USS Boise (CL-47)

USS Boise (CL-47): The One Man Navy

Commissioned on 12 August 1938, USS Boise was a Brooklyn-class light cruiser that became one of the most celebrated American warships of the Pacific War's opening years. Named for Idaho's capital, she earned a reputation for aggressive action and remarkable survival against seemingly overwhelming odds, earning her the unofficial nickname "The One Man Navy" from an American press corps hungry for good news in 1942.

Boise was at Pearl Harbor when the attack came, surviving without damage and immediately joining the Pacific fight. Through 1942 she operated in the Guadalcanal campaign as the Navy and Marines fought to hold the island against repeated Japanese attempts to retake it. On the night of 11–12 October 1942, Boise was part of the American cruiser force that intercepted a Japanese naval force at the Battle of Cape Esperance, one of the first clear American tactical victories of the Guadalcanal campaign.

At Cape Esperance, Boise opened fire with devastating effect, her 6-inch guns tearing into Japanese cruisers and destroyers. But Japanese return fire found her: an 8-inch shell hit her forward magazine. The resulting explosion should have destroyed her, but seawater flooding through shell holes doused the fire before the magazine cooked off. Boise lost 107 men killed in the engagement, but survived to fight on. Her crew's rapid damage control saved the ship from an explosion that would have ended her immediately.

Repaired in Philadelphia, Boise returned to the Pacific and then served in the Mediterranean under the Southwest Pacific command, supporting MacArthur's operations in New Guinea and the Philippines. She participated in Leyte Gulf and in the final operations of the Philippine campaign. Eleven battle stars across the Pacific and Southwest Pacific theaters.

After the war she was sold to Argentina as the ARA Nueve de Julio. Tactically Acquired's USS Boise (CL-47) collection honors the crew of the One Man Navy, the sailors who kept a crippled ship afloat at Cape Esperance and brought her back to fight eleven more battles.