Figure 1: USS Raleigh (CL-7) at Marseille, France, during the 1920s. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1973. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Raleigh (CL-7) steaming past the bow of another light cruiser, off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the later 1920s. Donation of Franklin Moran, 1967. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Raleigh (CL-7) at anchor in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 26 April 1930. Donation of Franklin Moran, 1967. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) with the Navy blimps J-2 and ZMC-2, flying over USS Raleigh (CL-7) and another light cruiser, during maneuvers off Atlantic City, New Jersey, 11 October 1930. Donation of Franklin Moran, 1967. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Raleigh (CL-7) anchored in San Diego harbor, California, 21 October 1933. Donation of Franklin Moran, 1967. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Pearl Harbor attack, 7 December 1941. USS Raleigh (CL-7) is kept afloat by a barge lashed alongside, after she was damaged by a Japanese torpedo and a bomb, 7 December 1941. The barge has salvage pontoons YSP-14 and YSP-13 on board. The capsized hull of USS Utah (AG-16) is visible astern of Raleigh. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Pearl Harbor attack, 7 December 1941. USS Raleigh (CL-7) being kept afloat by a salvage barge moored to her port side, after she had been torpedoed and damaged by a bomb during the Japanese raid. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Cassin (DD-372) at right, and USS Downes (DD-375), under salvage in Dry Dock Number One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on 5 February 1942, the day Cassin was righted from her previous position capsized against Downes. They were wrecked during the 7 December 1941 Japanese air raid. Also in the dry dock is USS Raleigh (CL-7), which was under repair for torpedo damage received on 7 December. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS Raleigh (CL-7) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 6 July 1942, following repair of combat damage and an overhaul. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS Raleigh (CL-7) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 6 July 1942, following repair of combat damage and an overhaul. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USS Raleigh (CL-7) off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, 25 May 1944, following overhaul. The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 1d. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS Raleigh (CL-7) off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, 25 May 1944, following overhaul. The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 1d. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: USS Raleigh (CL-7) in Massacre Bay, Attu Island, Aleutians, 6 September 1944. The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 1d. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
USS Raleigh (CL-7) was a 7,050-ton Omaha class light cruiser that was built at the Bethlehem Steel Company at Quincy, Massachusetts, and was commissioned on 6 February 1924. The ship was approximately 555 feet long and 55 feet wide, had a top speed of 35 knots, and had a crew of 458 officers and men. Raleigh was armed with twelve 6-inch guns, two 3-inch guns, and ten 21-inch torpedo tubes.
Shortly after the ship was commissioned, Raleigh went on her maiden cruise to northern Europe. For the next four years, the light cruiser was assigned to the Scouting Fleet and performed duties in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Caribbean. In September 1928, Raleigh returned to Europe for a one-year tour of duty as the US Navy’s flagship there. She continued her Scouting Force duties from 1929 to 1936, with her home base shifting to San Diego, California, in 1933. From 1936 to 1938, Raleigh was made the flagship of Squadron 40-T, which operated off the coast of Spain during that nation’s horrific civil war. She spent the rest of the 1930s and early 1940s based at Pearl Harbor and took an active role in fleet exercises that originated from that port.
On 7 December 1941, Raleigh was moored at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. She was hit and badly damaged by a torpedo and also was damaged by a near miss from a bomb. Raleigh was temporarily “patched up” at Pearl Harbor and then was sent to the Mare Island Navy Yard in California for more permanent repairs. By mid-1942, the cruiser was ready for action. Raleigh spent most of the rest of that year in the south and central Pacific on convoy and escort duty before being sent to the Aleutians, where she stayed until June 1945. While in the Aleutians, Raleigh again was assigned to convoy escort duties, as well as patrols in hostile waters and the bombardment of Japanese-held islands. She was sent back to the Atlantic in the summer of 1945 and briefly was used to train Naval Academy midshipmen. Raleigh was decommissioned in November 1945 and was sold for scrapping in February 1946.
Although rather elderly by the start of World War II, USS Raleigh still had much fight left in her even though she was seriously damaged at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. She also went on to play a significant role in the Aleutians campaign, a theater of operations that is largely forgotten by most Americans today. Raleigh received three battle stars for her service in World War II.
