USS Wichita was a unique heavy cruiser of the United States Navy built in the 1930s. The last American cruiser designed to meet the limits of the London Naval Treaty, she was originally intended to be a heavy cruiser, accordingly with the maximum main armament of three triple gun turrets. These were instead placed on an improved hull derived from the Brooklyn-class light cruisers, with increased armor. This design would go on to form the basis for the later World War II–era heavy cruisers such as the . The ship was authorized by the 1929 Cruiser Act, laid down at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in October 1935, launched in November 1937, and commissioned into the US Navy in February 1939.
Following her commissioning, Wichita was assigned to neutrality patrols in the Atlantic. After the United States entered World War II, the ship saw heavy service throughout the conflict. She was first assigned to convoy escort duty on the Murmansk Run in early 1942, and supported amphibious landings during Operation Torch in November 1942. During the Naval Battle of Casablanca, Wichita engaged several French coastal batteries and warships, including the battleship . In 1943, Wichita was transferred to the Pacific Theater, where she remained for the rest of the war. She frequently provided antiaircraft defense for the Fast Carrier Task Force during operations in the central Pacific, including the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf in 1944. During the latter engagement, Wichita assisted in the sinking of the Japanese aircraft carrier .
Wichita was heavily engaged during the invasion of Okinawa, where she provided heavy gunfire support to ground troops ashore. After the Japanese surrender, the ship served as part of the occupation force in Japan and assisted in the repatriation of American military personnel under Operation Magic Carpet. After returning to the United States, she was decommissioned and placed in the "mothball" fleet in 1947. She remained in reserve until 1959, when she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and sold for scrapping in August 1959.
Design In the late 1920s, the Secretary of the Navy, Curtis D. Wilbur, pushed for a new construction program for light and heavy cruisers. Wilbur succeeded in passing the Cruiser Act in 1929, which authorized several new cruisers. Five heavy cruisers, the last of which was Wichita, were ordered between 1931 and 1934. Wichita was the last heavy cruiser permitted under the terms of the London Naval Treaty in 1930, which limited the US to 18 heavy cruisers with a maximum standard displacement of . The ship was originally intended to be built to the design of the , but the design was reworked before construction began. Instead, the design for Wichita was based on the of light cruisers. The Brooklyn design was modified heavily, to give the new ship higher freeboard and better stability, and an increased cruising radius. The secondary battery of eight guns was identical in number to the light cruisers, but was arranged to give better fields of fire. The main battery of nine guns was mounted in a new gun turret design that rectified problems discovered in earlier cruisers.
Wichita was laid down at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 28 October 1935, and launched on 16 November 1937. By the time she was completed, in February 1938, Wichita was nearly over the 10,000-ton limit; as a result, she was completed with only six of the eight 5-inch guns to keep her under the displacement restriction. When the rest of the 5-inch guns were installed, it was found that the ship was too top-heavy, and so of pig iron had to be added to her bottom to balance the cruiser. Wichita was commissioned into the US Navy on 16 February 1939 and was assigned the hull number CA-45. Her first commander was Captain Thaddeus A. Thomson.
General characteristics Wichita was long at the waterline and long overall. She had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced at standard displacement and at full combat load. The ship had a crew of 929 officers and enlisted men. She was equipped with four seaplanes and a pair of aircraft catapults and a crane for handling the aircraft which were mounted on the stern. Wichita was powered by four Parsons steam turbines and eight Babcock & Wilcox oil-fired water-tube boilers. The propulsion system was rated at and a top speed of . She carried of fuel oil, which gave her a maximum cruising range of at .
The hull was protected by a waterline armored belt composed of Class A armor that was thick amidships. It was reduced to thick on either end. The belt was backed with of special treatment steel. The Class A steel was significantly more effective than the Class B armor used in earlier cruisers; 8-inch guns had to be within to penetrate the belt, as opposed to for the earlier armor. Wichita had a thick deck, which was immune to 8-inch fire inside . The conning tower had thick sides and a 2.25 in thick roof. The ship's main battery turrets had thick faces, thick sides, thick rears, and thick roofs. The turrets were mounted on armored barbettes protected with of armor plating.
Armament Wichita was armed with a main battery of nine 8-inch /55 Mark 12 guns mounted in three 3-gun turrets, controlled by a pair of Mark 34 directors. The guns fired a projectiles at a muzzle velocity of . Maximum elevation of the guns was 41 degrees; this provided a maximum range of . Rate of fire was approximately one salvo every fifteen seconds. The turrets allowed each gun to elevate and fire individually.
Her secondary battery consisted of eight 5-inch /38 Mark 12 dual-purpose guns, four in single, enclosed Mark 30 high-angle mounts, and four in open mounts, controlled by a pair of Mark 33 directors. These guns fired projectiles at a rate of 20 rounds per minute. Muzzle velocity was ; against aerial targets, the guns had a ceiling of at 85 degrees. At 45 degrees, the guns could engage surface targets at a range of . Wichita was the first cruiser in the US Navy to be equipped with the new 5-inch /38 gun.
Initial light anti-aircraft weaponry consisted of eight .50 caliber machine guns. It was originally planned that the ship was to receive two quadruple anti-aircraft guns, though this was doubled to four when war broke out.
By August 1945, the ship had been equipped with numerous smaller guns for close-range anti-aircraft defense. Sixteen Bofors 40 mm guns were placed in quadruple mounts, and another eight were in dual mounts. She also carried eighteen Oerlikon 20 mm guns in single mountings. The 40 mm guns had a ceiling of at 90 degrees elevation and a maximum rate of fire of 160 rounds per minute. The 20 mm gun had a rate of fire of 465–480 rounds per minute; they had a ceiling of . By the end of the war, the ship was armed with a variety of fire control systems for her guns, including Mark 34 fire control gear and Mark 13 and Mark 28 fire control radars.
Service history
Wichita departed Philadelphia after her commissioning, bound for Houston, Texas. She arrived on 20 April 1939 and took part in the dedicatory and memorial service at the San Jacinto Battle Monument and War Relic Museum. The ship left Houston on 1 May for her shakedown cruise, during which she visited the Virgin Islands, Cuba, and the Bahamas before she returned to Philadelphia for post-shakedown repairs. On 25 September, a few weeks after the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Wichita was assigned to Cruiser Division 7 in the Atlantic Squadron, based in the Hampton Roads. She conducted her first neutrality patrol on 4–9 October. After returning to port, she went into dock at the Norfolk Navy Yard for maintenance, which lasted until 1 December. On 4 December, Wichita steamed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arriving on the 8th. There, Thomson assumed command of the newly formed Caribbean Patrol, which included Wichita and the cruiser , and the destroyers , , , , and , and Navy patrol squadrons VP-33 and VP-51. Over the course of the next three months, the force conducted a series of training maneuvers in the Caribbean. At the end of February, Wichita returned to Norfolk via Philadelphia, where she participated in further training through May.
Starting in June, Wichita and conducted a goodwill cruise to South America; Wichita carried Rear Admiral Andrew C. Pickens, the commander of Cruiser Division 7. Included in the ports of call were Rio de Janeiro and Santos in Brazil, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay. The cruise ended in late September; the two cruisers arrived in Norfolk on the 24th. Over the next three months, Wichita served as a training ship for Naval Reserve midshipmen and conducted gunnery practices off the Virginia capes. On 7 January 1941, Wichita departed Hampton Roads for Guantanamo, arriving four days later. She participated in fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean through March and took part in practice amphibious landings at Puerto Rico. She returned to the United States, docking at the New York Navy Yard, on 23 March. Wichita went to sea again on 6 April, bound for Bermuda; she reached her destination two days later. She then joined the aircraft carrier and the heavy cruiser for a patrol in the North Atlantic, during which the ships sailed to within of Ireland.
Wichita then returned to the New York Navy Yard on 17 May and went into drydock on 21 June. Repairs were completed on 2 July, after which Wichita was transferred to Newport, Rhode Island. She sortied again on 27 July bound for Iceland as part of Task Force 16 under Operation Indigo II, the occupation of Iceland. Wichita arrived in Reykjavík on 6 August, along with the carrier and the battleship . The task force landed a contingent of US Army troops and fighter aircraft to provide air support. The cruiser returned to the United States by 20 August. Wichita returned to Iceland in September, arriving in Reykjavík on 28 September. Two days prior to Wichitas arrival, the US Navy ordered the units of the Atlantic Fleet to protect all ships engaged in commerce in United States defensive waters. The orders authorized the Navy to patrol, escort merchantmen, and attack any German or Italian naval forces encountered. Wichita was assigned to Task Group 7.5, which was engaged in patrolling Icelandic waters through the end 1941. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II; on the day of the attack, Wichita lay at anchor at Hvalfjörður, Iceland.
Atlantic theater
Wichita left port on 5 January 1942 for training and a patrol in the Denmark Strait; she returned to Hvalfjörður on 10 January. On the 15th, a powerful storm, with sustained winds of and gusts up to , hit Iceland. Wichita was damaged by the storm, including a collision with the freighter and the British trawler . She then ran aground off Hrafneyri Light. The following day, the ship's crew evaluated her condition; she had suffered minor damage from the collisions, including some leaks, and damage to the hull from the grounding. Temporary repairs were effected in Iceland to allow Wichita to return to the New York Navy Yard for more thorough repairs. She arrived on 9 February, and repairs lasted until 26 February, when she left port for training maneuvers off Maine in early March.