USS New Orleans (CA-32)
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The USS New Orleans (ID: CA-32, initially: CL-32) was a heavy cruiser of the US Navy and the lead ship of the New Orleans- class .
history
She was laid down on March 14, 1931 by the New York Naval Shipyard . She was launched on April 12, 1933, and entered service on February 15, 1934 under the command of Captain Allen B. Reed.
The New Orleans made a test drive to Northern Europe in May and June 1934 and returned to New York on June 28 . On July 7th, she ran to a meeting with the USS Houston , took President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board to sail the Panama Canal and conduct an exercise with the airship USS Macon and its aircraft off the coast of California . The ride ended on August 2nd in Astoria , Oregon . The New Orleans went on to Panama and Cuba and carried out exercises until 1935. She then visited the city of the same name while running to the Eastern Pacific to join the 6th Cruiser Division. She returned to New York, where she stayed from August 20 to December 7, 1936, and ran back to the Pacific in early 1937. On October 12, 1939, she arrived in Hawaii to take part in exercises and was used for patrols before the war began.
On December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor , the New Orleans was in port and being powered from the dock as its engines were being repaired. When the power went out due to the attack, the technicians tried to start the machines while the rest of the crew fired at the Japanese planes with pistols and rifles. The cannons had to be operated by hand, but within 10 minutes all anti-aircraft batteries were in use. Some members of the crew were injured by a cluster bomb close-in.
The cruiser escorted troop transports to the Palmyra and Johnston Atolls before returning to San Francisco on January 13, 1942 for repairs. A new radar system and 20 mm Oerlikon cannons were installed. On February 12, the New Orleans was the flagship of an escort for a troop transport to Brisbane . She then escorted a convoy to Nouméa and returned to Pearl Harbor to join Task Force 11.
This task force expired on April 15 to join the carrier group around the USS Yorktown southwest of the New Hebrides . It was these combined forces together with a cruiser destroyer group who won the battle in the Coral Sea on May 7th and 8th . In this battle, a Japanese force that threatened the supply lines from America to New Zealand and Australia was repulsed. In this carrier battle, the New Orleans stood by the heavily damaged USS Lexington , which was later sunk, and was able to rescue 580 crew members and bring them to Nouméa. She then patrolled the eastern Solomon Islands until she ran to Pearl Harbor to replenish ammunition.
On May 28, the New Orleans took the USS Enterprise to the Midway Islands . She joined Yorktown on June 2, and two days later she took part in the Battle of Midway , in which four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk. The New Orleans was thus involved in stopping the Japanese expansion to the south and east.
She then added ammunition and other equipment in Pearl Harbor and ran for the Fiji Islands on July 7th to protect the USS Saratoga during the landing on Guadalcanal . It fended off Japanese air strikes in the Battle of the East Solomon Islands from August 24 to 25 , when a Japanese supply convoy heading for Guadalcanal was repulsed. When the Saratoga was hit by a torpedo on August 31, it escorted it back to Pearl Harbor, where it arrived on September 21.
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With the repaired aircraft carrier, she ran again towards the Fiji Islands in early November, from where she continued to Espiritu Santo , where she arrived on November 27th to take part in the fighting in the Solomon Islands again. With four other cruisers and six destroyers she fought a Japanese transport destroyer force in the battle of Tassafaronga on the night of November 30th . When the flagship USS Minneapolis was hit by two torpedoes , the New Orleans that drove right behind it had to dodge and ran right into a torpedo that tore its bow away. This slipped along the port side and damaged the ship in several places. 183 crew members died. The ship lost a fifth of its total length, but was able to reach Tulagi on the morning of December 1st . It was camouflaged to protect it from air strikes, and the crew built a makeshift prow from trunks of coconut trees. 11 days later the New Orleans ran to Sydney , where it arrived on December 24th. At the Cockatoo naval shipyard , a damaged screw was replaced, a prefabricated makeshift bow was attached and further repairs were carried out. On March 7, 1943, she reached the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington , where she got a new bow and all damage was repaired.
On August 31st, she entered Pearl Harbor for combat exercises. She then joined a cruiser-destroyer flotilla to attack Wake on October 5 and 8, repelling an attack by Japanese torpedo planes. On November 10, the New Orleans ran out of Pearl Harbor again to take part in the preparatory bombardment for landing on the Gilbert Islands on November 20 . Then she protected aircraft carriers during the attack on the eastern Marshall Islands . During the air raids, the new USS Lexington , named after the aircraft carrier whose crew was rescued from New Orleans , was hit by a torpedo, and the cruiser covered the successful return trip to Pearl Harbor, where it arrived on December 9th.
From January 29, 1944, the New Orleans fired at targets in the Marshall Islands, where they shelled airfields and naval bases such as Kwajalein . She then refueled in Majuro and set out on February 11 to join the aircraft carrier group that attacked Truk , the Japanese base in the Caroline Islands. While air strikes were flown, the New Orleans drove around the atoll to intercept fleeing ships. Your task force was able to destroy a light cruiser, a destroyer and a submarine fighter. Then she went to an attack on the Mariana Islands and returned to Majuro and further on Pearl Harbor.
The aircraft carriers escorted by the New Orleans again attacked targets in the Carolines in late March. Then she supported the landings at Hollandia in New Guinea . There, a damaged Yorktown fighter jet flew into its main mast, damaging some cannons when it fell into the sea. One crew member was killed and one injured. The New Orleans remained in service and patrolled New Guinea. She then participated in further attacks on Truk and Satawan . On May 4th she drove back to Majuro.
On June 10, the New Orleans ran from Kwajalein to the Marshall Islands to take part in the preparations for the conquest of the Marianas. It bombarded Saipan on June 15 and 16, 1944 and then joined the aircraft carriers that defeated the Japanese carrier fleet in the battle of the Philippine Sea . In this last major carrier battle, three Japanese aircraft carriers and most of the aircraft (approx. 395) were destroyed. The fighter jets that got through to the American carriers were shot down by the New Orleans and other escort ships. After this battle, the Japanese carrier-based air force was no longer able to carry out further attacks.
She patrolled Saipan and Tinian until August 1944 , returning to Eniwetok on the 13th , from where she supported the porter raids on the Bonin Islands on August 28th , the bombing of Iwojima on September 1st and 2nd and in support of the landings on Palau drove. After making additions in Manus, the task force attacked the airfields on Okinawa , Formosa and Luzon , from where the Japanese could have attacked the landings on Leyte on October 20. The aircraft carriers continued to launch attacks as the Japanese used all of their remaining ships to repel American operations in the Philippines. The New Orleans protected its aircraft carriers in the sea and air battles in the Leyte Gulf . In this battle the Americans won an overwhelming victory and the Japanese only had the ability to command suicide.
After completing in Ulithi, the New Orleans accompanied aircraft carriers during the attacks off the Philippines in preparation for the landing on Mindoro . In late December she ran to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard to be overtaken, followed by exercises off Hawaii. She returned to Ulithi on April 18, 1945, and two days later ran to Okinawa, where she arrived on April 23 to provide fire support for the landings at the Battle of Okinawa . They dueled batteries on the island. After two months off the island, she ran to the Philippines, where she was supplemented and repaired. She was still in Subic Bay when the hostilities ceased.
The New Orleans sailed to China and Korea on August 28 with a cruiser destroyer force . It secured the internment of Japanese ships in Tsingtao , the evacuation of freed Allied prisoners of war, and the landing of troops in China and Korea until it sailed to the mouth of the Peking River on November 17 and brought veterans home. She took more troops on board in Sasebo, which she brought to San Francisco on December 8th. After similar missions, she drove through the Panama Canal in January 1946 to visit the city of the same name. Then she drove to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard , where she was decommissioned on February 10, 1947 and assigned to the reserve. It was struck from the marine register on March 1, 1959 and sold for scrapping on September 22, 1959.
The New Orleans received six Battle Stars for their service in World War II .
Web links
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- ↑ Brown, pp. 137-138, Roscoe, p. 208, Dull, pp. 265-266, D'Albas, p. 229, Crenshaw, pp. 56-57, Kilpatrick, p. 146, Morison, pp. 304-305, Frank, p. 511