Talk:USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37)

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Greetings! I was thrilled to find this ship's history on Wikipedia. I printed off the article and read it to my Uncle who is 90 years old. This is relevant because my Uncle served on board the Tuscaloosa throughout WWII and he gave me some comments regarding the article. I share them below:

1) The USS Wichita was a sister ship and the two ships together made up Cruiser Division 7 throughout the war.

2) Page 6 - My Uncle joined the ship's crew in February, 1942 having graduated from the USNA at Annapolis on 19 December 1941.  He recalls the activities written on in two paragraphs regarding the Tirpitz as having occurred AFTER December 7, 1941 when war was declared and after he joined the ship - he was on board for the Tirpitz search operating Vic. Bodo, Norway.

3) Page 6 - Re: the 6 January entry, the Wichita had dragged anchor while in the Denmark Strait - but that was not a training cruise - they were looking for German raiders.  In any event, My Uncle joined the ship while she was in Boston Navy Yard from 8-20 February.  Re: Adm Wilcox, some thought at the time that he had jumped overboard and Tuscaloosa had to steer to miss him passing by her bow - by the time that standard search maneuvers could put a ship on his position he had disappeared under the heavy seas...

4) Page 6 - Re: PQ-17 lost perhaps 17 of 31 ships after the British Home Fleet had ordered the escort ships to abandon the convoy.  This incident resulted in the US Admiral pulling Tuscaloosa off such duty and sailing in those waters strictly under US command.

5) Page 6 - Re: Meningitis case, My Uncle was on the HMS Onslaught for a visit (British Destroyer) and had to remain there until the patient was put ashore.

6) Page 7 - Re: Op Torch and engaging the Jean Bart, this was the ship's only surface action of the war.  My Uncle also recalls having damaged the French cruiser Primaguet, forcing her to beach.  He is not sure if that action resulted in the death of her Captain.  Tuscaloosa was nearly out of ammo but was ordered to give chase to five French Destroyers who evaded and made it to the South of France where much of the French Fleet was scuttled.

7) Page 8 - Re: Tuscaloosa's part in the relief operation of the Spitzenbergen Island weather station - years later a shipmate was approached by a German navy NATO officer who compared stories of the war and relayed the fact that he had been a German U-boat commander who had begun an attack run on a big US cruiser during that action - Tuscaloosa - but the ship evaded.  During overhaul in New York, Tuscaloosa got her radar and 40mm AA guns.

8) Page 9 - Re: Normandy and D-Day - one of the ship's ground spotters was killed ashore when hit in the chest by a German 88mm shell.

9) Page 9 - Re: Cherbourg - one of the battleships raised and rebuilt after being sunk at Pearl Harbor was on this op with Tuscaloosa.  In July, Bill Donovan (OSS) rode the ship down to participate in Operation Anvil/Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.

10) Page 9 - Re: St Raphel breakwater and troublesome pillbox there - As Assistant Gunnery Officer, my Uncle went ashore with a group to inspect damage to that pillbox - found it had been shifted three feet rearward by force of Tuscaloosa's main battery hits. Tuscaloosa suffered minor damage from a German 88 hit to the sights of a stern 40mm AA battery - in my Uncle's Division. Admiral Deyo left the ship after this action.  The crew highly respected him and only saw him again near the end of the war in the Pacific as his ship passed by Tuscaloosa at Ulithi Atoll.  Aware of the Admiral's presence on the other ship, Tuscaloosa manned the rails and rendered honors as Adm Deyo's ship passed by.

11) Page 11 - Re: voyage repairs - the ship's condensers had problems and those onboard were drinking bad water and passing blood in their urine as a result of the condensers not pulling the salt out of the drinking water.  Once the condensers were repaired, the ship was able to set sail.  My Uncle relates that doctor tried to stow away for the New Year's Day 1946 voyage home from Noumea but was discovered and put off the ship.

Again, my Uncle enjoyed having me read this narrative to him over the weekend and at age 90 is among only a few surviving crew members of the USS Tuscaloosa. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.46.179.115 (talk) 17:07, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Additional comments related to the post above
After making the first post above, I asked a good friend and classmate who is a US Navy (began his service in 1981) surface line veteran about this and he offered these references as good to start with:

a. Morrison, S. E. (1947). History of United States Naval Operations in World War II - Volume II - Operations in North African Waters, October 1942 - June 1943. Edison, NJ: Castle Books

b. Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy (1989). Operational Experience of Fast Battleships; World War II, Korea, Vietnam. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office

c. Terzibaschitsch, S. (1984). Cruisers Of The US Navy 1922-1962. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institue Press

d. Adcock, A. (2001). US Heavy Cruisers in action Part 1. Carrolton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications

e. Wiper, S. (2000). Warship Pictorial 7, New Orleans Class Cruisers. Tucson, AZ: Classic Warship Publishing

f. Wiper, S. (2001). Warship Pictorial 14, USS Wichita CA 45. Tucson, AZ: Classic Warship Publishing

g. Friedman, N., Lott, LCDR A. S. USN (Ret), & Sumrall, R. F. HTC USNR (1979). Ship's Data 8, USS Massachusetts (BB 59). Annapolis, MD: Leeward Publications

h. Goldstein, D. M., Dillon, K. V., & Wenger, J. M. (1994). D-Day Normandy, The Story And The Photographs. Herndon, VA: Brassey's

i. Whitley, M. J. (1995). Cruisers of World War Two - An International Encyclopedia. London: Arms And Armour Press

In addition, he offered some superb information related to the comments made in that post:

1) The USS Wichita was not a sister ship in that USS Tuscaloosa (CA 37) was a member of the New Orleans class of heavy cruisers, of which there were seven ships. They can be recognized by their raised focsle decks and amidships aircraft cranes and catapults. USS Wichita (CA 45) was a one off design using the hull of a Brooklyn class light cruiser while mounting nine 8" guns instead of the 15 - 6" guns of the Brooklyn class. She can be recognized by her flush deck and aft mounted aircraft crane and catapults. Wichita served as the prototype for the Baltimore class heavy cruisers. While technically of separate classes, they were very similar in terms of size, displacement, armament and speed, so there would be no reason they could not operate together as a homogenous tactical unit. See Ref c through f.

6) Page 7 - Re: Op Torch - According to Morrison (see ref a.), Primauguet had been damaged by gunfire from USS Augusta (CA 31) and USS Brooklyn (CL 40), after which she returned to Casablanca Harbor. I also get the impression that both USS Massachusetts (BB 59) and USS Tuscaloosa also fired on the French light cruiser, although Morrison is not clear on this. While in harbor she was attacked by fighters and dive bombers from USS Ranger (CV 4). Morrison states that a direct hit on the bridge from an SBD killed the CO, XO and seven others. The Primauget became a constructive total loss.  Ref b has USS Massachusetts' action report for the action off Casablanca. It was interesting to read the Massachusetts had not yet been fitted with automated receiver regulators for her main battery and instead had to use the manual "Follow The Pointer" (FTP) method for positioning her guns. FTP places a man in the loop and can cause additional aiming errors. Apparently near the end of the action fatigue was setting in and Massachusetts' accuracy was falling off.

7) Page 8 - Re: Tuscaloosa's radars and fire control directors, Ref c gives the following information:

Search Radars As Built: None After October 1942: 1 X SC air search radar, 2 X SG surface search radars After January 1944: SC replaced by SK air search radar

Fire Control Directors As Built: 2 X Mk 31 directors for 8" guns, 2 X Mk 28 directors for 5"/25 guns After October 1942: Mk 31 directors fitted with Mk 3 fire control radar; Mk 28 directors replaced by Mk 33 directors After January 1944: Mk 33 directors fitted with Mk 4 fire control radar

We are not sure, so I will have to ask my Uncle about what type of rangekeepers (i.e., fire control computers) Tuscaloosa was equipped with.

9) Page 9 - Re: Cherbourg - one of the battleships raised and rebuilt after being sunk at Pearl Harbor was on this op with Tuscaloosa.  The Pearl Harbor veteran was USS Nevada (BB 36). Other US battleships present were USS Texas (BB 35) and USS Arkansas (BB 33) (See Ref h). USS Quincy (CA 71), a new Baltimore class cruiser, was the other US cruiser present. Note that the Quincy present here was not Tuscaloosa's sister ship - that ship, USS Quincy (CA 39), had been sunk on August 9th, 1942 at the Battle of Savo Island, Guadalcanal (Ref c).  Other large vessels were HMS Glasgow (1937, Southampton class) and HMS Enterprise (1926, E class). See Ref i.

11) Page 11 - Re: voyage repairs - Most likely he is referring to the ship's evaporators (also known as distilling units), which produce fresh water from seawater. The condensers take exhaust steam from the propulsion and electrical generator turbines, condense the exhaust steam into liquid condensate, which is then returned to the ship's boilers as feedwater.

Djcwardog (talk) 16:47, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Apologies if I'm doing this wrong, but I noticed some 'info' in this article that is very disputed, at best...
It's been there for over 15 years, and I think it has slipped by anyone's notice for so long as a part of this page on USS Tuscaloosa because it's about an unrelated German WWII ship, the Bismarck. Still, as I said, the 'information' presented is VERY disputed, at best, as evidenced by the heated discussions on Bismarck's own Wikipedia page about the very subject. Anyways, again, apologies if I'm doing this wrong, but here's the direct link to the revision in question, I believe. Even the description of the edit just SCREAMS bias, in my opinion, but I'm just putting it here so more authoritative people than me can at least discuss it and (hopefully!) come to a consensus about not only if it should be changed, but HOW it should be changed. Personally, I thought what was replaced was more accurate, if less descriptive.

ANYWAYS, here's the link to the edit (I hope!):

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Tuscaloosa_(CA-37)&oldid=225040547 2603:6080:2105:95C3:A8E3:1BAF:62EC:1013 (talk) 13:29, 24 March 2024 (UTC)