St Louis (CL 49) - Naval Cruise Book

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.

Page 6 text:

inn is fx 1 X1

Page 8 text:

Crew and ollicers alike received an even worse shock moments later when a Iapanese bomb dropped through the dock against which the Honolulu nestled. The concussion was so tremendous it not only damaged the Honolulu but shook the St. Louis to the extent that those manning her were certain she had sustained a direct hit. Meanwhile, the snipes', far below-deck in the engine rooms had been working like madmen, and less than an hour after the Iapanese began their attack, the Sl. Louis moved out into the channel. The danger was not over even then, for as the St. Louis neared the channel's mouth she was confronted by an enemy midget sub- marine. A shot from the cruiser's No. l 5-inch mount injured the conning tower, the damage eventually leading to the capture of the underseas cra ft. As the momentum of the St. Louis increased, two torpedoes were sent at her. Both hit a reef a short distance away and exploded harmlessly. In becoming the first large ship to make open sea the morning of December 7, the St. Louis was aided by the captain of the U. S. S. Neuudu who ordered his stricken battleship beached to clear the out- ward passage. With but one historic exception the St. Louis spent the period be- tween December ll and the following May 23 convoying ships carrying civilians back to the States from the Hawaiian Islands. The exception was the Navy's initial attack of the war: the raid on Iapanese bases in the Gilberts and Marshalls February 1, 1942. Compared with present standards, the task force that struck the Gilberts and Marshalls would seem almost impotent. It embodied no battleships at all. It had only one light cruiser, the St. Louisj then there were four heavies and ten destroyers. The nucleus was two carriers, the U. S. S. Enterprise and the old U. S. S. Yorlqtoum. Yet the intrepid handful succeeded in inflicting damage by bomb and bombardment upon nine islands in the two groups, and some of the damage could be described most accurately as severe. Iap air units apparently were elsewhere at the time, crew members of the St. Louis, for instance, recalling that they saw but one enemy plane during the complete operation. The St. Louis resumed her convoy duties after that, continuing the role of escort vessel until May 23, 1942, when she headed for Midway with a Marine Raider Battalion aboard. Having once se- cured Midway, these same Marines began the titanic task at Guad- alcanal. Her human cargo disposed of on May 25, the St. Louis showed up next at Kodiak, Alaska, May 31 to refuel for the tour of duty in the Aleutians. She devoted the ensuing two months to a fruitless search for convoys supplying the enemy garrison on Kiska and to waiting for the weather to clear sufficiently to allow bombardment of that island. The bombardment opportunity came near sundown August 7. Then the fog lifted, permitting a clear View of the target long enough for the St. Louis and the cruisers and destroyers with her to open up on shore installations. The amount of harm inflicted was not appraised because the weather drew down its curtain again in the middle of the attack. Early in October, after aiding in the American occupation of the