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Photo # 80-G-21010:  USS Wichita in the vicinity of Scapa Flow, April 1942

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

USS Wichita (CA-45), 1939-1959

USS Wichita, a 10,000-ton heavy cruiser, was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania. Commissioned in February 1939, her initial cruise took her to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. In early October 1939, a month after the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Wichita began regular U.S. Fleet activities. During the next two years, she participated in Neutrality Patrols in the western Atlantic and West Indies areas, made a diplomatic cruise to South America, served as a training ship for Naval Reserves, and took part in the occupation of Iceland and in subsequent "short of war" operations in that area.

Wichita was in Icelandic waters when the United States entered World War II in December 1941 and remained in the north Atlantic for most of the next year. She served with the British Fleet during April-August 1942, guarding against the threat of German surface raiders and protecting convoys sailing between Iceland, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. In November 1942, Wichita took part in the invasion of North Africa. During that operation, she engaged French warships and shore batteries near Casablanca, Morocco, and was lightly damaged when hit by a hostile shell.

Early in 1943, Wichita arrived in the south Pacific to join in the Guadalcanal campaign. She participated in the Battle of Rennell Island, an action against Japanese torpedo planes, in late January. In April 1943, she left the tropics and went to the chilly north Pacific to take part in the Aleutians Campaign. Wichita's next combat operations were in the central Pacific, where she screened aircraft carriers during the invasions of the Marshall Islands in January-February 1944 and the Marianas in mid-year, as well as during strikes on Japanese positions throughout the region. She also participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and provided heavy gunfire support for troops ashore on Saipan and Guam.

Later in 1944, Wichita helped take the war into the western Pacific, supporting the carriers in the raids that led up to the Leyte invasion. When the cruiser Canberra (CA-70) was damaged by a torpedo in mid-October, Wichita took her under tow. Later in the month, she used her guns to sink two Japanese ships during the Battle off Cape Engaño. In March, April and May 1945, the cruiser's guns were again busy, supporting the conquest of Okinawa and fighting off suicide plane attacks. In the last four months of the year, after the fighting had ended, Wichita took part in the occupation of Japan and brought war veterans home during Operation "Magic Carpet". She left the Pacific in January 1946 and was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in February 1947. After twelve years in "mothballs", USS Wichita was sold for scrapping in August 1959.

This page features selected views of USS Wichita (CA-45).


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 93145

USS Wichita (CA-45)


Operating in the Atlantic Ocean, out of Norfolk, Virginia, on 1 May 1940.
Note the markings on her turret tops (bars on the forward turrets, a circle on the after turret). These scheme was used on several other heavy cruisers in 1939-40.

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

Online Image: 132KB; 740 x 585 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-21010

USS Wichita (CA-45)


Operating with the British Home Fleet, in the vicinity of Scapa Flow, 22 April 1942.

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

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 585 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 97884

USS Wichita (CA-45)


At anchor in Scapa Flow in April 1942.
USS Wasp (CV-7) is in the background.

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

Online Image: 130KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 90428

USS Wichita (CA-45)


Underway at sea, 2 May 1944, during operations in the central Pacific.

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

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 52689

USS Wichita (CA-45)


Five brothers who served on board the ship in 1941. The original caption released with this photograph reads:
"Five Brothers in service aboard USS WICHITA".
"Five Horton brothers, of Yemassee, South Carolina, who enlisted in the United States Navy at the recruiting station, Charleston, So. Car., and are now serving aboard the cruiser, USS WICHITA. They are (l to r standing) Edmund, Hal and John; (l to r kneeling) William and Thomas. Their father, Thomas Daniel Horton, operates a general merchandise store at Yemassee, So. Car."

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

Online Image: 85KB; 605 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 94652

USS Wichita (CA-45)


Steaming through heavy weather, while operating as a unit of Task Force Four in the North Atlantic, September 1941.
Photographed from USS Wasp (CV-7).

Collection of Vice Admiral Robert C. Giffen, USN.

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

Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-464088

USS Wichita (CA-45)


Ship's Chief Petty Officers listen to the radio broadcast of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's address to the Congress requesting a declaration of War against the Axis powers, circa 8 December 1941.
Note photograph of President Roosevelt on the bulkhead.

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

Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-405279

USS Wichita (CA-45)


In heavy weather, while patrolling in the North Atlantic, circa early 1942.
View looks forward from the pilothouse, with the forward 5"/38 gun's barrel in the foreground.
Note the life rafts stowed atop the # 2 eight-inch gun turret.

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

Online Image: 74KB; 655 x 675 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 97885

USS Wichita (CA-45)


Rides out a winter storm off Iceland in 1941-42.
Note the PBY patrol plane on the deck of the seaplane tender from which the photograph was taken.

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

Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-38835

Battle of Casablanca, November 1942


USS Wichita (CA-45) engaging the French battleship Jean Bart, off Casablanca, Morocco, on 8 November 1942. Note the shell splashes off Wichita's bow.

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

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-238240

Saipan Operation, June 1944


Port side and after 5"/38 guns of USS Wichita (CA-45) firing on enemy targets on Saipan, 26 June 1944.
The guns' simultaneous discharge indicates they are firing under director control.
Note the 40mm gun mount at left, with ammunition loaded but no personnel present.

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

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 600 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 65834

USS Wichita
(CA-45)

In Nagasaki Harbor, Japan, in September 1945, a few weeks after the end of World War II.
Hospital ships in the left background are USS Sanctuary (AH-17) and USS Haven (AH-12).

Collection of Admiral Harry W. Hill, USN, 1968.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 


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


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Page made 26 February 2002
New image added 25 May 2005