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Official USS Chicago Web Site
| Preamble: I served on the U.S.S. CHICAGO CG-11 from 1977-1980. I was first assign to the aft TALOS radar battery and later (after decommissioning TALOS) the port TARTAR radar battery. In March of 1980 the CHICAGO was decommissioned. I had the distinction of personally lowering her colors for the last time. With that in mind I was compelled to duplicate the following history of the CHICAGO and post it on the Web so the ole 'Mighty Chi" will be remembered. I know that the name U.S.S. CHICAGO is still around and today a ship bears the name U.S.S. CHICAGO (SSN-721) but she is in the silent Navy and I will leave it at that. Robb R. Donaldson FTM2 USN 1974-1981 The following is taken from the 1979 cruise book of the final deployment of USS CHICAGO CG-11. I take no credit for its writing. Credit goes to the cruisebook staff of USS CHICAGO CG-11. Surface Ships Named CHICAGO "Over the past ninety six years (1979), four of America's greatest and most formidable warships - each in their own era - have taken the name of one of America's greatest and most dynamic cities - CHICAGO" "In the pages that follow, the lives of these great ships are chronicled - through their own histories, newspaper clippings and photographs. They present nearly a century of proud tradition that our Navy and our country will long remember." It all began with the first CHICAGO, a twin-screw protected steel cruiser and the largest of the initial ships of the "New Navy" authorized by Congress in early 1883. Two smaller protected steel cruisers were named ATLANTA and BOSTON. The initial ship was named DOLPHIN, an unarmored cruiser built as an example of a high speed commerce raider. DOLPHIN was officially designated a dispatch vessel or gunboat. These were the pioneers of the United States Navy's warships of steel. Their new designs and innovations from hulls to engine and armament were a credit to American technological development that marked the rise of a new seapower. The larger CHICAGO was meant to have no superior to her type in the world in the combination of speed, endurance and armament. Speed and endurance was also given full development in the construction of the smaller ATLANTA and BOSTON. They carried fewer guns than CHICAGO. But their fighting efficiency was increased by placing a brig rig in the central superstructure and adopting a brig rig which left their extremities clear and unobstructed for fore and aft gunfire. Bids for the new ships were opened on 2 July, 1883. From among eight firms participating in the competition., the award was made to John Roach & Sons of Chester, Pennsylvania. The contract cost of the four warships, excluding masts, spars, rigging and boats, was only $2,440,000. CHICAGO's keel was laid on 29 December 1883. The unfortunate financial failure of John Roach in 1885 caused ATLANTA and BOSTON to be completed by the Government in the New York Navy Yard. CHICAGO was completed by Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding Works, successor to John Roach & Sons. She was launched on 5 December 1885, under the sponsorship of Miss Edith Cleborne, daughter of Medical Director Cuthberth J. Cleborne, U.S. Navy. The protected steel cruiser was commissioned in the New York Navy Yard on 17 April, 1889, Captain Henry B. Robeson, USN commanding. (Note: U.S. Naval ships were not given hull numbers and designations until 1920.) Protected cruiser CHICAGO had a length overall of 342 feet, 2 inches; extreme beam of 48 feet, 3 inches; a normal displacement of 4,500 tons; mean draft of 19 feet; a designed speed of 14 knots; and a complement of 33 officers and 376 enlisted men. Her steel hull was fitted with a ram bow. She had two compound overhead beam reciprocating engines rated at 5,000 horsepower. Auxiliary sail power was supplied by a bark rig spreading 14,000 square feet of canvas. Her steel hull was built in many water-tight compartments and she was illuminated throughout with Edison's new electric system. A steel protective deck (4 inches maximum thickness) covered her machinery space, curving down at the sides to below her waterline. The first CHICAGO was initially armed with four 3-inch Mark II .30 caliber breech-loading rifles; two 6-pounder Hotchkiss rapid fire guns; two 1-pounder Hotchkiss rapid fire guns; four 47-mm heavy machine guns; two 37-mm heavy machine guns; and two 45-mm gatling guns. Her boat armament included two 37-mm Hotchkiss machine guns and two 45-mm Gatling guns. When Secretary of the Navy John D. Long organized a "Squadron of the Evolution" to cruise in European waters. CHICAGO was designated flagship. Rear Admiral John G. Walker was appointed to this important command. He broke his flag as Commander-in-Chief aboard CHICAGO at the New York Navy Yard on 1 October 1889. Other initial ships in the squadron were protected cruisers ATLANTA and BOSTON, and the recently built YORKTOWN. They would capture the imagination of the world as the famed "White Squadron," a title supplied by their appearance after their outside hulls were painted white down to the waterline. The pride of the United States Navy, CHICAGO, led her Squadron of the Evolution from Boston in late 1889 to give the maritime nations of Europe visual knowledge of rising United States seapower. The gleaming white ships called at Lisbon, Portugal; Gibraltar; Cartagena; and principal ports in France, Italy, Greece and Algeria. In mid-1890 CHICAGO headed southwest to South America for visits of friendship and compliment. CHICAGO brought her squadron into Rio de Janeiro and was visited by the President of Brazil on 4 July 1890. Her deck log for the date records: "At dusk dressed ship with Japanese lanterns, rainbow and yard arms and fired off fireworks in celebration of the 4th of July," She departed the next day for New York. In March 1893 CHICAGO arrived in Hampton Roads, Virginia from New York to join the American Fleet extending courtesies to foreign men-of-war arriving for the rendezvous of the first international Naval Review to be held in American waters. The foreign ships commenced to arrive by early April and combined on 24 April when they all got underway in fleet formation for New York. Other ships joined at New York for a combined international fleet of 35 men-of-war which included those of the United States Navy, England, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Argentina and The Netherlands. Three days later the Naval Review was conducted in New York harbor. CHICAGO and every ship of the International Fleet rendered passing honors at President Grover Cleveland onboard DOLPHIN. Famed Naval strategist Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan took command of CHICAGO on 11 May 1893. CHICAGO's illustrious new commander had just recently published his world changing "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783." This first celebrated work of Mahan awoke the world to the vast importance of seapower in the life of nations in world history. Published in 1880, it came at a time of great technological development; and of the rise of new powers to challenge England's long leadership at sea. The book and Mahan had a profound effect upon the thinking and policies of many nations. As CHICAGO cruised among ports of Northern Europe and those of nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Mahan was many times honored in recognition of his genius by many distinguished people. In mid-1895 CHICAGO was ready for her first overhaul - to be refitted with new boilers, engines and rapid-fire armament. She completed modernization overhaul during the Spanish-American War and was recommissioned at the end of 1898. Her new armament included four 8-inch breechloading rifles in pivot mounts and fourteen 5-inch Mark III rapid-fire guns on pedestal mounts. Her twin screws were now turned by two slightly inclined triple expansion engines linked to new Babcock and Wilcox boilers. The veteran cruiser's speed increased to a maximum of 18 knots. CHICAGO could be found for the next ten years serving in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean in support of United States shipping lanes. She joined the United States Naval Academy Practice Squadron at Annapolis in mid-1908 and spent two summers training midshipmen along the eastern seaboard. In early 1910 CHICAGO commissioned in reserve at the Boston Navy Yard to become a training ship for the Naval Militia of Massachusetts. She continued this duty until 1916 when CHICAGO briefly became a training ship for the Militia of Pennsylvania. Returning to full commission in early 1917 as World War I broke out, CHICAGO became the flagship for the Commander Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet. CHICAGO sailed to her new base at New London, Connecticut, as a tender to submarines operating principally in waters off Long Island Sound. Serving onboard the cruiser from 10 August 1917 to 7 September 1918 was the future Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. He was Aide and later Chief of Staff to Commander, Submarine Force, Atlantic. In late 1918 CHICAGO put to sea to serve as convoy flagship for French and American submarine chasers bound to the Azores. She was equipped with a new experimental radio telephone. Her commanding officer reported that the radio telephone "proved itself an indispensable adjunct in handling convoys of this nature. Without it, the number of stops and length of delays would be greatly increased... By means of the radio telephone, whenever anyone of the vessels of the force broke down, day or night, it was possible to ascertain within minutes the nature of the trouble and then to give the necessary orders to tugs to take in tow the disabled vessel without slowing or stopping the entire convoy. The telephone was used at distances up to eleven miles." The convoy reached the Azores on 12 November 1918, one day after Armistice and the war's end. After the war, CHICAGO steamed into the Pacific to serve as a submarine tender at Mare Island Navy Yard and later at Pearl Harbor. She was designated a heavy cruiser (CA-14) when the initial system of hull classification letter symbols and numbers was put into effect for ships of the United States Navy on 17 July 1920. On that day she also acquired a new commanding officer, Chester W. Nimitz, then a Commander. The future Fleet Admiral continued to command CHICAGO until April 1922. The cruiser tended submarines at Pearl Harbor until 30 September 1923 when she was decommissioned. She then became a barracks ship for enlisted men of the submarine base. In 1928 her name was changed to ALTON in honor of the City of Alton, Illinois. In mid-1936 she was sold to the Boston Iron & Metal Company of Baltimore, Maryland. ALTON (ex-CHICAGO) was delivered to the purchaser's representative in June of 1936. She was five days out of Honolulu on 3 July 1936 when a leak was discovered. At that time she was under tow by a merchant tanker and bound to a salvaging yard at San Francisco. The old cruiser hulk had no pumps and was ladden with a cargo of brass and copper scraps. By morning on the 4th, she was flooded in every compartment aft. Water was in the engine room. There was a chance that the ship might break in two by the next morning. With a heavy sea running, the crew slid down an 18-foot rope into a lifeboat from the towing tanker. There was no time to save personal belongings of the salvage crew. Towing continued with ALTON slowly sinking and listing badly. ALTON broke away on the night of July 8 and plunged to the bottom some 300 miles from Honolulu. Her merchant marine commander reported: " I presume she must have buckled in the center and went down just as she broke tow." The second CHICAGO (CA-29) was a heavy cruiser built by Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California. Her keel was laid in September 1928 just as the first CHICAGO's name was changed to ALTON. She was launched in April 1930 under the sponsorship of Miss Elizabeth Britten, sister of the Congressman from Illinois. The new heavy cruiser had the distinction of being the first ship built of the so-called "Treaty Navy" in which the welding process was used in order to eliminate excess weight and keep the cruiser within the tonnage limits prescribed by the five power Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. CHICAGO number two was commissioned on 9 March 1931 with Captain Manley H. Simons, USN, commanding. CHICAGO (CA-29) was designed for a length overall of 600 feet, 3 inches; extreme beam of 66 feet, 1 inch; standard displacement of 9,300 tons; a mean draft of 16 feet, 8 inches; and a complement of 45 officers and 576 men. She was initially armed with nine eight-inch .55 caliber guns; four 5-inch .25 caliber guns; eight .50 caliber machine guns; and six 21-inch surfaced torpedo tubes. She had a designed speed of 32.5 knots. She had armor eight inches thick and was equipped with two catapults amidships. In April 1931 CHICAGO departed San Francisco Bay on shakedown cruise that took her to Honolulu, Hawaii; Papette, Tahiti; and Pago Pago, American Samoa. She then headed for the U.S. East Coast for duty as flagship for VADM Marvell, Commander Cruisers, Scouting Force, U.S. Fleet. The following year she headed back into the Pacific to her new base at San Pedro, California for normal training operations. On 25 October 1933 CHICAGO was rammed by the 6,000-ton oil tanker SS SILVER PALM in a dense fog just off the coast of Point Sur, California. CHICAGO had barely maneuvered clear of another merchantman "and then almost immediately there came another ship out of the fog on our port bow, close aboard, and headed directly for the CHICAGO," reported Captain Herbert E. Kays. "I signalled for emergency full astern, tooted the whistle, but the approaching vessel crashed into the port bow, just forward of the Number 1 gun turret which stopped her cutting off our bow. Three ship's officers were killed in their staterooms. The tanker had penetrated to nearly amidships centerline. The cruiser's forward compartments below the waterline were flooded, but she proceeded under her own power into the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs. CHICAGO continued to operate off the West Coast of the United States and South America - with an occasional trip to the Caribbean via the Panama Canal - until 1940. During this time she developed fleet tactics and practiced them in exercises called Fleet Problems. After a short overhaul, CHICAGO led a task force on a cruise to Australia. After calling at Pago Pago, American Samoa, the cruiser visited Sydney and Brisbane in Australia. After returning to the U.S., she conducted fleet readiness training in Hawaiian waters until November 1941. The cruiser became a unit of Task Force 12 which was built around the carrier LEXINGTON (CV-2). On 5 December 1941, she joined cruisers PORTLAND and ASTORIA plus five destroyers in forming a protective screen for LEXINGTON, bound for Midway. When the Japanese carrier task force made the infamous raid on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, CHICAGO's task force was 420 miles southeast of Midway. The task force was ordered to turn around and conduct high-speed offensive sweeps to the southeast of Oahu in a forlorn hope of intercepting the Japanese carriers enroute from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands. But the enemy fleet had taken a northerly course and made good its escape. CHICAGO returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 December for hurried replenishment. The following day she sailed with the LEXINGTON carrier task force with orders to attack the Japanese base at Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The intended strike was designed to relieve the pressure on besieged Wake Island. This mission was abandoned a week later because the Japanese had directed heavy aircraft reinforcements to the Marshals and there was little chance of a successful surprise attack. The defenders of Wake Island surrendered and CHICAGO's task force returned to Pearl Harbor. In the months that followed, CHICAGO patrolled the South Pacific acting as escort for fleet tankers replenishing fast aircraft carrier task forces striking at the enemy in the southwest Pacific. From time to time, she temporarily joined the screen of aircraft carriers LEXINGTON an YORKTOWN in the Coral Sea. On 23 April 1942 CHICAGO's ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand) Squadron was redesignated Task Force 44. By that time, a powerful Japanese task force had been formed in the hope of winning control of the Coral Sea, and thus cut off Australia from the war. An amphibious task group of eleven troop-ladden transports, guarded by a destroyer squadron, hoped to seize Port Moresby. A smaller amphibious task group planned to seize Tulagi Island in the Solomons and set up a seaplane base. A support group built around a seaplane tender was to establish a seaplane base in the Louisiades. These enemy invasion groups were covered by light aircraft carrier SHOHO, for heavy cruisers, a destroyer, plus the heavy aircraft carrier striking force which included powerful Japanese carriers SHOKAKU and ZUIKU, screened by two heavy cruisers and six destroyers. The morning of 4 May 1942 YORKTOWN aircraft attacked the Japanese invaders at Tulagi, sinking a Japanese destroyer, 3 minesweepers and four landing barges. A number of ships, including a destroyer were damaged and five enemy seaplanes were also destroyed. That same day CHICAGO's Task Force 44 joined the LEXINGTON carrier task force. The morning of may 6 all the task forces merged into Task Force 17 under the tactical command of Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher in carrier YORKTOWN (CV-5). The next day, Rear Admiral Fletcher dispatched CHICAGO's attack group of cruisers and destroyers to the Louisiades to intercept any enemy attempt to move towards Port Moresby. The carriers moved northward into the Coral Sea in search of enemy covering forces. The next day, while east of Jomard Pass, CHICAGO's squadron was attacked by eleven single engine land-based planes. These were driven off by combined anti-aircraft fire. Immediately after, radar picked up 12 Japanese twin-engine land-based Navy torpedo planes at 75 miles. Every ship bent on radical maneuvers and opened fire as planes came in low. Eight aerial torpedoes were dropped, but all missed and five of the enemy aircraft were shot down. The surviving enemy torpedo planes had scarcely retired when 19 high-altitude bombers dropped bombs from an altitude of 15,000 to 20,000 feet. CHICAGO and her sister ships dodged the bombs as they had the torpedoes, and the planes flew away. Her support group had attracted the enemy's land-based air power, a diversion to the benefit of Rear Admiral Fletcher's aircraft carriers. Two of CHICAGO's men were killed and five were wounded by the strafing of enemy planes. After the Battle of the Coral Sea, CHICAGO's support group was returned to "MacArthur's Navy" of which it then was the principal strength. She arrived at Sydney, Australia 14 May 1942 for upkeep and repairs. Meantime, five I-class Japanese submarines headed south in the Coral Sea towards Australia. They carried four midget submarines and one plane. The plane made an observed reconnaissance flight over Port Jackson, and the midget submarines were launched off Sydney Harbor 31 May 1942. One of two were detected by fisherman and a magnetic underwater loop as they made their way up the channel after dark. At 2257 lookouts in CHICAGO sighted a conning tower awash at 300 yards on her starboard quarter. She illuminated the target and opened fire with her 5-inch battery and machine guns. But the guns could not be depressed for so short a range as to be effective. Some shots ricocheted into a residential section of Sydney, where fortunately, they did not damage anything. A humorist invented the story that the only casualty inflicted by CHICAGO's gunfire was a lion in the famous Sydney Zoo. The yarn further exaggerated in stating that Captain Bode of CHICAGO was requested to provide a new one out of lend-lease funds. The midget submarines dived as American destroyer PERKINS and two Australian corvettes took up the search. When danger seemed past, PERKINS picked up her old bouy inshore of CHICAGO, who thought she had holed the only midget submarine present. Near an hour past midnight of 31 May - 01 June 1942, the wake of a torpedo, evidently aimed at CHICAGO, was observed to pass close aboard the cruiser. It went under a Dutch submarine and barracks boat and detonated with a great roar against the dock. The force of the explosion blew the bottom out of a barracks boat, killing a number of sailors and left it a total loss. Destroyer PERKINS resumed patrol and sent her boats to fight fires and rescue the wounded. At 0215, 1 June 1942, CHICAGO and PERKINS stood for sea. The cruiser was close to South Head gas bouy, when a submarine periscope was sighted close aboard to starboard going in the opposite direction. The periscope was so close that one almost looked down vertically from CHICAGO's bridge. Whether this midget submarine had already been in and out, or was entering the harbor for the first time, is not known. During the day, two damaged and scuttled midgets, complete with the bodies of their crewmembers, were discovered on the bottom of Sydney Harbor. CHICAGO and PERKINS again entered Sydney Harbor the afternoon of 1 June 1942 to recover their boats, then sailed for Brisbane, She rejoined Task force 44 for patrol sweeps in the Coral Sea, and protected convoys moving between Australia, New Zealand, New Herbrides Islands and New Caledonia. The cruiser arrived at Wellington, New Zealand, 19 July 1942. There, her Task Force 44, under command of Rear Admiral V.A.C. Crutchley, Royal Navy, in HMAS AUSTRALIA, joined the expeditionary amphibious Task Force 62 organized under the command of RADM Richmond K. Turner. The expeditionary force sailed 22 July 1942 for rendezvous and landing rehearsals in the Fiji Island waters, then set course to capture and occupy enemy-held bases in the Tulagi-Guadalcanal area of the Solomon Islands, Nineteen large transports and cargo ships carried the major load of the landing forces. They were augmented by four small converted destroyer-transports. Five cruisers and six destroyers were available to blast the landing beaches, while five converted destroyer-minesweepers would be prepared to cut mines from narrow approaches. The mission of CHICAGO and her task unit was to protect the transports from air, submarine and sea attack. It was under command of Rear Admiral V.A.C. Crutchley, Royal Navy, and comprised his flagship, HMAS AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA, and HOBART, plus CHICAGO and nine American destroyers. CHICAGO helped protect the transports as Marines stormed ashore on Guadalcanal 7 August 1942. She fought off enemy aerial raiders that afternoon and scored hits on at least three enemy planes. On 8 August 1942, the Japanese renewed their air attacks. Before noon, CHICAGO opened fire on a large formation of enemy planes swinging over the eastern cape of Florida Island and had the satisfaction of seeing three crash in flames. As CHICAGO fought off aerial raiders, seven enemy cruisers and a destroyer were racing down the slot of water formed by the Soloman Islands Chain and stretching southward from the Japanese base at Rabaul. By midnight of 8 August 1942, the Japanese task force was only 35 miles from Savo Island, having been undetected since early morning. Positioned between Savo Island and Florida Island were three American cruisers and two destroyers. Below Florida Island were the light cruisers SAN JUAN, HMAS HOBART and two destroyers. A driving rain splashed the waters between the ships of the northern force and ships of CHICAGO's southern force - which included Australian cruisers AUSTRALIA and CANBERRA , herself, and American destroyer BAGLEY and PATTERSON. With fantastic luck, the Japanese slipped past two picket destroyers, and entered Savo Sound without advance detection. It ran head-on into destroyer PATTERSON who radioed the alarm: "Warning! Warning! Strange ships entering the harbor!" This warning came at 0143, 9 August 1942. But the Japanese had already launched torpedoes and bursting flares illuminated the anchorage off Lunga Point, to silhouette cruisers CANBERRA and CHICAGO. HMAS CANBERRA, immediately ahead of CHICAGO, took two torpedo hits, endured a rain of shells, and became a flaming wreck. The enemy flung torpedoes which sliced into the bow of CHICAGO, split formation, then raced in a pincer movement on the northern force of three cruisers. In a hellish scramble, American cruisers VINCENNES, ASTORIA and QUINCY were lost. The Japanese, experts in night torpedo attacks, then sped north for return to Rabaul, New Britain Island. Squarely in their path was destroyer RALPH TALBOT. She also was caught up in blinding searchlights and combined gunnery. But she fought off the attackers and controlled damage until a rain squall gave her welcome cover. With 12 of her crew dead, 2 missing, and 23 wounded, she made it into the port of Tulagi, Florida Island, off Guadalcanal. The Japanese suffered only minor damage to four warships in this Battle of Savo Island that cost the allies four cruisers sunk, heavy damage to CHICAGO, and heavy damage to RALPH TALBOT. Battle casualties onboard CHICAGO were 1 dead and eleven wounded. CHICAGO made temporary repairs at Noumea, New Caledonia and Sydney, Australia. She departed the latter port on 21 September 1942, bound by way of Fiji Islands and Samoa to San Francisco, California, arriving on 13 October 1942. She returned to the southwest Pacific on 25 January 1943. On that day she arrived at Efate, New Herbrides Islands. She joined the cruiser-destroyer task force under Rear Admiral R.C. Giffen in flagship WICHITA (CA-45). CHICAGO's task force got underway on 27 January 1943 to escort troop transports bound for Noumea, New Caledonia, with reinforcements for Guadalcanal. When about 50 miles north of Rennell Island, shortly after sunset on 29 January 1943, the task force came under attack by 31 Japanese land-based twin-engined torpedo bombers. The leading enemy plane dropped a torpedo at destroyer WALLER, strafed her and cruiser WICHITA too. A second plane passed between CHICAGO and WICHITA, launching a torpedo which cruiser LOUISVILLE avoided by a swift hard left rudder. At least one enemy plane was shot down in flames astern of CHICAGO. The enemy planes disappeared and gunfire died away. There was no damage to any ship in this twilight fight. But when twilight faded into dark night, white flares suddenly fell on both sides of the formation and yellow-white flares lit up the decks of the American warships as they hung overhead on slowly descending parachutes. Red and green float lights were also dropped by enemy aircraft. Now torpedo planes appeared from the east. a torpedo passed slightly ahead of CHICAGO. Another hit cruiser LOUISVILLE. but failed to detonate. CHICAGO and her sister ships proved the accuracy of their anti-aircraft gunners by littering the surface of the water with the fuselages of enemy attackers. One aircraft exploded in the water astern destroyer WALLER, it's flames illuminating CHICAGO. Another enemy plane came off CHICAGO's port bow, illuminating CHICAGO even more brightly and searing the fighting cruiser's deck with intense flame from burning aviation gasoline. This made CHICAGO an obvious target and other planes winged in for the kill. At 1945, one deadly torpedo tore into CHICAGO's starboard side. Two large compartments immediately flooded, her aftermost fireroom filled, three propeller shafts stopped revolutions, bridge and rudder control was lost. Two escorts carriers and the ENTERPRISE aircraft task group closed in to cover CHICAGO. On the afternoon of 30 January 1943, fleet tug NAVAJO took the tow at six knots, and six destroyers formed a moving circle around the disabled cruiser. A snooping bomber was shot down by the carrier combat air patrol planes. But a dozen other enemy torpedo planes, headed for ENTERPRISE, changed target to CHICAGO and went into a long power glide toward the crippled cruiser. Three were shot down. But nine tore out of the cloud cluster and fanned out to launch torpedoes in a broad daylight attack. Every gun of the escorting ships opened fire and seven of the remaining nine enemy planes were shot down. But at 1624, four torpedoes slammed into CHICAGO's tender starboard side. One torpedo hit well forward, showering the bridge and forecastle with debris. Three others exploded in the already damaged engineering spaces. Captain Davis passed the word to abandon ship. He had about 20 minutes to clear CHICAGO of all hands, including her wounded. Fleet tug NAVAJO and destroyers EDWARDS, WALLER and SANDS collected the 1049 survivors. Six officers and 56 enlisted men were killed in the action. CHICAGO went down stern first with her colors flying. The Battle of Rennel Island was over. CHICAGO and a destroyer were lost. But the diversion of the Japanese air forces allowed the American transports to land troops and material at Lunga Point, Guadalcanal, without incident.
CHICAGO (CA-136) had an overall length of 674 feet, 11inches; extreme beam of 70 feet, 10 inches; standard displacement of 13,600 tons; a mean draft of 20 feet, 6 inches; designed speed of 33 knots; and designed complement of 59 officers and 1,083 enlisted men. She was originally armed with nine 8-inch .55 caliber guns; twelve 5-inch .38 caliber guns; eleven quadruple 40-mm gun mounts; two twin 40-mm gun mounts; and twenty eight 20-mm guns. the maximum thickness of her armor was 8 inches. She was equipped with two aircraft catapults aft. CHICAGO departed Philadelphia on 26 February 1945 for shakedown training that took her by way of Norfolk to Trinidad and Puerto Rico. She returned to Philadelphia on 16 April, completed post-shakedown alterations, and sailed on 11 May 1945 for duty in the Pacific. After touching Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she transited the Panama Canal on 16 May, bound for Pearl Harbor. She arrived on 30 May for battle training in Hawaiian waters until 28 June 1945. CHICAGO refueled at Eniwetok Atoll on 5 July 1945, then got underway with the battleship NORTH CAROLINA. Three days later she made rendezvous with the Fast Carrier Task Force of Admiral William F. Halsey's Third Fleet. After a fueling rendezvous to the east of Iwo Jima, the fleet set course for airstikes which were commenced against the airfields of Tokyo on the 10th. The task force was only 80 miles off shore on 14 July when more than 1,200 combat sorties were launched by the carriers against targets in northern Honshu and Hokkaido. That morning CHICAGO joined Rear Admiral Shafroth's bombardment unit which included the battleships MASSACHUSETTS, SOUTH DAKOTA, and INDIANA. Cruiser QUINCY and nine destroyers were the remaining ships of the bombardment unit. Simultaneously with the carrier strikes, and for the first time, a naval gunfire force bombarded a major installation within the home islands of Japan. The target was the iron works at Kamaishi, one of the seven plants of the Big Japan Iron Company that lay in the narrow valley of the Otatari River, with steep hills on each side. The bombardment forces approached undetected and open fire ten minutes after high noon. CHICAGO's contribution was more than 300 8-inch and 5-inch projectiles. While carrier-based planes devastated the Japanese cities of Kure and Kobe on the Inland Sea, 29-30 July 1945, CHICAGO joined in the bombardment of the industrial city of Hamamatsu, Honshu. She assisted in blasting the Japanese Musical Instrument Company to halt production of airplane propellers. The southern hub of the Japanese railway system suffered considerable damage during the bombardment. CHICAGO again joined the bombardment of Kamaishi on 9 August 1945, then resumed station in the protective screen for aircraft carriers striking targets throughout Japan. The morning of 15 August 1945, 0450, Admiral Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific fleet, ordering all air strikes recalled. This order, the first official indication that the end of the war might be at hand, was immediately carried out. It was not until 0745 that the tensely awaited word was received that President Harry S. Truman had announced Japan's acceptance of the unconditional surrender terms. At 1109, 15 August 1945, by direction of Admiral Halsey, the whistle and siren sounded while battle colors were broken at the mainmast and Admiral Halsey's personal flag hoisted at the foremast of the fleet flagship MISSOURI (BB-63). This was in official recognition of the end of nearly four years of war against the Japanese Empire. Six minutes later, the combat air patrol of a carrier task group shot down a Japanese plane diving on the formation. This was the last direct attack against the fast carrier task force. With the war's end, CHICAGO, with other Third Fleet units, entered Sagami Wan, off the southern coast of honshu, at the end of August 1945. She shifted to Tokyo Bay a few days later to assist in the occupation and demobilization of the Yokosuka Naval Base. Thousands of tons of ammunition were destroyed, buildings were repaired and communications were restored. CHICAGO spent the next two months demilitarizing the northern Izu Islands at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. Her men dumped 20,000 tons of ammunition into the ocean from the heavily fortified island of Oshima. All guns and ordnance installations were destroyed by dynamite or acetylene torch. She was engaged in similar demilitarization of Nii Shima when suddenly ordered home. The cruiser departed Japan and arrived in San Pedro, California, at the end of November 1945. Following yard repairs, CHICAGO departed California for Pearl Harbor and then on to Shanghai, China, in February 1946. She became flagship of the Yangtze Patrol Force, remaining there as station ship until the end of March 1946. She then headed north to Sasebo, Japan to serve as flagship of the Naval Support Force in Japanese waters. In "Operation Road's End" conducted on 1 April 1946, 24 Japanese submarines were destroyed to assist in the demilitarization of Japan. CHICAGO's presence was felt throughout Japan as she assisted in rescues of drifting fishermen and ships, made several cruises into remote areas of Japan and showed the American flag throughout the nation. In January 1947 CHICAGO departed her Japanese assignment and made for Bangor, Washington to offload her ammunition. After a five month deactivation overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, CHICAGO was decommissioned on 6 June 1947 and was assigned to the Bremerton Group, U.S. Pacific Reserve Fleet. CHICAGO remained inactive for the next twelve years. She was reclassified from a heavy cruiser (CA-136) to a guided missile cruiser (CG-11), effective 1 November 1958. And so was born the fourth USS CHICAGO. She was converted by the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. Her conversion commenced on 1 July 1959 and was completed over four years later on 1 December 1963. Her new armament included two surface-to-air TALOS missile launchers; two surface-to-air TARTAR missile launchers; an anti-submarine rocket launcher (ASROC); two triple torpedo tubes; two conventional 5-inch .38 caliber guns; and two anti-submarine helicopters. To coordinate her offensive and defensive capabilities, she was equipped with the Navy Tactical Data System, a computer that automatically receives information from radar, sonar and other ship's sensors, and provides instantaneous solutions to battle problems. Her old superstructure gave way to one of all-aluminum. CHICAGO (CG-11) was recommissioned at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard on 2 May 1964, Captain John E. Dacey, USN, Commanding. The following two years largely spent along the western seaboard of the United States while assisting in weapons system development that included aid to plans and programs for surface missile systems projects. At the same time, her own crew became proficient in areas of seamanship, damage control, engineering, communications, navigation, electronics warfare and weaponry. During 2-6 August 1965, she was a participant with the ammunition ship HALEAKALA (AE-25) in a project designed to exercise the capabilities of missile replenishment at sea by means of the Fleet Automatic Shuttle Transfer (FAST) System. During exercises of 18 September - 7 October of 1965, her missiles were successfully fired against high-altitude, high-speed drones. CHICAGO departed her base at San Diego on 19 October 1965 in the screen of the carrier KITTY HAWK (CV-63) for multi-ship battle problems in Hawaiian waters. She returned to San Diego on 3 November 1965 and resumed operations along the western seaboard until 12 May 1966. On that day got underway to join the Seventh Fleet in the Far East. She reached Pearl Harbor on 20 May and put to sea the next day in company with a task group built around the aircraft carrier CONSTELLATION (CVA-64). CHICAGO arrived at Yokosuka, Japan on 1 June 1966. She then became the flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Starr King, Jr., Commander Cruiser-Destroyer Group, Seventh Fleet, and Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla Eleven. She sailed on 7 June for Subic Bay in the Philippines, 12-13 June, the rendezvoused with Fast Carrier Task Force 77, bound for "Yankee Station" in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. CHICAGO pioneered the Navy Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone (PIRAZ) station ship support concept. She took station on 14 June 1966 and continued duties of PIRAZ station ship until 13 July 1966. While on PIRAZ station, she coordinated Seventh Fleet activities by identifying and keeping track of all aircraft, friendlies as well as hostile, flying than the speed of sound. Other duties took the cruiser to ports in the Philippines, Japan, Okinawa and Hong Kong. She again served on PIRAZ station in the Gulf of Tonkin from 29 July to 11 August 1966 and again in September and October for two more months. During these combat tours, she not only provided sustained PIRAZ support to aircraft carriers of the Seventh Fleet, but to the United States Air Force units as well. CHICAGO returned to San Diego from her first WESTPAC as CG-11 on 8 December 1966. During the next 10 months, CHICAGO based operations from San Diego; including fleet readiness exercises, firing on the Pacific Missile Range and made visits to Hawaii, Juneau, Alaska and Seattle, Washington. On October 11, 1967, she again departed San Diego for the long transit to WESTPAC to the serve with the mobile Seventh Fleet. CHICAGO returned to PIRAZ station in the Gulf of Tonkin on 12 November 1967 for five weeks of duty. She returned again in January 1968, but her stay on station was interrupted when she was ordered to head north to the coast of Korea following the seizure of USS PUEBLO by the North Koreans. CHICAGO provided PIRAZ support to the Seventh Fleet forces operating in the Sea of Japan. She returned to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin in mid-February 1968 and continued PIRAZ duties in the following months with brief intervals away from station for upkeep in Subic Bay. She departed the Gulf of Tonkin in mid-April, with her officers and men cited for professional competence, initiative and devotion to duty in the development and refinement associated with the Navy Positive Identification and Radar Advisory Zone (PIRAZ) concept. The fighting cruiser received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for these pioneering efforts during the period from June to December 1966. She was further commended for her sustained support during October 1967 to April 1968 as Commander PIRAZ Unit Seventh Fleet carrier and United States Air Forces in the Gulf of Tonkin and in the Sea of Japan: "CHICAGO's long-range missile capability and her development and application of advanced electronic surveillance techniques significantly improved the anti-air warfare posture of United States units in the Western Pacific." CHICAGO departed Subic Bay on the first of May 1968 on her way home to San Diego. The next several years were spent making periodic deployments back and forth to the Western Pacific- primarily in the Vietnam War Zone. Following an extensive overhaul in Long Beach Naval Shipyard in 1972-73, CHICAGO returned to her homeport of San Diego to continue the endless cycle of training exercises, deploying to WESTPAC and return to San Diego for rest and repair. During these years she lived up to her reputation as "The World's Most Powerful Guided Missile Cruiser," earning eleven consecutive "E's" for missilery excellence - a record unsurpassed in American Naval history. Each USS CHICAGO proved to be the epitome of American Naval might in their own times - ships of formidable might, enviable efficiency and proud tradition that will go long remembered. |
Last modified: January 19, 2008 |
The third CHICAGO was built by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her keel was laid 28 July 1943. She was launched on 20 August 1944, under the sponsorship of Mrs. Edward J. Kelly, wife of the Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. The new heavy cruiser was commissioned in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 10 January 1945, Captain Richard R. Hartung, USN, commanding.
