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Photo # 80-CF-21343-2:  USS Minneapolis firing 8-inch guns during battle practice, 29 March 1939

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Minneapolis (CA-36), 1934-1959

USS Minneapolis, a 9950-ton New Orleans class heavy cruiser built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in May 1934. A few months later, she steamed to Europe for a shakedown cruise and in April 1935 was sent through the Panama Canal to take up her regular duties with the U.S. Fleet. Minneapolis conducted peacetime operations, generally in the Pacific, through the rest of the 1930s. In response to growing tensions with Japan, her base was changed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1940.

Minneapolis was at sea nearby when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. For the next several months, she usually served with aircraft carriers, taking part in raids during February and March 1942, the air battles at Coral Sea in early May and at Midway in June, the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in early August and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons later in that month. On August's last day, she assisted USS Saratoga after that carrier was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.

On 30 November 1942, Minneapolis was flagship of a cruiser-destroyer force that intercepted a group of Japanese destroyers off Guadalcanal. In the ensuing Battle of Tassafaronga, she was one of four U.S. cruisers knocked out of action by enemy torpedoes. With her bow blown off, and a large hole amidships crippling nearly all of her powerplant, Minneapolis needed emergency repairs locally, and more extensive work at the Pearl Harbor and Mare Island Navy Yards, before she could return to active service at the end of August 1943.

Thereafter, Minneapolis was fully engaged in Pacific combat operations, participating in raids and invasions throughout the war zone. Among her major undertakings were landings in the Gilberts in November 1943 and the Marshalls in January-February 1944, the Saipan invasion and the Battle of the Philippine sea in June, the capture of Guam in July and August, landings in the Palaus in September 1944 and at Leyte in October. During the latter operation, she took part in the war's last major gunfire battle, the Battle of Surigao Strait on 24-25 October 1944.

In the first four months of 1945, Minneapolis supported amphibious assaults in the Philippines and Okinawa. Later in the year, after the fighting had ended, she covered occupation operations in Korea and China, then helped bring U.S. service personnel home. The cruiser was inactive at Philadelphia from early 1946 until formally decommissioned in February 1947. Following a dozen years in "mothballs", USS Minneapolis was sold for scrapping in August 1959.

This page features selected views of USS Minneapolis (CA-36).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 50350

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)


Underway at sea on 25 June 1938.
She is wearing an "E" award, for Engineering excellence, on her after smokestack.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 60KB; 740 x 585 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-CF-21343-2

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)


Firing her 8"/55 main battery guns during battle practice, 29 March 1939.
Taken from a floatplane of her embarked aviation unit, VCS-6.
Note the stripes painted on the tops of her forward gun turrets.

Photograph from Department of the Navy collections in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 600 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-544 (Color)

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)

At Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, Hawaii, on 11 April 1943, after being fitted with a new bow.
She had lost her original bow in the Battle of Tassafaronga, off Guadalcanal on 30 November 1942.
Note the New Mexico class battleship in the left distance.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 525 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-541 (Color)

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)

Departing Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 11 April 1943, after being fitted with a new bow.
She had lost her original bow in the Battle of Tassafaronga, off Guadalcanal on 30 November 1942.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-276720

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)


Underway on 9 November 1943.
Note her unique camouflage scheme, with the cruiser painted to resemble a destroyer.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 120KB; 740 x 620 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-51995

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, 4 September 1943, after completion of overhaul and battle damage repairs.
Note her unique camouflage scheme, intended to make her appear to be a destroyer.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 620 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-51998

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)


At the Mare Island Navy Yard, 30 August 1943, upon completion of overhaul and battle damage repairs.
Note: SK-1 search radar and gunfire directors mounted atop her foremast and bridge; large false windows painted on her pilothouse, part of a camouflage scheme intended to make her look like a destroyer; Sailors pushing a cart full of battle helmets in the lower left; railway boxcars on the pier alongside the ship; lighter YF-280 in the left distance and crane vessel YD-98 at right.
Circles mark recent alterations.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 128KB; 600 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 83115

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)


Ship's Company, posted on her after deck, # three eight-inch gun turret and after superstructure, off Long Beach, California, in the summer of 1936.
Her Commanding Officer, seated in the front row, center, is Captain Chester H.J. Keppler, USN.
The officer 2nd from right, front row, is Lieutenant Anchony L. Danis, USN.

Courtesy of Captain Frank K.B. Wheeler, USN (Retired), 1975.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 132KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-211215

Battle of Tassafaronga, 30 November 1942


USS Minneapolis (CA-36) at Tulagi with torpedo damage received in the battle. Photograph was taken on 1 December 1942, as work began to cut away the wreckage of her bow.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-44544

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)


En route to Pearl Harbor for repairs, circa January 1943. She had lost her bow when hit by Japanese torpedoes during the Battle of Tassafaronga, off Guadalcanal on 30 November 1942.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 595 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-202518

Makin Invasion, November 1943


USS Minneapolis (CA-36) bombarding Butaritari Island, Makin Atoll, on 20 November 1943, shortly before U.S. Army forces landed there.
Guns firing are from the cruiser's starboard side 5"/25 secondary battery. Note smoke rings. Simultaneous discharge of these guns indicates that they are firing under remote control.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 600 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-109 (Color)

USS Minneapolis (CA-36)

Refueling at sea from a Navy oiler, during the Marshall Islands operation, January 1944.
Photographed from USS Cowpens (CVL-25).
The oiler is one of the few that were fitted with a Mark 37 gun director, visible atop her bridge. Note the red navigation light on the oiler's port bridge wing.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 140KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 12 February 2002