USS Vincennes (hull number: CL-64) was a light cruiser of the United States Navy, which were built during World War II. The class was designed as a development of the earlier s, the size of which had been limited by the First London Naval Treaty. The start of the war led to the dissolution of the treaty system, but the dramatic need for new vessels precluded a new design, so the Clevelands used the same hull as their predecessors, but were significantly heavier. The Clevelands carried a main battery of twelve guns in four three-gun turrets, along with a secondary armament of twelve dual-purpose guns. They had a top speed of .
Design
The Cleveland-class light cruisers traced their origin to design work done in the late 1930s; at the time, light cruiser displacement was limited to by the Second London Naval Treaty. Following the start of World War II in September 1939, Britain announced it would suspend the treaty for the duration of the conflict, a decision the US Navy quickly followed. Though still neutral, the United States recognized that war was likely and the urgent need for additional ships ruled out an entirely new design, so the Clevelands were a close development of the earlier s, the chief difference being the substitution of a two-gun dual-purpose gun mount for one of the main battery gun turrets.
Vincennes was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . Her standard displacement amounted to and increased to at full load. The ship was powered by four General Electric steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Rated at , the turbines were intended to give a top speed of . Her crew numbered 1285 officers and enlisted men.
The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 6 in /47-caliber Mark 16 guns in four 3-gun turrets on the centerline. Two were placed forward in a superfiring pair; the other two turrets were placed aft of the superstructure in another superfiring pair. The secondary battery consisted of twelve /38-caliber dual-purpose guns mounted in twin turrets. Two of these were placed on the centerline, one directly behind the forward main turrets and the other just forward of the aft turrets. Two more were placed abreast of the conning tower and the other pair on either side of the aft superstructure. Anti-aircraft defense consisted of twenty-four Bofors guns in four quadruple and four double mounts and twenty-one Oerlikon guns in single mounts.
The ship's belt armor ranged in thickness from , with the thicker section amidships where it protected the ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. Her deck armor was thick. The main battery turrets were protected with faces and sides and tops, and they were supported by barbettes 6 inches thick. Vincenness conning tower had 5-inch sides.
Construction and commissioning She was originally laid down as Flint (CL-64) on 7 March 1942 at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. While the ship was under construction, however, the Battle of Savo Island occurred in August 1942, during which engagement the heavy cruiser Vincennes (CA-44) had been sunk. In order to perpetuate the name, Flint was renamed Vincennes on 16 October 1942. Launched on 17 July 1943, Vincennes was sponsored by Mrs. Arthur A. Osborn, the former Miss Harriet V. Kimmell, who had sponsored the first cruiser of the name.
Commissioned on 21 January 1944, Capt. Arthur D. Brown in command, Vincennes fitted-out at her builders' yard into late February, undergoing her sea trials soon thereafter. From 25 February to the last day of March, Vincennes sailed to the British West Indies and back on her shakedown cruise. With brief stopovers in the Chesapeake Bay region, the new light cruiser "shook down" principally in the Gulf of Paria, near Trinidad.
Service
Post-shakedown and training After post-shakedown repairs and alterations, Vincennes became the flagship for Commander, Cruiser Division (CruDiv) 14, Rear Admiral Wilder D. Baker, who embarked in the light cruiser on 14 April with members of his staff. Other ships in the division included and – the latter perpetuating, like Vincennes, the name of a man-of-war lost earlier in action with Japanese surface units.
Departing Boston on 16 April, Vincennes subsequently transited the Panama Canal and ultimately reached Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 6 May. For the next week, the ship engaged in intensive training in the Hawaiian operating area. During one of the ship's in-port periods that interspersed the at-sea training evolutions, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz came on board Vincennes and presented her embarked flag officer with a Navy Cross – won for directing bombardment operations in the Aleutians.
With the shakedown and training phases of her career behind her, the sleek light cruiser put to sea on 24 May and left Pearl Harbor in her wake. After conducting exercises en route, Vincennes reached Majuro, in the Marshall Islands, six days later. A week later, she left Majuro as part of the mighty armada known as Task Force 58 (TF 58). At the helm of that powerful striking force, based around the fast carriers of the Fleet, was Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher.
Mariana Islands, 1944 Subsequently, Vincennes made her initial contact with the enemy. During the first strikes on the Bonins, Japanese aircraft in retaliatory raids went after the TF 58 flattops. Vincennes, in the screen, downed a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bomber on 10 June. Her guns had drawn their first blood of the war. It would not be the last time.
In the days that ensued, Vincennes supported the carriers as they launched aircraft to smash Japanese positions on Saipan and Pagan Islands on 12–13 June. On the 16th, she was part of the group that conducted the first air strikes on Iwo Jima – an isle later to be remembered by many sailors and marines. During the key Battle of the Philippine Sea, Vincennes gunners performed their tasks well, aiding materially in the barrage of gunfire that broke up several of the enemy's nevertheless persistent attacks.
On 23 June, Rear Admiral Baker shifted his flag to Vincennes sister ship Miami, releasing the erstwhile flagship to proceed to Eniwetok, in the Marshalls, for needed engineering repairs. Dropping anchor at Eniwetok on the 27th, Vincennes completed her repairs by the end of the month; she subsequently sailed to rejoin CruDiv 14, and Rear Admiral Baker brought his flag to the ship again on 7 July.
Departing Eniwetok on 14 July, Vincennes operated with TF 58 in the vicinity of Guam while the planes from the fast carriers conducted strikes on Japanese positions there from 18 to 21 July. She took part in further fast carrier task group strikes on Tinian, Rota, and Guam, through the 27th of the month. After continuing her support evolutions with the fast flattops, Vincennes headed for the Marianas, dropping her hook at Saipan on the last day of July.
Departing Saipan on 1 August, Vincennes resumed her operations with the carriers, making a high-speed run to the Bonins where planes from the carriers carried out air strikes on the 4th and 5th before retiring. The cruiser subsequently put into Eniwetok to replenish, anchoring there on the 11th, where Rear Admiral Francis E. M. Whiting relieved Admiral Baker eight days later, breaking his flag at Vincennes' main on that day.
Assigned next to TF 34, Vincennes departed Eniwetok at the end of August and conducted tactical and gunnery exercises until joining TG 38.2 on 3 September. Early that month, the task group conducted strikes on Japanese positions in the Palau Islands on 6 September. The next day, 7 September, Vincennes, as part of Task Unit 38.2.5 (TU 38.2.5), under Rear Admiral Whiting, embarked on board, conducted the first shore bombardment on Japanese installations on the southernmost Palau cluster of Peleliu, Ngesebus and Angaur islands, the ship's captain subsequently recording that the coverage of the areas shelled was "excellent".
Philippines, 1944 The operations against the Palaus, however, turned out to be only a curtain-raiser for the show to come – the recapture of the Philippines. Vincennes left the Palau group astern on 8 September for the southern Philippines. American carrier planes hit targets on the island of Mindanao on 9–10 September; the cruiser then screened the fast carriers as they conducted air strikes in the central Philippine Archipelago, hitting Negros, Leyte, Cebu, and the Bohol Islands from 12 to 14 September. Vincennes then proceeded to the operating areas off Luzon where carrier air strikes were launched against Japanese sites ashore on 21–22 September. The slate of air operations resumed again within a few days, Vincennes screening the flattops as their planes struck Leyte, Cebu, and Negros.
Vincennes left the operating areas soon thereafter, however, to replenish in the Carolines, reaching Ulithi on 1 October. Her stay in port was interrupted, however, by the presence of a typhoon in the vicinity. The light cruiser sortied for typhoon-evasion purposes on the 3rd, returning to port two days later. Resuming and completing the replenishment chores at Ulithi, Vincennes subsequently weighed anchor on 6 October with TF 38.
Vincennes operated off Okinawa in the ensuing days, reaching the waters off that isle on 10 October. Planes from the carriers in the task groups conducted the first air strikes in that area while the ships in the screen stood poised for retaliation from shore. Many enemy planes closed the carriers and their escorting battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts – most to no avail. Friendly fighters on combat air patrol (CAP) duties overhead proved invaluable, knocking down many enemy aircraft that ventured too close. Included in the bag were a "Betty" and a Yokosuka P1Y "Frances". The enemy knew no set time to attack – Vincennes observed a "Betty" being shot down within sight of the ship during the task force's fueling-at-sea evolutions the next day.
Formosa, 1944 Vincennes and her sisters next shaped course for Formosa, as the fast carriers shifted their operating area to prepare the way for the upcoming onslaught against the Japanese-occupied Philippine Islands. En route to Formosa, Japanese planes frequently showed themselves, but maddeningly stayed out of range – persistent and pugnacious snoopers that always managed to slip away untouched.
On 12 October, the carriers began launching air strikes against Formosan sites; that afternoon, the task group gunners proved exceptional, downing a pair of "Betties" that ventured too close. Vincennes went to general quarters at 18:55 on that day and remained at battle stations almost continuously for the next two days. At 19:03, soon after the ship had manned her battle stations, Vincennes contributed to the flaming of two planes within 10 minutes – one at 19:03 and one at 19:10. The cruiser maintained a steady rate of fire throughout the air attack that continued intermittently until 20:45.
The strikes ceased at that point, but the respite provided the Americans proved only temporary – the determined Japanese came back again. Flares dropped from "snoopers" illuminated the entire task group, bathing the ships in an eerie light. Antiaircraft fire crisscrossed the night; one enemy plane tumbled in flames from the sky; Vincennes splashed another off her starboard quarter at 23:40.
The operations in the vicinity of Formosa proved dangerous, to say the least. The persistent Japanese attacks had taken their toll: the light cruiser Houston and the heavy cruiser had taken torpedoes and were badly damaged, limping out of the battle zone. To protect their flight, "Cripple Division One" was formed. Put together on 16 October, the force served its purpose; Vincennes participated in the withdrawal, screening her crippled sister-ship and division mate, and Canberra.
Leyte Gulf