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Photo # NH 97834:  USS Portland off Mindoro, 15 December 1944

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Portland (CA-33), 1933-1959

USS Portland, first of a class of two 9800-ton heavy cruisers, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. Commissioned in February 1933, she took part in the search for survivors of the crashed airship Akron in April of that year. During the rest of the 1930s, Portland operated with the U.S. Fleet in the Pacific and Caribbean areas, with occasional special assignments that took her elsewhere. In October 1935, she escorted USS Houston (CA-30), with President Roosevelt on board, on a voyage from San Diego, California, through the Panama Canal to Charleston, South Carolina. She first crossed the Equator during Fleet maneuvers in May 1936.

When the Pacific War began with Japan's 7 December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor Portland was at sea with the USS Lexington task force. Later in the month she accompanied that carrier on a mission to support the abortive Wake Island relief expedition. In March-June 1942, she escorted the carrier Yorktown, taking part in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. For most of the rest of 1942, Portland was involved in the Guadalcanal campaign. She was part of the USS Enterprise task force during the August invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons later in that month and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in the last part of October. On 13 November, she was part of a surface combat unit that fought a greatly superior Japanese force close to Guadalcanal. Portland was torpedoed in the stern in that action and had to be towed to Australia for temporary repairs.

Returned to active service in May 1943, Portland took part in the Aleutians campaign from then until September. In the last two months of 1943 and the first four months of 1944 she was part of the armada that helped capture bases in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands and raided the Japanese elsewhere in the central Pacific and New Guinea. She received a west coast overhaul in mid-1944, but was back in the combat zone in time to participate in the Palaus landings in September and the Leyte invasion in October. During the latter operation she also participated in the night Battle of Surigao Strait. Portland remained in the Philippines into March 1945, then moved north to support the Okinawa campaign. She was flagship of Commander Marianas in August and September, and the surrender of Truk took place on her deck. Portland carried homeward-bound troops from Hawaii to the east coast in the Fall of 1945 and celebrated Navy Day (27 October) at Portland, Maine. She entered the Reserve Fleet at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in July 1946 and remained there, in "Mothballs", until 1959, when she was sold for scrapping.

This page features selected views of USS Portland (CA-33).


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 97832

USS Portland (CA-33)


Underway at sea, 23 August 1935.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 112KB; 740 x 580 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97833

USS Portland (CA-33)


At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 14 June 1942, with her crew paraded on deck in "Whites".
Note the external degaussing cable fitted to the hull side of this ship.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-47582

USS Portland (CA-33)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 16 May 1943.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 625 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-70345

USS Portland (CA-33)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 30 July 1944.
Her camouflage is Measure 32, Design 7d.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 625 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-70346

USS Portland (CA-33)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 30 July 1944.
Her camouflage is Measure 32, Design 7d.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 630 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-360561

USS Portland (CA-33)


At sea in the Panama area, while en route with Task Force 11 from the Pacific combat area to the U.S. east coast, 12 October 1945.
Note men crowded on her decks, and the long "homeward bound" pennant flying from her mainmast peak.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-312028

Battle of Midway, June 1942


USS Portland (CA-33), at right, transfers USS Yorktown survivors to USS Fulton (AS-11) on 7 June 1942, following the battle of Midway. Fulton transported the men to Pearl Harbor.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 620 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 81992

USS Portland (CA-33)


In the Cockatoo Drydock, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, circa late 1942, while under repair for torpedo damage received in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942.
Note the arrangement of gun directors on her forward superstructure: main battery director atop the foremast, with FC fire control radar; and a secondary battery director, with FD fire control radar, on each bridge wing.
Also note this ship's external degaussing cables, mounted on her hull sides.

Courtesy of Vice Admiral T.G.W. Settle, USN (Retired), 1975.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 130KB; 605 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 82031

USS Portland (CA-33)


View looking aft from the foredeck while at sea in 1944.
Note the ship's two forward 8"/55 gun turrets and the arrangement of her forward superstructure. A Mk.33 gun director with Mk.28 fire control radar is atop the pilothouse. Director atop the tripod foremast is a Mk.34, with Mk.8 fire control radar. The large radar antenna at the foremast peak is a SK.

Courtesy of Vice Admiral T.G.W. Settle, USN (Retired), 1975.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 121KB; 605 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 82003

USS Portland (CA-33)


Scene on the open bridge during the bombardment of Leyte, October 1944. Her forward 8"/55 gun turrets are trained out to port.
Officer standing in right center, without helmet, is the ship's Commanding Officer, Captain Thomas G.W. Settle.

Courtesy of Vice Admiral T.G.W. Settle, USN (Retired), 1975.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 116KB; 740 x 635 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97834

USS Portland (CA-33)


Moves into position off Mindoro, just prior to the opening of the D-Day barrage, 15 December 1944.
Note her camouflage scheme: Measure 32, Design 7d.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 62802

Surrender of Japan, 1945


Japanese Navy Vice Admiral Chuichi Hara, Commander, 4th Fleet, signs the document, at ceremonies on board USS Portland (CA-33) surrendering the base at Truk, Caroline Islands, 2 September 1945.
U.S. Navy officers present around the table are (left to right):
Lieutenant S.E. Thompson, USNR, Flag Lieutenant;
Captain O.F. Naquin, USN, Acting Chief of Staff;
Vice Admiral George D. Murray, USN, Commander, Marianas, (seated), who accepted the surrender on behalf of the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas;
Captain D.N. Cone, USN, representing Commander, Marshalls and Gilberts;
Captain L.A. Thackrey, USN, Commanding Officer, USS Portland;
Lieutenant L.L. Thompson, USN, Flag Secretary, and
Lieutenant A.M. Soden, USNR, interpreter.
Note Marine Corps photographer in right center background, and U.S. flag used as a backdrop.

Collection of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 21 January 2002
Minor text correction 31 January 2008