Scott # 634 Naval Ship Cover USS Tuscalossa

Navy Cover, Dated 5/23/1935

 

The Imperial Japanese Navy‘s attack at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, plunged the United States into a real war at last, in both oceans, because both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war on the United States on 11 December.

On 6 January 1942, Tuscaloosa steamed out of Hvalfjörður along with Wichita and two American destroyers—Grayson and Meredith—for a training mission through the Denmark Strait. After returning to port three days later, the heavy cruiser moved on to Boston for a navy yard overhaul from 8–20 February. She conducted refresher training out of Casco Bay and then underwent another brief refit at New York Harbor before joining Task Group 39.1 (TG 39.1), under the command of Rear Admiral John W. Wilcox, Jr., whose flag flew from the new battleship Washington.

TG 39.1 sortied from Casco Bay and then it struggled through the gale-whipped seas of the North Atlantic Ocean, bound for Scapa Flow, Scotland, in the Orkney Islands—the main base for the British Home Fleet. On 27 March, Rear Admiral Wilcox apparently suffered a coronary and then was washed overboard from Washington. (Some have speculated that the admiral might have jumped overboard to commit suicide, but there was no prior evidence at all that this might happen.) The heavy seas ruled out rescue attempts, and the task group’s commanding officer soon disappeared in the stormy Atlantic. With Admiral Wilcox’s death, Rear Admiral Giffen, whose two-starred flag flew from Wichita, assumed command of TG 39.1.

Tuscaloosa arrived at Scapa Flow on 4 April and she immediately took on board a British signals and liaison team. She was initially employed with the British Home Fleet on training duties and later took part in covering runs for convoys to northern Russia.

June 1942 – October 1942

At that period, Anglo-American naval operations frequently were mounted in an attempt to lure Tirpitz out of her snowy Norwegian lair. One such attempt, Convoy PQ-17, resulted in disaster in June 1942. The following two months found Tuscaloosa still active in convoy covering and escorting assignments.

In mid-August, Tuscaloosa received orders to carry supplies—including aircraft torpedoes, army ammunition, and medical equipment—to Northern Russia, via the Arctic Ocean. Soon after she and two destroyers set out on the mission, a member of the cruiser’s crew developed symptoms of spinal meningitis. The sick man was quickly put ashore at Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, and the group got underway again on 19 August, bound for Kola Inlet.

On the next day, Tuscaloosa and her screening warships—which by that time consisted of three destroyers (two American and one British)—were spotted by a snooping German reconnaissance plane. The task force changed course and, assisted by the worsening visibility in the northern latitudes, managed to shake the intruder. On the evening of 22 August, two more British destroyers joined Tuscaloosa‘s screen; and, the following day, a Russian escort guided them to Kola Inlet.

All hands turned-to and unloaded the valuable cargo. The cruiser then took on fuel; prepared to get underway; and, just before departure, embarked 243 passengers, most of whom were survivors of ships which had been sunk while serving in earlier convoys to Russia. Many of them had endured the special tribulation and agony of the PQ-17. With her human cargo thus on board, Tuscaloosa cleared Kola Inlet on 24 August and then she reached Seidisfjord on the 28th.

She remained there but briefly before steaming to the mouth of the River Clyde, where she disembarked her passengers. Detached from the Home Fleet shortly thereafter, Tuscaloosa headed back to Hvalfjord and then proceeded thence to the East Coast of the United States for a many-weeks-long overhaul.

November 1942 – May 1943

On 8 November 1942, Operation Torch—the code name of the Anglo-American effort to conquer Northwestern Africa from the Vichy French and Nazi Germany, and thence to expel the Axis Powers from Africa—got underway.

Off Casablanca, French Morocco, the heavy cruisers Tuscaloosa and Wichita joined the new American battleship Massachusetts, the aircraft carrier Ranger and numerous light cruisers and destroyers as the “big guns” for the segment of Operation Torch in Morocco. (Other forces invaded Algeria via the Mediterranean Sea.) As American troops waded ashore, Tuscaloosa‘s powerful 8-inch, 55-calibre guns, aided by accurate spotting from the cruiser’s scout planes, thundered loudly and sent high explosive shells flying shorewards into the French Army‘s defensive positions. In the harbor, French Navy warships scurried about as they prepared to sortie against the attackers.

The unfinished and immobile French Navy battleship Jean Bart, could still throw a powerful punch from her few completed 15 in (380 mm) naval guns, and she fired several relatively accurate salvoes, straddling the American warships several times with shell splashes. (The French did not have any fire control radars at that time, or for years later.) The French Army’s shore batteries at Table d’Aukasha and El Hank also proved to be troublesome. However, the combined might of the American warships and naval air power silenced both the shore batteries and the big guns of Jean Bart, and demolished several French Air Force airfields.

After being narrowly missed by several torpedoes from a Vichy French submarine and shells from Jean Bart‘s heavy artillery, Tuscaloosa retired from the battle scene to refuel at sea and to replenish her ammunition in deeper waters farther offshore. After these laborious operations, she remained offshore in support of the invasion and then she headed back to the East Coast of the United States for a major shipyard overhaul and replenishment at a large naval base.

Following this ovehaul, Tuscaloosa rejoined the mission covering convoys bound for North Africa via the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, while American, British, Free French troops and airmen pushed the Axis Armies and the Vichy French forces out of Morocco and Algeria, and following that, cornering them in northern Tunisia around the city of Tunis. At that point, all of the Axis troops in Tunisia surrendered to the Allies in early May 1943, and thus the Axis powers were expelled from Africa.

Meanwhile, from March through May 1943, Tuscaloosa steamed in a task force on training exercises off the east coast of the United States.

Besides honing its fighting edge, this group formed a fast, mobile, and ready striking force, should German surface ships slip through the Allied blockade to terrorize Allied shipping in the Atlantic. In late May, she escorted RMS Queen Mary, which bore British Prime Minister Churchill to New York City. After rejoining the task force for a brief time, Tuscaloosa joined Augusta at the Boston Navy Yard for a 10-day work period.

Summer 1943 – October 1943

After leaving Boston, she escorted RMS Queen Elizabeth to Halifax, Nova Scotia, before rendezvousing with Ranger and proceeding to Scapa Flow to resume operations with the British Home Fleet. Tuscaloosa conducted sorties into the North Sea, in company with British and American units, in attempts to once again entice German heavy units to sea. However, the hope of drawing the Germans into a decisive sea fight diminished each passing day as the enemy apparently sought to stay in his protected waters.

On 2 October 1943, Tuscaloosa formed part of the covering force for Ranger while the carrier launched air strikes against port installations and German shipping at the seaport town of Bodø, Norway, in Operation Leader.

These were the first-ever U.S. Navy naval aviation air raids against any European targets, and they lasted from 2 — 6 October 1943. These raids reportedly devastated shore facilities and Wehrmacht forces in the Bodø area. German Luftwaffe shore-based warplanes attempted to attack the strike forces from Ranger, but they were shot down by covering American fighters.

Shortly afterward, the Germans did elect to come out to sea, conducting a foray against the important Allied weather station on Spitzbergen. Tirpitz and other heavy units subjected the installation and its garrison to a severe shelling before retiring, unscathed, to their Norwegian lair.

Tuscaloosa took part in the relief expedition to reestablish the station before the onset of winter. Assigned to Force One, the cruiser loaded two LCV(P) and cargo and departed Seidisfjord in company with four destroyers—three British and one American—on 17 October. Force Two, covering Force One, consisted of the battleship HMS Anson, the heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk, the carrier Ranger, and six destroyers.

On the morning of the 19th, Tuscaloosa’s group arrived at devastated Barentsburg and immediately commenced unloading operations. While ice “growlers” and pinnacles hampered antisubmarine screening by the destroyers’ sound gear, Tuscaloosa fielded a party of 160 men on shore to unload supplies and equipment to reestablish the weather station. By nightfall, the cargo had been safely unloaded, and the force left the area. After fueling at Seidisfjord, the cruiser proceeded to the Clyde to disembark the survivors of the original Spitzbergen garrison.

December 1943 – May 1944

Tuscaloosa conducted one more sweep of the Norwegian coast in an attempt to draw German fleet units to sea, but the enemy chose not to give battle. Upon the cruiser’s return to Iceland, she was detached from the Home Fleet and proceeded to New York where she began major overhaul on 3 December 1943.

Upon completion of the refit in February 1944, Tuscaloosa engaged in Fleet exercises and shore bombardment practice out of Casco Bay until April and then entered the Boston Navy Yard for installation of radio intelligence and electronic countermeasures gear. Later that month, she embarked Rear Admiral Morton L. Deyo, Commander, CruDiv 7, and task force commander, and set out for the Clyde to join the Allied Forces massing for the assault on the European continent.

During the interim period prior to D-Day, Tuscaloosa conducted further shore bombardment practice and engaged in further exercises. Her aviation unit exchanged its venerable Curtiss SOC Seagulls for British Supermarine Spitfires and checked them out for spotting purposes. However, they remained shore-based for the remainder of their time operating in support of the invasion.

June 1944 – July 1944

On 3 June, Tuscaloosa steamed in company with the rest of Task Force 125 (TF 125) bound for the Normandy beaches. At 0550, 6 June, she opened fire with her 8 in (200 mm) battery, and three minutes later her 5 in (130 mm) guns engaged Fort Ile de Tatihou, Baie de la Seine. For the remainder of D-Day, coast defense batteries, artillery positions, troop concentrations, and motor transport all came under the fire of Tuscaloosa‘s guns, which were aided by her air spotters and by fire control parties attached to Army units on shore. VOS-7, a US Navy Spotter Squadron flying Supermarine Spitfire VBs and Seafire IIIs, was one of the units which provided targeting coordinates and fire control.^[5] Initial enemy return fire was inaccurate, but it improved enough by the middle of the day to force the cruiser to take evasive action.

On the afternoon of 9 June, Tuscaloosa returned to Plymouth to replenish her depleted ammunition. Back in the vicinity of the Îles Saint-Marcouf on the evening of the 11th, she remained on station in the fire-support area until 21 June, providing gunfire support on call from her shore fire control party operating with Army units. She then returned to Britain.

Five days later, on 26 June, the Army’s VII Corps mounted a landward assault against Cherbourg, supported by ships of the covering force from the seaward side. For four hours, Tuscaloosa and her consorts dueled with the accurate German shore batteries. During the action, the enemy frequently straddled the British and American ships and forced them to take evasive action. Great clouds of smoke and dust, kicked up by the intense bombardment conducted from sea and land, initially hampered Allied fire. By noontime, however, visibility improved and greatly aided the accuracy of the bombardment.

In July, with the beachhead secured in Normandy and Allied forces pushing into occupied France, Tuscaloosa steamed from Belfast to the Mediterranean to join British, French, and American forces assembling for Operation Anvil-Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.

August 1944 – January 1945

Following preliminary bombardment exercises off Oran, French North Africa, Tuscaloosa was based at Palermo, Italy, and got underway on 13 August. Two days later, Tuscaloosa commenced fire at 0635 and continued to pound targets ashore until the combined Allied forces stormed onto the beaches at H-Hour, 0800. Then, moving off the 100 fathom (180 m) curve, Tuscaloosa leisurely cruised the shoreline, visually inspecting it for targets of opportunity. A troublesome pillbox at the St. Raphel breakwater provoked Tuscaloosa‘s attention, and the cruiser’s 8 in (200 mm) shells soon destroyed it. Air spotters located a field battery, and Tuscaloosa‘s gunners promptly knocked it out of action with three direct hits.

For the next 11 days, the cruiser delivered fire support for the right flank of the Army’s advance to the Italian frontier. She engaged German shore batteries and fought off air attacks. The raids—conducted by Junkers Ju 88s and Dornier Do 217s singly, or in small groups—usually occurred during the covering force’s nightly retirement from the beachheads. Of the high altitude variety, these aerial assaults included the use of radar-controlled glider bombs. However, radar counter-measures and jamming devices, as well as effective evasive action and gunfire, thwarted these twilight and nocturnal attacks.

In September, when Allied forces had secured footholds in both western and southern France, Tuscaloosa returned to the United States for refitting at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. After a short exercise period in Chesapeake Bay, she steamed via the Panama Canal to the west coast and reported to the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet. After stopping briefly at San Diego, she proceeded on westward to Pearl Harbor, where she conducted various exercises before steaming to Ulithi to join Commander, 3rd Fleet in January 1945.

February 1945 – August 1945

Following her sortie from Ulithi, she joined the bombardment group off Iwo Jima at dawn on 16 February. Three days later, as waves of landing craft bore marines shoreward to invade the island, Tuscaloosa‘s guns pounded Japanese positions inland. Then, after the Americans had reached land, her batteries supported their advances with incessant fire and illumination. This continued from 19 February to 14 March, throughout all phases of the bitterly fought campaign to wrest the island from the Japanese.

Returning to Ulithi after the Iwo Jima operation, she spent four hectic days replenishing stores, ammunition, and fuel in preparation for the next operation: Okinawa, at the end of the chain of the Japanese home islands. On Palm Sunday, 25 March, Tuscaloosa‘s main and secondary batteries opened fire on shore targets pinpointed by aerial reconnaissance. Time considerations only allowed a six-day respite in the middle of the arduous campaign for replenishment purposes, Tuscaloosa stood on duty for the entire operation.

Tuscaloosa‘s charmed life in the face of everything the Axis could throw at her still held through the maelstrom of the kamikazes which came at the invasion ships and their escorts from all quarters. The “Divine Wind” came down from the Japanese home islands, in the form of planes piloted by pilots so loyal to their Emperor that they unhesitatingly gave their lives to defend their home soil.

Tuscaloosa‘s gunners splashed two of the intruders. One, headed for the fantail of Texas, flew apart as the cruiser’s shells splashed her in the old battleship’s wake. The other headed for an escorting destroyer in the screen only to be splashed after hitting a curtain of fire from the cruiser’s guns.

Only the mop-up of determined resistance ashore remained when Tuscaloosa departed from Okinawa on 28 June. Two days later, she arrived in Leyte Gulf, Philippine Islands; there reporting to Commander, 7th Fleet, for duty. Six weeks later, with Allied warships bombarding her shores with near impunity and Allied planes sweeping her skies clear of rapidly dwindling numbers of her defending aircraft, Japan surrendered.

On 27 August, Tuscaloosa, in company with other units of the 7th Fleet, departed Subic Bay in the Philippines, bound for Korean and Manchurian waters.