USS Portland (CA-33)
_underway_in_1934.jpg) USS Portland (CA-33) in 1934
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ordered | 13 February 1929 |
| Laid down | 17 February 1930 |
| Launched | 21 May 1932 |
| Commissioned | 23 February 1933 |
| Decommissioned | 12 July 1946 |
| Stricken | 1 March 1959 |
| Nickname(s) | Sweet "P" |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 6 October 1959 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 9,950 tons |
| Length | 582 ft (177 m) (waterline); 610 ft 3 in (186.00 m) (overall) |
| Beam | 66 ft 1 in (20.14 m) |
| Draft | 17 ft 1 in (5.21 m) |
| Propulsion | 4-shaft Parsons turbines, 8 × Yarrow boilers, 107,000 shp (80,000 kW) |
| Speed | 32.7 kn (60.6 km/h) |
| Range | list error: <br /> list (help) 10,000 nmi @ 15 knots 19,000 km @ 28 km/h |
| Capacity | Fuel oil: 1,600 tons |
| Complement | 876 officers and enlisted |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) 9 × 8 in (200 mm)/55 cal guns (3 triple turrets) 8 × 5 in (130 mm)/25 cal AA guns,[1] 8 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns |
| Armor | |
| Aircraft carried | 4 × floatplanes |
| Aviation facilities | 2 × catapults |
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_in_a_drydock_at_the_Cockatoo_Island_Dockyard,_circa_in_late_1942_(NH_81992).jpg)
USS Portland (CA–33), the lead ship of her class of heavy cruiser, was the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city of Portland, Maine.
Portland was authorized on 13 February 1929; laid down by Bethlehem Steel Co., Shipbuilding Div., Quincy, Massachusetts on 17 February 1930; launched on 21 May 1932; sponsored by the daughter of Mr. Ralph D. Brooks of Portland (Mary Doughty); and commissioned on 23 February 1933, Captain H. F. Leary in command.
Inter-war period
Departing Boston on 1 April 1933, the cruiser arrived Gravesend Bay, New York the evening of 3 April. The next night, she received word that the airship Akron was down at sea. Thirty six minutes after receipt of the message, the ship was underway. Racing seaward, she was the first naval vessel at the scene of the disaster, and the task of search and rescue coordination was thus hers. Seventy three lives were lost in the disaster, including that of Admiral William Moffett, Chief, Bureau of Aeronautics.
Portland steamed from San Diego, California on 2 October 1935 astern Houston, which carried President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The following days, the President and his party fished. After calling at Panama and several other ports, the two ships steamed to Charleston, South Carolina, where the President disembarked.
During Pacific Fleet maneuvers, Portland crossed the equator for the first time on 20 May 1936. From there until the outbreak of war, she was engaged in peacetime training and goodwill missions as a unit of Cruiser Division 5 (CruDiv 5), Scouting Force.
World War II
1942
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When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Portland was two days out, en route to Midway with a carrier group. From December 1941 to 1 May 1942, she operated between the West Coast, Hawaii, and Fiji.
Portland served in Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid's Attack Group from 4-8 May, when a Japanese invasion force was turned back from Port Moresby, New Guinea during the two-day Battle of the Coral Sea. When Lexington was lost, the cruiser took on 722 survivors. She was in Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher’s Task Force 17 (TF 17) carrier screen during the Battle of Midway from 2–6 June when the Japanese lost four of their carriers. Portland provided cover and support for the Marine landings at Tulagi and Guadalcanal from 7-9 August. She then remained in the area to support the Guadalcanal operations and to protect Allied communications lines.
The cruiser participated in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons from 23–25 August, when Allied forces prevented reinforcement of Japanese units in the Solomons by a large naval armada under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. She then steamed south to take part in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26–27 October as one of the escorts for Enterprise. Two weeks later, she participated in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (12–15 November) which resulted in heavy damage to both forces but broke up the determined Japanese effort to disrupt the landing of 6,000 American troops on Guadalcanal, to bombard Henderson Field, and to land 7,000 reinforcements of their own.
During this action on 13 November, Portland took a torpedo hit at 01:58 on the starboard quarter, which blew off both inboard propellers, jammed the rudder 5° to starboard, and jammed her No. 3 turret in train and elevation. A 4° list was quickly corrected by shifting ballast, but the steering casualty could not be overcome and the ship was forced to steam in circles to starboard.
At the end of the first circle, Hiei, illuminated by nearby burning ships and flares, was taken under fire by Portland's forward turrets. The enemy returned fire, but all salvos passed over the cruiser. In the four six-gun salvos returned by Portland, she succeeded in starting fires in the Japanese ship. Then again at 06:30, still circling, Portland opened fire on the abandoned hulk of Yudachi at a range of 6 mi (9.7 km). After the sixth salvo, Yudachi exploded, rolled over, and sank within five minutes.
With the assistance of Higgins boats, a YP, and a tug, Portland anchored at Tulagi on 14 November. From there, she was towed to Sydney, Australia for preliminary repairs prior to overhaul in the United States. Following short stops at Samoa and Pearl Harbor, the ship arrived at Mare Island Navy Yard on 3 March 1943.
1943–1944
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After operational training in southern Californian waters, Portland steamed for the Aleutians late in May, arriving on 11 June and bombarding Kiska on 26 July. After covering a reconnaissance landing on Little Kiska on 17 August, she called at Pearl Harbor on 23 September, there to San Francisco in early October, then back to Pearl Harbor in mid-October.
From November 1943 to February 1944, Portland participated in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaigns. She next screened carriers during air strikes against Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai on 30 March – 1 April.
The ship then steamed with a carrier force assigned to cover the landing in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura)–Tanahmerah area of New Guinea from 21–24 April. Cruising northward again, the force struck at Truk and, in company with five other cruisers and destroyers, Portland bombarded Satawan in the Nomei Group.
Following this series of operations, Portland steamed for Mare Island for overhaul, completed in time for her return to the western Pacific for pre-landing bombardments of Peleliu from 12–14 September. The cruiser supported the landing on Peleliu on 15 September, and, for the four following days, her guns blasted enemy positions that threatened the advance of allied forces. She provided gunfire support at Peleliu through 29 September, and then steamed for Seeadler Harbor, Manus Island, the Admiralties.
Portland next joined a powerful force in the first heavy surface strike on the central Philippines. She arrived off Leyte on 17 October, entering the Gulf the next day, two days before A-Day. For those two days her guns softened up enemy-held positions in preparation for the landing.
On the night of 24 October, a strong Japanese force consisting of two battleships, one heavy cruiser, and four destroyers headed for Surigao Strait with the apparent intent of raiding shipping in Leyte Gulf. The Japanese force advanced in rough column up the narrow strait during darkness, while Portland and her sisters steamed across the top of the strait, crossing the enemy’s T. The Japanese were first met by PT boats, then in succession by three coordinated destroyer torpedo attacks, and finally by devastating gunfire from American battleships and cruisers disposed across the northern end of the strait. In the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Japanese force was utterly defeated, losing two battleships and three destroyers, while Oldendorf loses one PT-boat sunk and one destroyer heavily damaged (Albert W. Grant) by gunfire of Nishimura's flagship Yamashiro, the destroyer Yamagumo and Mogami (Nishimura would go down with Yamashiro later in the battle, and Mogami was eventually finished off by air attacks), and by accidental friendly fire.
1945
From 3 January to 1 March 1945, Portland participated in the operations at Lingayen Gulf and Corregidor. Arriving off Lingayen Gulf on 5 January, and bombarding the vicinity of Cape Bolinao, she entered the Gulf the same day and commenced bombardment of the eastern shore but discontinued immediately when a heavy suicide air attack came in.
Portland entered Manila Bay on 15 February, and bombarded the south shore of Corregidor in preparation for landings there. She returned to Leyte Gulf on 1 March for her first availability for repairs, and replenishment of general stores, in five months.
From 26 March to 20 April, while conducting operations in support of the Okinawa campaign, Portland underwent twenty-four air raids, shot down four enemy aircraft, and assisted in downing two others. From 8 May to 17 June, she participated in the bombardment and capture of Okinawa, departing on 17 June for upkeep at Leyte. At Buckner Bay on 6 August, she commenced upkeep and training.
Post-war
With the termination of hostilities, Portland was designated flagship of Vice Admiral George D. Murray, Commander Mariana Islands, who was to accept the surrender of the Carolines. The ship steamed to Truk Atoll and there Admiral Murray, acting for Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, accepted the formal capitulation of the senior Japanese military and civilian officials in ceremonies aboard Portland.
Portland called at Pearl Harbor from 21–24 September, there embarking 600 troops for transportation to the United States. Transiting the Panama Canal on 8 October, she continued to the US, calling at Portland, Maine for Navy Day celebrations on 27 October. She reported on 11 March 1946 to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for inactivation and assignment to the Reserve Fleet. She decommissioned at Philadelphia on 12 July 1946 and was maintained in reserve status until struck from the Navy List on 1 March 1959. The cruiser was sold to Union Mineral and Alloys Corp., New York, N.Y. on 6 October, and scrapped at Wainwright Shipyard, Panama City, Florida in 1961–62.
Awards
Portland received 16 battle stars for World War II service.
References
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.- Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II. Studio. 1989. ISBN 0-851-70494-9.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: checksum (help) - Fahey, James C. (1941). The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, Two-Ocean Fleet Edition. Ships and Aircraft.
- Generous, William Thomas. Sweet Pea At War: A History Of USS Portland (CA-33). ISBN 0-8131-9121-1
Notes
- ^ Fahey 1941 p. 9.
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