USS Vincennes (CA-44) - Inter-war Period

Inter-war Period

The new cruiser departed from Boston on 19 April 1937 for her shakedown cruise which took her to Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; Le Havre, France; and Portsmouth, England.

Early in January 1938, Vincennes was assigned to Cruiser Division 7 (CruDiv 7), Scouting Force, and steamed through the Panama Canal to San Diego, California. In March, the ship participated in Fleet Problem XIX in the Hawaiian area before returning to San Pedro, California for operations off the west coast for the remainder of the year.

Following an overhaul at the Mare Island Navy Yard which lasted through April 1939, the cruiser returned east, transited the Panama Canal on 6 June, in company with Quincy, Tuscaloosa, and San Francisco and anchored in Hampton Roads on the 13th. For the next two months, she operated out of Norfolk in the vicinity of the Chesapeake lightship and the southern drill grounds. On 1 September 1939, the day on which Adolf Hitler's legions marched into Poland and commenced hostilities in Europe, Vincennes lay at anchor off Tompkinsville, New York. She then began conducting Neutrality Patrols off the east coast, ranging into the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Yucatan, and continued these duties through the spring of 1940.

Late in May, as German troops were smashing Allied defenses in France, Vincennes steamed to the Azores and visited Ponta Delgada from 4–6 June 1940 before she proceeded on for French Morocco to load a shipment of gold for transport to the United States. While at anchor at Casablanca, the ship received word of Italy's declaration of war upon France, the "stab in the back" condemned by President Franklin Roosevelt soon thereafter. Vincennes' commanding officer — Captain J. R. Beardall (later to become Naval Aide to the President) — noted subsequently in his official report of the cruise that "it was apparent that the French bitterly resented this and despised Italy for her actions." After departing North African waters on 10 June, the cruiser returned to the United States to offload her precious metallic cargo and return to the drudgery of Neutrality Patrols.

Overhauling at Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, into the first week of January 1941, Vincennes departed Hampton Roads on 7 January, in company with Wichita, New York, and Texas, bound for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Operating once again in the Caribbean, the heavy cruiser fired battle practice and gunnery exercises in company with Wichita through 18 January, when the two cruisers proceeded for Portland Bight, Jamaica. Conducting Neutrality Patrols from this port, Vincennes patrolled in company with other ships safeguarding neutral waters and America's recently acquired Caribbean bases.

Vincennes joined other Fleet units for landing exercises at Culebra, Puerto Rico on 4 February 1941 and sent her 50 ft (15 m) boats to assist in unloading and troop debarkation drills. She assisted transports McCawley and Wharton in landing men and material before taking station with Fire Support Group II. The cruiser then fired simulated gunfire support operations with her main and secondary batteries in exercises which foreshadowed her future combat role in the South Pacific.

For the remainder of February, the ship continued her landing support operations with Transport Divisions 2 and 7 (TransDivs 2 and 7), anchoring on occasion at Mayagüez or Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. Conducting operations out of Puerto Rican waters, Vincennes called at Pernambuco, Brazil, on 17 March and got underway for Cape Town, South Africa, on the 20th. Arriving to a warm welcome nine days later, the ship took on a large shipment of gold bullion to pay for arms purchased in the United States by the United Kingdom and then headed home on the 30th. En route to New York, she conducted exercises. After a brief post-voyage period of repairs, the heavy cruiser sailed for the Virginia Capes, where she rendezvoused with Ranger and Sampson, proceeded on to Bermuda, and dropped anchor in Grassy Bay on 30 April. She patrolled in the Caribbean and off the Atlantic coast of the United States through June.

After continuing her duties with the Neutrality Patrol into the autumn as American naval forces in the North Atlantic found themselves engaged in a de facto war with Germany, Vincennes undertook another mission to South African waters. She left the east coast late in November with Convoy WS-12, American transports carrying British troops. On 7 December 1941, the cruiser fought its way through heavy seas. Walls of water mercilessly pounded the ships of the convoy, and waves battered Vincennes, smashing a motor whaleboat to pieces and ripping a SOC Seagull floatplane from its "moorings" on the storm-lashed well-deck amidships. The plane was battered against the catapult silos and into the hangar doors before it was swept over the ship's side. By that evening, however, the ship learned that she was not only at war with the elements but with Japan as well. Japanese naval air forces had struck Pearl Harbor and plunged the United States into war.