USS Nashville (CL-43)

Coordinates: 35°50′N 153°40′E / 35.833°N 153.667°E / 35.833; 153.667
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see USS Nashville.
USS Nashville (August 1943)
History
United States
NameNashville
NamesakeCity of Nashville, Tennessee
Ordered16 June 1933
Awarded3 August 1933
BuilderNew York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey
Cost$11,677,000 (contract price)
Laid down24 January 1935
Launched2 October 1937
Sponsored byMisses Ann and Mildred Stahlman
Commissioned6 June 1938
Decommissioned24 June 1946
Stricken9 January 1951
Identification
Honors and
awards
battle stars
FateSold to the Chilean Navy 9 January 1951.
History
Chile
Name
  • Capitan Prat (1951–1982)
  • Chacabuco (1982–1984)
Namesake
Acquired9 January 1951
Decommissioned10 May 1982
FateScrapped 1985 in Taiwan
General characteristics (as built)[1]
Class and typeBrooklyn-class cruiser
Displacement
  • 10,000 long tons (10,160 t) (estimated as design)
  • 9,767 long tons (9,924 t) (standard)
  • 12,207 long tons (12,403 t) (max)
Length
  • 600 ft (180 m) oa
  • 608 ft 4 in (185.42 m) lwl
Beam61 ft 7 in (18.77 m)
Draft
  • 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m) (mean)
  • 24 ft (7.3 m) (max)
Installed power
  • 8 ×
    Steam boilers
  • 100,000 shp (75,000 kW)
Propulsion
Speed32.5 kn (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h)
Complement868 officers and enlisted
Armament
Armor
  • Belt
    : 3+1⁄4–5 in (83–127 mm)
  • Deck: 2 in (51 mm)
  • Barbettes: 6 in (150 mm)
  • Turrets: 1+1⁄4–6 in (32–152 mm)
  • Conning tower: 2+1⁄4–5 in (57–127 mm)
Aircraft carried4 × SOC Seagull floatplanes
Aviation facilities2 × stern catapults
General characteristics (1945)[2][3]
Armament

USS Nashville (CL-43) was a Brooklyn-class cruiser. She was laid down on 24 January 1935 by New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 2 October 1937, sponsored by Misses Ann and Mildred Stahlman and commissioned on 6 June 1938.[4]

Service history

Nashville departed Philadelphia on 19 July 1938 for shakedown in the Caribbean. In early August, she sailed for Northern Europe on a good will visit, arriving at Cherbourg, France, on 24 August. Getting underway on 21 September from Portland, England, with $25,000,000 in British gold bullion aboard, Nashville arrived at Brooklyn Navy Yard on 30 September, off-loaded the gold, and returned to Philadelphia on 5 October.[4]

In the spring of 1939, Nashville carried American representatives to the Pan American Defense Conference in

US Marines to Wake Island. On 20 May, she departed Pearl Harbor for the east coast, arriving Boston on 19 June to escort a convoy carrying Marines to Iceland.[4]

World War II

From August–December 1941, Nashville was based at Bermuda for the Neutrality Patrol in the Central Atlantic. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Nashville steamed to Casco Bay, Maine, where she joined with a troop and cargo convoy to escort them to Iceland. She continued escort duty to Bermuda and Iceland until February 1942.[4]

Doolittle Raid

On 4 March 1942, she rendezvoused with

William F. Halsey Jr., north of Midway Atoll, and then they set course for Japan. When about 1,000 mi (1,600 km) away from Japan on 17 April, the destroyers of the task force were detached due to lack of fuel, and then Nashville, the other escorting cruisers, and Hornet and Enterprise made a high-speed dash to the air raid launching point 500 mi (800 km) from Japan. The next day, the task force was sighted by a Japanese picket boat, which reported the presence of the carrier task force before being sunk by scout planes from Enterprise. A second picket boat was then sunk by gunfire from Nashville, but the advantage of surprise was lost. The B–25s were launched 150 mi (240 km) short of the intended launching point in heavy seas. Immediately after the launch, the strike force reversed course and steamed eastwards for Honolulu. The "Shangri-La" task force returned to Pearl Harbor on 25 April.[4]

Flagship

Nashville left Hawaii on 14 May 1942 to become the flagship of Task Force 8 (TF 8) defending Alaska and the

Kiska Islands in the Aleutians. From June–November, Nashville patrolled the North Pacific Ocean, and participated in the attack on Kiska on 7 August, in which heavy damage was inflicted on Japanese shore installations.[4]

Nashville arrived at Pearl Harbor on 22 November and proceeded south to the

Munda on the night of 4 January 1943. Subsequent attacks were made on Kolombangara and New Georgia in the next several months. While shelling Vila airfield on Kolombangara on the night of 12 May, she suffered a powder charge explosion in one of her forward turrets, killing 18 and injuring 17.[4]

Leaving Espiritu Santo on 22 May, Nashville arrived at Mare Island Naval Shipyard for repairs and modernization. Departing from San Francisco on 6 August, she arrived at Pearl Harbor on 12 August to join carrier task forces for strikes on Marcus Island and Wake Island during the next two months.[4]

Nashville returned to Espiritu Santo on 25 October and for the next seven months, she shelled targets on

Schouten Islands, where on 4 June, she sustained moderate damage from a near miss while repelling a Japanese air attack.[4]

After repairs at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, Nashville twice more carried General MacArthur and his staff to the invasion of

Leyte Island landings on 20 October, and she remained on station at the mouth of Leyte Gulf until 25 October, guarding the troops on the beachhead and the nearby transports. Returning to Manus Island for brief repairs, Nashville left the Admiralties on 28 November as the flagship for the Commander, Visayan Attack Force, en route to the invasion of Mindoro.[4]

Kamikaze attack

Crew clean up Nashville's port 5-inch gun battery after the kamikaze hit

On 13 December, she was struck by a

Negros Island. The aircraft crashed into her port 5 in/127mm gun mount, with both bombs exploding about 10 ft (3 m) off her deck.[5] Gasoline fires and exploding ammunition made her midships area an inferno, but although 133 sailors were killed and 190 wounded, her remaining 5 in (127 mm) guns continued to provide anti-aircraft fire.[4]

The Attack Group Commander, Rear Admiral Arthur Dewey Struble, shifted his flag to Dashiell, and Nashville steamed via San Pedro Bay in the Philippines and Pearl Harbor, Oahu, to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, arriving on 12 January 1945, for heavy repairs. Underway on 12 March, Nashville departed westward from San Diego, California, on 15 April after training exercises.[4]

Arriving at

Indochina, but the sortie was soon canceled, ending her final wartime operation.[4]

Post-war

USS Nashville CL-46, Oct. 1945, on Yangtze River Patrol, Whang-poo River, Shanghai, China, view from Whang-poo Pier

Nashville, with Commander TF 73 (CTF 73) embarked, entered

Kwajalein to pick up more returning troops and Marines. Nearing the US West Coast on 3 January 1946, Nashville came to the aid of St. Mary's, laboring in heavy seas with engine breakdowns and 1,800 men aboard. The cruiser took St. Mary's in tow, pulling her to safety to the tugs at the San Francisco Lightship on 6 January 1946.[4]

Chilean Navy

For other ships with the same name, see Chilean ship Capitán Prat and Chilean ship Chacabuco.

Nashville departed eastward from San Francisco on 21 January 1946, and she arrived at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for a pre-inactivation overhaul. Decommissioned on 24 June, she remained in reserve until 1950. After an overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Yard, she was sold to

Chilean destroyer Capitán Prat (1967) in 1982. Then, the old Prat was renamed Chacabuco and served until 1985.[6]

She saw service during the

1973 Chilean coup d'etat, where she secured Federico Santa María Technical University alongside the destroyer Aldea.[7]

Citations

  1. ^ "Ships' Data, U. S. Naval Vessels". US Naval Department. 1 July 1935. pp. 24–31. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. ^ Rickard, J (11 May 2015). "USS Nashville (CL-43)". Historyofwar.org. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  3. ^ "US Cruisers List: Light/Heavy/Antiaircraft Cruisers, Part 1". Hazegray.org. 22 January 2000. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Nashville II (CL-43)". Naval History and Heritage Command. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  5. ISBN 9781781593134
    .
  6. ^ Chilean Navy site Chacabuco, crucero (4to) Archived 2014-05-03 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved on 18 November 2012
  7. ISBN 9781912174959
    .

References

Further reading

  • Bustin, Steven (2007). Humble Heroes: How the USS Nashville CL43 Fought WWII. BookSurge Publishing.
    ISBN 978-1-4196-5884-6
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Nashville (CL-43).

35°50′N 153°40′E / 35.833°N 153.667°E / 35.833; 153.667

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