Tag Archives: USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37)

Not war, but you can see it from here

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Some 85 years ago this week. Somewhere in the U-boat-filled North Atlantic.

Convoy to Iceland, September 1941: the New Orleans-class heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA 37) hoists in a Curtiss SOC scout-observation plane after a patrol. View looks aft on the cruiser’s starboard side, with midships’ 5″/25 guns in the foreground. Another SOC is resting on the starboard catapult.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph – NH 47007

Tuscaloosa at the time was part of RADM William R. Munroe’s TF 15 during Operation Indigo III, the passage of 5,000 men of the U.S. Army 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Engineers, 46th Field Artillery Battalion, and various service units to Iceland. There, the Joes would replace the men of the First Marine Brigade (Provisional), which had started arriving the previous July.

While the U.S. was not “officially” in the war, by relieving the British in Iceland, which had been there since May 1940 after Denmark and Norway had been occupied by the Germans.

The 9,950-ton Tuscaloosa, a “peace” cruiser that had been constructed during the period that the U.S. was handcuffed by the London and Washington Naval Treaties, had entered service in 1934.

The Indigo force included the battleship USS Idaho, heavy cruisers Tuscaloosa and Vincennes, and destroyers Winslow, Anderson, Mustin, O’Brien, Sampson, Benson, Hilary P. Jones, and Niblack, escorting the transports Heywood, William P. Biddle, Harry L. Lee, and Republic, leaving the New York Port of Embarkation on the morning of 5 September– the same day the new broke of U-652 trading torpedoes for depth charges with the destroyer USS Greer off Newfoundland.

Purposely avoiding Halifax-to-Scotland convoy routes, they nonetheless had a scare, with sonarmen monitoring numerous underwater contacts.

Then FDR threw down the gauntlet in his fireside chat.

As noted by the CMH:

On the evening of 11 September, they were ploughing through the North Atlantic somewhere south of Greenland when the voice of President Roosevelt came over the radio announcing an attack on the USS Greer--he called it piracy–and declaring that German or Italian vessels of war would henceforth “at their own peril” enter waters essential to the defense of the United States.

With TF 15 arriving at Hvalfjörður near Reykjavík on 16 September 1941, Tuscaloosa would soon be made ready for war as much as possible.

Her earliest “dapple” slotch camo scheme was soon applied and, while she later carried the more purposeful Measures 33/ Design 13d, 31a/13d, and 12 later during the war, that first freestyle paint job was perhaps the most fetching.

USS Tuscaloosa (CA 37) at Hvalfjord, Iceland in April 1942. IWM A 7486.

Port quarter view of the USS Tuscaloosa (CA 37) at Hvalfjord, Iceland in April 1942. IWM A 8960

Midship close-up of the USS Tuscaloosa (CA 37) passing the HMS Wheatland (L 122) in May 1942 at Hvalfjord, Iceland. A good detail shot of plane handling facilities, SOC floatplanes, and searchlights. IWM A 8957.

USS Tuscaloosa (CA 37) moored at Scapa Flow, April 1942, while operating with the British Home Fleet. The British heavy cruiser London is in the background. 80-G-12018

Tuscaloosa would earn seven battle stars for her WWII service.

Tusky at peace, yet girded for war

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Some 85 years ago this month.

Late December 1940.

A great view of a cramped turret full of 8″/55 (20.3 cm) Mark 12 guns of the New Orleans-class heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37), as she rests in Norfolk, hosting dignitaries. ADM William D. Leahy (fore, L) and his wife are seen standing under the guns with Capt. Lee P. Johnson (fore, R), before they collectively departed for Vichy France, on a diplomatic mission.

LIFE Archives

Admiral William D. Leahy, USN, and his wife on board USS Tuscaloosa (CA 37), inspecting the cruiser’s Marines, before they depart for France in late December 1940. Note the Springfield 1903s

The big T in December 1940 was amid her stint on FDR’s Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic and Caribbean– having met up with the Dutch gunboat Van Kinsbergen to examine the latter’s 40mm Bofors mounts just four months prior.

Tusky’s December was to be a busy one. Per DANFS:

On 3 December 1940, at Miami, President Roosevelt embarked in Tuscaloosa for the third time for a cruise to inspect the base sites obtained from Great Britain in the recently negotiated “destroyers for bases” deal. In that transaction, the United States had traded 50 old flush-decked destroyers for 99-year leases on bases in the western hemisphere. Ports of call included Kingston, Jamaica; Santa Lucia, Antigua; and the Bahamas. Roosevelt fished and entertained British colonial officials-including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, on board the cruiser.

While the President cruised in Tuscaloosa, American officials in Washington wrestled with the problem of extending aid to Britain. Having barely weathered the disastrous campaign in France in the spring and the Battle of Britain in the summer, the United Kingdom desperately needed war materiel. American production could meet England’s need, but American neutrality law limiting the purchase of arms by belligerents to “cash-and-carry” transactions was about to become a major obstacle, for British coffers were almost empty. While pondering England’s plight as he luxuriated in Tuscaloosa, the President hit upon the idea of the “lend-lease” program to aid the embattled British.

On 16 December, Roosevelt left the ship at Charleston, S.C., to head for Washington to implement his “lend-lease” idea, one more step in the United States’ progress towards full involvement in the war. Soon thereafter, Tuscaloosa sailed for Norfolk and, on 22 December, embarked Admiral William D. Leahy, the newly designated Ambassador to Vichy France, and his wife, for passage to Portugal. With the “stars and stripes” painted large on the roofs of Turrets II and III, and her largest colors flying, Tuscaloosa sailed for the European war zone, initially escorted by USS Upshur (DD-144) and Madison (DD-425).

Letting those big guns sing in the Torch (North Africa), Overlord (Utah Beach at Normandy) Dragoon (Southern France), Detachment (Iwo Jima), and Iceberg (Okinawa) landings, Tuscaloosa received seven battle stars for her WWII service. She fired 22,000 shells in the latter two operations alone.

Placed out of commission at Philadelphia on 13 February 1946, Tuscaloosa remained in reserve there until she was struck from the Navy list on 1 March 1959. Her hulk was sold on 25 June 1959 to the Boston Metals Co. of Baltimore for scrapping.