Figure 1: USS Boise (CL-47) anchored in harbor, circa 1938-39. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Boise (CL-47) operating off Hawaii on 5 November 1941. The ship is wearing Measure 1 camouflage paint. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Boise (CL-47) photographed circa late August 1942, probably at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Boise (CL-47) seen from the island of USS Yorktown (CV-10) on 6 May 1943. A Grumman F6F-3 "Hellcat" fighter is parked on the carrier's deck-edge elevator, in the foreground. Note Boise's fresh Measure 22 camouflage, and her fifteen 6-inch guns trained on her port quarter at high elevation. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Boise (CL-47) arrives at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, for battle damage repairs, November 1942. She had been hit by enemy shellfire in the Battle of Cape Esperance on 12 October 1942, resulting in a large fire that burned out her three forward 6-inch gun turrets and their ammunition spaces. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Boise (CL-47) arrives at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in November 1942 for repair of battle damage received during the 11-12 October Battle of Cape Esperance. Note the forward 6-inch triple gun turret trained to starboard. It was jammed in this position during the action, when a Japanese 8-inch shell hit the armored barbette just below the turret. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Boise (CL-47) sailor W.R. Martin points out details of the Japanese trophy flags painted on the cruiser's pilothouse as a scoreboard of enemy ships claimed sunk in the Battle of Cape Esperance, 11-12 October 1942. The six Japanese ships (two heavy cruisers, a light cruiser and three destroyers) represented in this scoreboard greatly overstates the actual enemy losses, which were one heavy cruiser (Furutaka) and one destroyer (Fubuki) sunk and one heavy cruiser (Aoba) badly damaged. This overclaiming was typical of contemporary night surface actions. Photographed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, soon after Boise arrived there for battle damage repairs in November 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: Aerial view of USS Boise (CL-47) taken at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 22 April 1943. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: Sicily Invasion, July 1943. USS Boise (CL-47) fires on enemy forces near Gela, Sicily, on 11 July 1943. Photographed by Sgt. Crosnon from USS LST-325. Note manned .50 caliber machine guns on several of the Army trucks parked on the LST's deck, a precaution against German air attack. Morison, "History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II" (Vol. IX, page 107) states that Boise's targets were enemy tanks. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS Boise (CL-47) shelling the coast of New Guinea in early 1944. Photograph is dated 10 February 1944, but may have been taken during the Madang-Alexishafen bombardment of 25-26 January 1944. This view looks forward on the starboard side from the midships 20-mm gun gallery. Note tracers, which appear several feet in front of gun muzzles. Those from the four starboard side 5-inch guns have a higher trajectory than the tracers fired from the forward 6-inch gun turrets. Tracers from the 6-inch guns appear to wobble slightly. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USS Boise (CL-47) bombarding the Galela sector of Halmahera Island during the Morotai invasion, 15 September 1944. This view looks forward on the port side from the midships 20-mm gun gallery. Guns in the foreground are 5-inchers. This firing is being done by the forward 6-inch gun turrets. Note ammunition-passing party at work in the lower right. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS Boise (CL-47) off San Pedro, California, 14 September 1945, following overhaul. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: USS Boise (CL-47) arrives in New York Harbor on 20 October 1945, to participate in the Navy Day Fleet Review. The south end of Manhattan Island is in the background. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: Starboard bow view of USS Boise (CL-47) while underway in the Hudson River, on or about 27 October 1945. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: U.S. Army Private First Class Felix A. Uva (left) and Corporal Donald A. Purdy examine a memorial plaque on USS Boise’s main deck, while they were being transported to the United States from Europe as part of Operation "Magic Carpet" in November 1945. This plaque was presented to the ship by the citizens of Boise, Idaho, in memory of the 107 crewmembers who lost their lives during the Battle of Cape Esperance, 11-12 October 1942. Note kapok life jackets worn by the soldiers. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after the capital of Idaho, USS Boise (CL-47) was a 9,700-ton Brooklyn class light cruiser that was built at Newport News, Virginia, and was commissioned on 12 August 1938. She was approximately 608 feet long and 61 feet wide, had a top speed of 33.5 knots, and had a crew of 868 officers and men. Boise was armed with 15 6-inch guns, eight 5-inch guns, and various smaller caliber antiaircraft weapons.
Boise went on her shakedown cruise to Liberia and South Africa and then transferred to the US Pacific Fleet. For almost three years, she took part in naval exercises off America’s West Coast and the Hawaiian Islands. By the end of 1941, Boise was sent to the Philippines to help reinforce the US Asiatic Fleet. She was in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, but was ordered to join Task Force 5 in the East Indies. On 21 January 1942, Boise struck an uncharted shoal in the Sape Strait near Java and was sent back to the Mare Island Navy Yard in California for repairs. This may have been a fortuitous accident because the Japanese sank most of the other Allied warships defending Java. By being forced to retreat from a losing battle, Boise was able to live to fight another day.
After being repaired, Boise escorted convoys in the south Pacific in June and August 1942. She conducted a raiding cruise in Japanese waters from 31 July to 10 August 1942 as a diversion to draw attention away from the US landings on Guadalcanal. In August she also escorted a convoy to Fiji and New Hebrides islands. From 14 to 18 September 1942, Boise supported the landings of Marine reinforcements on Guadalcanal and then took part in the famous Battle of Cape Esperance on 12 October. She was badly damaged during the battle after being hit by several Japanese shells. The explosions caused by the shell hits started a large fire that killed 107 men and burned out all three of her forward 6-inch gun turrets. Once again, Boise was sent back to the United States for repairs, this time to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She remained there from 19 November 1942 to 20 March 1943.
After her extensive repairs were completed, Boise was sent to the Mediterranean where she provided gunfire support for the invasion of Sicily in July and August 1943. The ship also supported the landings at Salerno in September. But Boise was sent back to the south Pacific later on that year.
Boise was assigned to operations along the northern coast of New Guinea during the first eight months of 1944. She bombarded Japanese positions on several occasions and participated in the landings at Humboldt Bay in April, Wakde-Toem and Biak from May to June, Noemfoor in July and Cape Sansapor in July and August. From September to October, Boise supported the invasions of Morotai and Leyte. On 25 October 1944, Boise was part of the major American victory over the Japanese fleet during the Battle of Surigao Strait. She also supported the landings on Mindoro and for the first three months of 1945 supported the invasions of Luzon and Mindanao. Boise went on to take part in the invasion of Borneo during April and May 1945. From 3 to 16 June 1945, Boise carried General Douglas MacArthur on a 3,500-mile tour of the central and southern Philippines and of Brunei Bay, Borneo. She returned to the United States in July, spending the last two months of the war undergoing an overhaul in San Pedro, California.
After her overhaul, Boise was assigned to the Atlantic, where she helped transport American servicemen back home from Europe. She was decommissioned on 1 July 1946 and spent nearly five years in “mothballs” before being sold to Argentina in January 1951. The old cruiser was renamed Nueve de Julio and was an active warship in the Argentine Navy until 1978. She was ultimately sold for scrapping by Argentina in 1981.
USS Boise received 11 battle stars for her service during World War II. She was a true workhorse throughout the war, fighting in two major battles (Cape Esperance and Surigao Strait) and successfully completing numerous escort and gunfire support missions. Boise even went on to provide another navy with 27 years of useful service after World War II ended. Few ships can boast such a fine record of accomplishment over such a long period of time.
