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CL-8 Detroit

USS Detroit, a 7050-ton Omaha class light cruiser built at Quincy, Massachusetts, was commissioned at the end of July 1923. She made a shakedown cruise to the Mediterranean later in that year and operated with the Scouting Fleet in the Atlantic area through 1924. Following a cruise to the Pacific to participate in fleet maneuvers early in 1925, Detroit returned to the Atlantic, where she took part in exercises and patrolled along the coast of Nicaragua. In mid-1927 she deployed as flagship of Commander, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe, visiting ports from Norway to the Middle east.

After steaming back to the U.S. in September 1928, Detroit served with the Scouting Fleet in the Atlantic until early 1931, then transferred to the Pacific to serve with the Battle Force. Except for brief periods, she spent the rest of her career in the Pacific, spending the next decade participating in fleet readiness activities. As tensions rose with Japan in the early 1940s, Detroit moved to the advanced base at Pearl Harbor, and was moored there when the Pacific War commenced with the Japanese surprise attack of 7 December 1941.

Detroit got underway during this raid and spent the next few days searching for the enemy attack force. She then began convoy escort missions between Hawaii, the U.S. West Coast and the South Pacific. In November 1942, the cruiser steamed north to take station in the Aleutian Islands area. She participated in the occupation of Amchitka in January 1943, the invasion of Attu in May and the landings on Kiska in August. Detroit remained in the North Pacific for nearly another year, taking part in a bombardment of the Kuril Islands just before she left the area in late June 1944.

For most of the rest of 1944, Detroit served as flagship of the Southeast Pacific Force, operating off the west coast of South America. In January 1945 she moved closer to the combat zone to become flagship of replenishment groups supporting carrier operations against Japan. She was present in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, moored not far from the battleship Missouri during the ceremonies marking Japan's surrender. In October she left the Far East to return to the United States. Decommissioned at Philadelphia in January 1946, USS Detroit was soon sold for scrapping.