USS Concord (CL-10)

Concord was authorized on 29 August 1916, and assigned to William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia on 30 July 1917. She was laid down on 29 March 1920, and launched on 15 December 1921, sponsored by Miss H. Butterick. Concord was commissioned on 3 November 1923, with future Admiral, Captain Orin G. Murfin in command. Concord was long at the waterline with an overall length of , her beam was and a mean draft of . Her standard displacement was and at full load. The ship lacked a full-length waterline armor belt. The sides of her boiler and engine rooms and steering gear were protected by of armor. The transverse bulkheads at the end of her machinery rooms were thick forward and three inches thick aft. The deck over the machinery spaces and steering gear had a thickness of 1.5 inches. The gun turrets were not armored and only provided protection against muzzle blast and the conning tower had 1.5 inches of armor. Armament changes During her career Concord went through several armament changes, some of these changes were to save weight, but others were to increase her AA armament. The lower torpedo tube mounts proved to be very wet and were removed, and the openings plated over, before the start of World War II. Another change made before the war was to increase the 3–inch guns to eight, all mounted in the ship's waist. After 1940, the lower aft 6–inch guns were removed and the casemates plated over for the same reason as the lower torpedo mounts. The ship's anti-aircraft armament were augmented by three twin Bofors guns along with 12 Oerlikon cannons by the end of the war. ==Service history==

Inter-war period On her maiden cruise, from 23 November 1923 – 9 April 1924, Concord called at Mediterranean ports, passed through the Suez Canal to round the Cape of Good Hope, and exercised with the fleet in the Caribbean before returning to Philadelphia. As flagship of Commander, Destroyer Squadrons, Scouting Fleet, she cruised the Caribbean and sailed through the Panama Canal to exercise in the Hawaiian Islands in 1924–1925. Continuing to operate in the Atlantic, she joined in the Presidential Fleet Review taken by Calvin Coolidge on 4 June 1927. She took part in Presidential Fleet Reviews taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt on 30 September 1935 and 12 July 1938, and joined in fleet exercises in the Hawaiian area, in the Canal Zone, and off Alaska. After operating on the east coast in the winter of 1938–39, she returned to Pacific operations, and from 1 April 1940, was based at Pearl Harbor for a training schedule which intensified as war came closer. and caused considerable damage, which was repaired at Balboa, Panama. With repairs completed in March 1944, Concord set sail northward to join the Northern Pacific Force at Adak on 2 April. Serving as the flagship of Task Force 94 (TF 94) at the beginning of this duty, she joined in bombardments of the Kuriles which continued at intervals until the close of the war, preventing effective use by the Japanese of their bases there. Harassing the northern shipping lanes of Japan, her force sank several small craft, and on 25 August 1944, the destroyers of the force made an attack on a Japanese convoy. On 31 August 1945, Concord stood out from Adak, covered the occupation landings at Ominato, Japan, from 8–14 September, and sailed on to Pearl Harbor, the Canal Zone, Boston, and Philadelphia, where she was decommissioned on 12 December, and sold for scrap on 21 January 1947. Before she was scrapped, the turret that fired the last shot of the War was removed. Concord's bell is displayed near Monument Square in her namesake town of Concord, MA. ==Awards==

• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one battle stars for World War II service ==References==