St Louis (CL 49) - Naval Cruise Book

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Island of Adak in the Andreanof Group, the St. Louis returned to the States. Then and there she experienced her first wartime change in Commanding Oiiicers, Captain Colin Campbell, USN, relieving Captain George Rood, USN. At that time also, the St. Louis surrendered her title as the most travelled ship in the United States Navy, being succeeded by another cruiser, the U. S. S. Louisville. g 1 A new year, 1943, had barely gotten started when the Iapanese discovered that the St. Louis was back to her old tricks: pounding pieces of a stolen empire with her six and five-inchers. The opening phase of her return engagement took place during the forepart of Ianuary, with the St. Louis shelling the New Georgia islands of Kolombangara, Vella Lavella and Munda. She was then-and for some time thereafter-operating in the Pacific's hottest battle area, the channel up through the Solomons and New Georgias, which was known as the slot. On her runs through the slotf' either for bombardment purposes or in search of the Tokyo Expressf' the St. Louis was constantly menaced by enemy planes and submarines. She survived this dangerous diet without adverse effect and was on hand for the hammering of Iapanese positions and gun installa- tions on Kolombangara and New Georgia-a hammering that sup- ported landings at Rice Anchorage the night of Iuly 4-5. The night was fraught with anxious moments for the St. Louis which lay in the gulf approximately halfway between the two is- lands. The greatest anxiety resulted from the illumination of the ship by Iapanese star shells. Guns on the shore and enemy merchantmen 1 promptly unlimbered, their missiles splashing around the plainly- visible target and singing ,near her superstructure. The luck of the Sz. Louis, from which she derived her nickname, Lucky Lou, continued to hold through the first battle of Kula Gulf. She was then part of Task Force 18, a group of cruisers and destroyers that was sent out to intercept the Tokyo Express on one of its nightly runs which were the enemy's means of supplying garrisons at Vila and elsewhere. Contact was made with the Iapanese-two contingents of them- early the morning of Iuly in Kula Gulf. The guns of the St. Louis roared without letup for 55 minutes, the longest period of continu- ous firing in the ship's history. The engagement ceased when Task Force 18 exhausted its supply of targets. Precisely what toll it had exacted could not be ascertained but old-timers on the St. Louis claim the bag included 13 ships, ftwo of them probably destroyers. The Lucky Lou had along her rabbit's foot that night, too, for a torpedo that struck aft of her No. 3 mount failed to detonate. It caused such inconsiderable damage the cruiser was perfectly able, the following week, to be present at what was very nearly her own funeral. y Intending to intercept the Tokyo Expressv again, Task Force 18 found the enemy in Kula Gulf for the second time late Iuly 12, and for a second time the convoy was disposed of in two groups. The first of these was soundly riddled, and at 1:55 a.m. Iuly 13, with the night as black as any night could be, the St. Louis swung around to prepare to engage the remainder of the convoy. Gut of

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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

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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