World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseBrooklyn-class cruiser Honolulu was laid down at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, United States on 9 Dec 1935. The ship was launched 26 Aug 1937 with sponsor Miss Helen Poindexter, the daughter of the governor of Hawaii, Joseph Poindexter. Built according to the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930, Honolulu was lightly armored with displacement not to exceed 10,000 tons. On 15 Jun 1938, USS Honolulu was commissioned at New York with Captain Oscar Smith in command.

ww2dbaseHonolulu had an extended shakedown cruise to the Caribbean and across the Atlantic to Portsmouth, England. There, she took aboard a secret cargo of nearly twenty tons of gold bullion from the Bank of England for transfer to the United States Federal Reserve in New York (worth $20,000,000 in 1938; over $1,000,000,000 in 2023). Honolulu then sailed to New York to make the deposit.

ww2dbaseAfter a brief post-shakedown refit, Honolulu was ready for her first operational assignment. Rear Admiral Harold Stark came aboard and made Honolulu his flagship for Cruiser Division Nine. Honolulu would spend most of her career as the flagship for her cruiser division. Honolulu spent the winter on maneuvers in the Caribbean and took part in Fleet Problem XX in Feb 1939. Honolulu transited the Panama Canal and once on the Pacific side, Rear Admiral Husband Kimmel came aboard as the new commander of Cruiser Division Nine. Honolulu moved up the coast to San Francisco, California and on 4 Jul 1939, she departed the continental United States bound for the Territory of Hawaii.

ww2dbaseWhen USS Honolulu arrived in Hawaii, she had a royal reception. Aboard the pilot boat outside the Honolulu Harbor was a party from the Chamber of Commerce. A giant flower lei was placed over the bow of the ship as she made her way to her berth. Over the next several days, thousands of people toured the cruiser and several social events were held ashore honoring the ship's arrival. The occasion also reunited the ship with her sponsor, Miss Helen Poindexter, who presented the ship's pantry with a gift from the Territory of Hawaii; a silver punch bowl with 48 silver cups (a reference to the ship's hull number).

ww2dbaseIn Jul 1940, Captain Smith was relieved by Captain Harold Dodd who took the ship to the Puget Sound Navy Yard for an overhaul. Returning to Hawaii in Nov 1940, USS Honolulu saw a change in her flag compliment on 2 Feb 1941 when Rear Admiral Herbert Leary came aboard as the new commander of Cruiser Division Nine. He relieved Admiral Kimmel who, on the same morning, shifted to the USS Pennsylvania and assumed the duties as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet.

ww2dbaseHonolulu continued operating out of Pearl Harbor. In Sep 1941, a member of the crew, Boatswain's Mate 2nd-class Henry Harlan Blake from West Virginia, won a contest naming him the Pacific Fleet's "Typical Sailor of 1941."

ww2dbaseOn 7 Dec 1941, Honolulu was berthed at Pearl Harbor's repair piers. The Japanese torpedo bombers attacking the battleships dropped their torpedoes directly behind Honolulu as the ship's gunners fired away. A Japanese dive-bomber dropped a 500-pound bomb next to Honolulu that crashed through the cement pier 15-feet away from the ship and exploded under the water. The bomb's concussion caved in a portion of the hull and caused some internal damage. Some ships were able to get underway during the attack but Honolulu was destined to remain in the harbor to await repairs.

ww2dbaseAfter drydocking, Honolulu spent four months on escort duty sailing from Hawaii to San Francisco to Melbourne, Australia to Nouméa, New Caledonia to Pago Pago and back to Hawaii. On 29 May 1942, Honolulu departed Pearl Harbor for Dutch Harbor in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Honolulu joined a force of cruisers and destroyers patrolling the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian chain. While refueling at sea on 25 Jul 1942, Captain Robert Hayler came aboard by high line and, pursuant to orders, took command of Honolulu, relieving Captain Dodd. Captain Dodd would later, as Commodore Dodd, become the Chief of the United States Naval Mission to Brazil in 1944-45. On 7 Aug 1942, Honolulu fired her big guns at an enemy for the first time as she and the rest of her task group shelled Japanese positions on Kiska Island. Later that month, the task group covered the US Army landings on Adak Island. After nearly four months in the Aleutians, Honolulu departed on 20 Sep 1942 bound for Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California.

ww2dbaseAfter overhaul, Honolulu sailed for the southwest Pacific. On 26 Nov 1942 at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, Rear Admiral Mahlon Tisdale came aboard, making Honolulu a flagship once again. Admiral Tisdale had just completed duty commanding other cruiser divisions during the Battles of the Eastern Solomons and the Santa Cruz Islands. Honolulu sailed straightaway as the only light cruiser in a group of four heavy cruisers and six destroyers bound for Guadalcanal to intercept an expected nighttime Japanese supply run down the "Slot." Just before midnight on 30 Nov 1942, the American force engaged eight Japanese destroyers between Guadalcanal's Tassafaronga Point and Savo Island. Honolulu lookouts described the night as "calm seas full of Japanese torpedoes." Relying on darkness and their superior but underestimated Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes, the Japanese force quickly disabled all four American heavy cruisers. During the attack, Captain Hayler himself took Honolulu's wheel and turned it hard right to avoid the attacking torpedoes, quite probably saving the ship. This resulted in Honolulu being the only US cruiser not torpedoed that night. With the force's flagship, USS Minneapolis, disabled, Admiral Tisdale in Honolulu assumed command of the group to batter the Japanese during their withdrawal and deny them the ability to land their reinforcements on Guadalcanal. For their actions in the Battle of Tassafaronga, Admiral Tisdale and Captain Hayler were each awarded the Navy Cross; for Tisdale, his second.

ww2dbaseHonolulu spent a month at Espiritu Santo before returning to the Solomon Islands with a new task group. This group was under the overall command of Rear Admiral Walden Ainsworth in USS Nashville, with a second in command of Admiral Tisdale in Honolulu. Admiral Ainsworth had just completed duty as Commander of Destroyers for the Pacific Fleet. Honolulu's near-nightly patrols up the "Slot" continued for several more weeks. On 5 Jan 1943, Honolulu and her group shelled the airfield and bivouac area at Munda on New Georgia and fended off a dive-bombing attack during their retirement. On 12 Mar 1943 at Espiritu Santo, Rear Admiral Tisdale was relieved and assumed duties as Commander of Destroyers for the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Ainsworth shifted his flag to Honolulu. On 13 May 1943, the Admiral led Honolulu's task group on a loop through Kula Gulf shelling positions on both sides, principally the staging area at the Vila-Stanmore Plantation on Kolombangara.

ww2dbaseOn the night of 5 Jul 1943, Honolulu led two other light cruisers with four destroyers in another action in the Kula Gulf area. In a battle that lasted past midnight into 6 Jul 1943, the American force intercepted eleven Japanese destroyers on a "Tokyo Express" run to Vila on Kolombangara. Again, the Japanese torpedoes proved to be superior with one US cruiser, USS Helena, being sunk. One Japanese destroyer was sunk by cruiser fire, probably Honolulu's, and four were damaged. For their actions in the Battle of Kula Gulf, Admiral Ainsworth and Captain Hayler were each awarded the Navy Cross; for Hayler, his second.

ww2dbaseOne week later on the night of 12 Jul 1943, Honolulu returned to Kula Gulf leading two other light cruisers and nine destroyers. The group intercepted a Japanese force of one light cruiser and five destroyers outside Kula Gulf off Kolombangara Island. The Japanese cruiser Jintsu was sunk by cruiser fire but, again, the Japanese Type 93 torpedoes did their work. All three Allied cruisers were damaged and destroyer USS Gwin was sunk. Honolulu and USS St. Louis were each struck in the bow and HMNZS Leander was struck amidships. All three damaged cruisers withdrew to Tulagi. Captain Hayler in Honolulu was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in this engagement.

ww2dbaseThe leading sixty feet of Honolulu's bow had collapsed and the deck was folded downward so that it was nearly vertical. Honolulu and St. Louis sailed together from Tulagi to Espiritu Santo for temporary repairs before Honolulu sailed on to Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California. Repairs lasted until mid-Nov 1943 and Honolulu returned to the fleet on 11 Dec 1943. The cruiser finished 1943 by shelling Japanese positions on Bougainville on 27 Dec 1943, along with the freshly repaired St. Louis.

ww2dbase1944 began much as 1943 had ended with Honolulu and St. Louis shelling Bougainville in support of the landings at Torokina. On 13 Feb 1944, Honolulu and St. Louis departed Tulagi 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 where one bomb plunged through St. Louis's deck and exploded inside the ship. Both ships were able to continue on and covered the Green Island landings on 15 Feb 1944.

ww2dbaseOn 25 Mar 1944 at Tulagi, Captain Harry Thurber assumed command of USS Honolulu in relief of Captain Hayler who, on the same day, was promoted to Rear Admiral; he would later be awarded his third Navy Cross at the Battle of Surigao Strait. Beginning in Jun 1944, Honolulu spent two months supporting the invasion of the Mariana Islands. She spent Sep 1944 making shore bombardments on Peleliu in the Palau Islands in support of the US Marines on shore. Honolulu then shifted to Leyte Gulf in the Philippines to conduct shore bombardments in advance of General Douglas MacArthur's landings there.

ww2dbaseOn 20 Oct 1944 as Honolulu was maintaining a bombardment position off Dulag, Leyte, a torpedo from a Japanese Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo plane struck the cruiser amidships. The ship took on a list that reached a maximum of 13-degrees. Once again, Honolulu limped toward the rear for extensive repairs. This time, she would not return to combat. She touched the anchorages of Kossol Roads at Palau, Seeadler Harbor at Manus, Majuro in the Marshall Islands, Pearl Harbor, San Pedro in California, and Balboa in the Canal Zone before finally arriving at Norfolk in Virginia on 20 Dec 1944.

ww2dbaseDrydock repairs lasted until Oct 1945. During her ten months at Norfolk, Honolulu had three changes of command. First, Captain Thurber was relieved and assigned to the staff of the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet in Washington DC. Captain Thurber was awarded the Silver Star for saving his ship in Leyte Gulf and would later be awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for his administrative accomplishments throughout World War II. Commander Olin Scoggins assumed temporary command and two weeks later, now-Captain Scoggins was relieved by Commander Theodore Ascherfeld. And finally, Captain Harold Pullen assumed command. Upon completion of repairs, Honolulu had a shakedown period in the Caribbean before reporting to Newport, Rhode Island as a training ship. In Nov 1945 at Newport, Honolulu had another change of command when Commander William Lederer relieved Captain Pullen.

ww2dbaseOn 8 Jan 1946, Honolulu entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for her decommissioning overhaul. During that period, she experienced her last change of command when Commander William Wallace relieved Commander Lederer. The ship was decommissioned on 3 Feb 1947 and placed in reserves. Twelve years later, what was left of Honolulu was sold on 12 Oct 1959 and scrapped at Sparrow Point, Maryland.

ww2dbaseDuring her career, USS Honolulu developed something of a jinxed reputation – not for herself but for the ship sailing in column directly behind her. At Tassafaronga, Northampton was astern when torpedoed and sunk; while retiring from Munda, HMNZS Achilles was behind Honolulu when an aerial bomb struck one of her turrets; at Kula Gulf, Helena was trailing Honolulu when fatally hit by torpedoes; at Kolombangara, HMNZS Leander was torpedoed directly astern; and en route to Green Islands, St. Louis was trailing Honolulu when an aerial bomb exploded within one of her berthing spaces. Honolulu herself was bombed at Pearl Harbor, torpedoed in the Solomons, and torpedoed again in the Philippines. USS Honolulu earned nine battle stars in World War II.

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2.  David Stubblebine says:
13 Dec 2017 05:54:20 PM

To Bill (above):
According to Honolulu’s DANFS entry (repeated at Wiki), she was engaged in convoy duty between Australia, Samoa, and the United States from Feb to May 1942 but the precise dates are elusive. There does not seem to be any other times she sailed to Australia so the best source for the precise dates would be her Deck Logs for these months, available from the National Archives for a copying fee.