USS Reno (CL-96)

USS Reno (CL-96): Hit and Survived at Leyte Gulf

Commissioned on 28 December 1943, USS Reno was an Atlanta-class anti-aircraft cruiser named for Nevada's Biggest Little City. She earned three battle stars in the Pacific War, the last of which she earned while fighting to stay afloat after a Japanese torpedo nearly sent her to the bottom at the Leyte Gulf campaign.

Reno entered the Pacific in early 1944 and joined the carrier task forces conducting the Central Pacific drive. As an Atlanta-class AA cruiser, her mission was protecting the carriers from Japanese air attack, a mission that became increasingly important as Japanese aircraft manufacturing struggled to replace the pilots and planes lost in the string of defeats from Midway through the Marianas.

During the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, Reno was part of the task force engaged in the complex multi-theater engagement that broke the back of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In the confusion of the battle, a Japanese submarine found an opportunity and put a torpedo into Reno. The hit was severe, flooding compartments and causing the ship to settle in the water. Her crew fought the flooding as the battle continued around them.

Reno survived, damaged but not sunk, towed from the battle area and eventually repaired. The torpedo hit at Leyte was one of the last major damage incidents she suffered, as she was unable to return to frontline service before the war's end. But her crew had fought the ship after being torpedoed in the middle of the largest naval battle in history, and that counts.

Three battle stars, a torpedo hit at Leyte Gulf, and a crew that kept their ship afloat when it counted. Tactically Acquired's USS Reno (CL-96) collection honors Nevada's cruiser and the men who brought her back from Leyte Gulf.