USS Savannah (CL-42)

USS Savannah (October 1944)
History
United States
Name	Savannah
Namesake	City of Savannah, Georgia
Ordered	16 June 1933
Awarded	3 August 1933
Builder	New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey
Cost	$11,677,000 (contract price)
Laid down	31 May 1934
Launched	8 May 1937
Sponsored by	Miss Jayne Maye Bowden
Commissioned	10 March 1938
Decommissioned	3 February 1947
Stricken	1 March 1959
Identification	Hull symbol:CL-42 Code letters:NAQL
Honors and awards	battle stars
Fate	Sold for scrap 6 January 1960
General characteristics (as built)[1]
Class and type	Brooklyn-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
Beam	61 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	4 × geared turbines 4 × screws
Speed	32.5 kn (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h)
Complement	868 officers and enlisted
Armament	15 × 6 in (150 mm)/47 caliber guns (5x3) 8 × 5 in (130 mm)/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns 8 × caliber 0.50 in (13 mm) machine guns
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 carried	4 × SOC Seagull floatplanes
Aviation facilities	2 × stern catapults
General characteristics (1945)[2][3]
Beam	61 ft 7 in (18.77 m) 69 ft (21 m) (1944 refit)
Armament	15 × 6 in (150 mm)/47 caliber guns (5x3) 4 × twin 5 in (130 mm)/38 caliber anti-aircraft guns 4 × quad 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 6 × twin 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 12 × single 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons

USS Savannah (CL-42) was a light cruiser of the Brooklyn-class that served in World War II in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres of operation. Savannah conducted Neutrality Patrols (1941) and wartime patrols in the Atlantic and Caribbean (1942), and supported the invasion of French North Africa in Operation Torch (November 1942). She sought German-supporting blockade runners off the east coast of South America (1943), and supported the Allied landings on Sicily and at Salerno (1943). Off Salerno on 11 September 1943, a German radio-controlled Fritz X glide-bomb caused extensive casualties aboard and serious damage to Savannah, requiring emergency repairs in Malta and permanent repairs at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. After repairs and upgrades, she served in the task force that carried President Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in early 1945.

Construction and launch

Savannah was laid down on 31 May 1934 by the

Savannah became a unit of

Savannah's primary mission off Brazil was the destruction of any Nazi German blockade runners spotted in the South Atlantic Ocean. Teamed with the new U.S. Navy escort carrier Santee, plus a screen of destroyers, Savannah put to sea on 12 January 1943 on a long patrol that resulted in no combat with the enemy. Savannah went back into Recife Harbor on 15 February, and next, she steamed out again to search for blockade runners on the 21st. On 11 March 1943, she left the task group along with Eberle to investigate a ship that had been sighted by an aircraft from Santee.^[4]

Kota Tjandi, a former Dutch ship called Karin by her Kriegsmarine crew, was brought to a halt by shots fired across her bow by the two American warships. Just as a boarding party from Eberle arrived alongside, powerful time bombs, planted just before Karin's lifeboats got underway, exploded. Eleven sailors of the boarding party were killed, but one of Savannah's boat rescued three men from the water. Savannah took 72 German sailors on board, and quartered them below decks as prisoners-of-war.^[4] Savannah returned to New York Harbor on 28 March 1943, where she was overhauled in preparation for her next assignment in the Mediterranean Sea.^[4]

Invasion of Sicily

Savannah departed from Norfolk on 10 May 1943 to protect Army troop transports en route to

On the morning of 11 July 1943, Savannah was the first warship to respond to a call for naval gunfire at two points on a road leading into Gela. She knocked out several tanks before shifting her fire to the Butera road to aid advancing American infantry soldiers. Soon friend and foe became so enmeshed in the battle, that her naval gunfire could no longer intervene. Savannah destroyed more tanks later in the afternoon, however, and next she finished out the remaining hours of daylight by helping the Army Rangers in repelling an Italian infantry attack.^[4] The next morning, Savannah supported the Army troops with more than 500 rounds of six-inch shells as they advanced toward Butera. That day, Savannah's doctors and hospital corpsmen also gave medical care to 41 wounded infantrymen, while the warship bombarded enemy troop concentrations far inland, and also shelled their artillery batteries high in the hills.^[4]

On 13 July 1943, Savannah had but one call for naval gunfire support. She answered by hurling several salvos on the hill town of Butera. Before the 1st Infantry Division pressed on into the interior, it thanked Savannah for crushing three infantry attacks and silencing four artillery batteries, as well as for demoralizing the Italian troops by the effect of her fire. On the next day, Savannah steamed towards Algiers.

Savannah returned to Algiers on 10 August 1943 in order to train with U.S. Army troops for the

Savannah's Navy Yard repairs of combat damage, and the upgrading of her weapons, were completed on 4 September 1944. Nonetheless, she was never sent to a combat zone for the remainder of the war. She steamed out of Philadelphia Harbor on the next day, and reported to the Commander, Fleet Operational Training Command on 10 September for a shakedown cruise and sailor's refresher training. She returned to Norfolk on 12 October 1944 for readiness training with CruDiv 8.^[4] Savannah sailed on 21 January 1945 to rendezvous with the heavy cruiser Quincy, which was carrying President Roosevelt to the Mediterranean Sea, en route to Yalta, Crimea, in the Soviet Union for a conference with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.^[4]

Savannah entered Grand Harbor, Valletta, Malta, on 2 February 1945. At that island, the President and his party disembarked and traveled to Yalta by airplane. A memorial service was held at the graves of Savannah's sailors and marines killed in her bombing off Salerno. Savannah departed from Malta on 9 February 1945 and steamed to

In the 1980 movie "The Big Red One," Lee Marvin's character Sergeant Possum praised Savannah for firing on enemy artillery from miles offshore, as the Hermann Göring Panzer division approached Possum's position in a cave with their backs to the sea, Possum exclaiming that "the U.S. Navy saved our ass."^[9][10]

Memorial and tributes

In Savannah, the Propeller Club of the United States has a memorial fountain to five ships named Savannah.^[11] The rightmost plaque on the fountain's north wall is for Savannah (CL-42).

In late 2013 the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah, presented an exhibit to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of Savannah's participation in the Salerno landing.^[12][13] The museum subsequently maintained an online tribute, Battle Voices — Salerno, Italy 1943, that included photographs, a newsreel, the ship's Muster Roll, and quotations from crew members, war correspondents, and Savannah's General Quarters Narrative.^[14] The Savannah Morning News reported in 2013 that Savannah had its 35th and possibly final reunion in 2006, a gathering attended by about two dozen crewmen.^[12]

In late 2018, on the 75th anniversary of the Salerno landing, the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah provided a commemoration display titled "An Irregular Morning", including newsreel cuts and surviving artifacts.^[15]

Awards

• battle stars for World War II

  service.

• Battle of Port Lyautey, Morocco, part of Operation Torch (initially called Operation Gymnast), November 1942
• North African Campaign
• Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky), July–August 1943
• Allied invasion of Italy (included Operation Avalanche at Salerno), September 1943

Citations

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 Savannah (CL-42).

• Department of the Navy Photos of USS Savannah
• Photo gallery of USS Savannah at NavSource Naval History (archive)
• CriticalPast video: "US Navy Cruiser USS Savannah (CL-42) ablaze after being hit ..." (Savannah on 11 September 1943)
• Battle Voices / Salerno, Italy (online exhibit for Savannah), Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah, Georgia (archive)