USS San Francisco (CA-38)
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The USS San Francisco was a heavy cruiser of the United States Navy from the time of World War II . The ship belonged to the New Orleans class , which comprised a total of seven ship units. The official registration number was CA 38 , whereby the letters CA stands for heavy cruiser (English: Cruiser, Armored) and the number 38 is the serial number for all cruiser constructions. The San Francisco was one of the most decorated ships in the US Navy.
resume
construction
Authorized in March 1930, the building contract was signed on October 11, 1930 and the cruiser was then built from 1931 in Vallejo at the Mare Island naval shipyard . Westinghouse supplied the drive system . It was launched on March 9, 1933 and was not baptized with champagne , but with the water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which had just been completed at the time . On February 10, 1934, he was commissioned under the command of Captain Royal E. Ingersoll .
Pre-war period
After the final equipment, run-in and test trips ("shakedown cruises") took place in the Pacific region in autumn 1934, followed by retrofitting to the flagship until 1935 at their shipyard in Mare Island . From February 1935, the San Francisco was part of the CruDiv 6 (Sixth Cruiser Division) in San Diego and in June Capt. W. L. Beck in command of the ship. Various maneuvers, some as far as Alaska , followed. In May 1937 the command changed to Capt. R. C. Parker. The area of operation remained the Pacific between Hawaii and the US west coast.
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In January 1939, the San Francisco was relocated through the Panama Canal into the Atlantic and became the flagship of CruDiv 7. She took part in maneuvers in the Caribbean and made an extensive visit to South America with her sister ships USS Quincy and USS Tuscaloosa . The Strait of Magellan was passed at the end of May and on June 7, 1939 the cruiser again crossed the Panama Canal - in the same direction as less than half a year earlier. In June 1939 Capt. C. M. Yates took command and the ship participated in the World's Fair in New York the following month.
In September 1939, the operational time determined by the war also began for the San Francisco . In the middle of the month she joined the US Navy neutrality patrol in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. In February 1940, the ship returned to the Pacific via the Panama Canal and the new USS Wichita took over the role as the flagship of CruDiv 7. San Francisco formed the CruDiv 6 again with its sister ships USS New Orleans , USS Astoria and USS Minneapolis and became its home port Relocated Pearl Harbor. From May to September 1940 the ship was overhauled at the Puget Sound naval shipyard in Bremerton . Since the planned new 28 mm four-pack flaks were not available, four 7.6 cm (3 inch) L / 50 single mounts were provisionally installed in the corresponding positions. Operations followed in the waters around Hawaii. On May 27, 1941, Capt. Daniel J. Callaghan in command. Callaghan then returned to the San Francisco as Admiral more than a year later . She became his flagship during the Third Battle of Savo, the "Black Friday" (November 13, 1942, see Battle of Guadalcanal ), on which he fell in battle 18 months after taking up his first service on the cruiser.
War effort
The San Francisco was in Pearl Harbor in December 1941, awaiting an urgently needed docking. The 76-mm anti-aircraft gun and the 0.50-cal anti-aircraft machine gun were already on board and there was no ammunition on board for the larger guns when the Japanese attack on the base on December 7, 1941 at 7:55 a.m. local time started. The cruiser was therefore practically defenseless, but was not attacked directly and survived the day unscathed. The missing four 28 mm anti-aircraft quadruplets were installed in record time the following night. On December 14, the shipyard time was canceled without the planned docking and on December 16, 1941, the cruiser was assigned to Task Force 14 around the aircraft carrier Saratoga to cover the defense of Wake Island . The San Francisco was now in action. From February 1942 the ship was led by Captain Cassin Young , who fell during the naval battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942.
The cruiser then took part in the Pacific War until the end of the war, where it was used in numerous naval battles. Six months later he was decommissioned and mothballed.
Decommissioning
On March 1, 1959, the San Francisco was removed from the US Navy's list of uses. On September 9, 1959, the ship was sold to Union Mineral and Alloys Corp. for $ 240,000 . based in New York, which it scrapped in Panama City , Florida until May 1961 . Parts of the wind protection of the shot-down original bridge, which was replaced in early 1943, have been preserved since 1950 together with the ship's bell as a war memorial in Lands End on the Pacific coast in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area , aligned on the great circle line towards Guadalcanal.
The San Francisco was one of the most successful and most decorated ships in the US Navy. During the war she drove around 300,000 nautical miles, shot a total of 179,000 rounds of ammunition of all calibres, and was involved in the sinking of the battleship Hiei and a number of cruisers and destroyers of the Japanese Navy. Their anti-aircraft defenses shot down around 20 Japanese planes. A total of 267 men of their crew lost their lives during the 1942–1945 missions, most of them on “Black Friday” in November 1942.
technology
The technical data of the San Francisco largely corresponded to the type ship New Orleans and the class of the same name. The armament of the ship consisted of three triple turrets with 8 inch (20.3 cm) L / 55 type Mk.12 guns, range 31,700 yards at 40 degrees of elevation, firing frequency approx. 2 / min., Muzzle velocity 2,000 fps, projectile weight 260 lbs. The armament was supplemented by eight single mounts with multi-purpose guns of the caliber 5 inch (127 mm) L / 25 type Mk.19 Mod.6. In addition, during the war there was an ongoing reinforcement of light guns for anti-aircraft defense and up to four float aircraft (initially type Vought O3U Corsair , from 1936 type Curtiss SOC Seagull ), for which two catapults and a hangar were available. Like all heavy cruisers of the US Navy in World War II, it did not carry torpedo tubes. The San Francisco belonged together with the Tuscaloosa to the second subassembly of the class, which had a lighter 8-inch gun with a smaller Barbette (19 3/3 feet instead of 21 feet) and a slightly more compact turret. The resulting weight savings were used to strengthen the barbed armor (6.5 inches instead of 5 inches).
The crew during the war was 128 officers and 1054 men, altogether almost 300 men more than in peacetime (101 + 803 = 904 men). The drive system of the San Francisco enabled a maximum speed of 107,000 wPS from eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers (with 87,200 sqft of heating surface, 320 psi pressure, 572 ° F temperature) on four Westinghouse geared turbines on four screws (12 feet each, four blades each) from 32.7 kn. The highest continuous mileage on the war march was 30.0 kn. The length of the hull was 578 feet at the waterline and 588 feet overall, the width 61 feet 10 inches, the draft 19½ to 25 feet. The water displacement was 9,950 ts standard and fully loaded at first 11,585 ts, in the war up to 13,725 ts (1945). The side armor was 5 inches thick. According to the construction contract, the construction costs were $ 11,318,000 (1933 value).
Overall, the compact design represented a step forward over older heavy cruisers in terms of armament and protection, but the San Francisco was top-heavy from the time it was commissioned and was fraught with overweight problems. She was wet (flooded) in the bow area and had a greater tendency to roll in bad weather. In addition, due to the lower fuel supplies (around 2,100 to 2,200 ts), the operational radius was more limited (7,110 nm at 15 knots during the war, 5,280 nm at 20 knots, 3,500 nm at 25 knots).
Painting and finishing
From the beginning of 1942, the San Francisco presented itself in a single-colored, dark paint (so-called Measure 11 in the official US system for ship camouflage , the color on the vertical surfaces was sea blue = sea blue 5-S). The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of 16 28-mm tubes in four quadruplets, which had come on board on December 8, 1941, as well as a provisional eight .50-cal.-MG. The first war retrofitting took place in May 1942. The machine guns were replaced by 12 single-armed 20-mm Oerlikon , as radars were SC-1 for air search and two Mk. 3 for fire control for the main artillery on board. Although it was partly stated, the SG Seeking Radar, which was new at the time, cannot be seen in photos and would hardly have been available at the time.
The next upgrade - in connection with the repair of the battle damage from November 1942 - took place in February 1943. The 28 mm weapons were replaced 1: 1 by 40 mm Bofors , the endowment with 20 mm Oerlikon flak to 20 Piece increased. The SC-1 radar was replaced by the SC-3 system with a new antenna, SG is now clearly detectable, and the two Mk.33 master transmitters of the middle artillery received Mk.4 fire control radars. The new, simplified bridge came on board, the superstructures were made more compact and lower to reduce the top load. The paint changed (optically insignificant) in Measure 21 (vertical areas navy blue = navy blue 5-N over everything). The starboard crane was dismantled.
The last modernization took place in October 1944. The radar equipment was improved one last time (equipment now: SK for air search as a replacement for SC-3 on the foremast, 2 × SG for sea search, 2 each Mk. 3 and Mk. 28 for fire control), the light flak reinforced again on 6 × 4 Bofors 40 mm and 26 × 20 mm Oerlikon single guns. The paintwork changed to a light dazzle design according to Measure 33 Design 13D , a complex asymmetrical camouflage pattern made up of two colors, the ocean gray (ocean gray 5-O) surfaces of which were also carried over the deck. The contrasting color was navy blue (navy blue 5-N) on the vertical surfaces and black-blue (deck blue 20-B) on the horizontal surfaces. Incidentally, it was largely identical to the one on the sister ship Tuscaloosa in 1944. At the end of the war in 1945, the San Francisco presented itself in Measure 22 , a so-called “graded system” with a dark lower hull (navy blue 5-N) and a lighter one upper hull and superstructure (in ocean gray = ocean gray 5-O). Neither a pencil-beam fighter control radar was installed on the San Francisco (SP was planned), nor was a catapult delivered to reduce weight, as planned on sister ships or implemented on New Orleans and Minneapolis .
Awards
The San Francisco received seventeen Battle Stars for its war effort, as well as for its significant participation in the defense of Guadalcanals on November 13, 1942 the Presidential Unit Citation for Outstanding Performance of Duties and was thus one of the most decorated ships in the US Navy.
Models
There are various commercially available models of the San Francisco (including cardboard kit 1: 250, as of 1945; plastic model kits 1: 350 and 1: 700, as of 1942 and 1944; ready-to-use metal model 1: 1250, as of 1944/45).
literature
- Chuck Hansen: USS San Francisco, A Technical History. 2nd edition, 1981.
- Steve Wiper: USS San Francisco CA-38. Tucson 1999, ISBN 0-9654829-4-4 .
- Steve Wiper: New Orleans Class Cruisers. Tucson 2000, ISBN 0-9654829-6-0 .
- Norman Friedman: The New Orleans Class. In: Warship . Vol. 11, pp. 146 ff., London 1979.
- Norman Friedman: US Cruisers. London 1985, ISBN 0-85368-651-3 .
- Stefan Terzibaschitsch : US Navy cruiser. 2nd edition, Herford 1984, ISBN 3-7822-0348-8 .
- Kizu T .: US Cruisers of World War II. Ships of the World No.578, Tokyo 2001.
- Sue Lemmon / ED Wichels: Sidewheelers to Nuclear Power. A Pictorial Essay Covering 123 Years at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Annapolis 1977.
- For use at Guadalcanal: Samuel Eliot Morison : The Struggle for Guadalcanal, History of US Naval Operations in WWII, Vol.V. Boston 1949, reprinted many times to date.
Web links
- history.navy.mil/photos: USS San Francisco (engl.)
- History of San Francisco II (CA-38) in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- navsource.org: USS San Francisco (Eng.)
- USS San Francisco Memorial Foundation (Engl.)