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USS Brooklyn (CL-40)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Brooklyn (CL-40)

The lead ship of what was to become the Brooklyn class of light cruisers was authorized by an Act of Congress on 13 February 1929; and classified as CL-44 on 5 July 1933. The contract for the ship’s construction was awarded on 3 August 1933; she was assigned the name Brooklyn on 6 September 1933; reclassified to CL-40 on 5 October 1933; and her construction was fittingly allocated to the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., on 1 November 1933. The ship was laid down there on 12 March 1935; launched on 30 November 1936; sponsored by Miss. Kathryn J. Lackey, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and daughter of Rear Adm. Frank R. Lackey, Commander, New York Naval Militia; and commissioned on 30 September 1937, Capt. William D. Brereton Jr., in command.

The cruiser worked up in Guantánamo Bay (23 January–1 February 1938), and then (2–3 February) obtained tactical data while in Gonaïves Bay, Haiti. USS Brooklyn (CL-40) began service with Cruiser Division (CruDiv) 8, Rear Adm. Forde A. Todd in command, a long association that continued through the end of her career, as she took part in exercises and gunnery drills off Fort Pond Bay, N.Y. (24 July–4 August 1938). USS Brooklyn (CL-40) lay to at Hampton Roads on her southerly voyage (5–7 January 1939), and then (10–13 January) operated in Gonaïves Bay, where she launched and recovered her four embarked SOC-3s, and carried out machine gun practice. 

Ships deployed the Third Defense Battalion of marines (Lt. Col. Robert H. Pepper, USMC) to the island, and Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Savannah, together with stores issue ship Antares (AKS-3), reached Midway with the balance of the battalion on 13 February 1941. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, USS Brooklyn (CL-40) had reached Bermuda following additional operations. USS Brooklyn (CL-40) trained while en route to Bermuda (25–27 June 1942), and then (24–27 July) completed an availability at the New York Navy Yard. 

USS Brooklyn (CL-40) moored in Casablanca harbor on 17 November 1942. That day she set out for home, and returned from the fighting to Norfolk on the final day of the month. She rounded out the year completing voyage repairs and upkeep at the New York Navy Yard (2 December 1942–4 January 1943). The cruiser helped protect a convoy across the Atlantic, through the Strait of Gibraltar, and in to the Mediterranean to Algeria (10–21 June 1943) in preparation for Operation Husky—the Allied invasion of Sicily. The weathered cruiser came about for home (28 July–8 August) and completed an availability until the end of the summer of 1943. USS Brooklyn (CL-40) then operated two SOC-3s and a pair of SON-1s of VCS-8.

USS Brooklyn (CL-40) next took part in shepherding President Roosevelt to Eureka, a conference with British Prime Minister Winston L.S. Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph V. Stalin at Tehran, Iran. 30 September 1945 she was assigned to serve as a reserve ship in the Atlantic Fleet. USS Brooklyn (CL-40) slid up the Delaware River to Philadelphia for a pre-deactivation overhaul on 30 October. USS Brooklyn (CL-40) completed her initial work of preservation on 28 January 1946, and two days later was placed in commission in reserve with the Sixteenth Fleet at Philadelphia. USS Brooklyn (CL-40) was placed out of commission in reserve on 3 January 1947.

For a complete history of USS Brooklyn (CL-40) please see its DANFS page.