USS Baltimore, first of a class of fourteen 13,600 ton heavy cruisers, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. She commissioned in mid-April 1943 and spent the next several months working up to prepare for combat service in the Pacific Ocean. Her first operation was the November 1943 Gilberts Campaign, in which she used her guns to bombard Japanese forces during the invasion of Makin Atoll. Baltimore next took part in the seizure of Kwajalein and Eniwetok in February 1944, as well as in aircraft carrier raids on enemy bases in the Carolines and the Marianas. Over the next four months, she participated in more strikes on the Carolines, Palaus, Northern New Guinea and Marcus Island, the invasion of Saipan and the June 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea. In July and August the cruiser transported President Franklin D. Roosevelt from the West Coast to Hawaii for meetings with Pacific area commanders Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur, and on a subsequent trip to Alaska.
After an overhaul, Baltimore resumed combat operations late in 1944, and from then to the end of the Pacific War supported raids on Luzon, Formosa, the China coast, Okinawa and the Japanese home islands, plus the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Once Japan had surrendered, on 2 September 1945, she took part in occupation duty and helped transport U.S. service personnel home from the former war zone. She left the Western Pacific in February 1946 and was placed out of commission at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, in July of that year.
Baltimore had been in "mothballs" for about five years when the Korean War and the resulting Cold War emergencies called her back to active service. Recommissioned in late November 1951, she soon joined the Atlantic Fleet. In 1952-1954 she deployed regularly to the Mediterranean Sea and, in June 1953, participated in the Naval Review held at Spithead, England, in honor of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Early in 1955 Baltimore went back to the Pacific for a Far Eastern cruise. She then began deactivation at Bremerton, where she was decommissioned at the end of May 1956. Just under fifteen years later, in February 1971, USS Baltimore was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. She was sold for scrapping in May 1972.
This page features, or provides links to, selected views related to USS Baltimore (CA-68).
For more images concerning this ship, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
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Photo #: NH 91454 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Underway in Boston harbor, Massachusetts, 15 April 1943. Note that she has not yet received her radar antennas. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. Collection of James C. Fahey. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 530 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 91457 USS Baltimore (CA-68) In Boston harbor, Massachusetts, 15 April 1943. Note her twin aircraft cranes and broad transom. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. Collection of James C. Fahey. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 555 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 91450 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Underway off the Massachusetts coast, 18 June 1943. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. Collection of Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley, USN. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 91451 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 10 September 1943. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. Collection of James C. Fahey. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 515 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 91452 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 10 September 1943. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. Collection of James C. Fahey. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 490 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 91462 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 18 October 1944. Her camouflage is Measure 32, Design 16d. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. Collection of James C. Fahey. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 515 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 91464 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 18 October 1944. Her camouflage is Measure 32, Design 16d. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. Collection of James C. Fahey. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 510 pixels |
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Photo #: 19-N-74297 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Plan view, forward, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 21 October 1944, at the end of an overhaul. USS Indianapolis (CA-35) is in the background. Note the two different types of 8"/55 guns and turrets mounted on these heavy cruisers, and the paravanes aboard Baltimore. Circles mark recent alterations to the ship. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 146KB; 740 x 620 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-74298 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Plan view, amidships, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 21 October 1944, at the end of an overhaul. USS Indianapolis (CA-35) is in the background. Note Baltimore's 5"/38 guns, armored conning tower, smokestacks and whaleboat. Circles mark recent alterations to the ship. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 133KB; 740 x 620 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-74299 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Plan view, aft, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 21 October 1944, at the end of an overhaul. Note Baltimore's 5"/38 and 40mm guns, Mark 37 and Mark 34 gun directors (with antenna for Mark 8 radar atop the latter), OS2U floatplanes and aircraft cranes. Circles mark recent alterations to the ship. Several barges are moored in the distance, among them YF-461, YF-791 and YD-64. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 133KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 52422 USS Baltimore (CA-68) Anchored in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 22 September 1954. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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For more images concerning this ship, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 15 December 2002