , the crew had to form buckets. A course was set from the Lombok Strait for the port of Tjilatjap , which was reached on February 6th.
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In Tjilatjap, most of the damage was poorly repaired. Since the dry dock located there was too small for the cruiser, it was decided to take the risky approach of only partially docking the ship. First the Marblehead drove the forecastle into the dock, which was then raised to dry the forecastle. The stern remained in the water and had to carry a large part of its weight due to the inclined position of the ship. The entire hull was bent by the unusual load and subjected to enormous structural loads. In this way it was possible to get the bow far enough out of the water to mend the holes in the hull. However, it was not possible to get the penetrated water completely out of the hull, nor was it possible to get the forecastle completely watertight again. The same procedure was then repeated to get the stern out of the water. However, they failed to raise the stern high enough to be able to repair the rudder. On February 13th, the Marblehead left port and set course for Trincomalee in Ceylon , still steered by the propellers . It was true that she could hardly be called seaworthy; However, as the Japanese continued to advance and the danger of air raids increased, the ship's continued stay in Tjilatjap was considered too dangerous. There were sufficiently large docks in the British naval base in Trincomalee, but when the ship arrived on February 21, it was found that their capacities were already at full capacity and it would not be possible to free a dock here or anywhere else in India for several weeks to make to fix the old cruiser. The Marblehead therefore had to continue to South Africa and was finally partially repaired from March 24th to April 15th in Simon's Town and was then able to run to New York City for complete repairs .
Atlantic and Mediterranean 1942–1946
After the repairs were completed in October 1942, the Marblehead was used in the South Atlantic for patrol between Brazil and Africa until February 1944 . She then took on escort duties in the North Atlantic for five months before she was transferred to Palermo in the Mediterranean in July 1944 . In August she took part in Operation Dragoon , the Allied landing on the Côte d'Azur . In support of the landing troops, the cruiser fired at German positions in the area of Saint-Raphaël . After the landing operation was completed, the Marblehead returned to the United States and was used solely for training purposes for the remainder of the war. The cruiser received two Battle Stars as an award for its missions in World War II .
On November 1, 1945, the Marblehead was decommissioned and scrapped in 1946.