|
The Omaha-class ships were the first true light cruisers built by the U.S. navy, a design based on naval lessons learned in the course of World War I. Raleigh and her sisters were intended to form the Scouting Force along with divisions of destroyers. By the Second World War these ships were at the end of their service lives and considered outmoded; most were used in secondary roles throughout that war. Joining the fleet in 1924, Raleigh served in European waters with the Light Cruiser Division and provided support for the Army World Flight of that year. In 1925 Raleigh was involved in operations and battle exercises from the Virginia Capes to Hawaii and Panama, then operated out of Boston for the next two years with winter exercises in the Caribbean.
Raleigh embarked two detachments of Marines at Charleston, SC in February of 1927, delivering them to Corinto, Nicaragua, where the Marines landed to help stabilize that war-torn country. By September of 1928, Raleigh was serving as the flagship of Naval Forces, Europe, returning to Boston in 1929 to once again operate with the Light Cruiser Division. Transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1933, Raleigh operated in west coast waters as well as Alaska and Hawaii. In 1936, Raleigh returned to the Atlantic for an overhaul at the Norfolk Navy Yard and later that year became the flagship of the American Squadron operating from Gibralter to protect and evacuate American nationals caught up in the Spanish Civil War. By 1941, Raleigh was in Hawaiian waters serving as the Flagship of Destroyer Flotilla One.
On December 7, 1941, Raleigh was moored at Berth F-12 on the west side of Ford Island and was torpedoed on the port side amidships in the opening minutes of the Japanese attack. A few men were wounded, but none killed, and excellent damage control kept Raleigh from capsizing. Raleigh’s gunners assisted in shooting down several enemy planes. Temporarily patched at the navy yard, Raleigh arrived in San Francisco in March, 1942 for permanent repairs and overhaul, including modern radar and anti-aircraft guns. One of the oldest cruisers in the navy, Raleigh was considered obsolete, but she would still be very useful in secondary roles, releasing the more modern ships for the front line combat roles. Raleigh would earn three combat stars.
Refitted by July 1943, Raleigh was assigned to convoy escort duty to Samoa and Fiji. Raleigh was then assigned to the Alaskan area, operating out of Dutch Harbor for the rest of World War II, supporting the re-capture of Attu and Kiska Islands and later engaging in a bombardment of Paramushiro in February 1944. She was a convoy escort and patrol ship until the end of the war. After the war, Raleigh was decommissioned at Philadelphia in late 1945 and then sold for scrap in November of 1946. (DBoyer 2007)
|
