Depiction of the Cleveland class, showing the plan and profile
The Cleveland-class
US Navy quickly followed. Though still neutral, the United States recognized that war was likely and the urgent need for additional ships ruled out an entirely new design, so the Clevelands were a close development of the earlier Brooklyn-class cruisers, the chief difference being the substitution of a two-gun 5 in (127 mm) dual-purpose gun mount for one of the main battery 6 in (152 mm) gun turrets.[1]
Santa Fe was 610 feet 1 inch (186 m)
kW), the turbines were intended to give a top speed of 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph). Her crew numbered 1285 officers and enlisted men.[2]
The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve
Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) guns in four quadruple and four double mounts and twenty-one Oerlikon 20 mm (0.79 in) guns in single mounts.[2]
The ship's
amidships where it protected the ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. Her deck armor was 2 in (51 mm) thick. The main battery turrets were protected with 6.5 in (170 mm) faces and 3 in (76 mm) sides and tops, and they were supported by barbettes 6 inches thick. Santa Fe's conning tower had 5-inch sides.[2]
Service history
Santa Fe (far left) and three other cruisers bombarding Kiska
Santa Fe was
Pacific Theater of World War II. She arrived in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 22 March and proceeded from there to the Aleutian Islands. She arrived in Alaskan waters on 20 April, and six days later she took part in a bombardment of Japanese-held Attu Island. She participated in patrols off the Aleutians for the next four months during the Aleutian Islands campaign, and she shelled Kiska on 6 and 22 July before American forces landed on the island the following month. She provided gunfire support to the forces that went ashore there on 15 August. Ten days later, Santa Fe left the area and arrived back in Pearl Harbor on 1 September.[3]
The ship next joined Cruiser Division 13, which was attached to support the
Kwajalein on 4 December. The fleet returned to Pearl Harbor on 9 December.[3]
In late 1943, Santa Fe arrived back in the United States to begin preparations to join the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. She took part in amphibious assault exercises off
invasion of Kwajalein, which was to take place the following day. The ship then returned to the invasion fleet to support the marines as they went ashore on Kwajalein. The ship remained offshore through 1 February to bombard Japanese forces as the Americans fought their way across the island, before departing for Majuro, arriving there on 7 February.[3]
On 12 February, Santa Fe sortied as part of the escort for the Fast Carrier Task Force, which
Sawar on 21 April, including a bombardment by Santa Fe and other elements of the carrier screen. On 28 April, the task group was sent north to raid Truk, Satawan, and Pohnpei from 29 April to 1 May. Three days later, they arrived back in Kwajalein.[3]
On 30 June, Santa Fe got underway again, this time again accompanying Hornet. The carriers struck
invasion of Peleliu scheduled for the following week. The carriers then shifted to targets in Mindanao in the southern Philippines on 9 and 10 September to prevent them from interfering with the Peleliu operation. Santa Fe and other cruisers intercepted another Japanese convoy on 9 September and sank several vessels. The carriers raided Japanese positions in the area from 12 to 14 September and again from 21 to 24 September, before withdrawing to the Kossol Roads in the Palau islands to replenish.[3]
Santa Fe's task group then moved on to launch air strikes on Japanese airfields in the Visayas on 21 October. The next day, they withdrew to refuel before searching for Japanese naval forces that were reportedly in the area over 23 and 24 October. Later on the 24th, Japanese aircraft launched a major attack on the fleet that was defeated, and that evening, the Japanese carriers of the Northern Force were detected. The American fleet turned north to intercept them, and early the next morning, a force of six fast battleships and seven cruisers—including Santa Fe—were detached to pursue the Japanese carriers to try to catch them in a surface action. The American carriers also launched air strikes against the Northern Force, but later that day, reports of the battleships and cruisers of the Center Force attacking the invasion fleet prompted the Americans to detach most of their surface forces to try to block the Japanese battleships. Santa Fe and three other cruisers remained with the Fast Carrier Task Force to sink damaged vessels of the Northern Force, which included the carrier Chiyoda and the destroyer Hatsuzuki. The carrier task groups re-formed the next day and sailed for Ulithi, arriving there on 30 October.[3]
Typhoon Cobra
, December 1944
Santa Fe's task group sailed on 1 November, bound for Manus, where the ships were to undergo maintenance. The ships were quickly recalled after reports of Japanese warships off Leyte, though this proved to be false. The American fleet and forces ashore came under heavy air attack, however, so the task group was kept in the area to help defend American units. The task group's carriers launched retaliatory air strikes on Manila, the capital of the Philippines, on 5 and 6 November, followed by another round of strikes on other targets from 11 to 14 November. Three days later, the ships returned to Ulithi for replenishment. On 20 November, Japanese midget submarines entered the anchorage and sank the oilerMississinewa. Santa Fe sent her floatplanes to pick up survivors from the sinking.[3]
On 22 November, the task group sortied once again for attacks on Japanese positions in the Philippines, which began three days later. They remained in action off the Philippines until 1 December, when they departed for another period of rest and replenishment at Ulithi. By mid-month, they had joined the forces supporting the
Typhoon Cobra struck the fleet, sinking three destroyers. Santa Fe and other vessels searched for survivors before returning to Ulithi on 24 December. They remained there until 30 December, when the task group got underway to carry out a raid of Japanese airfields on Okinawa and Formosa on 3 and 4 January 1945. On 6 January, they turned south to strike targets on Luzon in the Philippines in preparation for the planned invasion of Lingayen Gulf. Attacks on Japanese airfields in the region continued through 9 January, after which the Fast Carrier Task Force sailed south to launch the South China Sea raid. On 21 January, strikes on Formosa resumed, followed by more attacks on Okinawa the following day. The fleet returned to Ulithi on 26 January to replenish.[3]
Santa Fe and the rest of her task group sortied on 10 February to attack airfields in the
star shells to illuminate targets at night. By 25 February, she had returned to her task group to cover the carriers for another attack on the Tokyo area. The ships thereafter returned to Ulithi for replenishment.[3]
Santa Fe alongside the burning carrier Franklin, helping to fight the fires
The ship was transferred to the task group centered on the carrier
Kure and Kobe, where the carrier aircraft attacked some of the remaining elements of the Japanese fleet on 19 March. That day, while the carriers were in the process of launching their strike planes, a Japanese bomber hit the carrier Franklin with a pair of bombs, starting serious fires. Several loaded aircraft were clustered on the flight deck, which quickly caught fire as well and contributed to the explosions that badly damaged the carrier. Santa Fe came alongside to assist with rescue efforts and to help suppress the fires. After about three hours, the fires were under control, and some 833 men had been evacuated from Franklin. Santa Fe was also damaged in the course of assisting Franklin, and both ships withdrew to Ulithi; the carrier had to be taken under tow by the heavy cruiser Pittsburgh. Santa Fe and Franklin then left Ulithi on 27 March, bound for Pearl Harbor. Santa Fe received a Navy Unit Commendation for her crew's efforts in saving Franklin.[3] The ship's commander, Captain Harold Fitz, was awarded the Navy Cross.[4] and three crewmen were awarded Silver Stars for risking their own lives to rescue men from Franklin who were in the water.[5]
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.
"Navy Cross Recipients"(PDF). All Hands: The Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin. No. 345. December 1945. pp. 60–61. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
United States
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