Heavy Cruisers: New Orleans Class

[Brian James]

New Orleans Class Heavy Cruiser USS San Francisco pictured on launch day at Mare Island Navy Yard on March 9th 1933.

[Brian James]

New Orleans Class Heavy Cruiser USS San Francisco pictured at Mare Island Navy Yard in April 1934.

[Brian James]

New Orleans Class Heavy Cruiser USS Tuscaloosa pictured c1942.

[Brian James]

New Orleans Class Heavy Cruiser USS San Francisco pictured on October 13th 1944, sporting her Measure 33 Design 13D camouflage livery, post her major battle damage overhaul and refit at Mare Island Island Navy Yard.

[Brian James]

New Orleans Class Heavy Cruiser USS Vincennes pictured on sea trials off Rockland, Maine on January 12th, 1937. She was sunk at the Battle of Savo Island, August 9th 1942 with the loss of 332 crewmen.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Heavy Cruiser USS New Orleans pictured at Stockholm in 1934.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Heavy Cruiser USS New Orleans pictured under refit with Omaha Class Light Cruiser USS Detroit in the background, at Mare Island Navy Yard on February 4th 1942..Both ships would survive the war.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Heavy Cruiser USS New Orleans pictured off Mare Island Navy Yard on March 8th 1945, post her final wartime refit....Moored at Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941, New Orleans was taking power and light from the dock, her engines under repair. With yard power out during the attack, New Orleans' engineers began to raise steam, working by flashlight, while on deck men fired on the Japanese attackers with rifles and pistols. The crew was forced to break the locks on the ammunition ready boxes as the keys couldn't be located, and because the ship was taking power from the dock, the 5"/25 cal AA gun had to be aimed and fired manually. The gunners topside were ducking machine gun bullets and shrapnel, training their guns manually, as they had no ammunition other than the few shells in their ready boxes. The ammunition hoists did not have power, making it nearly impossible to get more ammunition topside to the gun crews. The 54 lb (24 kg) shells had to be pulled up the powerless hoists by ropes attached to their metal cases. Every man with no specific job at the moment formed ammunition lines to get the shells to the guns. A number of her crew were injured when a fragmentation bomb exploded close aboard. New Orleans suffered no severe damage during the attack. The ship's chaplain was Howell Forgy, who during the attack walked the ammo handling lines patting sailors on the back and urging them to "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition"...She sold for scrap September 25th 1959.

[designeraccd]

Here is the ASTORIA behind the soon to be torpedoed destroyer HAMMANN at the Battle of Midway.......... DFO

[Brian James]

An original colour image of New Orleans Class Heavy Cruiser USS Minneapolis at Pearl Harbor on April 11th 1943, sporting her new bow (minus hawse pipes) which she received at Mare Island Navy Yard in 1942..As flagship of Task Force 67 (TF 67), she sortied on November 29th 1942 to intercept a Japanese force attempting to reinforce Guadalcanal. At 23:05 the next night, she spotted six Japanese ships, and the Battle of Tassafaronga was opened by her 8.00 inch fire. She scored many hits on Takanami, which sank. However, a second group of Japanese Destroyers, which had been giving distant cover to the transport group, entered the action, and Minneapolis took two torpedo hits, one on the port bow, the other in her number two fireroom, causing loss of power and severe damage; her bow collapsing back to the hawsepipes, her port side badly ruptured, and two firerooms open to the sea. Of the battle, American naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, 'It is a painful truth that the Battle of Tassafaronga was a sharp defeat inflicted on an alert and superior Cruiser force by a partially surprised and inferior Destroyer force.'..She was saved however by skillful damage control work and seamanship that kept her afloat and enabled her to reach Tulagi. There, camouflaged with palm fronds and shrubs to protect her from frequent air raids, she was temporarily repaired by her own crew with the help of Seabees of the 27th CB stationed on the island, and was able to sail for extensive repairs at Mare Island Naval Yard. A new bow was built for her during her transit back to the shipyard and was almost ready to be mated on by the time of her arrival. While there she received a remodeling of her forward bridge and added new radars and numerous 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns...She was scrapped in Chester, Pennsylvania in July 1960.