USS Vincennes, a 10,000-ton Cleveland class light cruiser built at Quincy, Massachusetts, was commissioned in January 1944. She performed shakedown operations in the Caribbean area and was subsequently transferred to the Pacific war zone, arriving at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, early in May. The new cruiser was soon in action, taking part in the Marianas Campaign in June, July and August 1944 as part of Task Force 58. During this time she screened aircraft carriers during the Battle of the Philippine Sea and strikes on the Mariana, Bonin and Volcano Islands.
Vincennes continued to operate with the fast carriers during the Palaus Campaign in September, strikes in the Western Pacific in October, the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 24-25 October, and operations connected with the Philippines Campaign from November 1944 into January 1945. She also bombarded the enemy ashore in the Palaus, helped sink a Japanese warship during the final part of the Leyte Gulf battle, covered the withdrawal of the crippled cruisers Houston (CL-81) and Canberra (CA-70) after they were torpedoed off Formosa in mid-October, and successfully rode out a bad typhoon in December.
During February and March 1945, Vincennes participated in attacks on the Japanese home islands and supported the Iwo Jima Campaign, mainly as an escort for the carrier fleet, but also using her guns to shell Okino Daito Shima. After serving in the carrier screen during the first month and a half of the battle for Okinawa that began in late March, the cruiser was assigned to bombardment duties in support of ground operations there. From mid-May until mid-June, Vincennes fired nearly 6000 six-inch projectiles and over 10,500 rounds from her five-inch guns at enemy artillery, troops and supply dumps.
Overhauled on the West Coast in July and August 1945, Vincennes returned to sea just as Japan surrendered. For the rest of the year and into 1946 she performed transport duties as part of Operation "Magic Carpet", the huge effort to bring American service personnel home from the Pacific. During this time she visited the South Pacific and New Zealand. Inactive after March 1946, USS Vincennes was decommissioned in September of that year. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in April 1966, after nearly two decades in the "Mothball Fleet", and was sunk as a target off Southern California in October 1969.
This page features all the views we have of USS Vincennes (CL-64), plus a selected image related to her construction.
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 48473 USS Vincennes (CL-64) Photographed soon after completion, in early 1944, probably off Boston, Massachusetts. Her camouflage is Measure 33, Design 3d. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 565 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 98186 USS Vincennes (CL-64) Steaming off the U.S. East Coast (position 36 52'N, 76 09'W, course 265) at 1700 hours on 28 March 1944. Photographed from a Squadron ZP-14 blimp, from Naval Air Station Weeksville, North Carolina. Altitude was 150 feet. Ship's camouflage is Measure 33, Design 3d. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 120KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 98187 USS Vincennes (CL-64) Steaming off the U.S. East Coast on 31 March 1944. Photographed from a blimp of Squadron ZP-11. Ship's camouflage is Measure 33, Design 3d. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 114KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 98188 USS Vincennes (CL-64) Underway off the U.S. East Coast (position 41 30'N, 68 50'W, course 331) at 1000 hours on 31 March 1944. Photographed from a Squadron ZP-11 blimp. Ship's camouflage is Measure 33, Design 3d. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-431077 USS Vincennes (CL-64) Underway with the Third Fleet, during operations in Philippine waters, December 1944. USS Hancock (CV-19) is in the distance, at left. Photographed by Lieutenant Barrett Gallagher, USNR. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 137KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 98189 USS Vincennes (CL-64) Steaming in San Francisco Bay, California, on 29 August 1945. Photographed from a Naval Air Station Moffett Field, California, aircraft. Ship's camouflage is Measure 22. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 130KB; 740 x 620 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 95308 USS Vincennes (CL-64) Underway, circa 1945. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute Photograph Collection, Annapolis, Maryland. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 95256 USS Vincennes (CL-64) Panoramic photograph of the ship in a U.S. West Coast port, circa Autumn 1945. Courtesy of George Knight, 1983. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 49KB; 900 x 290 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 83696 Rear Admiral Wilder D. Baker, USN On board his flagship, USS Vincennes (CL-64), immediately after being presented with the Navy Cross by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, May 1944. Collection of Vice Admiral Wilder D. Baker, USN (Retired), 1975. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 79KB; 720 x 925 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-324534 Okinawa Campaign, 1945 A Japanese "Zeke" airplane dives toward USS Vincennes (CL-64), during an attack on Task Group 58.1 off Okinawa on 6 April 1945. Note anti-aircraft gun smoke and flame trailing aft of the cruiser. Photographed from USS Miami (CL-89). Tracer shells from Miami and from the destroyer in the center are also visible. This plane crashed into the sea astern of Vincennes. 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. |
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Photo #: 80-G-324533 Okinawa Campaign, 1945 A Japanese "Zeke" airplane splashes into the sea astern of USS Vincennes (CL-64), during an attack on Task Group 58.1 off Okinawa on 6 April 1945. The original caption states: "Broadness of splash indicates plane either had no bomb, or that it did not explode, as tall, thin column, characteristic of bomb explosion, is missing." Photographed from USS Miami (CL-89). 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. |
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Photo #: K-77750 Ex-USS Vincennes (CL-64) Is towed out of San Diego Bay, California, by USS Kalmia (ATA-184). Assisting are the harbor tugs Muskegon (YTB-763), alongside Vincennes, and Arawak (YTM-702), off Vincennes' stern. Photograph is dated 7 October 1969. The old cruiser was expended as a target off the coast of Southern California on 28 October 1969. Note that her gun barrels have been cut off. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 535 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-K-77750. Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval History and Heritage Command's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color. |
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Photo #: NH 93493 Mrs. Arthur A. Osburn, Jr., Sponsor of USS Vincennes (CL-64) Poses with the christening bottle, just before Vincennes was launched, at the Bethlehem Steel Company's Fore River Plant, Quincy, Massachusetts, 17 July 1943. As Miss Harriet Virginia Kimmell, Daughter of the Mayor of Vincennes, Indiana, she had also sponsored the previous USS Vincennes (CA-44), launched on 21 May 1936. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
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NOTES:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 13 November 2002
New photo added 15 February 2010