Tag Archives: USS Reno (CL-96)

Accomplishments of the Impossible

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80 years ago today, an absolutely beautiful profile shot of the spick-and-span new USS Reno (CL-96) outbound in the Golden Gate, while leaving San Francisco Bay, California, on 25 January 1944. Reno is painted in Camouflage Measure 33, Design 24d.

Photographed by Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, California. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-215947

The Atlanta (Oakland)-class light anti-aircraft cruiser was built in the Bay area at Bethlehem and commissioned in December 1943. The above image is of her leaving on trials and shakedown.

Joining Mitscher’s Task Force 58 by May 1944, in early November Reno ran across Japanese B2-type submarine I-41 and came away with two Type 95 torpedos in her hull– one of which was still live. Filled with 1,850 tons of seawater, she somehow limped to Ulithi for temporary repairs before making it stateside, where she finished the war in repair.

At one point, she had an 18-foot draft forward and a 30-foot draft at the stern with a 16-degree list. Keep in mind her mean draft at max load was 20 feet.

USS Reno (CL-96) under salvage after she was torpedoed by the I-41 on 3 November 1944, while operating off the Philippines. Photographed on 5 November, with USS Zuni (ATF-95) alongside. NH 98473

The full 99-page report on her torpedoing and epic damage control efforts is in the National Archives. 

This is from the report:

Reno earned three battle stars for her World War II service and decommissioned in 1946, never left mothballs until it was time to be turned into razor blades in 1959.

However, one of her twin 5-inch/38 gun turrets has been preserved at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, long exhibited in the WWII Pacific section of Bldg. 76.

USS Reno flag recovered

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The Atlanta/Oakland-class light cruiser USS Reno (CL-96), the second and final U.S. Navy ship named for the Biggest Little City in Nevada, was a war baby, constructed entirely during WWII, which is fitting as the state’s motto is “Battle Born.”

USS Reno (CL-96) Outbound in the Golden Gate, while leaving San Francisco Bay, California, 25 January 1944. Photographed by Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, California. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-215949

Commissioned three days after Christmas 1943, she earned a trio of battle stars in the Pacific and was laid up in 1946 after less than three years with the fleet. Scrapped in 1962, one of her 5″/38 DP twin turrets is preserved at the U.S. Navy Museum in D.C. while her battle ensign and bell were presented in 1955 to the City of Reno, her namesake, where they were enshrined at City Hall.

Her flag was stolen by rioters/vandals this week but was returned anonymously to the news outlet that reported it had gone south.

Others ships not so lucky

Some museums are not as fortunate, however.

The National Civil War Naval Museum reports that rioters there burned down their boatshed, which contained several artifacts and two vessels from the blockade runner CSS Virginia and the fantail of the ironclad CSS Jackson.

Firefighters responding to a 1:05 a.m. call found the open-air shelter in flames from an “incendiary fire” with “multiple points of origin,” Columbus Fire Marshal Ricky Shores told local media.