USS Wichita (CA-45)

USS Wichita (CA-45): One of a Kind in Two Oceans

Commissioned on 16 February 1939, USS Wichita was unique in the U.S. Navy, she was the only ship of her class, a one-off design that bridged the gap between the New Orleans-class heavy cruisers and the Brooklyn-class light cruisers. Built on the Brooklyn hull with the 8-inch guns of a heavy cruiser, Wichita was an experiment that worked: faster, better balanced, and more survivable than her predecessors. And she fought in two oceans, earning thirteen battle stars for World War II service.

Wichita spent the first year of the war in the Atlantic. She participated in early convoy escort duties and provided cover for operations along the coast of North Africa. In early 1942, she was one of the few heavy cruisers available to conduct Atlantic patrols against the threat of German surface raiders and to support British operations in the North Sea. She covered convoys to the Soviet Union through the Murmansk run, one of the most dangerous convoy routes of the war.

Transferred to the Pacific in late 1942, Wichita immediately entered the Guadalcanal campaign and never looked back. She fought at the Battle of Rennell Island in January 1943, the last major surface action of the Guadalcanal campaign. She then participated in the Central Pacific drive: the Marshalls, Marianas, the Philippine Sea, and the Leyte Gulf campaign.

At the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, Wichita's anti-aircraft guns contributed to the destruction of Japanese carrier aviation in what American aviators called the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot." At Leyte Gulf in October 1944, she was part of the force that finally broke the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to contest American control of the Pacific.

Thirteen battle stars. Two oceans. Four years of continuous operations. Wichita earned her place as one of the Navy's hardest-working cruisers. She was decommissioned on 3 February 1947. Tactically Acquired's USS Wichita (CA-45) collection honors the crew of the ship that fought everywhere and gave everything in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.