Nueve de Julio

History

USS Boise (CL-47) was a light cruiser of the Brooklyn class in the United States Navy. The cruiser was named for Boise, the capital city of the state of Idaho. Commissioned in 1938, she saw extensive service during World War II, taking part in fighting in the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters. Following the war the ship was decommissioned in 1946 and lay idle until sold to Argentina in 1951. Renamed Nueve de Julio, the ship remained in service with the Argentinian Navy until 1978, after which she was taken to Brownsville, Texas and scrapped in 1983.

Design

After the London Naval Treaty in 1930 restricted the construction of heavy Cruisers, the major naval forces of Japan, Great Britain and the United States started looking for alternatives which would combine similar strong firepower without violating the Treaty. The solution were light Cruisers, but instead of preceding classes they would mount a lot more guns, and would feature an improved armor protection. In Japan this led to the Mogami-class, armed with a heavy Torpedo armament and five 15.5cm three gun turrets, though these ships would be converted into heavy Cruisers. The Royal Navy started developing what would become the Town-class, featuring a Torpedo armament as well and in total twelve 152mm guns in three turrets.

The United States dropped the idea of a Torpedo armament on their ships with the Pensacola-class which were the last class of American Cruisers carrying Torpedoes (excluding the later-built Atlanta class, which would fill a special role) and would see them being removed in the 30s. Thus, the Brooklyn class was not intended to carry any Torpedoes, and rather focus on other aspects. Five 152mm triple turrets, mounted along the centerline, were the primary armament. Compared to the armament of the preceding Omaha-class the firepower the Brooklyn class had almost twice the firepower in a broadside, and the improved shells would also ensure better damage-dealing and penetration. The Secondary armament would consist of eight single mounted 127mm guns, which would also be used against aircraft. Eight .50 cal machine guns were to ensure the close-range defense. The armor protection was vastly improved compared to the older light Cruisers, with a 127mm thick belt protecting the vital areas of the vessel and a 51mm deck on the citadel. Steam turbines would create 100,000 shp, which over four shafts would allow a design speed of 32.5 knots. Unlike all the other Cruisers of the USN so far, the aircraft facilities including the hangar and the catapult(s) were moved to the stern of the ship, with the hangar being a part of the ship’s hull. This freed up a lot of space midships which would later be used for additional armament.

The ship’s displacement upon its construction was 9,767 tons standard, and when fully loaded 12,200 tons. Thus they fitted into the London Naval Treaty and were, unlike their Japanese counterparts, not overweight.

With the attack on Pearl Harbor demonstrating the need of strong AA defenses on warships, the US realized that the AA on most ships was insufficient. However, as the famous 40mm Bofors had yet to enter service in the US in the quantity needed, stop-gap measures were accepted. These included the 28mm Chicago pianos, and even some older 76.2mm guns. It was not until late-1942 when the ships of the Brooklyn-class started having the envisioned AA firepower, which would consist of up to twenty-eight 40mm Bofors guns, twenty 20mm guns with the dual-purpose armament remaining unchanged.

Service

USS Boise (CL-47) was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Virginia, on the 1st of April 1935, launched on the 3rd of December 1936 and commissioned into the United States Navy as the second-last Brooklyn-class cruiser on the 12th of August 1938. Boise’s shakedown cruise took her to Liberia and South Africa along the western coast of Africa, after which she transferred to the Pacific, where she operated between the US West Coast and Hawaii, until November 1941. On the day of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Boise found herself in the Philippines, in danger of being immediately surrounded by Japanese warships.

Boise made a hasty voyage to Darwin, Australia, where she joined up with the light cruiser USS Marblehead (CL-12) and five Clemson-class destroyers. She escorted a Dutch transport ship carrying supplies to the Dutch East Indies by January, but in a twist of fate, on the 21st of January 1942, she struck an uncharted shoal off Dutch East Indies water, and she had to return to Ceylon, then India, then finally the US for repairs; and this may have saved her from the fate that befell many Allied ships in the battles around Java. Her repairs were complete by the mid-June 1942, and she was back at Pearl Harbor by early July. Her next mission was a dangerous one – a raiding cruise in Japanese waters, intended to cause enough confusion and chatter to cover up the Allied preparations for the Guadalcanal campaign. Departing Pearl on the 27th of July, she arrived at her raiding destination by the 5th of August, and she completed her mission by the 8th, which was considered an assess. Next, she covered the landing of Marine reinforcements on Guadalcanal in mid-September, supporting the mission she helped cover up.

Her first battle came on the night of October 11th, 1942. Alongside three other cruisers and five destroyers, Boise encountered three Japanese cruisers and two destroyers, and the Battle of Cape Esperance begun. During the battle, Boise took multiple hits, but she returned with vicious volleys of fire, discovering the Japanese destroyer Fubuki less than a mile away, and her 15 6” guns quickly took the destroyer out of action, and then began to sink shortly after. The most damaging shell came from the cruiser Kinugasa, whose 8” shells struck the magazine between her 1st and 2nd turrets, causing a fire to erupt out as her lower levels flooded, putting all 3 of her bow turrets out of action. Boise quickly retreated from the action following this, returning to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs, which lasted from late November 1942 until the 20th of March 1943.

On the 8th of June 1943, Boise sailed for the Mediterranean, arriving at Algiers on the 21st. From July to mid-August, Boise provided fire support for the Battle of Gela during the Allied Invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky. Following the successful invasion, she moved on to support the mainland landings at Taranto and Salerno during early September. She returned to New York on the 15th of November, and then returned to the South Pacific, arriving at south-eastern New Guinea on the 31st of December.

From January to September 1944, Boise fought along the northern shoreline of New Guinea, providing supporting shore bombardments for Allied naval landings, moving north to support the occupation of the island of Morotai, one of the northernmost islands of the Dutch East Indies. Following this, she moved further north as the Allied Pacific fleets closed in on the Philippines. Taking part of the massive Leyte invasion force, where she took part in her last naval battle; the Battle of Surigao Strait on the 25th of October 1944, where a gargantuan Allied naval fleet surrounded and destroyed the 7-ship Japanese ‘Southern Force’ during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She continued to support Allied naval landings until early May 1945, having sailed around almost every major island of the Philippines by this point. From the 3rd to the 16th of June, she carried General Douglas MacArthur on a tour of Borneo and the central-southern Philippines, returning to San Pedro in California by the 7th of July, where she would remain until October 1944, where she sailed to New York, remaining there until her decommissioning on the 1st of July 1946.

Boise sat idle in New York until the 11th of January 1951, where she alongside her sister USS Phoenix (CL-46) were sold to Argentina, and she was renamed to Nueve de Julio, in honor of the date of Argentine Independence. Her only major action was during the Revolución Libertadora, a civilian and military uprising which overthrew the democratic government, replacing it with a military dictatorship, where Nueve de Julio in support of the democratic government shelled oil depots and military facilities along the southern shorelines of Argentina. She remained in active service until 1971, and she was moored at the main Argentinian naval base for her last years. By the mid 1970’s, the rat-infested ship had been largely abandoned and had notably decayed. She was struck on the 31st of October 1977 and sold on the 28th of June 1981. She was supposed to be returned to Texas to be converted into a museum ship, but instead she was towed to Japan and scrapped in 1983. Her surviving sister, General Belgrano, was sunk on the 2nd of May 1982 during the Falkwands War between Argentina and the UK.

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  USS Boise, during trials, 7 July 1938.

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  The ship's bell, which was saved whilst she was being scrapped, is on display at the Idaho Military History Museum