USS Guam (CB-2)
_coming_out_of_a_turn,_circa_1944_(NH_97131).jpg) USS Guam in 1944
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Guam |
| Namesake | Guam |
| Ordered | 9 September 1940 |
| Builder | New York Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Laid down | 2 February 1942 |
| Launched | 12 November 1943 |
| Commissioned | 17 September 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 17 February 1947 |
| Stricken | 1 June 1960 |
| Identification | Hull number: CB-2 |
| Honors and awards | 2 battle stars |
| Fate | Scrapped in May 1961 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Alaska-class large cruiser |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 808 ft 6 in (246.4 m) |
| Beam | 91 ft 1 in (27.8 m) |
| Draft | 31 ft 10 in (9.7 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph) |
| Range | 12,000 nmi (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Crew | 1,517 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
| Aircraft carried | 4 |
_firing_main_battery,_1944-45.jpg)
_at_Pearl_Harbor,_21_February_1945.jpg)
USS Guam was an
Okinawa in March–July 1945, including providing anti-aircraft defense for the carrier task force and conducting limited shore bombardment operations. She participated in sweeps for Japanese shipping in the East China and Yellow Seas in July–August 1945. After the end of the war, she assisted in the occupation of Korea and transported a contingent of US Army troops back to the United States. She was decommissioned in February 1947 and placed in reserve, where she remained until she was stricken in 1960 and sold for scrapping
the following year.
Design
The ship was 808 feet 6 inches (246.43 m)
amidships.[3]
The ship was powered by four sets of
kW), generating a top speed of 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph). The ship had a cruising range of 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at a speed of 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph).[1][4]
The ship was armed with a
40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors guns and 34 single-mounted 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon guns.[1] A pair of Mk 34 gun directors aided gunlaying for the main battery, while two Mk 37 directors controlled the 5-inch guns and a Mk 57 director aided the 40 mm guns.[5]
The main
armor belt was 9 inches (229 mm) thick in the central portion of the hull, where it protected the propulsion machinery spaces and the ammunition magazines, thinning to 5 inches at either end. The main armor deck was 4 in (102 mm) thick. Her conning tower received 10.6 inches (270 mm) of armor plate on the sides. The gun turrets had 12.8-inch (325 mm) thick faces.[1]
Service history
Guam was authorized under the Fleet Expansion Act on 19 July 1940, and ordered on 9 September.fitting-out work was effected. The ship was completed by September 1944, and she was commissioned into the US Navy on 17 September, under the command of Captain Leland Lovette.[7][8] She was the second vessel of the US Navy to be named Guam; the first, a gunboat, was still in service but had been renamed Wake in January 1941 to free the name for the new cruiser.[9]
,_in_1945.jpg)
Guam left Philadelphia on 17 January 1945, after completing her shakedown cruise off
Task Force 58, the main strike force of the US Navy under the command of Admiral Arthur W. Radford, departed for a raid on the mainland Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. Task Force 58 arrived off Japan on the morning of 18 March and was quickly attacked by Japanese kamikazes and bombers. Guam was detached from the unit to escort the badly damaged carrier Franklin back to port, which lasted until 22 March.[10]
Guam then returned to Task Force 58, assigned to Cruiser Division 16, part of Task Group 58.4, and steamed to
San Pedro Bay in Leyte Gulf, arriving on 13 June.[11]
After returning to Okinawa in July, Guam was assigned to Cruiser
Yangtze River off Shanghai. Again, the operation met with limited success,[13] and they returned to Okinawa by 7 August.[10]
Shortly after returning to Okinawa, Guam became the flagship of the North China Force, again commanded by Rear Admiral Low. The unit was tasked with
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, where she remained until she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1960. She was sold on 24 May 1961 for $423,076 to the Boston Metals Company in Baltimore. She was towed to the shipbreakers on 10 July 1961.[14] Guam had served only 29 months on active duty.[15]
Notes
Footnotes
Citations
- ^ a b c d Friedman 1980, p. 122.
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 182.
- ^ Friedman 1984, p. 303.
- ^ Egan, p. 36.
- ^ Friedman 1984, p. 483.
- ^ Friedman 1984, p. 301.
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 187.
- ^ DANFS.
- ^ Cressman 2016.
- ^ a b c Egan, p. 32.
- ^ Egan, pp. 30–32.
- ^ Cressman 2000, p. 339.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 423.
- ^ Egan, p. 33.
- ^ Garzke & Dulin, p. 179.
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Guam (CB-2).
- Cressman, Robert (2000). The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis: US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-149-3.
- Cressman, Robert J. (9 May 2016). "Wake (PG-43)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
- Egan, Robert S. (March 1971). "The US Navy's Battlecruisers". Warship International. VIII (1). International Naval Research Organization: 28–51.
- Friedman, Norman (1980). "United States of America". In Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 86–166. ISBN 978-0-87021-913-9.
- Friedman, Norman (1984). U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-739-5.
- Garzke, William H. Jr.; Dulin, Robert O. Jr (1976). Battleships: United States Battleships in World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-174-5.
- "Guam II (CB-2)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-59114-119-8.
- Swanborough, Gordon; Bowers, Peter M. (1990). United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911 (3rd ed.). London: Putnam Aeronautical Books. ISBN 978-0-85177-838-9.