Salt Lake City (CA 25) - Naval Cruise Book

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The enemy heavy cruiser was pouring incessant, accurate fire on the Boise. We could hear the smacks. There was only one thing to do and we did it. As the Boise fell away, we took her place and closed in, placing ourselves between the Boise and the enemy. The Boise was on fire and silhouetted us, making a perfect setup for the enemy's fire control. We walked into three straddles that hurt us, but not enough to help the Tap. At our first salvo the enemy fell silent and fired no more. Like two immense hands, our ten fingers of fire had gone out and grabbed him by the throat. We gave him four more salvos and he sank. On her part, the Salt Lake City had sustained three major calibre hits and lost five men killed and 21 wounded. She went to Pearl Harbor for repairs and overhaul. And the fighting men of the Pacific, talking of the battle, referred to the Salt Lake City as the one ship fleet . THE KOMANDORSKIES The battle of the Komandorskie islands, little heard of at .nl BURIAL AT SEA OF FIVE MEN KILLED IN ACTION IN THE BATTLE OF CAPE ESPERANCE I3

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didn't see them, but we picked up one of their aviators who had run out of gas. It was thirteen minutes before midnight when the Salt Lake City and the other American cruisers opened fire on the leading lap destroyer. The Salt Lake City was firing at such close range that it had to depress some of its guns and its hot shells whistled between the masts of an American destroyer caught in between. We think 'Uncle lim' Brewer, 'Georgie Porgie' O'Connell and 'Ace' Ramsay are the best gunners in the world. They had been training their guns together for two years and on this oc- casion they were as cool and efficient as if they were at a practice session. The first victim was an enemy light cruiser, illuminated by star shells. The ten guns of the Salt Lake City barked simul- taneously and ten big fingers of fire and metal jabbed the enemy in vital parts. The order to cease fire came immediately as the enemy ship was ablaze and there was no sense in wasting ammunition. The second target for the Salt Lake City was a heavy cruiser. We sat there waiting for her to come up. Nobody was excited. lt was like waiting for a cockroach to come across the table, we knew we could step on her any time we wanted to. The Salt Lake City stepped with two salvos, twenty shots, blow- ing up the enemy's whole midsection. The third victim was an auxiliary. The Salt Lake City and her companions pounced and she went down by the bow, stern up. The fourth was a destroyer, one of three that had launched a torpedo attack. The Salt Lake City gave her one salvo. When the smoke cleared, nothing was to be seen of the destroyer. At 0005, running out of fresh targets, the Salt Lake City turned again on its first target, the wounded light cruiser and handed her eight salvos. Large fires and explosions were noted. By 00ll, part of the' American task force had vanished in pursuit of the enemy while the Boise Can American light cruiserl, directly ahead of the Salt Lake City, was afire and falling out tok avoid torpodoes. 12

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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