World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseThe St. Louis was laid down as a modified Brooklyn-class cruiser on 10 Dec 1936 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia, United States. Built according to the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930, St. Louis was lightly armored with displacement not to exceed 10,000 tons. St. Louis principally differed from previous Brooklyn-class cruisers by having slightly modified deck structures, increased 5-inch/38 guns, and rearranged engine/boiler rooms. The ship was launched on 15 Apr 1938, sponsored by Miss Nancy Lee Morrill of St. Louis, Missouri. USS St. Louis was commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia on 19 May 1939 with Captain Charles Morrison in command.

ww2dbaseAfter shakedown, St. Louis served in the Atlantic Neutrality Patrols for a year. Beginning on 3 Sep 1940, she hosted an inspection party touring British naval bases from Newfoundland to British Guiana as part of the recent Destroyers for Bases agreement between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Soon thereafter, St. Louis sailed for the Pacific. She took part in fleet exercises and conducted patrols through the central Pacific reaching as far as Manila in the Philippines. On 27 May 1941 while at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California, Captain George Rood relieved Captain Morrison as commanding officer. In late Sep 1941, St. Louis entered the Navy Yard at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for general upkeep.

ww2dbaseOn 7 Dec 1941, USS St. Louis was moored alongside USS Honolulu at the Pearl Harbor repair piers when the Japanese attacked. St. Louis was among the few capital ships to get underway during the attack and was the first to reach the open ocean. As St. Louis was exiting the harbor channel, she reported sighting a Japanese midget submarine firing two torpedoes directly toward the cruiser, but the torpedoes exploded against a reef before reaching the ship. St. Louis fired on the submarine and immediately made evasive turns once clear of the channel.

ww2dbaseOnce clear of Pearl Harbor's entrance channel, Captain Rood took command of the few ships outside the harbor and made his best effort to locate and engage the Japanese fleet, which he knew had to have been a greatly superior force. He had no success finding the Japanese, however, because the best intelligence available said the Japanese were south of Oahu when, in fact, they were north.

ww2dbaseSt. Louis returned to Pearl Harbor on 10 Dec 1941. She then made two trips to San Francisco, California escorting convoys of casualties from the Pearl Harbor Attack and families of Army and Navy personnel returning to the United States. On 6 Jan 1942, St. Louis departed San Francisco with a task force escorting a Marine Expeditionary Force to Samoa. After delivering that force, St. Louis screened that same task force as carrier planes and heavy cruisers launched the United States' first offensive strike of the war on 1 Feb 1942 against targets in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. St. Louis then resumed Hawaii-to-California convoy duty before screening one convoy to Bora Bora in the Society Islands. There, St. Louis relieved USS Richmond as escort for passenger liner SS President Coolidge transiting from Australia to the United States with Philippine president Manuel Quezon on board. The last escort duty for St. Louis in this period was in May 1942 with a convoy carrying Marines from Hawaii to Midway ahead of an anticipated attack there.

ww2dbaseSt. Louis then shifted to the Aleutian Islands where she joined a task force of cruisers and destroyers patrolling the Gulf of Alaska. On 8 Aug 1942, St. Louis conducted her first shore bombardment of the war when she and other warships shelled Japanese positions on Kiska Island. At the end of that month, St. Louis covered the US Army landings on Adak Island.

ww2dbaseIn Oct 1942, St. Louis was detached from the Alaskan patrols and headed for Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California for an overhaul. While at Mare Island, Captain Rood was relieved and Captain Colin Campbell assumed command.

ww2dbaseBack on convoy duty briefly, St. Louis escorted transports bound for Nouméa, New Caledonia before shifting to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides and finally the Solomon Islands. In the Solomons, St. Louis joined a cruiser-destroyer force tasked with interdicting the near nightly "Tokyo Express" runs down "The Slot" with replenishments and reinforcements. St. Louis made nighttime bombardments at Munda, Vila, and Bairoko Harbor in the New Georgia group. On 6 Jul 1942, St. Louis was part of the fierce Battle of Kula Gulf where sister-ship USS Helena fought bravely but was sunk by three Japanese Type 97 "Long Lance" torpedoes. One week later, it was St. Louis's turn when one torpedo struck St. Louis in the bow during the Battle of Kolombangara. A large portion of St. Louis's lower bow was missing and her forward decks were buckled, but the ship remained afloat with few serious casualties. St. Louis made her way back to Tulagi and then to Espiritu Santo and then to Mare Island in California. At Mare Island, Captain Ralph Roberts relieved Captain Campbell as commanding officer.

ww2dbaseBy Nov 1943, St. Louis was back in the Solomon Islands. At the end of the month, St. Louis was part of the covering force for the Marines advancing on Bougainville, a duty St. Louis performed through Jan 1944. On 13 Feb 1944, St. Louis along with USS Honolulu departed Tulagi in the Solomon Islands to support landings on the Green Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago. The following day while the ships were still in transit, they came under aerial attack with one bomb plunging through St. Louis's deck and exploding inside a berthing compartment. Twenty-three men were killed and St. Louis was forced to withdraw to Tulagi for repairs.

ww2dbaseWithin a month, St. Louis rejoined her task group and in Jun 1944 she shifted to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. There, St. Louis joined a formation of ships amassing for the invasion of the Mariana Islands. Beginning 14 Jun 1944, St. Louis spent ten days on station between Saipan and Tinian offering shore bombardments and anti-aircraft cover as required. On 28 Jun 1944, St. Louis entered Eniwetok Lagoon for two weeks of replenishment and upkeep.

ww2dbaseAlongside USS Honolulu, with whom St. Louis fought much of World War II shoulder-to-shoulder since Pearl Harbor, St. Louis departed Eniwetok bound for the Mariana Islands once again. The following day while still underway, St. Louis experience a racing No. 3 engine. This suggested a broken propeller shaft or possibly a lost propeller. St. Louis was able to proceed on her three remaining propellers and she continued on. Upon arrival at Guam while laying off shore covering underwater demolition teams on the beach, St. Louis sent a diver over the side to inspect her propellers. The diver found the entire No. 3 propeller was missing along with 39 feet of the shaft. The shaft was broken at a place very near the area of greatest damage from the bombing attack on 14 Feb 1944. St. Louis remained on station for two more weeks covering the landings of the 3rd Marines on Guam's Asan Beach.

ww2dbaseOn 30 Jul 1944, St. Louis departed the Mariana Islands and returned to the United States for repairs and overhaul. She entered the Navy drydocks at San Pedro, California and emerged two months later. St. Louis arrived at the Ulithi fleet anchorage, Caroline Islands on 8 Nov 1944, just a week after the decisive Battle of Leyte Gulf.

ww2dbaseNow part of a battleship group, St. Louis began patrols within Leyte Gulf covering the gulf's approaches lest the Japanese attempt another incursion as they had a few weeks before. The Battle of Leyte Gulf also marked the introduction of the Japanese Tokko special attack doctrine. On 27 Nov 1944, the battleship group withstood a withering aerial special attack involving up to 30 aircraft. St. Louis alone was dived upon by at least eight aircraft bent on crashing into the ship. One aircraft struck the vessel very near her aircraft hangar. Another crashed into the water close beside the ship with an explosion that still had significant consequences.

ww2dbaseFifteen men were dead, one was missing, and 43 were wounded. St. Louis had a 20-foot hole in her deck, no serviceable aircraft, ventilation systems were damaged so badly that one engine room was untenable, three of her primary guns and one secondary gun were unserviceable, a 20-foot section of armor plating below the waterline was missing and another section was loose, hull plating was deformed, six compartments had holes open to the sea, and hull plates were separated from the framework in one location at least. Less than three weeks after returning to the fleet, St. Louis was going back to drydock.

ww2dbaseOn 29 Nov 1944 USS St. Louis and USS Colorado, also damaged in the same attack, departed Leyte Gulf bound for Seeadler Harbor at Manus in the Admiralty Islands. While transiting to Manus, St. Louis struck an unknown underwater object that damaged her No. 2 propeller. St. Louis entered a floating drydock at Manus for partial repairs before continuing on to the drydocks at San Pedro, California.

ww2dbaseWhile at San Pedro on 13 Jan 1945, Captain John Griggs relieved Captain Roberts as St. Louis's commanding officer. With repairs complete, St. Louis was floated out of drydock on 6 Feb 1945 and, after a shakedown period, she departed on 23 Feb 1945 to rejoin the fleet.

ww2dbaseOn arrival at Ulithi, St. Louis joined the Fast Carrier Task Force bound for a series of strikes against Japan. St. Louis took part in the pre-invasion shelling of Okinawa and remained in the area for a month covering the landings. She shelled shore positions on Okinawa at the request of the land forces and covered replenishment activities. On 15 Aug 1945, St. Louis was at anchor in Buckner Bay, Okinawa when the war ended.

ww2dbaseUpon Japan's surrender, preparations began immediately for accepting the formal surrender, disarming Japanese forces, and repatriating prisoners of war. St. Louis supported the search for prisoner of war camps near Shanghai, China. By Oct 1945, St. Louis was assigned to facilitate the transfer of the Chinese 70th Army from China to Kiirun, Formosa (now Keelung, Taiwan) for the formal Japanese surrender on Taiwan scheduled for later that month. St. Louis was then assigned to Operation Magic Carpet aimed at returning US servicemen to the United States. St. Louis made two trips across the Pacific bringing home as many servicemen as the cruiser could accommodate. Her last Magic Carpet voyage ended on 14 Dec 1945 at San Pedro, California. St. Louis then shifted to the Atlantic and entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for her decommissioning overhaul. In the ship's final weeks, Commander Andrew Smith relieved Captain John Griggs as commanding officer. USS St. Louis was decommissioned on 20 Jun 1946 and placed in the Philadelphia Reserve Fleet where she remained for over four years.

ww2dbaseOn 22 Jan 1951, St. Louis was stricken from the US Navy list in preparation for the ship's transfer to Brazil. She was recommissioned into the Brazilian Navy on 29 Jan 1951 as the Tamandaré where she served for another 25 years. The ex-St. Louis was decommissioned for the final time on 28 Jun 1976 and sold for scrap on 5 Aug 1980. On 24 Aug 1980 while being towed to a breaking yard in Taiwan, the ship foundered and sank off South Africa.

ww2dbaseUSS St. Louis was strafed at Pearl Harbor, torpedoed in the Solomons, bombed in the Bismarcks, struck by an airplane in the Philippines, and fought at Okinawa; but she survived and served throughout World War II, earning eleven battle stars.

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6.  David Stubblebine says:
26 Jul 2017 07:09:30 PM

Anonymous (above):
The St Louis Muster Rolls list Anthony Perille, service number 300 34 07, who enlisted 24 Jan 1941 at Chicago IL, being received aboard as an Apprentice Seaman on 13 Apr 1941 from the Great Lakes Training Center. He was advanced to Seaman 2nd-class on 24 May 1941 and again to Seaman 1st-class on 1 Jan 1942. He was reduced back to Seaman 2nd-class on 17 Mar 1942 following a summary court martial for insolence to a petty officer. He is last mentioned in the St Louis Muster Rolls on 30 Sep 1942 with no indication of when or where he was transferred off the ship. For more about his Navy days, request a copy of his service record. See http://ww2db.com/faq/#3.

For more about the St Louis during the Pearl Harbor Attack, see the two links under “Document(s)” above right. Seaman Perille is not mentioned in these reports but the ship was pretty active during and following the attack (don’t believe the parts about the midget submarine sighting, however; history has shown these observations were almost certainly incorrect).