Santa Fe (CL 60) - Naval Cruise Book

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Xe K1 Q 4 i X X X II fl' Vilas, X X Xxx-X xx is Q ca hX,Xx X, A , ,im ff K.. Cv L J 5 lx Ek?,x WAR DIARY FA T RAPID FIRI G N UNE of 1941, when the keel of the U S S SANTA FE was laid, war was only a possibility. By une of '42 when she slid down the ways the United States found itself embroiled in a pair of wars' one to the East and one to the West, and each was more vicious and threatening than any that had confronted It before By the following November, the Lucky Lady, newest addition to the fleet, faced a horizon that was anything but bright. Nazi Germany was pounding hard at the gates of Russ1a's cap1tal,fanat1ca1 Japan had firm control of the Pacific fi om the Bering Sea to the northern coast of Australia However, had they known, our enemies would not have been bragging so much about dictating peace in the White House The people of the U S were just beginning to rebound from their earlier mistakes As usual they had been caught unaware and unprepared, but they soon realized that this was to be a knock down, drag out scrap Throughout the country men were being trained as 16 A TA FE LOOK B CK soldiers, sailors and marines, while tanks, trucks, riHes, ships, planes, and all the other paraphenalia of modern war were being assembled for the final showdown. It was under such conditions this new light cruiser steamed out of Chesapeake Bay. The Navy had taken great loss at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and through many subsequent actions more damage had had to be accepted. Early in 1943 the U. S was fighting primarily a war of attrition in the Pacific It was deemed wiser to concentrate all available strength against Nazidom, while patiently waiting for the day when the ships and planes under construction would provide the sea-borne answer to the newly conquered, uns1nkable island air basesof the Nipponese. True, when the SANTA FE reported for duty with the Pacific Fleet, the great battles of Savo Island, Coral Sea,iGuadal- canal and Midway had been decided, she could never participate in those, yet her time was soon to come. She was in the van of a host of ships constructed and com- ,f:5', T lif' ii 1, , I , Nre4s,.,, , ff' gifirijrig 'f I Y ,f g I J' cr N13-4 ., xx-V ' 'g'.f1,ii--j ' 121' 1 .'1'2..:.,, j 11,15 .nfrmn ,,.,i, ,Vx . ,h Y, 1 ,Mi-fl f J ,AN .,7Q'35ggggj , ij , - ,aj I 1, ,, wisp- . so ' - A. is -1 f 1' ,,f:11'f1':cf ,. f , ' ' 2 . -. 1 -- I A-1 If 1 J-I L 'ss XX- f' ' -I , f f:1f'fg:,i- If X, ff ?l,,ffg Q fl Sxllig.. ff-Exif A QQ- Wt xii! Q '--- ,I ki ,4,,,f . 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'sa I. fr ci ' fWW?i1'i.f X - V...- x ..,- - - mi 1. - --as -, il f SQQSQ, AVV' If - 'i 3 lm .tl -4 ' T fs - U 0 . t 11. 1 Y I W I, ,,, 0 g Xfjfffi I- T -I IM ai YET sb f .i'r1gN,,,H , L E E N D A ug li ,W a . .. fp. .... J. S I myW,ygigfiiikg.-1,iLff S ass- Q Q -- 'mf if 5 if -:xg 7127, RR i i f Oi '34 X. Q. . ff f A E' tffifvfqim 1? '51 it mumw , Xqabfffifsig-p,.,Es IZUQ 0 EQ .i 13.-Eff Ap I in Ms ily-O 66 - .f H THE L CKY LA O THE ENVIABLE RECORD OF HER W R YE R missioned since Pearl Harbor and it was in this wave of modern fighting craft where lay the potential power to regain undisputed control over the sea-lanes of the Pacific. Built as a fast-moving cruiser, packing plenty of fast- firing wallop in her twelve 6-inch Q47 Cal.j rifies, and providing all-important anti-aircraft protection with her 8 barrels of 5-inch C38 Cal.Q, 40 millimeter and 20 milli- meter guns, the SANTA FE possessed the ideal attributes of a perfect fast carrier task force unit. Not only was she capable of performing at speeds in excess of thirty knots, but her fourteen thousand ton displacement had been so designed to provide optimum water tight integrity settings without compromising her storeroom space for provisions lasting one hundred twenty days, or fuel oil capacity for the necessary ten thousand mile cruising radius. Con- sequently, the Cleveland Class cruisers could be depended upon for almost any task within a heavy cruiser's cap- abilities and also could be called upon to deliver anti- aircraft iire in volume far surpassing any of the pre-Pearl Harbor ships. The commanders of the Task Groups knew this, and seldom did a carrier group sortie without the protective company of light cruisers . . . Thus, the battle record of the Lucky Lady became largely a history of the movements and strikes of the carrier task forces, with a good number of convoy chases, surface actions, and shore bombardments thrown in for good measure. The activities of the storied TASK FORCE 58 and the equally famous THIRD FLEET of Halsey were well advertised, yet few people in the U.S. realized that those successes were made possible, not by air power alone, but by maintaining proper balance between the surface and air forces of the Navy . . . It was no small tribute to the SANTA FE that the home- town newspaper headlines, highlighting the Pacific war, unwittingly provided an almost complete chronological record of her two and one-half years of constant duty in the forward area. 17 41