Her profile included two smoke funnels at midships, two main masts and a forward-set superstructure containing the bridge and communications equipment.Īfter Pearl, USS New Orleans was a direct participant of some of the greatest battles of World War 2. Armament consisted of 9 x 8' main guns in three, three-gunned primary turrets (two held fore and one positioned aft of midships), 8 x 5' Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns, 2 x 3-pounder saluting guns and 8 x 0.50 caliber heavy machine guns for close-in defensive work. Armor protection about her design ranged from 5' at the belt to 8 inches at the turrets. Two catapults positioned at midships to allow for four reconnaissance-minded floatplanes to be launched. The warship housed a crew of 915 including nearly 100 officer-level personnel and over 1,650 tons of fuel oil could be stored. Maximum speed was nearly 33 knots in ideal conditions. Power came from 8 x Babcock & Wilcox boilers feeding 4 x Westinghouse geared turbines driving 107,000 horsepower to 4 x shafts. Her length reached 588 feet with a beam out to 61.8 feet and a draught down to 23,5 feet. She was then launched on April 12th, 1933 and formally commissioned into USN service on February 15th, 1934.©Īs built, the vessel was required to adhere to the 10,000 displacement limit set forth by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. On July 1st, 1931, the warship was reclassified as 'CA-32' to serve as a heavy cruiser. Ordered on February 13th, 1929 as the light cruiser USS New Orleans (CL-42), she saw her keel was laid down on March 14th, 1931 by Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. Sister ships included Astoria, Minneapolis, Tuscaloosa, San Francisco and Vincennes.

In the whole of the war, three of the lot were lost and four survived to see retirement. The group numbered seven and were in commission from 1934 to 1947. USS New Orleans made up the lead ship of the New Orleans-class. New Orleans sailed until given up in the late 1940s as her services no longer required in the Cold War period.

This then led her to have a storied ocean-going career that saw the Japanese Empire pay for its surprise assault and lose all of its territory leading up to the final surrender of 1945. Her wartime career began at the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 where the vessel survived with only minor damage. USS New Orleans (CA-32) became one of the most decorated warships of World War 2 (1939-1945).

Cleveland world of warships