On 27 March 1943, the Pensacola-class heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City (CA-25), the bruiser of RADM Charles McMorris’s Task Group 16.6, steaming along with the much smaller Omaha-class light cruiser USS Richmond (CL-9), and the destroyers USS Coghlan, Bailey, Dale, and Monaghan, bumped into VADM Boshirō Hosogaya Northern Force off the Soviet Komandorski Islands.
Hosogaya was riding heavy, with two hulking cruisers (Nachi and Maya) that were at least a match for Salt Lake City and Omaha, along with a further two light cruisers, Tama and Abukuma, and a force of three destroyers. While burdened by escorting three transports, his force had easily twice the combat power of TG 16.6.
Nonetheless, in a swirling 3.5-hour daylight engagement that saw both sides mauled but no ships sunk and only about 30 casualties on each side, the Japanese ultimately broke off the engagement and retired, leaving the Americans with a tactical victory as, while the transports were safe, they were not able to reinforce the Japanese bases in the Aleutians.
It came with a price for SLC.
While she had arguably “given better than she got” in the firing of 806 AP shells and 26 HE shells from her 8-inch guns– exhausting her supply of the former– Salt Lake City came away with lots of structural damage that would require five weeks of extensive repair at Mare Island.
She was hit by at least five 8-inch shells from Maya. Reports from her spotters also observed nearly 200 near-misses within 30 yards.
With her rudders jammed and her boiler room flooded, at one point she was dead in the water and saved only via the shelter of a destroyer-laid smoke screen.
Battle of the Komandorsky Islands, 26 March 1943, USS Salt Lake City (CA 25) in action during the battle. At right is a smoke screen laid by U.S. Navy Destroyers. 80-G-44937
The summary from her damage report done at Mare Island weeks later:
For those interested, the full 30-page BuShips report on the damage is in the National Archives.
Below we see a series of images taken 80 years ago today while she at Dutch Harbor, on 30 March 1943, getting evaluated and patched up enough to make California.
8”/55 Guns of Turret #3, USS Salt Lake City (CA 25), showing heat scale on the tubes from extensive firing during the action. The image was taken at Dutch Harbor, on 30 March 1943. Note snowflakes falling. National Archives photograph: 80-G-50221.
Blistered triple 8”/55, Mk.14 Guns of the USS Salt Lake City (CA 25)’s turret #3, photographed at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, on 29 March 1943, three days after the Battle of the Komandorski Islands. Note turret rangefinder at left. National Archives photograph, 80-G-299018.
Muzzles of 8″/55, Mk. 14 guns of turret #3, USS Salt Lake City (CA 25), taken at Dutch Harbor after the action, 30 March 1943. Note 1/2″ of liner creep that occurred during the battle. 80-G-50222
Crewmen of USS Salt Lake City (CA 25) examine shrapnel holes in the outboard catwalk of the ship’s starboard catapult, at Dutch Harbor on 30 March 1943, after the battle. 80-G-50211
Crewmen of USS Salt Lake City (CA 25) hunting for shell fragment souvenirs on their ship’s main deck, at Dutch Harbor, after the action. 80-G-50210
USS Salt Lake City (CA 25) crewmen cutting a patch to cover a shrapnel hole in their ship’s side, at Dutch Harbor after the action, 30 March 1943. Note the fire extinguisher. 80-G-50216
Patching shrapnel holes in the main deck of USS Salt Lake City (CA 25), at Dutch Harbor, after the action, 30 March 1943. Note 8″ powder cans at right. 80-G-50215
Crewman cutting damaged metal from a shrapnel hole in the side of USS Salt Lake City (CA 25) at Dutch Harbor, after the action, 30 March 1943. Note rigging for scaffold platform. 80-G-50212
View of the forward outboard side of 40mm director #5 platform on USS Salt Lake City (CA 25) showing damage caused by concussion of gunfire by turret #4 during the battle. Photographed at Dutch Harbor on 30 March 1943. 80-G-50229
Her crew also buried their two war dead, one of the few instances where men killed in blue water surface actions in the theatre were not interred at sea.
Funeral of Lieutenant Commander Colvig Gale and Fireman Second Class Frederick David, crewmen of USS Salt Lake City (CA 25), at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, soon after the battle. They had been killed by shrapnel during the action. Chaplin is Lieutenant R.W. Hodge. National Archives photograph: 80-G-50251.
Funeral of USS Salt Lake City (CA 25) crewmen, Lieutenant Commander Winsor Colvig Gale and F2/C Frederick David, who was killed by shrapnel during the action. Photographed at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, soon after the battle. National Archives photograph, 80-G-50249
For additional details and personal remembrances of SLC at Komandorski, see the ship’s Veterans’ page.
Salt Lake City would ultimately return to service, earning 11 battle stars for her Pacific War.
She retired after surviving two atomic bombs during the Crossroads tests in 1946, ultimately sunk as a target on 25 May 1948, some 130 miles off the Southern California coast.
The “Swayback Maru” couldn’t shrug off that one.