War Service
Several Brooklyns were seriously damaged during the war, but all of the cruisers survived. Boise was severely damaged by a shell in her forward turret magazine during the Battle of Cape Esperance on 11 October 1942, suffering many casualties but luckily the shell did not explode. Nashville was hit by a kamikaze attack on 13 December 1944 off Mindoro which killed or wounded 310 crewmen. Honolulu was torpedoed at the Battle of Kolombangara on July 12-13, 1943, as was her near-sister St. Louis. After being repaired in the United States, Honolulu returned to service only to be torpedoed by a Japanese aircraft on 20 October 1944 during the invasion of Leyte. On 11 September 1943 Savannah was hit by a German Fritz X radio guided bomb which penetrated her #3 turret and blew out the bottom of the ship. Skillful damage control by her crew saved her from sinking. While under repair in the United States, Savannah was rebuilt with a bulged hull that increased her beam by nearly 8 feet and her 5 inch guns were reinstalled as four twins.
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Famous quotes containing the words war and/or service:
“Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
“Our chief want in life, is, someone who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)