USS Atlanta, first of a class of 6000-ton light cruisers, was built at Kearny, New Jersey. Commissioned on Christmas Eve, 1941, she spent the next four months in shakedown work along the Atlantic coast and left for the Pacific in early April 1942. After a escort voyage to the south Pacific in May, she became part of a task force built around the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Hornet, operating with them during the early June Battle of Midway.
In mid-July 1942, Atlanta left Pearl Harbor for operations in the southern Pacific. When the Guadalcanal campaign began in early August, she screened the carriers that supported the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi. Later in the month, she escorted Enterprise during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and protected USS Saratoga after that carrier was damaged by a Japanese submarine torpedo. During the next two months, she kept busy escorting combat and auxiliary ships engaged in the ongoing struggle to hold Guadalcanal. After providing distant support during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in late October, she was employed closer to Guadalcanal. On 30 October, she used her five-inch guns to bombard Japanese positions on that island and nearly two weeks later, on 11-12 November, her guns helped fight off enemy planes attacking U.S. transports and supply ships nearby.
On the night of 12-13 November 1942, Atlanta was part of a cruiser-destroyer force ordered to stop a Japanese bombardment of the U.S.-held airfield on Guadalcanal. During the ensuing Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, one of World War II's most brutally chaotic surface actions, the enemy was driven off, but at great cost. Hit by one Japanese torpedo and riddled by gunfire, both enemy and "friendly", Atlanta suffered heavy casualties among her crew and was almost completely disabled. Though her men worked throughout the day on 13 November to save their ship, by late afternoon she was clearly sinking. Accordingly, she was sunk on her Captain's orders after all her men had been taken off.
USS Atlanta lies on her port side off Guadalcanal's Lunga Point, some five-hundred feet below the surface of Iron Bottom Sound. Her wreck was briefly examined in 1991-92 by remotely-operated deep-sea vehicles and more recently by a team of civilian divers.
This page features selected views of USS Atlanta (CL-51).
For pictorial coverage of Rear Admiral Norman Scott, who was killed in action on board USS Atlanta on 13 November 1942, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 57455 USS Atlanta (CL-51) Steaming at high speed, probably during her trials, circa November 1941. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 555 pixels |
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Photo #: 19-N-27299-A USS Atlanta (CL-51) Running trials off Rockland, Maine, 26 November 1941. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 465 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 57453 USS Atlanta (CL-51) Underway, probably at the time of her trials, circa November 1941. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 123KB; 740 x 590 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97806 USS Atlanta (CL-51) In Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, May 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 615 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97807 USS Atlanta (CL-51) Comes alongside USS San Francisco (CA-38) to refuel, 16 October 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 106KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-266844 USS Atlanta (CL-51) Backing down in a south Pacific harbor, 25 October 1942. Photographed by USS Tangier (AV-8). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-27282 USS Atlanta (CL-51) Is christened by author Margaret Mitchell (Mrs. John R. Marsh), during launching ceremonies at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company shipyard, Kearny, New Jersey, 6 September 1941. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 555 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-27284 USS Atlanta (CL-51) Slides down the building ways, during launching ceremonies at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company shipyard, Kearny, New Jersey, 6 September 1941. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 104KB; 585 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 57451 USS Atlanta (CL-51) Scene on the ship's fantail, during her commissioning ceremonies at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., 24 December 1941. Standing in the foreground are (left to right): Captain Samuel P. Jenkins, Commanding Officer; Rear Admiral Adolphus Andrews; Margaret Mitchell (Mrs. John R. Marsh), ship's Sponsor; Captain Harold V. McKittrick; and Rear Admiral Edward J. Marquart. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 70035 Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox (second from left) Receives a check from John L. Connor, Chairman of the City of Atlanta, Georgia, War Bond selling campaign, March 1943. The check, for $63,000,000, represents the amount raised in a bond selling drive to cover the cost of replacing the cruiser Atlanta (CL-51), sunk on 13 November 1942 off Guadalcanal. The money raised was more than enough to pay for a new ship, which became USS Atlanta (CL-104). Looking on are Rear Admiral George D. Murray (left), Chief of the Naval Air Intermediate Training Command at Pensacola, Florida, and Captain Samuel P. Jenkins (right), who commanded Atlanta (CL-51) when she was lost. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Additional Photos: For other views related to the War Bond drive at Atlanta, Georgia, to raise funds to replace USS Atlanta (CL-51), see: Photo #s NH 70008 and NH 70013.
For pictorial coverage of Rear Admiral Norman Scott, who was killed in action on board USS Atlanta on 13 November 1942, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 3 January 2002
New images added 11 October 2003