St Louis (CL 49) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 6 text:

inn is fx 1 X1

Page 5 text:

t Eeoication ln honored memory ot our shipmotes who so A gollontly gove their lives oboord the i U. 5.3. ST. LOUIS i ot Green Islond ond Leyte Gulf, this olloum is sincerely dedicoted. i 'N

Page 7 text:

l't!'lv.llS A otwt.-.ata ur wrmotw . s ,qv ' The Ship that wouldn,t be sunkf, Such was the description given the U. S. S. St. Louis by the Navy Department when it released its story about her Iuly 25, 1945. And the Lucky Lou really earned it the hard way, too. For they have torpedoed, bombed and strafed her in unrelated attacks that date back to the December 7 blitz at Pearl Harbor. Yes, the St. Louis was there-but just try to name many Pacific battle areas where she hasn't been. Y When the St. Louis descended the ways at Newport News, Va., in 1938, the country that built her was at peace with the world. Too, most of the men aboard her were born when the United,States was at peace. Together they and the St. Louis have learned to fight-and win-in the hardest of all fights. The real teaching commenced at 7:55 a.m. December 7, 1941. ,The uteachersl' might have had the St. Louis-she was a dead ship with no steam-but they were concentrating at the time on Battleship Row, the accessible anchorage where lay the greats of the Ameri- can Fleet. At first, those aboard the St. Louis believed they were witnessing some sort of new aerial drill by Uncle Samis' Army fliers. The im- pression persisted until a plane roared so close there was no mis- taking the rising sun on its wings. I The torpedo from its baysmashed into the U. S . S. Oklahoma as it rode about a thousand yards from the Naval Repair Base where the St. Louis was tied along another cruiser of the same class, the U. S. S. H onolulu. 'A ' That explosive moment and the ones immediately preceding it are as vivid today in recollection as they were in actuality. I was just putting on the jumper to my undress white uniform, a St. Louisan will tell you. Another remembers, I was exactly half- way down the ladder going to the gigf' Still another was just watch- ingf, He turned and 'raced below to his post in the engine room after the stunning impact of disbelief which hit him and his ship- mates abated. It is a matter of record that the St. Louis was among the first ships to unlimber her guns that day. It may not be generally known, though, that her circuit breakers were in the Naval Repair Shop and that, for that reason, her gunners had to fire and ram manually. That they did extraordinarily well under the circumstances is evi- denced by Navy documents crediting the cruiser with three prob- able japanese planes. , An enemy aircraft that the St. Louis failed to bag raked the ship with machine gun bullets, three of which still remain where they were planted-in the forward stack, in the face plate of the No. 1 5-inch gun mount, and in the fantail.