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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

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Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) Nov. 21, 2024: The Sweet Pea

Above we see the leader of her class of “heavy” cruisers, USS Portland (CA-33) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, on 30 July 1944, spick and span in her new Measure 32 (Design 7d) camouflage livery.

You wouldn’t know it from her rakish good looks, but “Sweet Pea” had already survived three of the four most pivotal sea battles of the Pacific War, and was on her way back to finish out her dance card.

Treaty Cruisers

Portland was the lead ship of the third class of “treaty cruisers” built following the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Made to be compliant with a 10,000-ton standard displacement maximum (further defined as “heavy” cruisers by the London Naval Treaty of 1931 if they carried guns larger than 6 inches but smaller than 8.1 inches in bore). This saw a whole generation of very lightly protected vessels, leaving armor behind in exchange for shaft horsepower and guns, to make weight.

The 1920s/30s thinking about how cruisers would be employed in a coming war– as commerce raiders and in stopping commerce raiders as well as fast over-the-horizon scouts for the battle line– fit this well. For instance, it would have been interesting had the Graf Spee been chased to ground by three American treaty heavies in an alternative version of the Battle of the River Plate.

The first of the U.S. treaty cruisers, USS Pensacola (CL/CA-24) and Salt Lake City (CL/CA-25), came in under the bar with a 9,096-ton standard (8,689-ton light) displacement and could make 32.5 knots on a 107,000 hp suite of 8 boilers and 4 steam turbines while carrying 10 new 8″/55 guns, only had 518 tons of armor. This was really just proof against splinters and light guns, with even the conning towers protected by just 1.25 inches of plate. By comparison, the WWII-era Atlanta class light cruisers, which were notorious for their thin skin, had more armor (585 tons).

Little wonder these cruisers were often derided as “tinclads.”

The next class, the USS Northampton (CA-26) and her five sisters– USS Chester, Louisville, Chicago, Houston, and Augusta— went slightly heavier at 9,390 tons standard and 8,693 light while having the same horsepower, one fewer 8-inch gun, and a bit more armor (686 tons). Top-heavy, they proved to be violent rollers in heavy seas, a metric that the Navy sought to correct with the next class.

Then came our Portland and her ill-fated sister USS Indianapolis, which were essentially copies of the Northamptons with alterations in weight distribution to improve stability. Some 40 tons of mattressed armor was spread over the bridge work– which was higher– while the masthead was dropped some 30 feet. Using the same 107K shp engineering suite and the same main armament (nine 8″/55 guns in three cramped triple gun houses), the total armor protection remained the same as on the Northamptons (686 tons) while the displacement increased incrementally to 9,315 light.

For what it is worth, the fourth and final class of American treaty cruisers, the Astoria class (with six sisters USS New Orleans, Minneapolis, Tuscaloosa, San Francisco, Quincy, and Vincennes), went just slightly over the “10,000-ton” line at 10,050 standard and more than doubled the amount of armor, bringing 1,507 tons of protection to the game while keeping the same armament and engineering. This was only possible by dropping fuel capacity by a third (from the 847,787 gallons enjoyed by the Portlands to a more meager 614,626 gallons in Astoria). Tellingly, the first U.S. Navy heavy cruisers designed post-treaty, the Baltimore class, shipped with 1,790 tons of armor plate while the follow-on Des Moines class carried a whopping 2,189 tons.

Nonetheless, these extensively compartmented ships, enjoying the benefit of hardy damage control teams– a skill very much learned on the job– would often keep even these “tinclads” afloat after extreme punishment. Those lost during the war only succumbed due to torrents of shells and torpedoes, often hand-in-hand.

As noted by Richard Worth in his Fleets of World War II: 

The most surprising quality in this ill-armored lineage was its ruggedness even with regard to torpedo damage. American cruisers suffered torpedo hits on 31 occasions, but only seven of the ships sank, and none sank from a single hit. By comparison, of the 24 torpedoed Japanese cruisers, 20 sank, three of them after single hits, The Americans had the advantage of their expert damage control, especially after the merciless lessons of Savo Island.

Still, these 17 thin-skinned treaty cruisers, forced to do the work of absent battleships in 1942-43, then used as AAA escorts for the precious carriers and in delivering shore bombardment in 1944-45— none of which were their primary design concept– got the job done, although seven would be left at the bottom of the Pacific along the way.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

For a deep dive into American cruisers in this period, from which all the above figures were pulled, turn to U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History, by Norman Friedman. 

Meet Portland

Our subject was the first American warship named for the city in Maine. Ordered to be built at commercial yards, Portland (CA-33) was laid down at Quincy, Massachusetts by Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s Shipbuilding Div., on 17 February 1930 while her sister, Indianapolis, was laid down at the nearby New York Shipbuilding Co just six weeks later.

As Prohibition was still a thing, when Portland was launched on 21 May 1932, 12-year-old Ms. Ralph D. Brooks of Portland, Maine smashed on bottle of sparkling water across her bow.

Commissioned on 23 February 1933, Captain (later VADM) Herbert Fairfax Leary (USNA ’05), a Great War Grand Fleet veteran who earned a Navy Cross in 1918 and was fresh off a stint as the Naval Inspector in Charge of Ordnance at Dahlgren Naval Base, assumed command. All her skippers would be WWI-era Annapolis alumni.

While still on her shakedown period, Portland was the first naval vessel at the scene of the lost airship USS Akron (ZRS-4) which had been destroyed in a thunderstorm off the coast of New Jersey on the morning of 4 April 1933, killing 73 of the 76 aboard. She would spend the next 21 days directing the search of a 400 sq. mile area for wreckage and survivors, only coming across the former.

It was her first brush with Naval Aviation tragedy, this one the greatest loss of life in any airship crash (the “Oh, the humanity” moment on Hindenburg had cost 36).

Once in the fleet, Portland had a very comfortable peacetime career for the next six years. Her class had space and accommodations for a cruiser squadron commodore and his staff and notably was used to escort FDR’s three-week Pacific trip aboard USS Houston in October 1935.

When she called at Portland, Maine for a two-week port call in August 1934, she was mobbed with 25,000 visitors and a delegation of city leaders who presented the skipper a silver service, purchased by the town’s residents via subscription.

While operating out of Bremerton bound for Dutch Harbor, Alaska in October 1937, Portland, who was nicknamed for a time “The Rolling P” suffered a heavy storm and high seas while hitting 42 degrees on her inclinometer, leaving her with six-foot cracks near midship on each side of her hull that warranted shipyard repair.

This led Robert Ripley, in his “Believe It or Not” series, to claim at that time that no other ship had ever rolled over as far as she had without completely capsizing.

With tensions high between the U.S. and Japan, Portland spent most of 1941 on a series of West Pacific cruises, escorting Army cargo to Manila with stops in New Guinea, Borneo, and Australia.

When she arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 December 1941, her crew was expecting some much-needed downtime.

War!

At 0627 on the early morning of Friday, 5 December, Portland’s crew no doubt grumbled that their 10-day libo– and upcoming weekend– was to be ruined as they weighed anchor and steamed out of Pearl Harbor en route to Midway with the fellow treaty cruisers USS Astoria, Chicago, and Minneapolis and five destroyers.

They were soon joined by the grand old fleet carrier USS Lexington— carrying 18 Marine SB2U Vindicator dive bombers of VMSB-231 to the remote base in addition to the 65 aircraft of her air group, and the oiler Neosho.

Expecting to get some gunnery practice in during the cruise and not wanting to risk the caulking of small boats stored near the guns, Portland’s skipper ordered left behind the ship’s gig, a motor whaleboat, and one of her motor launches at the Pearl Harbor Coal Docks with a 10 man detachment under the command of BMl/c CJ Brame, detached on temporary duty with:

• Booth, E.K., 375-81-81,MMl/c
• McKirahan, S. A., 316-68-98, Fl/c
• Kemph, A. M., 376-13-20, GM3/C
• Robinson, P. S, 337-37-19 Sealc
• DeYong, L. R., 356-49-95, Sealc
• Koine, W. M. ,321-48-33, Seal/c,
• Reimer, J. R, 337-39-70, Seal/c
• Sullivan, G. A.,Seal/c
• Mc Lain, T. E., 321-48-39, Seal/c
• McKellip, G.,368-48-47, Seal/c

Although the U.S. was still a mighty neutral in World War II, the task force zig-zagged on its way out, steaming at an easy 16 knots, and darkened ships at night.

Still 500 nm southeast of Midway, at 0832 on 7 December, Portland found herself in the war.

From her Deck Log: 

The ship was soon put ready to fight. Her holystoned decks and bright work disappeared under haze grey, never to be seen again.

From Sweet Pea at War: A History of USS Portland by William Thomas Generous:

Portland’s crew spent the rest of the day at hard work, stripping ship. They took down the mess deck’s light globes and unnecessary flammable items, like the wooden paneling in the wardroom. They painted over the topside wooden decks, heretofore beautifully white from so much holystoning, but now made a darker color so the ship would be harder to see from the air. They rigged false radar antennas and made other topside alterations to change the appearance of the ship. One of the things they dumped over the side was the beautiful mahogany brow, the gangway used by the men to pass from the ship to the pier and back when Portland was tied up. By the time Sweet Pea went to general quarters in the evening of December 7, no one in the crew thought it a drill.

LIFE photographer Bob Landry was onboard the cruiser at the tense moment and caught several now-iconic images of her crew getting ready for a real-life shooting war– with echoes of Pearl Harbor in their ears and the knowledge that a giant Japanese striking force could be just over the horizon. Talk about the pucker factor.

Portland and the rest of the Lexington carrier group spent the next week searching frantically for the Japanese strike force to the south of Hawaii, combing as far down as Johnson Island– with a continuous airborne combat air patrol overhead. Luckily for them, all they found was an empty ocean as the Japanese Kido Butai had retired to the north.

Meanwhile, BMl/c Brame and his 10-man, 3-boat, 1 rifle (with 10 bullets) detachment, left behind at Pearl Harbor, had spent the “Day Which Will Live in Infamy” very much hard at work in the harbor, rescuing sailors from the flaming waters, carrying returning sailors from the Liberty Landing to their ships, firing their paltry few rounds of ball ammo at low-flying meatballs, and basically just trying not to be killed– by both sides.

As detailed by Seal/c Reimer:

Koine had the rifle loaded in short order and was firing at the planes that came over our area. There was nothing we could do but take cover, standing in knee-deep water under the dock. At that time I lost track of time by the clock. After some time there was a definite lull in the action over the harbor. One of the enemy planes had crashed into some hospital barracks about a hundred yards from our location. Having no idea what to do, we went to the area and helped firemen tend hoses to put out the fire. It was an unoccupied wooden building and not much damage was done. When the fire was out we looked through the wreckage of the plane. At that time I chose to eat the second of my breakfast sandwiches. When I saw part of the torso of one of the occupants of the plane I did not finish my sandwich.

Reimer, Koine, and the gang reunited with Portland when she returned to Pearl Harbor along with the Lexington group on 13 December, mooring at berth C-5 at 1803. Her crew was fleshed out for war service from the Emergency Fleet Pool, augmented with several men late of the sunken battleship USS California.

It was noted in her log that “No records or accounts for the above men were received,” for obvious reasons.

Portland left again at 1141 on 14 December for war service– having spent just over 17 hours at berth.

She would spend the next five months in a series of fruitless patrols between the West Coast, Hawaii, and Fiji. It would be her only quiet service during the conflict.

At least she picked up radar in February 1942 at Mare Island– SC search along with Mk 3 and Mk 4 fire control. She also got a better AAA suite, landing her next to worthless .50 cals, then picking up four quad 1.1-inch Chicago Pianos and 12 Orelikons. 

She would soon need them.

Coral Sea

In the first large sea battle of the Pacific War, Portland served in RADM Thomas Kinkaid’s Attack Group TG 17.2 during the four-day Battle of the Coral Sea on 4-8 May, which intercepted a Japanese invasion force bound for Port Moresby, New Guinea and sank the small Japanese carrier Shoho, damaged the large carrier Shokaku, and gutted the aircrew from the carrier Zuikaku— which effectively zeroed out these three from being part of Nagumo’s First Striking Force at Midway a month later.

Portland provided close AAA support to the carriers USS Yorktown and USS Lexington during the battle and, on the morning of the 8t,h fired 185 rounds of 5-inch, 1,400 rounds of 1.1-inch (bursting a barrel on one of these guns), and 2,400 rounds of 20mm at eight incoming Japanese planes, with her crews claiming at least one splashed.

In all, Portland’s gunners would claim 22 aircraft splashed during the war, and at least another 11 downed with “assists.”

Sadly, the big Lex was in trouble and, ablaze and smoking, began to list.

From Portland’s log:

Portland would take aboard 22 officers, 317 enlisted, and 6 Marines from Lexington’s crew, delivered via breeches buoy and motor launch from the Sims-class destroyer USS Morris (DD-417).

On the evening of the 10th, another Sims, USS Anderson (DD-411), would come alongside and transfer a further 17 officers and 360 men, formerly of Lexington, in the dark. This brought the number of guests at Hotel Portland to 722.

Arriving in Pearl Harbor on 27 May via Tonga, Portland would welcome Capt. Laurance Toombs “Dubie” DuBose (USNA ’13) aboard as her skipper, her third since the war started.

Midway

During the Midway campaign, as part of Task Group 17.2 (Cruiser Group) under RADM WW Smith, along with the cruiser Astoria, Portland was assigned to stick to the carrier Yorktown, one of three American carriers left in the Pacific, and screen the vital flattop from Japanese aircraft.

She did a good job, too.

When Yorktown was attacked by a swarm of homeless Japanese aircraft from the carrier Hiryū on 4 June, Portland filled the sky with 235 5-inch shells, 1,440 1.1-inch shells– rupturing the barrels of two of these guns– and 3,200 rounds of 20mm. She even fired five rounds from her big 8-inchers into the sea to wash the low-flying planes out of the sky. Her gunners claimed at least seven kills.

Her diagram from the action:

Sadly, Yorktown was damaged by at least three bombs dropped by Vals and two Type 91 aerial torpedoes delivered by Kates. Dead in the water but still afloat, once again, Portland began taking on crews from a sinking American carrier– one that was given a coup de grace by a Japanese submarine the next day.

The cruiser would triple the number of men taken aboard from Lady Lex at Coral Sea, hosting an amazing 2,046 survivors from Yorktown for a few days.

From Generous:

In not quite a full day, Sweet Pea took what might have been the biggest at-sea transfer of men between ships in the history of the U.S. Navy. Destroyers Russell, Balch, Benham, Anderson, and Hamman came alongside Sweet Pea between 1835 on June 4, and 1430 on June 5. They delivered, respectively. 492, 545, 721, 203, and finally 85 survivors of the stricken Yorktown The total 2,046 refugees from the carrier almost tripled the number that had come from Lexington after the Coral Sea, itself a figure that had stretched the cruiser’s resources.

Guadalcanal

Sailing forth once again from Pearl Harbor on 15 July 1942 as part of TF 16, she was soon attached to screen the carrier USS Enterprise for the landings at Tulagi and Guadalcanal in early August before splashing three aircraft attempting to sink Enterprise, which is now known as the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on the 24th of August.

The Tarawa Raid

After escorting Enterprise back to Pearl Harbor for repairs– where she would be for six weeks– Portland was cut loose to conduct a single ship raid against Japanese-held Tarawa, Maina, and Apemama in the Gilbert Islands. Acting as TU 16.9.1, she blasted the enemy base with 245 8-inch shells on 15 October while two of her scout planes dropped bombs on a freighter.

Directed to Espiritu Santo, she rejoined the Enterprise Group on 23 October just in time for the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands three days later. In this, her fourth carrier-on-carrier fight in six months, Portland zapped another three planes and reportedly was hit by three Japanese torpedoes that were launched too close to arm!

In all, her crew would have close calls with at least eight torps during the war.

Third Savo

Needed to help stop the nightly Japanese run down the “Slot” in Ironbottom Sound off Guadalcanal, Portland sailed from Noumea on 7 November and joined a surface action group in the Solomons by the 11th, splashing two Japanese land-based bombers the next day.

By the night of the 12th/13 (as in Friday the 13th), 13 ships under RADM Daniel Callaghan in the cruiser USS San Francisco, with Portland being the only other heavy cruiser, sailed out to meet the Japanese in the Sound. With Callaghan’s force balanced by the light cruisers Helena, Atlanta, and Juneau, along with eight destroyers, they ran right into RADM Hiroaki Abe’s battleships Hiei and Kirishima, the cruiser Nagara, and 11 destroyers.

In the confusing, swirling action, Portland helped pummel the destroyer Akatsuki out of existence, hit the destroyer Ikazuchi with two 8-inch shells to the bow, and delivered several salvos to the battlewagon Hiei.

In exchange, Portland suffered her first enemy hits of the war, with two of Hiei’s 14-inch shells– gratefully HE rounds as the battleship was headed to bombard the Marines at Henderson Field– that exploded when they hit the cruiser’s svelte 4-inch belt.

She also took a dud 5-inch shell through her hangar.

 

What did far more damage was a hit at Frame 134 from a Long Lance torpedo fired either from the Japanese destroyer Inazuma or Ikazuchi, which blew a 60-foot hole in the stern, jamming her rudder in a 5-degree turn to port, blew off her inboard props, and disabled the cruiser’s aft turret. This left Portland performing a series of slow circles– her forward guns still firing four six-gun salvos whenever the burning and nearly stationary Hiei came into view– for the rest of the battle.

From her war damage report: 

It is amazing that Portland only had 17 members of her crew lost in the fight.

Still circling slowly at dawn- picking up American survivors from other ships in the process– Portland spotted the abandoned destroyer Yudachi at 12,500 yards and, with DuBose directing, “sink the S.O.B.” put the tin can below the waves with six 6-gun salvos.

Halsey appreciated the touch, later noting “The sinking of an enemy destroyer by Portland 3 hours and 45 minutes after the night action, while still out of control, was one of the highlights of this action.”

Shortly afterward, with the help of the old minesweeper USS Bobolink (AM-20) and a Yippie (YP-239) who steadied the cruiser’s bow as she steamed slowly, her rudder still locked to the right, Portland made Tulagi just after midnight on 14 November and only narrowly avoided an attack from two PT boats standing guard.

Spending a week camouflaged and hidden from enemy air while repairs were made and her rudders locked in the middle position, Portland was pulled from her hide at Tulagi on 22 November by the tug USS Navajo, which rode shotgun with her to Sydney, where the cruiser arrived on the 30th under her own power

After two months in Sydney, she made for Mare Island with stops at Samoa and Pearl Harbor, arriving on the West Coast on 3 March.

In this refit, she upgraded radars to SG and SK sets and beached all her worthless 1.1-inch quads to make room for four quad Bofors.

By late May, she was ready to get back to work.

Alaska

After a training cruise in California waters, Portland arrived in the Aleutians on 11 June 1943 where, as part of TG 16.7, she first blockaded and then bombarded Kiska on 22 July (when the Japanese were still there), fought off a swarm of mysterious unidentified pips on 25/26 July (the “Battle of Sitkin Pip”), covered the fog-shrouded landings on since evacuated Kiska once more on 15/16 August, and covered the close reconnaissance of nearby Little Kiska on the 17th that confirmed it was also abandoned.

Portland left Alaskan waters on 23 September, bound for Pearl Harbor.

Island Hopping

From November 1943 through February 1944, Portland participated in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaigns, then screened carriers during air strikes against Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai in March.

She bombarded Darrit Island in the Marshalls at the end of January, firing 149 8-inch shells and a dozen of 5-inch AA common.

Eniwetok and Parry Island got a very serious shellacking by 776 8-inch HC, 35 8-inch AP (used against bunkers as an experiment), 980 rounds of 5-inch, 4,716 40mm, and 1,286 20mm over the course of four days in February. The Bofors were reportedly very good at “hedge trimming” coconut groves to remove cover for enemy positions.

In early March, Portland picked up a new skipper, Capt. Thomas G. W. “Tex” Settle (USNA ’18). A destroyerman during the Great War, he spent most of the 20s and 30s in a series of aviation posts as a test pilot and lighter-than-air (blimp) expert. Having been in charge of Airship Wing Three just before catching a PBY to Eniwetok and never commanded a warship larger than a 165-foot river gunboat, he nonetheless proved ready to take our cruiser into harm’s way.

Portland continued her work.

She screened carriers as they conducted air strikes on New Guinea– where she had four men wounded by splinters from an enemy aircraft attack on 29 March– and the Japanese stronghold of Truk in late April.

Detached with five other cruisers as a surface action group, Portland then conducted a bombardment of Satawan (Satowan) Island in the Caroline’s Mortlock chain, on 30 April 1944, plastering the thin atoll with 89 8-inch shells and coming away with her spotter planes reporting the airstrip there “unusable.” The battalion-sized Japanese force there was left to wither on the vine and only surrendered post-VJ Day.

On 14 May, having been hard at work from Kiska to the Kokoda Trail for a solid year, she was given orders to head to Mare Island for refit and upgrades. 

Her fire control radars were upgraded to Mk 8 and Mk 28 sets and she picked up eight more Bofors (four twins) and five more Oerlikons (singles). This gave her a combined armament of 9 8″/55s, 8 5″/25s, 24 40mm Bofors, 17 20mm Oerlikons, and one catapult with provision for two seaplanes in her hangar. 

She emerged at the end of July in her final form, including a new camo scheme.

On 7 August, she left California bound for points West.

Peleliu

Arriving off Peleliu in the Palau Group just before dawn on 12 September, some 4,000 miles west of Pearl Harbor but only 500 miles east of the Philippines, Portland lent her guns to the massive softening-up process covering the Operation Stalemate II landings there that began three days later, a role she would continue for the rest of the month, often working alongside her sister, Indianapolis.

In all, Portland fired 1,169 8-inch HC, another 77 of 8-inch AP in counter-bunker work, 1,945 5-inch, and 10,156 40mm hedge trimmers in support of the 1st MARDIV. Her nights were also busy, popping off 5-inch illumination rounds, as many as 129 a night.

Portland was also the subject of an air attack around 2030 on the night of 19 September when a single-engine plane, believed to be a Japanese Aichi E13A (Jake) floatplane, approached in the dark, dropped two small bombs that landed 200 yards off her port quarter, and caused no damage or casualties.

The P.I.

Given two weeks of forward-deployed downtime at Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Portland sailed with Cruiser Division 4 as part of TG 77.2 for the Leyte Gulf to support the landings there, which began the liberation of the Philippines. Entering the Gulf on the 18th, by 0618 on the 19th, she began delivering naval gunfire support ashore. Over the next five days, she sent 797 rounds of 8-inch and 373 5-inch shells over the beach, plus another 163 5-inch shells to defend against air attacks.

Then came a call on the afternoon of the 24th that Japanese capital ships were sailing up the Surigao Strait, sparking one of the four sprawling engagements that made up the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf.

The last battleship-to-battleship action in history saw VADM Shoji Nishimura’s “Southern Force,” including the old battleships Yamashiro and Fuso, the heavy cruiser Mogami, and four destroyer,s stumble into Oldendorf’s waiting six battleships, four heavy cruisers (including Portland), and four light cruisers, after fighting through a mass of destroyers and PT boats.

Given lots of forewarning due to their PT boat and triple destroyer pickets, as well as superior surface search radar, Portland opened fire at 0352 with her main battery to starboard on enemy ships bearing 186 True, 15,500 yards. The target ended up being Yamashiro, at least the second battleship that Portland would land hits on during the war.

In the swirling night action, with Portland running seventh in the column, she got her licks in. She would fire 233 rounds of 8-inch by the time her guns went quiet at 0539, engaging four different targets between 13,700 and 23,000 yards, with her plot radar tracking contacts out to 40,000.

Chief of these targets was believed to be the 13,000-ton heavy cruiser Mogami, with Portland wrecking the bigger ship’s compass bridge and the air defense center while killing her skipper, Capt. Ryo Toma and his XO, Capt. Hashimoto Uroku, along with several junior officers.

Tex Settle, the destroyerman-turned-balloonist, who had left Mare Island just two months prior with a crew filled with hundreds of newly minted sailors and then been thrown into the gunline at Peleliu to get some on-the-job training, delivered a sobering assessment in his action report.

In his own report to Nimitz, Oldendorf noted, “The USS Portland was well handled during this action and her high volume of accurate fire was a material contribution to the complete defeat of the Japanese force.”

Still very much needed, Portland took a brief break at Ulithi to refill her magazines and then, by 5 November, was screening carriers striking Japanese airfields around Luzon. She then spent most of December in a series of AAA engagements against kamikaze strikes while supporting the Mindoro landings.

From 3 January through 1 March 1945, Portland participated in the operations at Lingayen Gulf and Corregidor, including bombarding the vicinity of Cape Bolinao and the Eastern shore of the Gulf while swatting swarms of suicide aircraft.

Off Rosario for almost two weeks, she extensively supported the 43rd “Winged Victory” Infantry Division, dropping photos and sketches of Japanese lines for the unit’s staff via her floatplanes while delivering 485 rounds of 8-inch on-target. In this, U.S. Sixth Army commander, Gen. Walter Kruger, commended the photo recon work of Portland’s pilots.

On 1 March, she retired to San Pedro Bay in the Leyte Gulf for some downtime, maintenance, and provisioning, capping 140 days operational.

She would need it for the next op.

Okinawa

Arriving off Okinawa via Ulithi on 26 March 1945, Portland would become a fixture, conducting operations for almost three months straight. In her first month alone, she survived 24 air raids, shot down at least a quartet of enemy aircraft, assisted with downing another eight planes, and delivered several tons of ordnance.

Portland also scrapped with a Japanese sub.

Between August 1944 and early March 1945, the Japanese Navy sent at least 12 new 86-foot Type D-TEI (Koryu) and 11 80-foot Type C (Hei Gata) midget submarines to hardened pens built for them along Okinawa’s Unten Bay on the island’s northern coast.

However, through a mixture of pre-invasion Army bomber strikes and Hellcats from USS Bunker Hill and Essex, most were out of action by the time of the landings.

On the nights of the 26th and 27th, the final six operational Japanese midget subs, each carrying a pair of torpedoes forward, crept out to attack the American fleet, sinking the destroyer USS Halligan (DD-584) in the process.

On the morning of 27 March, Portland squared off with HA-60, a Type C, and, while the Japanese boat fired both its torpedoes at the cruiser Pensacola without success, the Portland’s gunners managed to soak the little sub’s periscope and tower with several hundred rounds of 40mm and 20mm while the ship attempting to ram, her stem missing the boat by just 20 feet.

While HA-60 managed to get away, she had a damaged scope which hampered her further attacks. The last Japanese midget sub on Okinawa, HA-60 was abandoned on 31 March.

Sent to Ulithi on 20 April for replenishment and repairs, Portland was back on the gunline with CTG 54.2 off Hagushi Beach on Southwestern Okinawa by 8 May, continuing this vital mission through 17 June.

One of her typical days: 

Her ordnance expended in this second Okinawa cruise:

Besides providing aerial spotting and recon for NGFS and nightly illumination, Portland also stood ready to clock in as a floating triage station, reliving the immense pressure on the dedicated hospital ships. On one occasion, no less than 26 wounded Soldiers and Marines were brought out via landing craft.

Anchored at Buckner Bay when the news of the Japanese capitulation came, the celebrations had to be placed on hold as the Navy had one more mission for the old Sweet Pea.

Endgame

Embarking VADM George D. Murray, Commander Marianas, and his staff on 31 August, Portland was given the task of accepting the surrender of the Japanese Navy’s 4th Fleet, under VADM Chuichi Hara, and the Japanese 31st Army, under Lt. Gen. Shunzaburo Mugikura, who were still holding out at the bypassed fortress of Truk.

Other than the Dutch East Indies, Indochina, Singapore, and Hong Kong, where British and their Commonwealth forces were addressing, Truk was the last large Japanese stronghold in the Pacific. Although its lagoons were filled with 44 wrecks and nearly 300 burnt-out aircraft were hulked on its airstrips, some 40,000 men remained under arms on the outpost. 

Arriving at Truk on 2 September, the event was quick. The Japanese signatories boarded Portland from motor launches at 0920, had a short briefing in the cruiser’s spartan wardroom, then proceeded to the deck where the ceremony took place before the assembled crew at 1015. The delegation left with their copies of the document and Portland raised anchor for Guam directly.

Ironically, on 16 September 1945 in the port of Tsingtao, China, which the Japanese had possessed since taking it away from the Germans in 1914, Sweet Pea’s Surigao Straits skipper, Tex Settle, now a rear admiral, accepted the surrender of six of the Emperor’s remaining destroyers and seven merchantmen along with VADM Shigeharu Kaneko’s Qingdao Area Special Base Force command.

Portland then carried 500 men from Guam to Pearl Harbor, and from there some 600 troops for transportation back to the States.

Transiting the Panama Canal on 8 October, she was the feature of Navy Day at Portland, Maine on 27 October.

Our well-traveled cruiser consigned to mothballs at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, was decommissioned there on 12 July 1946.

Struck from the Navy List on 1 March 1959, she was sold for scrap to the Union Mineral and Alloys Corporation of NYC five months later and scrapped.

The Navy lists her as taking part in an amazing 21 Pacific battles and campaigns during WWII:

• 4 May 42 – 8 May 42 Battle of Coral Sea
• 3 Jun 42 – 6 Jun 42 Battle of Midway
• 7 Aug 42 – 9 Aug 42 Guadalcanal-Tulagi landings (including First Savo)
• 23 Aug 42 – 25 Aug 42 Eastern Solomons (Stewart Island)
• 26 Oct 42 Battle of Santa Cruz Islands
• 12 Nov 42 Capture and defense of Guadalcanal
• 12 Nov 42 – 15 Nov 42 Guadalcanal (Third Savo)
• 20 Nov 43 – 4 Dec 43 Gilbert Islands operation
• 31 Jan 44 – 8 Feb 44 Occupation of Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls
• 17 Feb 44 – 2 Mar 44 Occupation of Eniwetok Atoll
• 30 Mar 44 – 1 Apr 14 Palau, Yap, Ulithi, Woleai raid
• 21 Apr 44 – 24 Apr 44 Hollandia operation (Aitape Humbolt Bay-Tanahmerah Bay)
• 29 Apr 44 – 1 May 44 Truk, Satawan, Ponape raid
• 6 Sep 44 – 14 Oct 44 Capture and occupation of southern Palau Islands
• 9 Sep 44 – 24 Sept 44 Assaults on the Philippine Islands
• 10 Oct 44 – 29 Nov 44 Leyte landings
• 24 Oct 44 – 26 Oct 44 Battle of Surigao Strait
• 5 Nov 44 – 6 Nov 44, 13 Nov 44 – 14 Nov 44, 19 Nov 44 – 20 Nov 44: Luzon attacks
• 12 Dec 44 – 18 Dec 44, 4 Jan 45 – 18 Jan 45: Mindoro landings
• 15 Feb 45 – 16 Feb 45 Mariveles-Corregidor
• 25 Mar 45 – 17 Jun 45 Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto

These resulted in a Navy Unit Commendation (for Surigao Strait) and in 16 battle stars for World War II service although her crew, in post-war reunions, argue she probably should have gotten more like 18 stars when the Tarawa raid and Aleutians service are included, plus she had a detachment just off Battleship Row during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Still, no matter if it was 16 or 18, that’s a lot of campaign service.

As detailed by Generous: 

Sweet Pea was the only ship at all three of the great battles in the early days of the war when Japan might have won. She was the only heavy cruiser in history that twice faced enemy battleships in nighttime engagements, not only surviving to tell the tale but winning both battles. She rescued thousands of men from sunken ships.  

 

If USS Portland (CA-33) was not the greatest heavy cruiser of them all, let someone else try to make the case.  

Epilogue

Sweet Pea had 14 skippers across her 13-year career between 1933 and 1946, one of which, DuBose, served twice. Of these men, fully half rose to the rank of admiral, one of them, DuBose, to a full four-star. What do you expect from someone who earned three Navy Crosses and a matching trio of Legions of Merit?

Tex Settle twice received the Harmon Trophy for Aeronautics and, for his service in WWII, was awarded the Navy Cross, Legion of Merit, and Bronze Star. He retired from the Navy as a Vice Admiral in 1957 after 29 years of service and passed at age 84 in 1980. Buried at Arlington, in 1998 was inducted to the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor. His papers, appropriately are in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s collections. 

Portland’s records are in the National Archives.

A veterans association, once very vibrant, went offline in 2023. According to the VA, as of 2024, there are just approximately 66,000 living World War II veterans in the United States, which is less than 1 percent of the 16.4 million Americans who served in the conflict.

A memorial site exists, with lots of crew stories. 

Her mast and bell have been preserved at Fort Allen Park in Portland, Maine.

The Navy has gone on to recycle the name “Portland” twice, first for an Anchorage-class gator (LSD-37) commissioned in 1970 and struck in 2004, and then for a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock (LPD-27) that joined the fleet in 2017.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

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Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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