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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # 19-N-31525:  USS San Juan off Norfolk, Virginia, June 1942

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

USS San Juan (CL-54, later CLAA-54), 1942-1961

USS San Juan, a 6000-ton Atlanta class light cruiser built at Quincy, Massachusetts, was commissioned at the end of February 1942. In June of that year, following shakedown in the western Atlantic, she went to the Pacific to join the war against Japan. She arrived in the south Pacific in July, in time to particiate in the initial phases of the prolonged and bitter Guadalcanal Campaign. The cruiser provided gunfire support when U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal and Tulagi on 7 August, and served thereafter mainly as an escort for U.S. aircraft carriers. In October 1942, she raided Japanese shipping in the Gilbert Islands and served in the screen during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. San Juan was hit by a Japanese bomb during the latter action, requiring her to steam to Australia for repairs.

For the rest of 1942 and most of 1943, as the fight for Guadalcanal reached a climax and the war moved up through the Central Solomons, San Juan operated with the carriers in the south Pacific. She accompanied USS Saratoga (CV-3) during November 1943 strikes on enemy targets on Bougainville and Rabaul and in covering the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. In early December, she took part in a carrier raid into the Marshall Islands.

After a west coast overhaul, San Juan supported the Marshall Islands invasion in January-February 1944, the extensive attacks on Japanese bases in the central Pacific from then into May, and landings at Hollandia, New Guinea, in April. She served with the carriers through the Marianas operation and the resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea in June and July 1944, and during attacks on the Bonin and Volcano Islands.

San Juan received shipyard work during August-October 1944, returning to the war zone in late November. From then until the War's end in August 1945, she kept busy in her usual role as aircraft carrier escort, taking part in strikes throughout the western Pacific in December 1944 - January 1945, the invasions of Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa in January-May 1945, and raids against the Japanese home islands in February and July. After Japan's mid-August capitulation, San Juan supported the recovery of Allied prisoners of war and other occupation activities. Later in 1945 and into 1946, she brought U.S. servicemen home from the south Pacific as part of Operation "Magic Carpet". Inactivated during 1946, she was formally decommissioned in November of that year. San Juan was redesignated CLAA-54 in 1949, during her long stay in "mothballs". She was stricken from the Navy list in March 1959 and sold for scrapping in October 1961.

This page features selected views of USS San Juan (CL-54, later CLAA-54).


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 #: 19-N-29078

USS San Juan (CL-54)


Off Boston, Massachusetts, 11 April 1942.

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

Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-31525

USS San Juan (CL-54)


Off Norfolk, Virginia, 3 June 1942.

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

Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-555 (Color)

USS San Juan (CL-54)

Probably at Noumea, New Caledonia, as seen from USS Wasp (CV-7) on the eve of the Guadalcanal-Tulagi invasion. Photo is dated 3 August 1942.

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

Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 600 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 97818

USS San Juan (CL-54)


In a South Pacific harbor, 30 August 1943.
Taken by a USS Saratoga (CV-3) photographer.

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

Online Image: 112KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 50246

USS San Juan (CL-54)


Photograph taken circa 1943-44.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 625 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97819

USS San Juan (CL-54)


In San Francisco Bay, California, 1 January 1944.

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

Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 50247

USS San Juan (CL-54)


In San Francisco Bay, California, 1 January 1944.
Her sister ship, USS San Diego (CL-53), is visible in the distance, beyond San Juan's stern.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 35KB; 740 x 580 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-90941

USS San Juan (CL-54)


Off San Francisco, California, 14 October 1944.
She is wearing camouflage Measure 33, Design 22d.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. 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 #: 19-N-90942

USS San Juan (CL-54)


Off San Francisco, California, 14 October 1944.
Her camouflage is Measure 33, Design 22d.

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

Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 83072

USS San Juan (CL-54)


Crewmen at general quarters, while the ship was at sea, circa 1942. View looks aft from the after superstructure.
Note flash-protection clothing worn by the men, 1.1" quadruple anti-aircraft machine gun mount in left center, 5"/38 guns beyond, and depth charges on "K-gun" throwers by the main deck edge.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Vice Admiral James E. Maher, USN, who was San Juan's Commanding Officer at the time of this photograph.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 68KB; 600 x 675 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-29974

USS San Juan (CL-54)


Is christened by Mrs. Margarita Coll de Santori, during launching ceremonies at the Bethlehem Steel Company's Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, 6 September 1941.

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

Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 615 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 8 January 2002