USS Minneapolis (CA-36)

USS Minneapolis (CA-36), underway on 9 November 1943. Note her unique camouflage scheme, with the cruiser painted to resemble a destroyer.
History
United States
Name:	Minneapolis
Namesake:	City of Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ordered:	13 February 1929
Awarded:	12 July 1929 (date assigned to ship yard) 2 June 1930 (beginning of construction period)
Builder:	Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York
Cost:	$11,951,000 (limit of price)
Laid down:	27 June 1931
Launched:	6 September 1933
Sponsored by:	Miss Grace L. Newton
Commissioned:	19 May 1934
Decommissioned:	10 February 1947
Reclassified:	CA-36, 1 July 1931
Struck:	1 March 1959
Identification:	Hull symbol:CL-36 Hull symbol:CA-36 Code letters:NACF
Nickname(s):	"Minnie"
Honors and awards:	16 × battle stars
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 14 August 1959
Status:	Scrapped in Chester, Pennsylvania, July 1960
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	New Orleans-class cruiser
Displacement:	9,950 long tons (10,110 t) (standard)
Length:	588 ft (179 m) oa 574 ft (175 m) pp
Beam:	61 ft 9 in (18.82 m)
Draft:	19 ft 5 in (5.92 m) (mean) 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m) (max)
Installed power:	8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 107,000 shp (80,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × Westinghouse geared turbines 4 × screws
Speed:	32.7 kn (37.6 mph; 60.6 km/h)
Capacity:	Fuel oil: 1,650 tons
Complement:	102 officers 817 enlisted
Armament:	9 × 8 in (200 mm)/55 caliber guns (3x3) 8 × 5 in (130 mm)/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns 2 × 3-pounder47 mm (1.9 in) saluting guns 8 × caliber 0.50 in (13 mm) machine guns
Armor:	Belt: 3–5 in (76–127 mm) Deck: 1 1⁄4–2 1⁄4 in (32–57 mm) Barbettes: 5 in (130 mm) Turrets: 1 1⁄2–8 in (38–203 mm) Conning Tower: 5 in (130 mm)
Aircraft carried:	4 × floatplanes
Aviation facilities:	2 × Amidship catapults
General characteristics (1945)
Armament:	9 × 8 in (200 mm)/55 caliber guns (3x3) 8 × 5 in (130 mm)/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns 2 × 3-pounder47 mm (1.9 in) saluting guns 7 × quad 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 9 × dual 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons
Aviation facilities:	1 × Amidship catapults

USS Minneapolis (CL/CA-36) was a New Orleans-class cruiser built for the United States Navy before the outbreak of World War II, the second ship named for Minneapolis, Minnesota. She served in the Pacific Theater for the entirety of World War II.

The New Orleans-class cruisers were the last U.S. cruisers built to the specifications and standards of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Such ships, with a limit of 10,000 tons standard displacement and 8-inch calibre main guns may be referred to as "treaty cruisers." Originally classified a light cruiser, because of her thin armor, she was reclassified, soon after being laid down, a heavy cruiser, because of her 8-inch guns. The term "heavy cruiser" was not defined until the London Naval Treaty in 1930.

She was laid down on 27 June 1931 by Philadelphia Navy Yard; launched on 6 September 1933; sponsored by Miss Grace L. Newton; and commissioned on 19 May 1934, Captain Gordon W. Haines in command.

After shakedown in European waters from July–September 1934 and alterations in Philadelphia Navy Yard, the new heavy cruiser departed on 4 April 1935 for the Panama Canal and San Diego, arriving on 18 April to join Cruiser Division 7 (CruDiv 7), Scouting Force. She operated along the west coast, aside from a cruise to the Caribbean early in 1939, until arriving at Pearl Harbor in 1940.

When Japan attacked her base on 7 December 1941, Minneapolis was at sea for gunnery practice about 8 mi (13 km) from Pearl Harbor. She immediately took up patrol until late January 1942 when she joined a carrier task force about to raid the Gilberts and Marshalls. While screening Lexington on 1 February, she helped turn back an air attack in which three Japanese Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" medium bombers were shot down. She screened the carriers during their successful raids on 20 February and again on 10 March, when they attacked Japanese shipping at Lae and Salamaua, disrupting enemy supply lines to those garrisons.