Alaska was authorized under the Fleet Expansion Act on 19 July 1940, and ordered on 9 September. On 17 December 1941 she was
laid down at
New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey. She was
launched on 15 August 1943, sponsored by
Dorothy Smith Gruening, the wife of Governor
Ernest Gruening of Alaska, after which
fitting-out work was effected. The ship was completed by June 1944, and was
commissioned into the US Navy on 17 June, under the command of Captain Peter K. Fischler.
World War II After her commissioning,
Alaska steamed down to
Hampton Roads, escorted by the destroyers and . The ship was then deployed for a
shakedown cruise, first in the
Chesapeake Bay and then into the Caribbean, off
Trinidad. On the cruise, she was escorted by the destroyers and . After completing the cruise,
Alaska returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for some minor alterations, including the installation of four Mk 57 fire control directors for her 5-inch guns. On 12 November, she left Philadelphia in the company of the destroyer-minelayer , bound for two weeks of
sea trials off
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. On 2 December, she left Cuba for the Pacific, transiting the
Panama Canal two days later, and reaching
San Diego on 12 December. There her gun crews trained for shore bombardment and anti-aircraft fire. On 8 January 1945,
Alaska left California for Hawaii, arriving in
Pearl Harbor on 13 January. There she participated in further training and was assigned to Task Group 12.2, which departed for
Ulithi on 29 January. The Task Group reached Ulithi on 6 February and was merged into Task Group 58.5, part of Task Force 58, the
Fast Carrier Task Force. Task Group 58.5 was assigned to provide anti-aircraft defense for the
aircraft carriers;
Alaska was assigned to the carriers and . The fleet sailed for Japan on 10 February to conduct air strikes against Tokyo and the surrounding airfields. The Japanese did not attack the fleet during the operation.
Alaska was then transferred to Task Group 58.4 and assigned to support the assault on
Iwo Jima. She served in the screen for the carriers off Iwo Jima for nineteen days, after which time she had to return to Ulithi to replenish fuel and supplies.
Alaska remained with TG 58.4 for the
Battle of Okinawa. She was assigned to screen the carriers and ; the fleet left Ulithi on 14 March and reached its operational area southeast of
Kyushu four days later. The first air strikes on Okinawa began that day, and claimed 17 Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground. Here,
Alaska finally saw combat, as the Japanese launched a major air strike on the American fleet. Her anti-aircraft gunners destroyed a
Yokosuka P1Y bomber
attempting to crash into
Intrepid. Shortly thereafter,
Alaska was warned that American aircraft were in the vicinity. About ten minutes later, her gunners spotted an unidentified aircraft, approaching in what they thought was a threatening manner; they shot down what turned out to be a
Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter, though the pilot was uninjured. Later that afternoon,
Alaska shot down a second Japanese bomber, a
Yokosuka D4Y. The following day, the carrier was badly damaged by several bomb hits and a kamikaze.
Alaska and her sister , two other cruisers, and several destroyers were detached to create Task Group 58.2.9 to escort the crippled
Franklin back to Ulithi. On the voyage back to port, another D4Y bomber attacked
Franklin, though the ships were unable to shoot it down. Gunfire from one of the 5-inch guns accidentally caused flash burns on several men standing nearby; these were the only casualties suffered by her crew during the war.
Alaska then took on the role of fighter director; using her air search radar, she vectored fighters to intercept and destroy a
Kawasaki Ki-45 heavy fighter. On 22 March, the ships reached Ulithi and
Alaska was detached to rejoin TG 58.4. After returning to her unit,
Alaska continued to screen for the aircraft carriers off Okinawa. On 27 March, she was detached to conduct a bombardment of
Minamidaitō. She was joined by
Guam, two light cruisers, and Destroyer Squadron 47. On the night of 27–28 March, she fired forty-five 12-inch shells and three hundred and fifty-two 5-inch rounds at the island. The ships rejoined TG 58.4 at a refueling point, after which they returned to Okinawa to support the landings when they began on 1 April. On the evening of 11 April,
Alaska shot down one Japanese plane, assisted in the destruction of another, and claimed what might have been an
Ohka piloted rocket-bomb. On 16 April, the ship shot down another three aircraft and assisted with three others. Throughout the rest of the month, her heavy anti-aircraft fire succeeded in driving off Japanese bombers.
Alaska then returned to Ulithi to resupply, arriving on 14 May. She was then assigned to TG 38.4, the reorganized carrier task force. The fleet then returned to Okinawa, where
Alaska continued in her anti-aircraft defense role. On 9 June, she and
Guam bombarded
Oki Daitō. TG 38.4 then steamed to
San Pedro Bay in
Leyte Gulf for rest and maintenance; the ship remained there from 13 June until 13 July, when she was assigned to Cruiser
Task Force 95 along with her sister
Guam, under the command of Rear Admiral
Francis S. Low. On 16 July,
Alaska and
Guam conducted a sweep into the
East China and
Yellow Seas to sink Japanese shipping vessels. They had only limited success, however, and returned to the fleet on 23 July. They then joined a major raid, which included three battleships and three
escort carriers, into the estuary of the
Yangtze River off Shanghai. Again, the operation met with limited success. In the course of her service during World War II,
Alaska was awarded three
battle stars.
Post-war On 30 August,
Alaska left Okinawa for Japan to participate in the 7th Fleet occupation force. She arrived in
Incheon, Korea, on 8 September and supported Army operations there until 26 September, when she left for
Qingdao, China, arriving the following day. There, she supported the
6th Marine Division until 13 November, when she returned to Incheon to take on Army soldiers as part of
Operation Magic Carpet, the mass repatriation of millions of American servicemen from Asia and Europe.
Alaska left Incheon with a contingent of soldiers bound for San Francisco. After reaching San Francisco, she left for the Atlantic, via the Panama Canal, which she transited on 13 December. The ship arrived in the
Boston Navy Yard on 18 December, where preparations were made to place the ship in reserve. She left Boston on 1 February 1946 for
Bayonne, New Jersey, where she would be berthed in reserve. She arrived there the following day, and on 13 August, she was removed from active service, though she would not be decommissioned until 17 February 1947. In 1958, the
Bureau of Ships prepared two feasibility studies to see if
Alaska and
Guam were suitable to be converted to guided missile cruisers. The first study involved removing all of the guns in favor of four different missile systems. At $160 million this was seen as too costly, so a second study was conducted. This study left the forward batteries—the two 12-inch triple turrets and three of the 5-inch dual turrets—in place and added a reduced version of the first plan for the aft. This would have cost $82 million, and was still seen as too costly. As a result, the conversion proposal was abandoned and the ship was instead stricken from the
Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1960. On 30 June, she was sold to the Lipsett Division of Luria Brothers to be broken up for scrap. ==Footnotes==