Hey all,
I found this posted at another site.

May I just take a moment to reflect on the character of the San Francisco: She was in a hell of a lot of action and got severely mauled by the Japanese in an action off Savo Island, 12/11/1942.

Actions/Battle Honours :-

Rabaul,
Battle of the Eastern Solomons,
Battle off Cape Esperance,
Lunga Point,
Savo Island
Aleutians - Attu/Kiska,
Wake Island,
Gilbert Islands,
Kwajalein,
Saipan,
Battle of the Philipine Sea,
Bonin Islands,
Iwo Jima


No doubt I have missed out something, as she was everywhere it seems.

Also take the occasion to reflect on the loss of her three sister ships, Astoria, Quincy and Vincennes, in an earlier action (09/08/1942) off Savo Island.

It is most appropriate that this class should be noticed and as such are great subjects for modelling.

Here's to her crew and those who fought alongside her!

I thought this was a post that needed to be spread around. Many of the ships we build have a history that needs to be remembered. By doing this we give honor to the men of those ships. Honor that they deserve because of the sacrifice that they gave of themselves for there given country.

The other ships of the class also had exellent war records. The Tuscaloosa ferried Pesident Roosevelt around a bit and was involved in quite a bit of activity in the Atlantic theatre before transferring over to the Pacific side in time to catch Iwo and Okinawa. I think Minneapolis was another that served in both theatres. I'll let Kenny cover the New Orleans

The New Orleans was a busy lady in the Pacific.

USS New Orleans (CA-32)

On July 5, 1934, she sailed to rendezvous with Houston, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt embarked, for a cruise through the Panama Canal and an exercise with airship MACON and her brood of aircraft off California.

Moored in Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941

Battle of the Coral ~ helped with the Lexington

Battle of Midway ~ screening the Enterprise

Invasion of the Solomons ~ screened Saratoga.

Battle of the Eastern Solomons

Battle of Tassafaronga

Wake Island

Preinvasion bombardment in the Gilberts & Marshals

Raid on Truk

Allied landings at Hollandia, New Guinea

Battle of the Philippine Sea

Patrols and bombardments on Saipan and Tinian, Bonins, Iwo Jima, & invasion of the Palaus.

Assaulted Okinawa, Formosa, and Northern Luzon

Battle for Leyte Gulf

New Orleans received 17 battle stars for World War II service.

~Gator

Here are a few more notes on the New Orleans class, from a friend of mine's book, "Fleets of World War II".

First of all the class had a odd numbering arrangement. New Orleans herself was CA 32, then there was a gap for Portland of the Portland class CA 33, then Astoria, Minneapolis, Tuscaloosa, San Francisco were CA 36-39, finally Vincennes was CA 44. (This is just a guess but I believe this was because originally these ships were to be classed as light cruisers, CL, and that the numbers 40-43 were reserved for the first ships of the Brooklyn class.)

For modelers the most important piece of info is that the class ranged in size from 9375 tons to 9950 tons initially, quite a bit more during the war. This means "The individual ships showed more than the usual variation as planners made adjustments while tip-toeing on the brink of 10000 tons. (Quite a change from Axis planners who ignored the treaties any chance they got.) To us this means we have to be careful with our references, and personally I don't have a single reference, when modeling the other ships in the class. I don't know if any of these changes will be visible on the models, or if they were all internal changes.

The word I've gotten is that by early 1942 they all were very very similar in appearance. Looking through the photo galleries of NAvsource, it was very hard for me to see any differences btwn Tuscaloosa and San Francisco and I've heard the same statement including the New Orleans and Minneapolis.

Blaster,
What were the differences that you saw? Was it just a difference in paint or other things. I'm still new at the naval stuff so I don't have a clear understanding what would be considered minor differences.

P.S. Good thing about being a noob...I can get a disscusion going on almost any subject here...LOL

Be advised that Trumpeter has announced they're doing a 1/350 USS San Francisco....

Frank

One of the big problems in modeling ships is that each ship is unique. If you build a Tiger tank, there were several hundred similar ones made so they would more than likely be almost all exactly the same down to x bolt holes in the wheels and the turrret shape and size , etc, etc. Ships were made at different shipyards according to a set of specs and could not be counted on to look exactly the same. If you look at pictures of the San Francisco and Tuscaloosa in the early 30's, there were differences in the bridge. The South Dakota has major differences from the rest of the class as she got some extra added stuff put on the front superstructure for a admirls cabin. The change in weight caused them to eliminate one of the 5 inch gun turrets from each size. So buying a kit of the San Francisco and saying after you build it that it is the Tuscaloosa may be wrong. Hence a lot of research needs to be done. Looking at photo's generally is about the only way an average person can do it. So some are what I label as minor differences. These might be the size of the searchlight tower or something so small as to be unseen when modeling in a small scale. Like the angle of the blades of the propellers. Or major like the removal of a rear gun turret on a destroyer

MOdifications were made to the San Frnacisco class in the late 30's and early 40's that brought them closer together in appearance, so with a little bit of scratch building you can account for the changes, hence minor differences as opposed to slicing and dicing decks and superstructures as I had to do for my Yamato backdate project. A lot of times I go over to the Modelwarship. com web and ask. I have a whole page of changes one of the guys sent me on changes to the Tuscaloosa that were different from the San Francisco.

Blazer,
Thanks for the info. After I finish the build on my S-100 I'll start the research I'll need for the "Forgotten Sisters".

I heard trumpeter will be releasing USS San Fran CA38 -42 kit 1/350 scale till march 08 please confirm.

However i also seen where Trumpter release USS New Orleans in Jan 08

I wonder are these same kit in different boxes?

Frank your statement are well said and i concur. "Here's to her crew and those who fought alongside her!:"

Generally, Trumpeter has a different version in every kit. So one might be 1942 the other 1944. Which is which I don't know?

Since this thread has popped up again I'll throw out a comment I should have made earlier. ALL the U.S., and other Allied, cruisers had very busy careers. They were the work horses of the fleet. Look at Portland and Norfolk, two cruisers that fought in not one, but two actions against enemy battleships. They all did sterling service and all deserve to be modeled, and in a medium, plastic, that the average modeler can afford and can work with.

So true roger.

Hear Hear, Rodger.
Wouldn't it be nice!
Talking of pictures for reference, has anyone tried this site
http://www.world-war.co.uk/
It has some interesting pics from the Second Battle of Sirte under the 'Cleopatra' heading
All the Best
Tom

Thanks for posting that site, which I hope I may "hot." I had it bookmarked years ago and lost it when I switched emails. It's book marked again.