Tag Archives: 6″/47 Mark 16

A 6-inch Christmas Eve off Buka

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80 Years Ago Today: Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Columbia (CL-56) 6″/47 Mark 16 expended powder casings from Turrets 3 & 4 lying on the main deck aft of the ship during bombardment of Buka Island in the Solomons by CruDiv 12. December 24, 1943.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-299039

Columbia fired 863 6-inch shells that night-– over a third of the Cleveland-class magazine capacity of 200 rounds for each of their 12 main guns. She also fired 1141 5″/38 shells.

It was a role she played often, in addition to taking on Japanese surface assets and swatting away kamikazes. 

After 6/47 gun turrets of USS Columbia (CL-56) firing, during the night bombardment of Japanese facilities in the Shortlands that covered landings on Bougainville, 1 November 1943. Official U.S. Navy photo 80-G-44058

Columbia, dubbed “the Gem of the Ocean” by her crew, earned 10 battlestars and two Naval Unit Commendations during her short career. Decommissioned in 1947 after just over four years of service, with a good portion of that in reserve, she was sold for scrap in 1959.

Lighting up the sky on All Saints Day, 75 years ago today

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Here we see the Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Columbia (CL-56), her after 6″/47cal gun turrets just absolutely lighting up the sky during a night bombardment of Japanese facilities in the Shortland Islands, covering the landings on nearby Bougainville, 1 November 1943.

Official U.S. Navy photo 80-G-44058 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command

Note that the image has been retouched by censors to eliminate radar antennas on gun directors and masthead.

Armed with a dozen 6″/47 Mark 16 guns in four triple turrets, Columbia could lob a 130-pound AP shell 20,000-yards and, as a well-trained crew could get out 10-rounds per minute per tube (for brief periods anyway) the cruiser could plaster a target with 120 such shells in 60 seconds or less. The very night after the above photo was taken, Columbia helped her sisterships USS Montpelier, Cleveland, and Denver sink the Japanese cruiser Sendai and destroyer Hatsukaze, again proving the effectiveness of those beautiful Mark 16s.

Commissioned in 1942, Columbia earned 10 battle stars and was put in mothballs in 1946 after just a four-year stint in the majors. She sat on rust row until 1959 when she was stricken and scrapped.