USS Birmingham (CL-62)
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| Missing image USS_Birmingham_(CL-62).jpg Underway in , 1943 | |
| Career | 
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|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | 20 March 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 29 January 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 2 January 1947 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1959 |
| Struck: | 1 March 1959 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 10,000 tons |
| Length: | 610 ft 1 in (186 m) |
| Beam: | 66 ft 4 in (20.2 m) |
| Draught: | 25 ft (7.6 m) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 1,200 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 12 x 6 in (152 mm), 12 x 5 in (127 mm) guns |
| Aircraft: | |
| Motto: | |
USS Birmingham (CL-62), named for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, was a Cleveland class light cruiser laid down by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Newport News in Virginia on 17 February 1941, launched on 20 March 1942 by Mrs. C. Green, wife of the President of the Birmingham City Commission and commissioned on 29 January 1943.
Following her shakedown cruise Birmingham was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. Departing Norfolk, Virginia on 2 June 1943, she steamed to the Mediterranean and gave gunfire support during the invasion of Sicily (10-26 July 1943). Returning to the United States 8 August, she was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet and arrived at Pearl Harbor 6 September 1943.
Joining the fast carrier task force screen, she took part in the raids on Tarawa (18 September 1943) and Wake Island (5-6 October). At the Solomons, she took part in the battle of Empress Augusta Bay (8-9 November), during which she destroyed the Japanese plane which hit her with two bombs and a torpedo. The cruiser retired to Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs which lasted until 18 February 1944 and then rejoined the Pacific Fleet.
USS_Birmingham_alongside_USS_Princeton.jpg
Assigned to Task Force 57, she took part in the battle of Saipan (14 June-4 August 1944); battle of the Philippine Sea (19-20 June); battle of Tinian (20 July-1 August); battle of Guam (21 July); and Philippine Islands raids (9-24 September). She then served with Task Force 38 during the Okinawa raid (10 October), northern Luzon and Formosa raids (15 and 18-19 October), and the battle for Leyte Gulf (24 October). During the latter she suffered topside damage from explosions on board Princeton while courageously attempting to aid that stricken vessel. Birmingham retired to Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs which lasted from November 1944 to January 1945.
Rejoining the Pacific Fleet, the cruiser supported the battle of Iwo Jima (4-5 March 1945) and battle of Okinawa (25 March-5 May). On 4 May, after fighting off three attacks, she was damaged for a third time when a Japanese suicide plane hit her forward. Returning to Pearl Harbor, she underwent repairs between 28 May and 1 August 1945.
Birmingham joined the 5th Fleet at Okinawa 26 August 1945 and in November steamed to Brisbane, Australia. She returned to San Francisco 22 March 1946 and went out of commission in reserve there 2 January 1947. It was then stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1959 and scrapped at Long Beach in California.
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
| Cleveland-class cruiser |
| Cleveland | Columbia | Montpelier | Denver | Santa Fe | Birmingham | Mobile | Vincennes | Pasadena | Springfield | Topeka | Biloxi | Houston | Providence | Manchester | Vicksburg | Duluth | Miami | Astoria | Oklahoma City | Little Rock | Galveston | Amsterdam | Portsmouth | Wilkes-Barre | Atlanta | Dayton |
| List of cruisers of the United States Navy |