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USS Louisville (CA-28)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Louisville (CA-28)

USS Louisville (CA-28) was launched on 1 September 1930 at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash.; sponsored by Miss Jane B. Kennedy; and commissioned on 15 January 1931, Capt. Edward J. Marquart in command. On 1 July 1931, Louisville was redesignated a heavy cruiser (CA‑28) in accordance with the provisions of the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

USS Louisville (CA-28)'s shakedown cruise, running through the summer, fall, and winter of 1931, took her from Bremerton to New York City via the Panama Canal. Returning from New York, she participated in the 1932 fleet problems before commencing gunnery exercises in the San Pedro‑San Diego area. During the winter of 1933 USS Louisville (CA-28) steamed for the Hawaiian Islands, returning after exercises to San Pedro where she became a schoolship for antiaircraft training.

For the next two years she operated off the west coast, participating in the 1936 and 1937 fleet problems, making good will calls at Latin American ports and undergoing local training operations. In January, 1938, USS Louisville (CA-28) began a long Pacific cruise which took her to Hawaii, Samoa, Australia, and Tahiti before returning to Pearl Harbor for fleet problems.

On 7 December 1941, USS Louisville (CA-28), escorting USS A. T. Scott and USS President Coolidge, steamed en route from Tarakan, East Borneo, Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) to Pearl Harbor. She continued on to Oahu, stopping briefly to survey the damage from the Japanese attack, and then continuing her voyage to California. After a short stay at Pearl Harbor, USS Louisville (CA-28) commenced patrolling the Canton‑Ellice area to help protect Allied garrisons in that vicinity. In April, USS Louisville (CA-28) steamed, via Pearl Harbor, to the Aleutians. There, as a ship of TF 16, she covered the assault and occupation of Attu (11 to 30 May) and participated In the preinvasion bombardment of Kiska in July. After the Japanese evacuated Kiska, she conducted escort of convoy operations in the northern Pacific.

With the end of the war on 14 August 1945, USS Louisville (CA-28) hurriedly prepared for her postwar duties. On 16 August she sailed for Guam, and thence to Darien (Dalian), Manchuria, with Rear Adm. Thomas G. W. Settle on board. From Darien, where the ship supervised the evacuation of Allied POWs, she steamed to Tsingato (Qingdao), China, where Vice Admiral Shigeji Kaneko surrendered the Japanese vessels in that area. In mid‑October, she joined ships operating in the Yellow Sea for abbreviated service before proceeding, via San Pedro, to Philadelphia, Pa., where she decommissioned on 17 June 1946 and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Remaining with that fleet for the next 13 years, USS Louisville (CA-28) was stricken from the Navy list on 1 March 1959. 

For a complete history of USS Louisville (CA-28) please see its DANFS page.