USS Trenton (CL-11) - World War II

World War II

In November, Trenton reentered the Pacific and rejoined the Battle Force, becoming an element of CruDiv 3. From 1941 to mid-1944, the ship served with the Southeast Pacific Force. At the time of America's entry into the war early in December 1941, she was moored at Balboa, Canal Zone. During the early part of 1942, Trenton escorted convoys to Bora Bora in the Society Islands where the Navy was constructing a fuel depot. From mid-1942 to mid-1944, she patrolled the western coast of South America between the Canal Zone and the Strait of Magellan. During one of this sweeps, in September 1943, she missed the German raider Michel, which later intercepted and sunk the Norwegian tanker India with all hands.

On 18 July 1944, Trenton headed north for duty in waters surrounding the Aleutians. After stopping for a time at San Francisco, she arrived at Adak, Alaska on 2 September. A month later, she shifted bases to Attu. In October, Trenton joined Richmond and nine destroyers in two sweeps of the northern Kuril Islands — the first from the 16th-19th and the second from the 22nd-29th — as a diversion during the invasion of Leyte. She returned to the Kurils again on 3 January 1945 to bombard enemy installations on Paramushiru Island, then resumed Alaskan patrols.

For the remainder of the war, Trenton patrolled the waters off Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and made periodic sweeps of the Kuril Islands. On 18 February, she returned to Paramushiru to pound shore installations. A month later, she bombarded Matsuwa. On 10 June, the light cruiser shelled Matsuwa once more and made an anti-shipping sweep before conducting another bombardment during the evening hours of the llth. From 23-25 June, Trenton, conducted her last offensive operation of the war, an anti-shipping sweep of the central Kuriles. Task Force 94 (TF 94) split into two units. Trenton encountered no enemy shipping, but the other unit sank five ships of a small convoy.

Not long after that operation, the light cruiser steamed south for yard work. She reached San Francisco on 1 August, and the end of the war found her at Mare Island Navy Yard awaiting inactivation overhaul. Early in November, she headed south to Panama. Trenton transited the canal on the 18th, arrived at Philadelphia a week later, and was placed out of commission there on 20 December. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 21 January 1946. On 29 December, she was delivered to her purchaser, the Patapsco Scrap Co. of Bethlehem, Pa., for scrapping.