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Photo # 19-N-72219:  USS St. Louis off San Pedro, California, 5 October 1944

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

USS Saint Louis (CL-49), 1939-1951

USS Saint Louis, first of a class of two 10,000-ton light cruisers, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Commissioned in May 1939, she was employed on the Neutrality Patrol and related duties in the Atlantic and West Indies from October 1939 until November 1940, when she was transferred to the Pacific. During the next year, St. Louis served along the west coast, in Hawaiian waters and further west, including one voyage to the Philippines in mid-1941. She was in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese surprise attack on the fleet there began the Pacific War. Her activities during the war's first six months mainly involved escorting convoys between the west coast and Hawaii, plus two trips to the south Pacific and one to Midway island.

At the end of May 1942, St. Louis steamed to Alaskan waters, her zone of operations until the following October. On 7 August she shelled Kiska Island, which had been captured by the Japanese in June. Near the end of 1942, the cruiser went to the south Pacific, where she participated in the final stages of the Guadalcanal campaign and the first part of the offensive into the Central Solomons, conducting bombardments of enemy bases and patrolling to stop his reinforcement efforts. On 6 July 1943, she engaged Japanese warships in the Battle of Kula Gulf. In another such night action, the Battle of Kolombangara on 13 July, she was torpedoed in the bow, necessitating a trip to California for repairs.

St. Louis returned to the south Pacific in November 1943 and soon was at work supporting the Bougainville campaign. She remained active in the area until May and suffered damage when hit by an enemy bomb during the Green Island landing on 14 February 1944. In June, St. Louis moved north to participate in the campaign to seize the Mariana Islands, bombarding Japanese positions ashore on Saipan, and later on Guam. Following another overhaul, she operated off Leyte. On 27 November 1944, she was hit aft by one suicide plane and near-missed by another. The resulting damage was sufficiently severe to require another visit to a west coast shipyard. From March 1945 until the fighting ended in mid-August, St. Louis provided gunfire support for troops ashore on Okinawa and escorted the fast carriers during their attacks on the Japanese home islands and elsewhere in the western Pacific.

For the rest of 1945 and into 1946, St. Louis took part in occupation activities in China and brought U.S. service personnel home as part of Operation "Magic Carpet". She transited the Panama Canal to the Atlantic in February 1946 and was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in June of that year. In January 1951 St. Louis was sold to Brazil. Refitted and renamed Tamandare, she served the Brazilian Navy for more than two more decades. After being sold for scrapping, she sank in the Pacific in August 1980, while being towed to Taiwan.

This page features selected views of USS Saint Louis (CL-49), 1939-1951.


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 48998

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)


Off Rockland, Maine, while on trials, 28 April 1939.
Note that her 5"/38 secondary gun battery has not yet been installed.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 73KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 80564

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 4 June 1941.
She is wearing Measure 5 (false bow wave) camouflage.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-28229

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 6 March 1942.

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

Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 620 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-38383

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)


At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 November 1942.
USS Chicago (CA-30) and the barge YF-388 are in the left background.
Note supplies piled on Saint Louis' foredeck.
Circles mark recent alterations to the ship.

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

Online Image: 146KB; 605 x 765 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-3971 (Color)

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)

At Tulagi, Solomon Islands, circa 1943.
The bow of USS Lackawanna (AO-40) is visible at the extreme right.

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

Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-54226

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 16 October 1943.

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

Online Image: 84KB; 740 x 620 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-72219

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)


Off San Pedro, California, on 5 October 1944.
Her camouflage is Measure 32, Design 2c.

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

Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 600 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-342763

Battle of Kolombangara, 13 July 1943


USS Saint Louis (CL-49) and HMNZS Leander firing during the action.
This is probably the battle's initial engagement, in which the Japanese light cruiser Jintsu was sunk by gunfire and torpedo hits and Leander was damaged by a Japanese torpedo.

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

Online Image: 33KB; 740 x 620 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-259410

Battle of Kolombangara, 13 July 1943


Bow of USS Saint Louis (CL-49), showing torpedo damage received during the Battle of Kolombangara. Photographed while the ship was under repair at Tulagi on 20 July 1943.
USS Vestal (AR-4) is alongside.

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

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 620 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-15536 (Color)

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)

Has guns removed from her forward 6"/47 turrets, during overhaul and battle damage repairs at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa September 1943. The upper section of her midships searchlight platform is hanging from a crane in the immediate background. It was removed to reduce the ship's topside weights.
Note men in colored "hard hats" in the foreground.

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

Online Image: 150KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-16463 (Color)

USS Saint Louis (CL-49)

Bombarding Japanese positions on Guam, 21 July 1944.
She is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 2c.

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

Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-273003

Operations around Leyte, October-December 1944


USS Saint Louis (CL-49) is hit aft by a Kamikaze suicide plane, while off Leyte on 27 November 1944.
Photographed from USS West Virginia (BB-48).
Note anti-aircraft shell bursts at left.

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

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 600 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 31 May 2002