St Louis (CL 49) - Naval Cruise Book

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so close to Guam's shoreline that her 20 mm. and 40 mm. guns were brought to bear on the beaches. . Recognizing the effective role of the St. Louis in the Marianas campaign, the commander of Cruiser Division Nine, Rear Admiral W. L. Ainsworth, USN, awarded Captain Roberts a letter of com- mendation and the Legion of Merit. The letter praised Captain Roberts, 'fconsummate skill in han- dling his ship Hduring all of these operations, lasting over two months in almost constant contact with an enemy-held shoreline in an advanced theater of operations . . .D Bidding farewell to Terminal Island in October, 1944, the St. Louis set out for Leyte Gulf in the Philippines by way of Eniwetok and Ulithi. A . American troops had invaded the island of Leyte October 19, but the Iapanese were still resisting bitterly when the SZ. Louis dropped anchor in the gulf November 16. Enemy planes were based in con- siderable strength on nearby islands-an unfortunate state af affairs that resulted in no less than 33 air attacks on the St. Louis in the course of a 13-day stretch. One such attack, taking place November 27 as the noon chow line was forming, left the St. Louis on the damaged list again. She suf- fered hits on the hangar deck and the port beam and 15 men and an oflicer received fatal infuries. The strike was not made without cost to the Iapanese, however, the St. Louis herself bringing down four planes for sure and being credited with Eve probables. Enemy air assaults continued and, al- though damaged no further, the St. Louis was obliged to fall to with her anti-aircraft batteries the night of November 29 asshe was with- drawing from the area, San Pedro bound. She went home under her own power, reaching the Pacific Coast December 26. Yet another chapter in her back-and-forth chronology was begun February 23, 1945, with the St. Louis churning westward, destination unknown-except to a few. One of the few is presumed to be Captain I. B. Griggs, USN, a veteran of submarine service who came aboard at San Pedro, Ian- uary 3, to relieve Captain Roberts. 1-le is her Hfth commanding officer, the only one not having been mentioned in this history being a native St. Louisan, Captain Charles H. Morrison, who assumed command when the Si. Louis was com- missioned by then-Rear Admiral Ioseph K. Taussig, USN, May 19, 1939., . The present Sz. Louis is the fourth naval vessel to bear the name. The Hrst was a fighting sloop built in 1828, the second was a Civil War gunboat and the third was a cruiser which was decommissioned in 1929. The Lucky Lou's,, shakedown cruise took her to Kingston, Iamaicag Port au Spain, Trinidad, and the Portuguese Azores, and ended in New York the day the Yankees and Cincinnati Reds were crossing bats in the first game of the 1939 world series. The following year the St. Louis was nominated to carry a party of high-ranking officers on an inspection tour of British possessions in the Atlantic that might have served as suitable American naval and air bases. She made her first appearance on the west coast in the fall of M4fR4'P1PYf'2'is22s1'1'1ff'f'14 V LSXRXKX X XXXNNNXWXX X X

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the darkness-no American knows just what dispatched it-came a torpedo, and it wasn't a dud. Its coming was unseen, yet all aboard felt the concussion as it struck from the starboard, virtually prying off the St. Louis' bow. No fatalities or even serious injuries resulted but it was necessary for the cruiser to make her way to the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs. She returned to the open sea late in the fall of 1943, not only with a new bow but with a dirlierent commanding oliicer, Captain R. H. Roberts, USN.. ' Captain Campbell, whom he relieved, received the Navy Cross for his adept maneuvering of the St. Louis through sub-infested waters during the Rice Anchorage landings and for brilliant direction of his cruiser's gunhre in the first battle of Kula Gulf. ' Later, he was awarded the Silver Star medal for courageous direc- tion of the St. Louis which led the cruiser line in the second battle of Kula Gulf. Captain Roberts saw his first action from the bridge of the St. Louis in December 1943, when a task force, of which she was a segment, shelled the Kieta area of Bougainville. Her guns silenced a Iapanese coastal emplacement during a bombardment of the Short- land Islands a month later. Return fire did not harm the St. Louis but it came so close that pieces of shrapnel fell on the deck. In fact, it wasn't until St. Valentine,s Day, 1944, that she suffered her First combat fatalities. Her assignment was to screen American landings on Green Island, north of Bougainville, and she lay off the island most of the day without incident. About sundown, however, six enemy planes-first noticed circling above the horizon at 5 p.m.-came in to make their runs over the screening force. Two went after the St. Louis, one ,plummeting a bomb off the starboard bow for a damaging near miss, the other scoring a direct hit just aft of the superstructure. The latter killed 22 men and an officer. ' i The Sz. Louis limped south to Tulagi where she was repaired by her crew. Her return to service some three months later marked the end of the lean days. I Or, as a seasoned boatswain's mate put it, we didn't even know there was a United States Navy until we arrived at Roi, in the Mar- shalls, from Tulagi and saw the Central Pacific Fleet in all its powerf, 4 The Sz. Louis was made an addition to that power for the intensive shelling that preceded the June 14 landings of American troops on Saipan, main japanese base in the Marianas and headquarters of the Iapanese Commander in Chief, Central Pacific Area. The Heet also opened up on Tinian across the channel from Saipan and portions, including the St. Louis, took time out to move down to Guam for another bombardment-the first against that island. United States surface units instituted a more vigorous attack on Iuly 7. Among them was the St. Louis, minus one of its four screws. The missing screw, believed damaged at Green Island, did not drop off until the cruiser was approaching Guam. Its loss necessitated a trip to the States but before departing the St. Louis continued to participate in the Guam shelling which pre- pared the way for our invasion Iuly 20. At times, the St. Louis was

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1940, tying up at San Pedro. Her next voyage of consequence nearly a year later, found the St. Louis convoying the U. S. S. Henderson, a transport, to Manila, P. I., by way of Midway, Wake and Guam. War clouds were piling up on the Pacific's horizons, so the St. Louis was ordered to quit the Philippines for the comparative safety of the Hawaiian Islands. Her introduction to the Iapanese two months later constituted a baptism of Hre not only for the cruiser herself but for the planes she carried on her hangar deck. The St. Louis' aviation unit, based ashore at Ford Island at the moment, sent up two planes without rear-seat gunners, which tried to execute gunnery runs on the Iapanese dive bombers. Although that appears to have been the unit's lone attempt at aerial combat, it, nevertheless, has had a part in rolling back the enemy's blanket of conquest. Often operating in close proximity to enemy aircraft and A.A. fire, the pilots from the St. Louis performed effectively in every ac- tion in which their ship took part. Their main function has been anti-submarine patrol and gunfire spotting, and they also have par- ticipated in several searches for survivors at sea. Security rules had just been invoked when the St. Louis was lying in ,Manila harbor in 1941 and her crew was cautioned not to reveal her identity to anyone ashore. In a Manila bar one night a petty oHicer from the U - S. S . Bluclg Hui-uk, a repair vessel, asked a chief electricians mate from the St. Louis the name of his ship. Well . . stammered the chief, stalling as best he could, she's . . . sheis the Mystery Ship. 1 . - The chief was rewarded for his conscientious bit of evasion with a brace of black eyes, and the resultant ribbing and scuttlebuttfspread far and wide the St. Louis' reputation as the Mystery Ship of the United States Fleetf, Her story was told for the first time in the United ,States news- papers in connection with the 1944 observance of Navy Day, so the St. Louis no longer is the enigma she might have been once as far as Americans are concerned. . The same could not be said, however, in respect to the Iapanese whose oliqcial propaganda agency, Domei, has announced on at least three occasions that the Si. Louis had been consigned to the bottom of the Pacific. Leaving the Navy Yard at Long Beach, California, on February 23, 1945, the St. Louis was dispatched immediately to Pearl Harbor. Here she received her orders to report to Task Force 58 then making rendezvous at Ulirhi in the Carolines. I-Iurriedly taking on her fuel capacity at this port, the Lucky Loui' sailed with this mightiest armada in Naval history, for the now historical air-strikes against Kyushu in the Iapanese homeland. For more than two weeks the Sz. Louis, with other ships, screened the carriers of this task force, in this daring attack on even Tokyo itself. Time and again the Lucky Lou's,' live-inch and anti-aircraft batteries leveled at whatever enemy planes came within her sights. Gkinawa was next on the St. Louis' list of operations. Leaving Task Force 58 on' March 25, 1945, she escorted the U. S. S. Indian- apolis with Admiral Spruance aboard, to this Nipponese bastion. Within an hour of her arrival at this island arsenal, the Lucky Lou