USS St. Louis (CL-49)

USS ''St. Louis'', eighth of nine light cruisers, was the fifth ship of the United States Navy named after the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Commissioned in 1939, she was very active in the Pacific during World War II, earning eleven battle stars.

She was deactivated shortly after the war, but was recommissioned into the Brazilian Navy as ''Almirante Tamandaré'' in 1951. She served until 1976, and sank under tow to the scrappers in 1980.

Design

As the major naval powers negotiated the London Naval Treaty in 1930, which contained a provision limiting the construction of heavy cruisers armed with guns, United States naval designers came to the conclusion that with a displacement limited to , a better protected vessel could be built with an armament of guns. The designers also theorized that the much higher rate of fire of the smaller guns would allow a ship armed with twelve of the guns to overpower one armed with eight 8-inch guns. During the design process of the , which began immediately after the treaty was signed, the US Navy became aware that the next class of Japanese cruisers, the , would be armed with a main battery of fifteen 6-inch guns, prompting them to adopt the same number of guns for the ''Brooklyn''s. After building seven ships to the original design, additional changes were incorporated, particularly to the propulsion machinery and the secondary battery, resulting in what is sometimes referred to the ''St. Louis'' sub-class, which also included .

''St. Louis'' was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . Her standard displacement amounted to and increased to at full load. The ship was powered by four Parsons steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by eight oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Unlike the ''Brooklyn''s, the two ''St. Louis''-class cruisers arranged their machinery in the unit system, alternating boiler and engine rooms. Rated at , the turbines were intended to give a top speed of . The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of . She carried four Curtiss SOC Seagull floatplanes for aerial reconnaissance, which were launched by a pair of aircraft catapults on her fantail. Her crew numbered 52 officers and 836 enlisted men.

The ship was armed with a main battery of fifteen 6 in /47 caliber Mark 16 guns in five 3-gun turrets on the centerline. Three were placed forward, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair facing forward, with the third being directly pointed aft; the other two turrets were placed aft of the superstructure in another superfiring pair. The secondary battery consisted of eight /38 caliber dual purpose guns mounted in twin turrets, with one turret on either side of the conning tower and the other pair on either side of the aft superstructure. As designed, the ship was equipped with an anti-aircraft (AA) battery of eight guns, but her anti-aircraft battery was revised during her career. The ship's belt armor consisted of 5 inches on a layer of of special treatment steel and her deck armor was thick. The main battery turrets were protected with faces and they were supported by barbettes 6 inches thick. ''St. Louis''s conning tower had 5-inch sides.

Service history

The keel for ''St. Louis'' was laid down on 10 December 1936 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Virginia. She was launched on 15 April 1938, and after completing fitting out work, was commissioned into active service on 19 May 1939, with the hull number CL-49. The ship was initially based in Norfolk, Virginia, for sea trials; her shakedown cruise concluded on 6 October, by which time World War II had broken out in Europe. She thereafter joined the Atlantic Fleet's Neutrality Patrols. During this period, on 3 September 1940, she embarked a group of officers to survey a number of locations in North and South America that the United States might obtain through the "destroyers for bases" deal with the United Kingdom. This voyage went as far north as Newfoundland in Canada and as far south as British Guiana, and ended on 27 October with her return to Norfolk.

On 9 November, ''St. Louis'' departed to join the Pacific Fleet. After passing through the Panama Canal on 14 November, she arrived in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 12 December. She thereafter took part in the routine training exercises with the rest of the fleet through the winter of 1940–1941, followed by a trip to Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California for an overhaul. She arrived back in Pearl Harbor on 20 June and returned to operations with the fleet. In August, ''St. Louis'' and several other cruisers embarked on a voyage to the western Pacific; they conducted patrols between Wake Island, Midway Island, and Guam, before sailing for Manila in the Philippines. They arrived back in Pearl Harbor in late September. ''St. Louis'' was dry docked at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 28 September for routine maintenance. By 7 December, she had returned to her usual mooring in the Southeast Loch.

World War II

At 07:56 on 7 December, men aboard ''St. Louis'' reported seeing Japanese aircraft overhead, beginning their attack on Pearl Harbor. Shortly thereafter, the order to general quarters was given, and the ship's anti-aircraft guns began to engage the attacking aircraft. The engine room crew had begun preparations to get the ship underway by 08:06. Fourteen minutes later, the anti-aircraft gunners had shot down a Japanese aircraft, and by 09:00, had downed another pair. The ship slipped from her mooring at 09:31 and steamed toward the South Channel. Her 6-inch guns were quickly restored to operation as the crew prepared for the possibility of a surface action.

Naval historians have reported that a Japanese midget submarine that was in the channel entrance attempted to torpedo ''St. Louis'', but in fact, the reported "torpedo" was a porpoising minesweeping float being towed by the USS Boggs (DD-136). Before being identified as such, however, the Boggs' skipper, Lt. Cmdr. David Roberts, unhesitatingly ordered his ship to turn into the path of the supposed torpedo."Memories of the War Years" by Thomas B. Owen RAdm, USN (Ret.), unpublished memoir Destroyers arrived and dropped depth charges on the imagined submarine, allowing ''St. Louis'' to proceed to open waters without further interruption. The ship took part in the unsuccessful search for the Japanese carrier strike force, but by 10 December, she had returned to Pearl Harbor. ''St. Louis'' thereafter escorted transport ships that evacuated casualties to California and brought reinforcements to Hawaii.

1942

''St. Louis'' thereafter joined Task Force 17 (TF 17), which was centered on the aircraft carrier . The unit left San Francisco on 6 January 1942 as an escort for troop ships carrying a Marine expeditionary force to American Samoa to strengthen the garrison there. The troops were disembarked at Pago Pago between 20 and 24 January, and TF 17 then moved to launch a series of air strikes in concert with Task Force 8 on the Japanese-held Marshall and Gilbert island groups. In response, the Japanese sent several submarines and elements of the 1st Air Fleet to launch a counter-attack, but they recalled both groups before making contact with either American task force. The ships thereafter returned to Pearl Harbor on 7 February.

''St. Louis'' was then detached from TF 17 to resume escorting convoys between Hawaii and California, along with one to the New Hebrides. She next joined the escort for the ocean liner , which was carrying Manuel L. Quezon, the President of the Philippines, to the United States. The ships arrived in San Francisco on 8 May, and the next day, ''St. Louis'' got underway to return to Pearl Harbor. There, she joined a group of ships carrying reinforcements to Midway during the preparations for the Battle of Midway. ''St. Louis'' was used to carry two companies of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion and a battery of guns. The ships offloaded aircraft and marines on 25 May, and ''St. Louis'' was then transferred to Task Force 8, which was sailing north to bring reinforcements to the Aleutian islands. At that time, the unit also included her sister ships and , the heavy cruisers and , and fourteen destroyers, commanded by Rear Admiral (RADM) Robert Alfred Theobald.

TF 8 arrived in Kodiak Island on 31 May, where ''St. Louis'' refueled in preparation for patrol duty to the south of the Alaskan Peninsula. She conducted these operations through July, and on 3 August, she got underway to bombard Japanese positions on Kiska in the Aleutians. After shelling the island on 7 August, she returned to Kodiak four days later and then resumed patrols in the area. She took part in the occupation of Adak Island. ''St. Louis'' left the Aleutians on 25 October by way of Dutch Harbor for another overhaul at Mare Island, which was completed by early December.

1943–1944: Solomons Islands campaign

''St. Louis'' left San Francisco on 4 December as part of the escort for a convoy of transport ships en route to New Caledonia. The ships arrived on 21 December, where ''St. Louis'' separated from the convoy to join Allied forces waging the Solomon Islands campaign. She moved first to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, and from there, embarked on her first offensive operations in January 1943, conducting bombardments of Japanese positions at Munda and Kolombangara, particularly targeting the airfields there. Over the next five months, she participated in numerous patrols in "the Slot" and raids against Japanese positions in the area. The former were intended to block Japanese reinforcement missions—the so-called " Tokyo Express". During this period, the ship suffered a number of accidents, including jammed guns and the loss of one of her anchors, which tore a hole in the bow as it fell.

The first of these raids took place from 1 to 4 January, when ''St. Louis'' covered a group of seven transports carrying elements of the 25th Infantry Division to Guadalcanal. The unit at that time included six other cruisers and five destroyers, and was commanded by RADM Walden L. Ainsworth. Ainsworth left four cruisers and three destroyers to cover the convoy on the 4th, taking ''St. Louis'', ''Helena'', and ''Nashville'', and two destroyers to bombard Munda in the early hours of 5 January. The ships fired a total of some 4,000 shells, but inflicted little significant damage to the Japanese airfield. The ships returned to Guadalcanal at 09:00 and began recovering their reconnaissance floatplanes when a Japanese airstrike arrived and damaged two of the other cruisers. ''St. Louis'' and the rest of the unit carried out a bombardment of Vila on the night of 23–24 January; ''St. Louis'' formed part of the covering force and did not take an active role in the attack. ''St. Louis'' and the rest of the unit were to conduct another attack on Munda on the night of 7–8 April, but a major Japanese air raid earlier on the 7th disrupted Allied plans and forced Ainsworth's task force to flee south.

''St. Louis'' and the rest of TF 68 conducted a sweep into Vella Gulf on the night of 6–7 May to distract Japanese attention from a group of fast minelayers that laid a minefield off New Georgia to block re-supply efforts. The ships encountered no Japanese opposition that night, but late on 7 May, four destroyers stumbled into the minefield. Three destroyers struck mines, one of which sank immediately, and the other two were sunk by American aircraft the following morning. On 12 May, TF 68 made another raid on Japanese positions in the area; ''St. Louis'' and the destroyers and were detached from the main force to bombard Munda while the rest of the ships attacked Vila.

=Landing at Rice Anchorage

=

The invasion of New Georgia began on 30 June; ''St. Louis'' and the rest of TF 68 patrolled at the northern end of the Coral Sea; at that time, she cruised with ''Helena'', ''Honolulu'', and their escorting destroyer screen that consisted of , , , and . By 1 July, the ships were about south of New Georgia, and on 3 July they reached Tulagi, where a false report of a Japanese airstrike briefly sent the ships' crews to their battle stations. The Allied plan called for a second landing on New Georgia in the Kula Gulf on the northeastern side of the island. A landing here would block the resupply route for the Japanese forces fighting on the island and it would also deny their use of the gulf to escape once they were defeated, as they had done on Guadalcanal.

''Nicholas'' and ''Strong'' reached Kula Gulf first, scanning it with their radar and sonar sets to determine if any Japanese warships were in the area. The cruisers and other two destroyers then entered the gulf to prepare to bombard Japanese positions at Vila. ''Honolulu'' opened fire first at 00:26 on 5 July, followed quickly by the other ships. Black Cats circling overhead coordinated the ships' fire. The bombardment lasted about fourteen minutes before the American column turned east to move to the Rice Anchorage to shell targets there. After another six minutes of shooting, the ships departed.Unbeknownst to the Americans, the three Japanese destroyers had arrived in the gulf while they were still shooting. Illuminated by the gun flashes, the American vessels were quickly identified by the Japanese over away.

The transport group then entered the gulf and steamed close to the shore to prevent intermingling with Ainsworth's squadron, which had turned north at 12:39 to leave the gulf. Captain Kanaoka Kunizo, the senior destroyer commander in charge of the reinforcement operation, decided to withdraw as well to avoid engaging a superior force with his ships loaded with soldiers and supplies. ''Niizuki'', the only radar-equipped destroyer, directed the aim of all three vessels, which launched a total of fourteen Long Lance torpedoes before withdrawing at high speed to escape back to Bougainville. One of these torpedoes struck ''Strong'', which was still stationed at the entrance of the gulf on sentry duty. The destroyer was fatally damaged, but the attack alerted Ainsworth that there were Japanese warships in the area. ''O'Bannon'' and ''Chevalier'' were detached to pick up survivors while Ainsworth prepared to search for the submarine he assumed to have been responsible, as none of his ships had detected the three Japanese destroyers on their radars. ''Strong'' sank at 01:22, with 239 of her crew taken off by the other destroyers, though some additional survivors were missed in the darkness and were later picked up by the transport group. Ainsworth's ships then resumed their cruising formation at 02:15 for the voyage back to Tulagi.

At 07:00, ''Jenkins'' joined the squadron, which reached Tulagi in the early afternoon, where the ships immediately began refueling. Shortly thereafter, Ainsworth received orders from Halsey to return to Kula Gulf, as reconnaissance aircraft had spotted Japanese destroyers departing from Bougainville to attempt the planned reinforcement run that he had inadvertently disrupted the night before. Ainsworth was to intercept the destroyers and prevent the landing of more Japanese forces on the island. He ordered the ships to end refueling and prepare to get underway; ''Jenkins'' replaced ''Strong'' and the destroyer took the place of ''Chevalier'', which had been damaged in an accidental collision with the sinking ''Strong''.

=Battle of Kula Gulf

=

Since the previous night's reinforcement run had been aborted, the Japanese assembled a group of ten destroyers to make a larger effort the next night. ''Niizuki''—now the flagship of Rear Admiral Teruo Akiyama—and the destroyers and were to escort the other seven destroyers—''Nagatsuki'', , , , , ''Hatsuyuki'', and —carried 2,400 troops and supplies. Meanwhile, the American force intending to block their advance had formed up by 19:30 and began the voyage back up the Slot. As the Americans steamed toward Kula Gulf, the crews got their vessels ready for action, including closing all of the watertight doors to reduce the risk of flooding and turning off all lights to prevent detection by the Japanese.

The American squadron passed Visuvisu Point at the entrance to the gulf early on 6 July, at which point the vessels reduced speed to . Visibility was poor owing to heavy cloud cover. Ainsworth had no information as to the specific composition or location of the Japanese force, and patrolling Black Cats could not detect them in the conditions. The Japanese destroyers had already entered the gulf and begun unloading their cargoes; ''Niizuki'' detected the American ships on her radar at 01:06 at a range of about . Akiyama took his flagship, ''Suzukaze'', and ''Tanikaze'' to observe the Americans at 01:43 while the other destroyers continued to disembark the soldiers and supplies; by that time, Ainsworth's ships had already detected the three ships off Kolombangara at 01:36. As the two sides continued to close, Akiyama recalled the other destroyers to launch an attack. The American vessels transitioned into a line ahead formation, with ''Nicholas'' and ''O'Bannon'' ahead of the cruisers; the line turned left to close the range to the Japanese vessels before turning right to move toward an advantageous firing position.

The American radars picked up Akiyama's escort detachment along with another group of destroyers that was racing to join him; Ainsworth decided to attack the first group and then turn about to engage the second. At about 01:57, the American vessels opened up with radar-directed rapid fire. Between the three cruisers, they fired around close to 1,500 shells from their 6-inch batteries in the span of just five minutes. ''Niizuki'' received heavy fire from the other American ships and was quickly sunk, taking Akiyama down with her. But by that time, ''Suzukaze'' and ''Tanikaze'' had both launched eight torpedoes at the American line. They then fled to the northwest, using heavy smoke to conceal themselves while their crews reloaded their torpedo tubes. Both destroyers received minor hits during their temporary withdrawal but were not seriously damaged.

Ainsworth instructed his ships to turn to the right at 02:03 to begin engaging the second group of destroyers, but shortly thereafter three of ''Suzukaze''s or ''Tanikaze''s torpedoes struck ''Helena'' on the port side, inflicting serious, ultimately fatal damage. Ainsworth and the other vessels' captains were not immediately aware that ''Helena'' had been disabled owing to the course change, the general confusion that resulted from heavy smoke and gunfire during the battle, and the fact that most attention was directed at the oncoming second group of Japanese destroyers. In the ensuing action, several of the Japanese destroyers were hit and forced to disengage, after which Ainsworth attempted to reorganize his force at around 02:30. He quickly realized that ''Helena'' was not responding to radio messages and ordered his ships to begin searching for the missing cruiser. At 03:13, ''Radford''s radar picked up a contact and thereafter confirmed it was ''Helena''s sinking wreck.

=Battle of Kolombangara

=

By 12 July, ''St. Louis''s unit had by then been re-designated to either Task Force 18 or 36.1 At that time, the unit consisted of ''St. Louis'', ''Honolulu'', and the light cruiser of the Royal New Zealand Navy, along with Destroyer Squadrons 21 and 12; it was still commanded by Ainsworth. The unit embarked on another patrol that evening, departing Tulagi at 17:00 on 12 July. Ainsworth sent his ships to general quarters at around 23:00. The Japanese supply convoy in the area that Ainsworth hoped to intercept was equipped with radar-detection equipment, and had already picked up Allied radar signals. Shortly after 01:00 on 13 July, the Allies encountered the Japanese force commanded by Rear Admiral Shunji Isaki, which was composed of the light cruiser and five destroyers, escorting a group of four destroyer-transports.

The Japanese spotted the Allied ships first, but the leading American destroyers launched their torpedoes first. In the ensuing Battle of Kolombangara, ''Jintsu'' and the destroyers launched a spread of torpedoes at the Allied squadron before the cruisers closed to within , where their gunnery control and search radars could effectively direct their shooting. All three cruisers concentrated their fire on ''Jintsu'', she being the largest radar contact; after a few minutes of rapid fire, the ship exploded and, after being hit by a torpedo from one of the destroyers, quickly sank. The initial salvo of torpedoes missed, but the Japanese destroyers briefly retreated into a rain squall to reload their torpedo tubes before reemerging to launch another salvo. ''Leander'' was hit and fell out of the formation while ''St. Louis'' and ''Honolulu'' pursued the retreating Japanese destroyers. They opened fire, engaging the destroyer ''Mikazuki'' and what was probably the still-burning wreck of ''Jintsu''. The Americans thereafter lost contact with the Japanese ships.

At around 01:56, ''Honolulu'' picked up a group of unidentified ships some away. Unsure of the identity of the vessels, which might have been his destroyers, Ainsworth held his cruisers' fire. At 02:03, he ordered star shells to illuminate the ships, which were immediately revealed to be the fleeing Japanese destroyers, which had just launched another salvo of torpedoes and turned away. ''St. Louis'' was hit by one of them in her bow at 02:08, before she could open fire, and shortly thereafter, ''Honolulu'' also received a minor torpedo hit. The destroyer was hit amidships and quickly sank. Casualties aboard ''St. Louis'' were light. Despite the fact that they had sunk ''Jintsu'' and drove off the destroyers, the Allied squadron had failed to prevent the destroyer-transports from reaching Kolombangara and landing 1,200 soldiers.

The Allied ships returned to Tulagi later on 13 July, and ''St. Louis'' was detached to return to the United States for repairs. She steamed first to Espiritu Santo for temporary work that would allow her to make the crossing to Mare Island Navy Yard, where permanent repairs were carried out. The work was completed by November, and included replacing her worn-out main battery guns, and swapping her poorly performing 1.1-inch anti-aircraft guns with Bofors guns.

=Later operations

=

''St. Louis'' arrived back in the Solomons in mid-November, and immediately resumed combat operations. From 20 to 25 November, she provided naval gunfire support to marines fighting on Bougainville. Further bombardment missions against Japanese forces on the island followed in December. In early January 1944, she moved south to the Shortland Islands to attack Japanese positions there. ''St. Louis'' then moved back north to Bougainville, where she joined the bombardment force that supported the landing at Cape Torokina. She returned to Tulagi on 10 January to begin preparations for the next major operation. This came in the form of the Battle of the Green Islands in February, an Allied amphibious assault on the Green Islands. The seizure of the islands, which were to the east of New Britain, was intended to isolate the Japanese base at Rabaul. ''St. Louis'' arrived off the island on 13 February to begin the bombardment for the assault, which was to come two days later. By that time, the ship had been assigned to Task Force 38, along with ''Honolulu''.

Late in the day on 14 February, the Japanese launched an air attack consisting of six Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers against the American formation. At 18:55, lookouts spotted the aircraft; two of them targeted ''St. Louis''. The first failed to score any hits with its three bombs, but the second aircraft struck ''St. Louis'' with one of its bombs. It passed through the shell handling room for the No. 6 Bofors gun mount, starting a fire as it did so, before exploding in the midship living compartment, where it killed twenty-three and wounded another twenty. Damage control efforts quickly suppressed the fire. The ship's ventilation system was damaged, the communication line to the aft engine room was severed, and both of her aircraft were disabled, but ''St. Louis'' remained on station, albeit at the reduced speed of . The next day, another Japanese air strike failed to inflict any further damage to ''St. Louis'', but she was nevertheless detached to return to Purvis Bay for repairs that lasted until the end of the month. In March, she returned to her unit and remained operating in the Solomons through May.

Marianas campaign

''St. Louis'' left the Solomons on 4 June, bound for the Marshalls, where she joined Task Force 52, which had been formed for the invasion of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign in the central Pacific. ''St. Louis'' was assigned to one of the task force's bombardment groups, Task Group 52.10, under the command of Ainsworth. The unit included the old dreadnought battleships , , and , five other cruisers, and nine destroyers, along with several support vessels. The invasion fleet departed on 10 June and arrived off Saipan on the 14th; the next day, ''St. Louis'' began bombarding the area around Chalan Kanoa at the start of the Battle of Saipan. The next day, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions landed on the island. As the American forces fought their way ashore, ''St. Louis'' remained close offshore to engage Japanese defensive positions. The following day, she sailed south to take part in the preparatory bombardment of Guam. On 17 June, she resumed operations off Saipan, where she remained through the Battle of the Philippine Sea. She was assigned to the anti-aircraft screen for the refueling group on 22 June, before being detached two days later to return to the Marshalls. By 9 July, the Japanese garrison on Saipan had been defeated.

The ship got underway again on 14 July to return to operations in the Marianas. By that time, Ainsworth's command had been re-numbered TG 53.5 though its composition remained largely the same. While en route on the 15th, her No. 3 propeller was damaged and a section of that propeller shaft was destroyed. She reached Guam two days later and on the afternoon of 17 July, provided fire support as underwater demolition teams (UDT) dismantled fixed defenses at the planned landing sites. ''St. Louis'' thereafter took part in the pre-invasion bombardment, which lasted until 21 July, when American ground forces went ashore. The ship thereafter supported the soldiers and marines fighting on the island for more than a week, before departing on 29 July to return to port for repairs. She stopped in Pearl Harbor on the way to California, where her overhaul was performed. In mid-October, she returned to Hawaii for training operations that lasted through the rest of the month. She then crossed the Pacific to rejoin the main fleet, which had already begun the Philippines campaign. She arrived in Leyte Gulf on 16 November.

Philippines campaign

For the rest of November, ''St. Louis'' helped to defend the fleet from air attacks, patrolling in Leyte Gulf and the Surigao Strait. The ship was at that time part of Task Group 77.2, which included the old battleships , , and , three other cruisers, and sixteen destroyers. On 27 November, the Japanese launched a major counter-attack against Allied forces on and off Leyte, including heavy attacks on the Allied fleet. ''St. Louis'' was one of the vessels that was to come under sustained attack over the course of the action.

The first wave of twelve to fourteen aircraft appeared late in the morning, but ''St. Louis'' was not damaged. This attack prompted calls for support from the fleet's combat air patrol (CAP). At around 11:30, a second wave of ten aircraft arrived, and at 11:38, a D3A dive bomber on a attack struck the ship, detonating its remaining fuel and the bomb it was carrying. The blast killed or wounded all of the 20 mm gun crews from mounts 7 through 10 and started a fire in the ship's aircraft hangar. Immediately thereafter, at 11:39, a second burning aircraft nearly struck the ship, but ''St. Louis'' was able to evade the attempt, and the Japanese pilot flew over the No. 4 main battery turret and crashed into the sea about from the ship.

A third wave appeared shortly before noon, and CAP support had still not arrived to fend them off. A pair of Japanese aircraft dove on ''St. Louis'' at 11:51. The ship's anti-aircraft gunners successfully shot down the first , but the second crashed into the ship's port side, tearing a length of belt armor from the ship and punching numerous holes in the hull. ''St. Louis'' immediately began to take on a list to port as water entered the ship. Another attempted to attack at 12:10, but it was shot down about from the ship. At around 12:20, a group of torpedo bombers attacked ''St. Louis'', but the cruiser had been warned of their approach by a PT boat and was able to evade the torpedoes.

Damage control teams made quick progress, and by 12:36, counter-flooding had restored the ship to an even keel. By around 13:00, the fires had been suppressed, and salvage work had begun on the damaged parts of the ship. The attacks had killed fifteen and wounded forty-three, of whom twenty-one were badly injured. Another man was missing. ''St. Louis'' transferred the seriously wounded men to a hospital ship on 28 November, and two days later, she anchored at San Pedro Bay for temporary repairs. She then sailed for California for permanent repairs in late December.

Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign

Work on ''St. Louis'' was completed by 1 March 1945, when the ship got underway to return to the fleet. She arrived at the fleet's advance anchorage at Ulithi in mid-March and joined the anti-aircraft screen of the fast carrier task force. ''St. Louis'' was assigned to Task Group 58.4, escorting the aircraft carriers , , and in company with the fast battleships , , and , the large cruisers and , three other cruisers, and eighteen destroyers. In late March, the carriers launched a series of air strikes on the Japanese Home Islands. The Japanese responded with a counter-attack that primarily targeted TG 58.4. ''Intrepid'' and ''Yorktown'' were both damaged in the raid, but ''St. Louis'' was not attacked.

''St. Louis'' was then assigned to Task Force 54, the bombardment group assigned to the preparatory attack on Okinawa. She took part in attacks on the invasion beaches, covered UDT groups, and protected minesweepers as the invasion of Okinawa neared. On 26 March, lookouts aboard ''St. Louis'' and the heavy cruiser spotted torpedo tracks, but the Japanese submarine that launched the torpedoes could not be immediately located. On 31 March, ''St. Louis'' steamed to the staging area at Kerama Retto to replenish ammunition and stores. The next day, she arrived back off Hagushi to support the landing there. ''St. Louis'' remained off the invasion beaches until 6 April, when she was detached to escort a group of minesweepers working off Iwo Jima, which had been conquered earlier that year in the Battle of Iwo Jima. The ship thereafter returned to Okinawa, where she provided gunfire support off Hagushi through mid-May. On 18 May, she was sent to Leyte to relieve the crew after more than a month of constant operations. The ship returned to Okinawa in mid-June, though the campaign there was in its final days.

Beginning in mid-July, ''St. Louis'' began to operate with Task Force 95, assigned to Task Unit 2, along with the old battleships and , and the cruisers , , and ''Wichita''. TU 2 formed half of Task Group 95.3, together with Task Unit 1, which consisted of the escort carriers , , and . Over the course of the next month, the task group patrolled off Okinawa to defend against Japanese air attacks and conducted sweeps into the East China Sea, to search for Japanese merchant shipping and carry out strikes against targets in occupied China. In early August, ''St. Louis'' returned to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, where she remained through 15 August, when the end of the war was announced. Over the course of the conflict, ''St. Louis'' earned eleven battle stars.

Post-war

''St. Louis'' remained in East Asian waters for more than two months after the end of the war. She moved to the Philippines in late August, where she was assigned to Task Force 73, the Yangtze River Patrol Force. She had returned to Buckner Bay by September, where other vessels that had been assigned to the unit were being collected. In October, the ships sailed to Shanghai, China, and later that month, she took part in an operation to move elements of the Chinese Army to Taiwan, which had been under Japanese occupation.

The ship was thereafter used as part of Operation Magic Carpet, the effort to repatriate American forces after the war. Her first such voyage ended at San Francisco on 9 November, and she made a further two by mid-January 1946. These included voyages to various islands in the central and southwestern Pacific. These duties completed, ''St. Louis'' left for Philadelphia in early February, arriving there on the 25th of the month. There, she was decommissioned on 20 June and moored at League Island in the Delaware River, part of the 16th (Inactive) Fleet. She remained there into the early 1950s.

Transfer to Brazil

In the early 1950s, as the US Navy sought to reduce the number of surplus vessels in its inventory, ''St. Louis'' was allocated to the Brazilian Navy. She was stricken from the US Naval Vessel Register on 22 January 1951 and commissioned into Brazilian service on 29 January as ''Almirante Tamandaré''.

During a period of political instability in 1955, Carlos Luz briefly seized power after the acting president, Café Filho, was ousted on 8 November. Luz was himself deposed three days later, and he fled aboard ''Tamandaré'', which was moored in Guanabara Bay off Rio de Janeiro, awaiting work on her boilers. At that time, the ship's captain was Silvio Heck; also aboard was Admiral Carlos Pena Boto. Luz sought to flee the capital to Santos, and when the ship passed out of the bay, the coastal fortifications guarding its entrance opened fire on ''Tamandaré'', but scored no hits. Luz was formally removed from power and the governor of São Paulo (state), São Paulo barred him from entering the area. ''Tamandaré'' brought him back to Rio de Janeiro on the 13th, where he left the ship.

She served as the Fleet Flagship until 1976. She was deployed as part of the force in the Lobster War between Brazil and France.

''Tamandaré'' was stricken from the naval register in 1973 and was laid up until 1980, when she was sold to ship breakers based in Taiwan. While being towed there on 24 August, she foundered off South Africa.

Footnotes

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{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Louis (CL-49)
Brooklyn-class cruisers
Ships built in Newport News, Virginia
1938 ships
World War II cruisers of the United States
Ships present during the attack on Pearl Harbor
Ships of the Aleutian Islands campaign
St. Louis-class cruisers (1938) of the Brazilian Navy
Cruisers of the Brazilian Navy