• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

CL-55 Cleveland

USS Cleveland, first of a class of twenty-seven 10,000-ton light cruisers, was built at Camden, New Jersey. Commissioned in June 1942, she shook down in American waters and, in November of that year participated in the North African invasion. Cleveland was then transferred to the South Pacific war zone, arriving in time to participate in the air-sea Battle of Rennell Island in late January 1943.

Following the end of the Guadalcanal Campaign, Cleveland took part in operations "up the Slot" into the Central Solomons. On 6 March 1943, she helped sink the Japanese destroyers Minegumo and Murasame in a night action off Kolombangara. She used her guns to bombard the enemy ashore during the invasion of New Georgia in June and July, and played a similar role in landings on the Treasury Islands in late October 1943 and on Bougainville in November. When the Japanese sent a cruiser-destroyer force to attack U.S. forces off Bougainville on 2 November, Cleveland helped defeat them in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. She also participated in operations to seize islands in the Bismarcks during the first months of 1944.

In June-August 1944, Cleveland provided anti-aircraft gunfire and bombardment support during the campaign that conquered Saipan, Guam and Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, and in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. She again shelled Japanese shore positions during the Palaus invasion in September. Overhauled in the U.S. in late 1944, Cleveland returned to the Western Pacific in February 1945 and subsequently took part in the capture of Corregidor, in Manila Bay, and other amphibious operations in the Philippines. During June and July she supported landings on Borneo. Her final combat duties included anti-shipping sweeps in the East China Sea.

Following Japan's surrender, Cleveland participated in the recovery of Allied prisoners of war and other occupation missions before returning to the United States in the last part of 1945. The next year, she conducted training cruises out of Newport, Rhode Island. USS Cleveland was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in February 1946 and remained there until sold for scrapping in February 1960.