USS New Orleans (CA-32)

USS New Orleans (CA-32): Bow Gone, Guns Still Firing

Commissioned on 15 February 1934, USS New Orleans was the lead ship of the New Orleans class, a major step forward in American heavy cruiser design, with significantly improved armor protection compared to the earlier treaty cruisers. She earned seventeen battle stars for World War II service, one of the highest totals of any American cruiser, and she did it while absorbing damage that would have put most ships on the ocean floor permanently.

New Orleans joined the Pacific Fleet before the war and was operating in Hawaiian waters when Japan attacked. She quickly entered the fight, participating in early carrier raids and convoy operations before entering the grinding Guadalcanal campaign of 1942. She was at Coral Sea, at Midway, and at virtually every carrier engagement of 1942 as American and Japanese naval forces fought for control of the South Pacific.

On the night of 30 November – 1 December 1942, disaster struck at the Battle of Tassafaronga. A Japanese torpedo exploded against USS Minneapolis, and the detonating warhead threw debris across the water, including burning debris that ignited the forward ammunition and fuel of New Orleans. A Japanese torpedo then hit New Orleans directly, and the combined explosion was catastrophic: it blew off everything forward of Turret Two. Her bow, from about Frame 30 forward, nearly a third of her length, was gone, including one of her 8-inch turrets.

What happened next defines the crew of New Orleans. They patched the forward bulkhead, fought fires, controlled flooding, and somehow kept the ship afloat in Japanese-controlled waters. She made it to Tulagi under her own power, 25 miles. Then, in one of the most remarkable improvised repairs of the war, shipwrights constructed a new temporary bow from coconut palm timber to allow her to make the 7,000-mile journey to Puget Sound for permanent repairs. New Orleans made it back, was rebuilt, and returned to the Pacific in August 1943.

She never stopped fighting. She was back at the Marshalls, at the Marianas, at Leyte Gulf, at Iwo Jima, and at Okinawa. Her seventeen battle stars span the entire Pacific campaign. New Orleans survived things that should have killed her twice over and kept returning to the line. That's what the crew of a great ship does.

Tactically Acquired's USS New Orleans (CA-32) collection honors a ship of extraordinary resilience and the crew who brought her home against every odd. These are the stories worth wearing.