USS Denver (CL-58)

USS Denver (CL-58): The Mile High City's Cruiser

Commissioned on 4 March 1943, USS Denver was a Cleveland-class light cruiser that carried Colorado's capital city through eleven battle stars of Pacific combat. She entered the war in mid-1943, joining the Solomon Islands campaign at a point when American fortunes were improving, the tide had turned at Guadalcanal, and the Navy was beginning the systematic offensive that would push Japan back across the Pacific.

Denver's combat career spanned the second and third phases of the Pacific War, from the mopping-up operations in the Solomons through the Central Pacific drive that shattered Japanese defensive lines island by island. She participated in operations at Bougainville, at the Gilberts, at the Marshalls, and in the opening strikes against the Marianas that would bring Japan's home islands within range of American B-29 bombers.

At the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in November 1943, Denver was part of the cruiser-destroyer force that met a Japanese attempt to reinforce Bougainville. The Americans had significantly improved their night-fighting capability since the disasters of 1942, and the Empress Augusta Bay engagement demonstrated that improvement: the Japanese were turned back with losses, and American forces tightened their grip on the northern Solomons.

Denver continued through the Marianas campaign in 1944 and participated in operations in the Philippines, providing naval gunfire support for amphibious landings and screening operations for the carrier task forces. She contributed to the anti-aircraft defense of the fleet during the kamikaze campaign that intensified through late 1944 and into 1945.

Eleven battle stars for a ship that represented the maturing American naval machine of the mid-Pacific War, well-trained, well-equipped, and operating with the kind of sustained effectiveness that the early desperate battles of 1942 had only begun to develop. Denver was decommissioned on 7 February 1947. Tactically Acquired's USS Denver (CL-58) collection honors her crew and Colorado's contribution to the Pacific War.