USS Philadelphia (CL-41)

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For other ships with the same name, see USS Philadelphia.
USS Philadelphia (April 1943)
History
United States
NamePhiladelphia
NamesakeCity of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ordered16 June 1933
Awarded
  • 3 August 1933 (date assigned to ship yard)
  • 1 November 1933 (beginning of construction period)
Builder
Philadelphia Navy Yard
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Laid down28 May 1935
Launched17 November 1936
Sponsored byMrs. George H. Earle
Commissioned23 September 1937
Decommissioned3 February 1947
Stricken9 January 1951
Identification
Honors and
awards
battle stars
FateSold to Brazil in 1951
History
Brazil
NameBarroso
NamesakeFrancisco Manuel Barroso, Baron of Amazonas
Acquired9 January 1951
Decommissioned15 May 1973[1]
IdentificationC-11
FateScrapped in 1974
General characteristics (as built)[2]
Class and typeBrooklyn-class cruiser
Displacement
  • 10,000 long tons (10,000 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 × floatplanes
Aviation facilities2 × stern catapults
General characteristics (1945)[3][4]
Beam69 ft (21 m) (with blisters)
Armament
  • 15 × 6 in (150 mm)/47 caliber guns (5x3)
  • 8 × 5 in (130 mm)/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns
  • 6 × quad
    40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors
    anti-aircraft guns
  • 2 × twin 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns
  • 18 × single 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons
Launching announcement
Commemorative cover

USS Philadelphia (CL-41) was a

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[5] In the 1950s, she was commissioned into the Brazilian Navy
as Almirante Barroso.

Construction and commissioning

Philadelphia was laid down on 28 May 1935 at the

George H. Earle III; and commissioned at Philadelphia on 23 September 1937, Captain Jules James in command.[5]

United States Navy

Inter-war period

After fitting out, the cruiser departed Philadelphia on 3 January 1938 for shakedown in the West Indies followed by additional alterations at Philadelphia and further sea trials off the Maine coast.[5]

Philadelphia called at

Rear Admiral Forde A. Todd, Commander CruDiv 8 (ComCruDiv 8), Battle Force on 27 June. In the following months, she called at principal ports of the West Indies, and at New York City, Boston, and Norfolk, Virginia.[5]

Transiting the

Los Angeles, California, on 2 April 1940 for Pearl Harbor, where she engaged in fleet maneuvers until May 1941.[5]

In September 1940, fifteen of the ship's African American mess men wrote an open letter to a newspaper protesting the treatment of African Americans in the Navy. "We sincerely hope to discourage any other colored boys who might have planned to join the Navy and make the same mistake we did. All they would become is seagoing bell hops, chambermaids and dishwashers," they wrote. On publication of the letter, the fifteen were confined to the brig. They were later dishonorably discharged. The incident drew protests from hundreds of mess men on other ships as well as anger in the African American community, and led to a series of meetings between Roosevelt and

Walter White to discuss partial desegregation of the armed forces.[6]

Philadelphia stood out of Pearl Harbor on 22 May 1941 to resume Atlantic operations, arriving Boston on 18 June. At this point, she commenced Neutrality Patrol operations, steaming as far south as

Halifax, Nova Scotia. She entered Boston Navy Yard on 25 November for upkeep, and was in repair status there when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.[5]

World War II

1942

11 days after the Japanese attack, Philadelphia steamed for exercises in Casco Bay, after which she joined two destroyers for anti-submarine patrol to NS Argentia, Newfoundland. Returning to New York on 14 February 1942, she made two escort runs to Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. She then joined units of Task Force 22 (TF 22) at Norfolk on 16 May, departing two days later for an anti-submarine warfare sweep to the Panama Canal.[5]

She then returned to New York, only to depart on 1 July as an escort unit for a convoy bound for

H. Kent Hewitt’s Western Naval Task Force.[5]

This force was to land some 35,000 troops and 250 tanks of

Major General Ernest N. Harmon, with 108 tanks, to the landing at Safi, Morocco, about 140 mi (220 km) south of Casablanca.[5]

Philadelphia's task group departed Norfolk on 24 October and set course as if bound for the British Isles. The entire Western Naval Task Force, consisting of 102 ships and spanning an ocean area some 20 × 40 mi (30 × 60 km), combined 450 mi (720 km) off Cape Race on 28 October. It was the greatest war fleet sent forth by the United States at the time.[5]

The task force swept northward on 6 November, thence changed course toward the

Straits of Gibraltar. But after dark, a southeasterly course was plotted towards Casablanca, and shortly before midnight on 7 November, three separate task groups closed three different points on the Moroccan coast.[5]

Philadelphia took up its fire support station as the transports offloaded troops in the early morning darkness of 8 November. Shore batteries opened fire at 0428, and within two minutes Philadelphia joined New York in bombardment of Batterie Railleuse which, with four 5.1 in (130 mm) guns, was the strongest defense unit in the Safi area. Later in the morning, Philadelphia bombarded a battery of three 6.1 in (155 mm) guns about 3 mi (5 km) south of Safi.[5]

Spotter planes from the cruiser also got into the act by flying

Mazagan, north of Cape Blanco. Thought to be the same submarine previously attacked off Cape Kantin, Medeuse was again spotted by a plane from Philadelphia and was subsequently bombed.[5]

1943

Departing Safi on 13 November, Philadelphia returned to New York on 24 November. Operating from that port until 11 March 1943, she assisted in escorting two convoys to Casablanca. She then joined Rear Admiral

Alan G. Kirk’s TF 85 for training in Chesapeake Bay preparatory to the invasion of Sicily.[5]

A convoy escorted by Philadelphia and nine destroyers sortied from Norfolk on 8 June and arrived

45th Infantry Division stormed ashore. By 15 July, she had joined the gunfire support group off Porto Empedocle, where her guns were put to good use.[5]

Philadelphia took departure from her gunfire support area on 19 July and steamed to

TF 88 was formed on 27 July and given the mission of the defense of Palermo, gunfire support to the Seventh Army’s advance along the coast, provision of amphibious craft for "leap frog" landings behind enemy lines, and ferry duty for heavy artillery, supplies, and vehicles to relieve congestion on the railway and the single coastal road. Philadelphia, Savannah, and six destroyers entered the harbor at Palermo on 30 July and the next day commenced bombardment of the batteries near Santo Stefano di Camastra.[5]

Action in the area of Palermo continued until 21 August, when Philadelphia steamed for Algiers. During her operations in support of the invasion of Sicily, the cruiser had provided extensive gunfire support and, in beating off several hostile air attacks, had splashed a total of six aircraft. She touched at Oran, departing on 5 September en route to Salerno.[5]

Her convoy entered the Gulf of Salerno a few hours before midnight of 8 September 1943. Philadelphia's real work began off the Salerno beaches at 0943 the next day, when she commenced shore bombardment. When one of her scouting planes spotted 35 German tanks concealed in a thicket adjacent to Red Beach, Philadelphia's guns took them under fire and destroyed seven of them before they escaped to the rear.[5]

Philadelphia narrowly evaded a

KG 100-launched glide bomb on 11 September, although several of her crew were injured when the bomb exploded. While bombarding targets off Aropoli on 15 September, the cruiser downed one of 12 attacking planes and assisted in driving off a second air attack the same day in the vicinity of Altavilla. She downed two more hostile aircraft on 17 September and cleared the gunfire support area that night, bound for Bizerte, Tunisia. After upkeep at Gibraltar, Philadelphia departed Oran, Algeria on 6 November as part of the escort for a convoy which arrived at Hampton Roads on 21 November.[5]

1944

Philadelphia underwent overhaul at New York and then engaged in refresher training in Chesapeake waters until 19 January 1944, when she steamed from Norfolk as an escorting unit for a convoy arriving Oran, Algeria on 30 January.[5]

Philadelphia joined the gunfire support ships off Anzio on 14 February and provided support for the advancing ground troops through 23 May. On this same day she collided with the USS Laub (DD-613). She then sailed to the British naval yard at Malta, where repairs to her bow were effected. After overhaul at Malta, she joined Admiral C. F. Bryant’s Task Group 85.12 (TG 85.12) at Taranto, Italy. The cruiser served as one of the escorting units for the group, which reached the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, France, on 15 August. At 0640, she teamed with Texas and Nevada and, with other support ships, they closed the beaches and provided counter-battery fire. By 0815, the bombardment had destroyed enemy defenses, and Major General William W. Eagles’ famed "Thunderbirds" of the 45th Army Infantry Division landed without opposition.[5]

After replenishing ammunition at Propriano, Corsica, on 17 August, Philadelphia provided gunfire support to the French army troops on the western outskirts of Toulon. Four days later, her commanding officer, Captain Walter A. Ansel, accepted the surrender of the fortress islands of Pomeques, Château d'If, and Ratonneau in the Bay of Marseilles. After gunfire support missions off Nice, she departed Naples on 20 October and returned to Philadelphia, Pa., arriving on 6 November.[5]

1945

Philadelphia underwent overhaul at the

Philadelphia Navy Yard and then refresher training in the West Indies, returning to Norfolk, Virginia, on 4 June 1945. She steamed for Antwerp, Belgium on 7 July, acting as escort for Augusta which had embarked President Harry S. Truman and his party, including Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy. Arriving Antwerp on 15 July, the President departed Augusta and was flown to the Potsdam Conference. Before the conference ended, Philadelphia proceeded to Plymouth, England, to await return of the President.[5]

On 2 August, Philadelphia rendered honors to

King George VI, who visited President Truman aboard Augusta. The ships departed that same day and Philadelphia arrived Norfolk, Virginia, on 7 August.[5]

Post-war

Philadelphia stood out of Narragansett Bay for Southampton, England, on 6 September, returning on 25 September as escort for the former German liner Europa. After operations in Narragansett Bay and in Chesapeake Bay, she arrived Philadelphia on 26 October. Steaming for Le Havre, France, on 14 November, she embarked Army passengers for the return to New York on 29 November. She made another "Magic Carpet" run from New York to Le Havre and return from 5 to 25 December, and arrived at Philadelphia for inactivation on 9 January 1946.[5]

Brazilian Navy

For other ships with the same name, see Brazilian ship Almirante Barroso.

Philadelphia

Mutual Defense Assistance Program. She served in the Brazilian Navy under the name Barroso (C–11)[5]
and was scrapped in 1974.

Awards

Citations

  1. ^ "NavSource Online: Cruiser Photo Archive - USS PHILADELPHIA (CL 41)". Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Ships' Data, U. S. Naval Vessels". US Naval Department. 1 July 1935. pp. 24–31. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  3. ^ Rickard, J (30 April 2015). "USS Philadelphia (CL-41)". Historyofwar.org. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. ^ "US Cruisers List: Light/Heavy/Antiaircraft Cruisers, Part 1". Hazegray.org. 22 January 2000. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa "Philadelphia V (Light Cruiser)". Naval History and Heritage Command. 20 August 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  6. ISBN 9780684804484
    .

References

  • Fahey, James C. (1941). The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, Two-Ocean Fleet Edition. Ships and Aircraft.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Philadelphia (CL-41).


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