Salt Lake City (CA 25) - Naval Cruise Book

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..-..... ,..... ....-f..,.... ,-'- fm- .-my two lap light cruisers and six Iap destroyers, a task group twice as powerful as the Americans' ownl The initial rush of the Americans-sthe Salt Lake City, the light cruiser Richmond, and the destroyers Bailey, Coghlan, Dale and Monaghan-had placed the laps between them and their base. At 0840, the laps opened fire on the Richmond and obtained a straddle on the second salvo. But they switched almost immediately to the Salt Lake City as she came steaming up from her original station twenty-four miles away to join the affray. The exchange of shots set the pattern for the entire battle, the heavies thundering away at each other, two against one, the lights engaging in minor, sporadic duels of their own or edging in for a nervous shot at the big fellows. The American destroyers engaged intermittently but spectacularly. The lap destroyers, possibly because they were carrying troops or sup- plies, were pretty well content to stay out. The Salt Lake City opened fire at 0842 and on her fourth salvo obtained first blood, at least two eight inch hits on the leading lap heavy. Fire broke out near her bridge, but was quickly brought under control. A few minutes later, straddles caused smoke to issue near her forward stack. At 0907, Salt Lake City shells struck amidships, and a cloud of black smoke arose. Three minutes later, the Swayback sustained her first hit, an eight inch shell that struck below the waterline on the port side at frame 102. Oil tanks and bulkheads were ruptured. Shaft alleys three and four started flooding. Oil from punctured fuel tanks sprayed into the after engine room. A near miss at 0921 aggravated the damage. Snipes thrust wads of clothing into the breaks. The battle went on. At 0931, the Salt Lake City, the Bailey and the Coghlan shot down a brash lap observation plane which had ventured too near. At 0941, the laps checked fire, out of range. Their wounded heavy was dropping back, still smoking. The Ameri- cans changed course to get a lap light which had strayed off station. She was hurt by near misses. But the lap heavy had repaired her damage, and both the big enemy ships came 15

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the time beyond the Aleutians, was one of the strangest sea engagements ever fought. Afterward, Americans who were engaged in it came to look upon it as a miracle at sea. For surely, it is a miracle when a great fighting ship walks wounded on the water, halts in her tracks to die, then comes alive to lob victorious shells at her foe. --From My Speed Zero by Iohn Bishop in the Saturday Evening Post, February 5, l9-44. The laps were sitting on Kiska and Attu, in the land ladder stretching from Asia to North America. They boasted that soon their troops would be fighting on the soil of the American con- tinent itself. The threat had to be eliminated. Fresh from four and a half months at Pearl Harbor, Where damage suffered in the battle of Cape Esperance was repaired, the Salt Lake City was in a task group cruising West of Attu and south of the bleak Komandorskies. The group's task was to prevent supplies and reinforcements from reaching the lap garrisons until the United States Was ready to take back the islands from their conguerors. The Salt Lake City had received numerous personnel re- placements at Pearl. Half her crew Was at sea for the first time. And that half included seventy per cent of her fire control gang. A It was March 20, l043. The Aleutian fog was absent. Visi- bility was good. The sea was calm. At 0730, one hour before sunrise, the radar of the destroyer Coghlan, leader in a scouting line spread over 30 miles of ocean, picked up several surface vessels. From their speed and actions, they were taken to be Tap merchantmen, The American force gathered together for the kill As it concentrated more and more enemy ships were made out This it appeared was to be a mass slaughter a Roman holiday of the highest order But the laps behaved strangely instead of fleeing some of them closed in on the American force At 0825 with bettering visibility fighting tops of Iapanese war vessels rose above the horizon and the horrid truth was disclosed There were two Iapanese merchantmen but they had retired The closing vessels were two lap heavy cruisers I4 I ' ' II . , I I - II . ' I ' - . . . . . . I , ,- ' 1 . , h I I 1

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charging in. At l000, they were straddling the Salt Lake City with their shells. At 1002, the Salt Lake City's own gun blasts carried away her rudder stops. Steering control was lost until it was shifted to steering aft. Even then, the rudder was limited to ten degrees each way for fear of jamming. Another hit was suffered, a lap shell hit at frame seven, which went completely through the ship without exploding. The Salt Lake City, the Bailey and the Coghlan made smoke to hide the stricken heavy. There ensued a grim game of hide and seek, the lap heavies firing whenever they could see through the smoke shroud, a lap light edging around it for a clear view. The Salt Lake City was on a new course, where only her after battery could bear against the enemy, five eight inch guns to their twenty. But the radical maneuvering of the battle had accomplished one result. The laps no longer were between the Americans and their base. The way to escape was open. The respite was short-lived. At 1059 a lap eight inch shell hit the Salt Lake City's starboard catapult. Four minutes later another hit the weakened spot near frame 102. lets of water spurted into the ship. The anti-aircraft switchboard was aban- doned. The switchboard room, the after five inch handling room, the after five inch ammunition room and shaft alleys three and four were flooded. Water poured into the after en- gine room. The writergof the Saturday Evening Post article described the scene: From the scores of leaks where pipes and steam lines passed through the wrenched bulkhead, the mixture of water and fuel oil from the flooded compartments gushed in. lt gathered and rose, water whose temperature was the deadly thirty-two degrees of the Bering Sea in winter, oil which coagulated to hang like black glue. Pumps labored to suck away the flood. Damage control parties attacked the leaking bulkhead. The men stood thigh deep in the freezing water while they pounded calking into the leaks. Any kind of calking, rags, wiping waste, their shirts, their jackets. Still, the level inched higher, to their waists, tO their chests, to their shoulders. 16