Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 98601:  USS Wilkes-Barre, probably at San Pedro, California, circa 31 January 1946

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

USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103), 1944-1972

USS Wilkes-Barre, a 10,000-ton Cleveland class light cruiser, was built at Camden, New Jersey. Commissioned at the beginning of July 1944, she shook down in Chesapeake Bay and the West Indies before steaming through the Panama Canal to the Pacific in late October 1944. She arrived in the western Pacific war zone by the end of the year and was thereafter primarily employed as an escort to the fast carriers of the Fifth and Third Fleets. In that role Wilkes-Barre took part in strikes against the Philippines, China and Indo-China, the Ryukyu islands, the Bonin and Volcano islands and Japan. During the Iwo Jima campaign, in February 1945, she also used her guns to shell enemy positions ashore, a mission repeated in the Ryukyus in late March and against the Japanese home islands in July. When suicide planes badly damaged USS Bunker Hill off Okinawa on 11 April, Wilkes-Barre came alongside the stricken carrier to help fight her fires and evacuate some of her crew.

As the Pacific War ended, Wilkes-Barre supported the occupation of Japan, remaining in the Far East for the rest of 1945. She crossed the Pacific to the U.S. West Coast in January 1946 and in March went on to the Atlantic. For the next year and a half the cruiser operated in that ocean and the Caribbean area, making one cruise to the British Isles and Norway in the winter and spring of 1947. Decommissioned in October 1947, she was laid up at Philadelphia for more than two decades. USS Wilkes-Barre was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1971 and subsequently used in explosive ordnance experiments. Badly damaged in these tests, she sank off the Florida Keys in May 1972.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103).


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 99865

USS Wilkes-Barre
(CL-103)

Underway at sea, circa summer 1944.
She is painted in Camouflage Measure 33, Design 24D.

Collection of Captain Edwin C. Finney, USN (Retired), 1991.

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

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99866

USS Wilkes-Barre
(CL-103)

Underway on 10 July 1944, ten days after she was placed in commission.
Her camouflage is Measure 33, Design 24D.

Collection of Captain Edwin C. Finney, USN (Retired), 1991.

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

Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 96708-KN (color)

USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103)

Color-tinted photograph of the ship at San Pedro, California, 31 January 1946, upon her return from wartime service in the western Pacific.
Note the homeward bound pennant held up by balloons.

Courtesy of Captain Edwin C. Finney, USN (Retired), 1991.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 560 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98601

USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103)


At anchor, probably at San Pedro, California, circa 31 January 1946.

Donation of Commander Reo E. Nicar, USNR (Retired), April 1978.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 111KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98602

USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103)


Off San Pedro, California, circa 31 January 1946.
Photographed by Thompson, Los Angles, California.

Donation of Commander Reo E. Nicar, USNR (Retired), April 1978.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 127KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 66329

USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103)


Alongside a destroyer tender, at Newport, Rhode Island, 21 June 1947.

Courtesy of the Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Ted Stone Collection.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98603

USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103)


Chart of the ship's World War II travels, from her departure from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 23 October 1944 until her arrival at San Pedro, California, on 31 January 1946.

Donation of Commander Reo E. Nicar, USNR (Retired), April 1978.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 199KB; 1200 x 725 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-328618

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)


Burning after being hit by a "Kamikaze" attack while operating off Okinawa on 11 May 1945.
Photographed from USS Wilkes Barre (CL-103), which appears to have received fire damage herself helping to fight the blaze from alongside the carrier.
A destroyer is off Bunker Hill's port side.

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

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-328619

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)


Casualties from "Kamikaze" hits are transferred to USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103) for medical care, off Okinawa on 11 May 1945.
Photographed from Wilkes-Barre's port side amidships, looking aft.
Note SB2C aircraft (one with a burned wing) parked aft on Bunker Hill, smashed 40mm gun position on her starboard side, smoke from still-burning fires, and firefighting water streaming over her side. On Wilkes-Barre note the 40mm quad gun mount in the foreground and the electronic antenna above.

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

Online Image: 73KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-668655

Reserve Fleet Basin, Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania


Photographed on 19 May 1955 with numerous cruisers, escort carriers, and auxiliaries in reserve.
The nearest ship is the never-completed Hawaii (CB-3), which lacks its previously-installed three 12" gun turrets.
Many of the other ships present are identified in Photo # 80-G-668655 (complete caption).

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

Online Image: 138KB; 635 x 675 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-668656

Reserve Fleet Basin, Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania


Photographed on 19 May 1955 with numerous cruisers laid up in the center and right.
Many of the ships present are identified in Photo # 80-G-668656 (complete caption).

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

Online Image: 139KB; 645 x 675 pixels

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

 


In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103). The following list features some of these images:

The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".



  • Photo #: 80-G-453360
    USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103) underway at low speed off Delaware Break Water Light, 26 August 1944. Photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-12.
    Starboard broadside aerial view, rather toward the stern. The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 33, Design 24d.

  • Photo #: 80-G-282819
    USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103) underway off Chesapeake Bay (36 56'N, 74 43'W) on 4 September 1944. Photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-24.
    Port broadside low aerial view, somewhat toward the stern. The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 33, Design 24d.

  • Photo #: 80-G-282824
    USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103) underway on course 084, off Chesapeake Bay (36 54'N, 74 12'W), 4 September 1944. Photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-24.
    Starboard quarter low aerial view.


  • Photo #: 80-G-326046
    USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103) operating off Okinawa in July 1945. Photographed from on board USS Essex (CV-9), with a TBF aircraft parked in the foreground.
    Port broadside surface view, looking into the sun, with Wilkes-Barre essentially seen in silhouette.

    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


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


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 16 July 2003
    New images added 14 December 2004