The Third NEW ORLEANS (February 15, 1934 ~ March 01, 1959):

The third NEW ORLEANS (CL-32/CA-32), a heavy cruiser and the lead ship of her class, was laid down on March 14, 1931 by New York Navy Yard. She was launched on April 12, 1933 and sponsored by Miss Cora S. Jahncke, daughter of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. She was commissioned on February 15, 1934 with Captain Allen B. Reed in command.


 
NEW ORLEANS made a shakedown cruise to Northern Europe in May and June of 1934, returning to New York on June 28. On July 05, she sailed to rendezvous with USS HOUSTON (CA-30), on which President Franklin D. Roosevelt was embarked, for a cruise through the Panama Canal and an exercise with airship MACON and her brood of aircraft off of California. The cruise ended at Astoria, Oregon on August 02, and NEW ORLEANS sailed at once for Panama and Cuba.

NEW ORLEANS exercised off of New England into 1935 and then visited her namesake city while en route to join Cruiser Division 6 in operations in the eastern Pacific for over a year. She returned to New York from August 20 to December 07, 1936 and was once more in the Pacific in early 1937. Aside from winter training in the Carribean in early 1939, she served out of California ports until joining the Hawaiian Detachment on October 12, 1939 for exercises, training, and--as war drew close--vigilant patrol.

Moored in Pearl Harbor on December 07, 1941, NEW ORLEANS was taking power and light from the dock, her engines under repair. With yard power out during the attack, NEW ORLEANS' engineers fought to raise steam, working by flashlight, while on the deck above, men fired on the Japanese attackers with rifles and pistols. Though guns had to be worked by hand, within ten minutes, all of her anti-aircraft batteries were in action. A number of her crew were injured when a fragmentation bomb exploded close aboard.

Following the attack, the cruiser convoyed troops to Palmyra and Johnston; she then returned to San Francisco on January 13, 1942 for engineering repairs and installation of new search radar and 20mm guns. She sailed on February 12, commanding the escort for a troop convoy to Brisbane. From Australia, she screened a convoy to Noumea and returned to Pearl Harbor to join Task Force 11.

Task Force 11 sortied on April 15, 1942 to join USS YORKTOWN (CV-5) task force southwest of the New Hebrides. It was this joint force, together with a cruiser-destroyer group, which won the great Battle of the Coral Sea on May 07-08, driving back a southward thrust of the Japanese which threatened Australia and New Zealand and their seaborne lifelines. This mighty duel of carrier aircraft was not without price. USS LEXINGTON (CV-2) was mortally wounded and NEW ORLEANS stood by, her men diving overboard to rescue survivors and her boat crews closing the burning carrier, oblivious to the dangers of flying debris and exploding ordnance as they saved 580 of LEXINGTON's crew who were then landed at Noumea. NEW ORLEANS then patrolled the eastern Solomons until sailing to replenish at Pearl Harbor.

NEW ORLEANS sailed on May 28, 1942, screening USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6), to surprise the Japanese in the Battle of Midway. On June 02, she made rendezvous with the YORKTOWN force and joined battle two days later. Three of the four Japanese carriers were sunk by hits scored in the dive bomber attacks. The fourth went down later, but not before her dive bombers had damaged YORKTOWN so badly that she had to be abandoned. NEW ORLEANS, veteran of the battle that halted Japan's expansion southward, had now played a significant role protecting her carrier in the great victory that turned back Japan's eastward movement and heavily crippled her naval air arm in a decisive battle.

NEW ORLEANS replenished at Pearl Harbor once again, sailing on July 07, 1942 to rendezvous off of Fiji for the invasion of the Solomons during which she screened USS SARATOGA (CV-3). Fighting off vicious enemy air attacks on August 24-25, she aided the Marines holding the precious toehold on Guadalcanal, as a Japanese landing expedition was turned back in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. When SARATOGA was torpedoed on August 31, NEW ORLEANS guarded her passage to Pearl Harbor. They arrived in port on September 21.

With the repaired SARATOGA in company, NEW ORLEANS sailed to Fiji in early November, 1942, and then proceeded to Espiritu Santo, arriving on November 27 to return to action in the Solomons. With four other cruisers and six destroyers, she fought in the Battle of Tassafaronga on the night of November 30, engaging a Japanese destroyer-transport force. When flagship USS MINNEAPOLIS (CA-36) was struck by two torpedoes, NEW ORLEANS--located next astern--was forced to sheer away to avoid collision and thus ran into the track of a torpedo which ripped off her bow. Bumping down the ship's port side, the severed bow punched several holes in her hull. A fifth of her length gone, slowed to a speed of two knots, and blazing in her forward section, the cruiser fought for survival. Individual acts of heroism and self-sacrifice along with skillful seamanship kept her afloat and, under her own power, she entered Tulagi Harbor near daybreak on December 01.
 

Camouflaging their ship from air attack with jungle growth, the crew jury-rigged a bow of coconut logs. Eleven days later, NEW ORLEANS sailed to replace a damaged propellor and make other repairs in Sydney, Australia, arriving on Christmas Eve, December 24. On March 07, she was underway again for Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington, where a new bow was fitted and all battle damage repaired.

NEW ORLEANS returned to Pearl Harbor on August 31, 1943 for combat training. She next joined a cruiser-destroyer force to bombard Wake Island on October 05-06, repulsing a Japanese torpedo plane attack. Her next sortie from Pearl Harbor came on November 10 when she sailed to fire pre-invasion bombardments in the Gilbert Islands on November 20. She then screened carriers striking the eastern Marshall Islands on December 04. In aerial attacks that day, the new USS LEXINGTON (CV-16), namesake of the carrier whose men NEW ORLEANS had pulled from the water at the Battle of the Coral Sea, was torpedoed. The cruiser guarded the damaged carrier's successful retirement to repairs at Pearl Harbor, arriving on December 09.

Starting January 29, 1944, NEW ORLEANS fired on targets in the Marshall Islands, hitting air installations and shipping as the Navy took the island of Kwajalein. She fueled at Majuro and then sailed on February 11 to join the fast carrier in a raid on Truk, the Japanese bastion in the Carolines island chain on February 17-18. While air strikes were flown, NEW ORLEANS--with other warships--circled the atoll to catch escaping ships. The task force's combined gunfire sank a light cruiser, a destroyer, a trawler, and a submarine chaser. The force sailed on to hit the Marianas island chain before returning to Majuro and Pearl Harbor.

The carriers, with NEW ORLEANS in escort, again heaped destruction on targets in the Carolines late in March. In April, they sailed south to support Allied landings at Hollandia, New Guinea. There, on April 22, a disabled YORKTOWN (CV-10) plane flew into NEW ORLEANS' mainmast, hitting gun mounts as it fell into the sea. The ship was sprayed with gasoline as the plane exploded on hitting the water. One crew member was lost and another badly injured, but the cruiser continued in action, patrolling and plane guarding off of New Guinea. She then joined in further raids on Truk and Satawan, which she bombarded on April 30. She returned to Majuro on May 04.




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