CA-28 Louisville
USS Louisville, a 9050-ton Northampton class light cruiser built at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, was commissioned in January 1931. In July 1931, during her shakedown cruise to the east coast, she was reclassified as a heavy cruiser and her hull number was changed from CL-28 to CA-28. During the rest of the decade and into the early 1940s, she operated with the U.S. Fleet and on independent missions, mainly in the Pacific but also visiting the Caribbean, the U.S. Atlantic coast and Latin American ports. In 1938, Louisville crossed the Pacific, calling on Australia, Tahiti and Samoa. When the European War began in September 1939 the cruiser, then making a South American cruise, was sent to South Africa to pick up British gold for transportation to the United States.
In December 1941, when Japan opened World War II in the Pacific, Louisville was at sea escorting ships from the East Indies to Hawaii. She took part in U.S. aircraft carrier raids in the central and southern Pacific in February and March 1942. During the middle of the year, Louisville operated in the Aleutians area, then went to the southern Pacific late in 1942 to participate in the final months of the Guadalcanal campaign. In late January 1943, she was present during the air-sea Battle of Rennell Island. Hit by a dud torpedo, but not damaged, she then towed the crippled cruiser Chicago until that duty was taken over by the tug Navajo.
Louisville was sent back to the Aleutians in April 1943 and remained in that area until after the recapture of Attu and Kiska. She was overhauled at the Mare Island Navy Yard and then began long service providing heavy gunfire support for amphibious landings. In this role, the cruiser bombarded Wotje, Kwajalein and Eniwetok, in the Marshall Islands, in January-February 1944. After serving with the carriers on central Pacific raids in March and April, Louisville provided invasion support bombardments at Saipan, Tinian and Guam during June and July 1944, Peleliu in September and Leyte in October. On 24-25 October, when the Japanese Navy attempted to counter the Leyte landings, she took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait.
On 5-6 January 1945, Louisville was hit by two Japanese suicide planes but remained on station to support the invasion of Leyte at Lingayen Gulf. Withdrawn for repairs, she arrived back in the war zone in time to take part in the last weeks of the Okinawa campaign, and was hit by another Kamikaze on 5 June. After the end of the Pacific War, Louisville supported occupation activities along the China coast. She was sent back to the U.S. later in 1945 and decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in June 1946. Louisville was retained in the Reserve Fleet until September 1959, when she was sold for scrapping.
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