80 Years Ago Today: Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Columbia (CL-56) 6″/47 Mark 16 expended powder casings from Turrets 3 & 4 lying on the main deck aft of the ship during bombardment of Buka Island in the Solomons by CruDiv 12. December 24, 1943.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-299039
Columbia fired 863 6-inch shells that night-– over a third of the Cleveland-class magazine capacity of 200 rounds for each of their 12 main guns. She also fired 1141 5″/38 shells.
It was a role she played often, in addition to taking on Japanese surface assets and swatting away kamikazes.
After 6/47 gun turrets of USS Columbia (CL-56) firing, during the night bombardment of Japanese facilities in the Shortlands that covered landings on Bougainville, 1 November 1943. Official U.S. Navy photo 80-G-44058
Columbia, dubbed “the Gem of the Ocean” by her crew, earned 10 battlestars and two Naval Unit Commendations during her short career. Decommissioned in 1947 after just over four years of service, with a good portion of that in reserve, she was sold for scrap in 1959.