,
Portland, Oregon, in the 1930s Departing
Boston on 1 April 1933, the cruiser arrived
Gravesend Bay, New York late in the day on 3 April. The next evening, she was dispatched on her first assignment to the scene of the
airship , which had crashed at sea. Thirty six minutes after receiving the message, she was underway and en route to the crash site. She was the first Navy vessel on scene, and began coordinating the
search and rescue effort with other ships arriving. In spite of her efforts, 73 were killed in the crash, including
Admiral William Moffett, Chief of the
Bureau of Aeronautics.
Portland steamed from
San Diego, California, on 2 October 1935 along with , which was carrying
President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The president spent much of his trip fishing with his party. After visiting
Panama and several other ports, the two ships steamed to
Charleston, South Carolina, where the President disembarked.
Portland spent the remainder of the
interwar era with the
Scouting Force,
Cruiser Division 5 and later in the
United States Pacific Fleet conducting peacetime training and a number of goodwill missions. She
crossed the equator for the first time on 20 May 1936 during fleet maneuvers. When the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941,
Portland was two days away, en route to
Midway Atoll as part of a carrier group escorting
aircraft carrier . From December 1941 to 1 May 1942, she operated between the
West Coast,
Hawaii, and
Fiji on patrol.
Battle of Coral Sea Portland joined
Task Force 17 (TF 17), commanded by Rear Admiral
Frank Jack Fletcher and centered around the carrier escorted by
Portland as well as cruisers and plus the destroyers , , , , , and and
oiler and
Tippecanoe. TF 17 departed
Tongatabu on 27 April
en route to the Coral Sea. On the morning of 1 May, TF 17 joined with
Task Force 11 (TF 11) about northwest of New Caledonia. TF 17 completed refueling the next day, but TF 11 reported that they would not be finished fueling until 4 May. Fletcher elected to take TF 17 northwest towards the
Louisiades. At 17:00 on 3 May, Fletcher was notified that a force of
Japanese troops had been sighted at
Tulagi the day before, approaching the southern Solomons. TF 17 changed course and proceeded at towards
Guadalcanal to launch airstrikes against the Japanese forces at Tulagi the next morning. On 4 May, from a position south of Guadalcanal (), TF 17 launched airstrikes against Japanese forces off Tulagi. After recovering its aircraft late in the evening of 4 May, TF17 retired towards the south. The next morning, TF 17 rendezvoused with TF 11 and
Task Force 44 (TF 44) at a predetermined point south of Guadalcanal (). Prompted by reports the Japanese would attack
Port Moresby, the force moved to the Louisiades to engage the Japanese the next day.
Portland was assigned to Task Group 17.2 under
Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid together with cruisers , ,
Astoria,
Chester, and five destroyers from
Destroyer Squadron One. She screened for
Yorktown throughout the operation, including during Japanese air attacks on the two carriers on 8 May. Following the battle, she was to escort the damaged
Lexington, but after fires on that carrier became uncontrollable she was abandoned and sunk.
Portland took on 722 of her survivors. She suffered no casualties herself, though at least four of her sailors were transferred to the
Neosho shortly before the battle and were lost when that ship was sunk.
Battle of Midway . After brief repairs at Tongatabu,
Portland took on a new commander, Captain
Laurance T. DuBose. She then steamed for Pearl Harbor escorting
Yorktown, before heading to Midway Atoll to set a trap for Japanese forces attacking there. On 4 June, after Dive-Bombers from carriers
Yorktown and had sunk three Japanese carriers, aircraft from Japanese carrier
Hiryū responded with an attack on
Yorktown that afternoon.
Portland was to her port, providing anti-aircraft defense along with cruisers and . A Japanese air attack came at 14:00 and another after 16:30, and
Yorktown was struck several times with torpedoes. With increasing damage, the carrier was abandoned and its survivors picked up by five destroyers and then transferred to
Portland. In all, 2,046 of
Yorktown's crew transferred to the cruiser. She then steamed toward Pearl Harbor and met the
submarine tender and transferred the
Yorktown survivors aboard her on 6 June. During 7 June she searched for downed naval aviators and the next day joined the group of carrier . They steamed for the
Aleutian Islands to counter a Japanese force there but were recalled to Pearl Harbor two days later.
Guadalcanal campaign Portland accompanied the invasion fleet to Guadalcanal, escorting
Enterprise. She remained off the coast protecting the landings at Tulagi and Guadalcanal from 7–9 August. In this duty, she missed the
Battle of Savo Island and withdrew two days later following
Enterprise. She then remained in the area to support the Guadalcanal operations and to protect communications lines for the attacking forces. in Sydney, Australia, in December, 1942, to repair damage suffered during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Remaining with
Enterprise, she later participated in the
Battle of the Eastern Solomons. On 24 August she was posted to air defense to the port of
Enterprise, and though she and her sisters were able to down a number of Japanese aircraft, the carrier was hit at 18:34. She continued to protect the carrier through 25 August, when Allied forces prevented reinforcement of Japanese units in the Solomons by a large naval armada under Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto. Following the battle she escorted
Enterprise to Pearl Harbor and was then ordered on a secret mission to the
Gilbert Islands to conduct a raid on
Tarawa with light cruiser . She took aboard Rear Admiral
Mahlon S. Tisdale and was designated Task Unit 16.9.1. Between 14:10 and 14:51 on 15 October she attacked Japanese ships near the island, damaging a transport and a destroyer and suffering one damaged aircraft before she withdrew and rejoined the
Enterprise task group near the Solomons. She then steamed south to take part in the
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands as one of the escorts for
Enterprise. The carrier came under heavy air attack at 10:12 on 24 October, and
Portland suffered her first wartime damage as one of her guns exploded in firing and again when one of her AA guns depressed too low and damaged the
splinter shield, injuring 19 men. In heavy fighting
Enterprise was hit once but
Portland and the task group shot down several aircraft. At 11:53 the bridge lost control of steering, and before it could regain control, a Japanese submarine was spotted. The submarine struck
Portland with three torpedoes, but none detonated, likely because the submarine had fired too close and they had no time to arm. Two weeks later, she participated in the
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal from 12–15 November, which resulted in heavy damage to both forces but broke up the determined Japanese effort to disrupt the landing of 6,000 American troops on Guadalcanal, to bombard
Henderson Field, and to land 7,000 reinforcements of their own. At the outbreak of the battle,
Portland was escorting a convoy traveling to Guadalcanal from
New Caledonia as part of
Task Force 67. After a four-day journey they arrived and began to offload supplies on 12 November and were countered by a Japanese air attack of 46 aircraft. That night, she was among a force of five cruisers and eight destroyers under
Daniel J. Callaghan which steamed to counter an approaching Japanese force. They spotted a Japanese force of two battleships, one cruiser and eleven destroyers and immediately opened fire, sinking the . Shortly thereafter,
Portland was struck by a torpedo fired by either the destroyer or the destroyer at 01:58, causing heavy damage to her stern. The torpedo struck the
starboard side, which blew off both inboard propellers, jammed the rudder five degrees to starboard, and jammed her Number Three turret in train and elevation. A four degree list was quickly corrected by shifting ballast, but the steering problem could not be overcome and the ship was forced to steam in circles to starboard. The blast disrupted her steering column, forcing her to steer in a circle. At the end of her first circle, she fired on the battleship , with her forward turrets. The Japanese ship returned fire, but all salvos passed over the cruiser. In the four six-gun salvos returned by
Portland, she succeeded in starting fires in the Japanese ship. At dawn, she was one of three U.S. ships still too damaged to withdraw on their own power. Then again at 06:30, still circling,
Portland opened fire on the abandoned hulk of the destroyer at a range of . After the sixth salvo,
Yūdachi exploded, rolled over, and sank within five minutes. She was eventually able to correct the steering problem and withdraw on her own power. She later received a
Navy Unit Commendation for her actions in the battle. She suffered 18 killed, 17 wounded in the battle. With the assistance of
Higgins boats, a
YP, and a
tug,
Portland anchored at Tulagi on 14 November. From there, she was towed to
Sydney, Australia, by the tugboat and escorted by the destroyers and for preliminary repairs prior to
overhaul in the United States. She arrived at Sydney 30 November but did not enter
drydock until 24 December after
Chester and
New Orleans were repaired. During this time the crew was given extended
shore leave. Two of the ship's sailors died in accidents during this leave. She left Australia after preliminary repairs, escorted by destroyer . Following short stops at
Samoa and Pearl Harbor, the ship arrived at
Mare Island Navy Yard on 3 March 1943.
1943–1944 After operational training in southern Californian waters,
Portland steamed for the
Aleutians late in May, arriving on 11 June and bombarding
Kiska on 26 July. After covering a reconnaissance landing on
Little Kiska on 17 August, she called at Pearl Harbor on 23 September, there to
San Francisco in early October, then back to Pearl Harbor in mid-October. From November 1943 to February 1944,
Portland participated in the
Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaigns. She bombarded Tarawa on 20 November supporting landings there for several days. She was lightly damaged by a friendly
depth charge when a nearby destroyer erroneously detected a Japanese submarine. In December 1943 she moved to the
Marshall Islands escorting the new
Essex-class carrier . While
Lexington came under air attack, none of the Japanese planes came within range of
Portland and she did not open fire. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 25 December, and went into drydock to repair her rudder and propellers. After repairs, she joined
Task Group 51 under Rear Admiral
Harry W. Hill for an attack on
Darrit, steaming for that island on 23 January and arriving 30 January. After shelling the island for 30 minutes, it was discovered no Japanese were ashore. She then moved to support operations on
Eniwetok Atoll on 8 February, providing
shore bombardment on Parry Island ahead of landings which took place on 19 February. She then screened carriers conducting airstrikes at
Palau,
Yap,
Ulithi, and
Woleai between 30 March and 1 April. She then joined with a carrier force assigned to cover the landings around
Hollandia and
Tanahmerah on
New Guinea, which took place from 21 to 24 April. She steamed northward with the carrier force and struck
Truk with five other cruisers and destroyers.
Portland then bombarded
Satawan in the Nomei Group. Following this series of operations,
Portland returned to Mare Island for a more extensive overhaul, which was completed in August. She returned to the western Pacific for shore bombardments of
Peleliu from 12 to 14 September. The cruiser supported the
landing on Peleliu on 15 September, providing artillery to support the advance of Allied forces. She provided gunfire support at Peleliu through 29 September, and then steamed for
Seeadler Harbor,
Manus Island in the
Admiralties.
Battle of Leyte Gulf Portland next joined
Cruiser Division 4 for the next major campaign against the
Philippines. She arrived off
Leyte on 17 October, entering the
Gulf the next day, and began two days of shore bombardments to prepare for the troop landings there. On the night of 24 October, a strong Japanese force consisting of two battleships, one heavy cruiser, and four destroyers headed for
Surigao Strait with the apparent intent of raiding shipping in Leyte Gulf. The Japanese force advanced in rough column up the narrow strait during darkness, but was met with a large U.S. force of cruisers, destroyers and battleships, including
Portland. She and her sisters steamed across the top of the strait,
crossing the T of the Japanese force. The Japanese were first met by
PT boats, then in succession by three coordinated destroyer torpedo attacks, and finally by devastating gunfire from American battleships and cruisers disposed across the northern end of the strait.
Portland took the under fire, scoring four hits on her at 04:02, striking the
compass platform and AA defense center. She continued firing on the
Mogami for ten minutes She continued to fire on the stranded
Mogami until 05:30, striking several hits, including on the ship's bridge, killing the captain and executive officer. According to the
Portland's official war diary, she assisted in the "sinking of two battleships, two destroyers, and in damaging the heavy cruiser during the main action and pursuit" during the battle. The
Battle of Surigao Strait was a decisive defeat for the Japanese force, with most of its ships being destroyed.
1945 in January 1945. From 3 January to 1 March 1945,
Portland participated in the operations at
Lingayen Gulf and Corregidor. Arriving off Lingayen Gulf on 5 January, and bombarding the vicinity of
Cape Bolinao, she entered the Gulf the same day and commenced bombardment of the eastern shore but discontinued immediately when a large wave of Japanese
kamikaze planes approached.
Portland entered
Manila Bay on 15 February, and bombarded the south shore of
Corregidor in preparation for landings there. She returned to Leyte Gulf on 1 March for repairs and replenishment, having seen five months of continuous action. From 26 March to 20 April, she joined
Task Force 54 (TF 54), which conducted shore bombardments of
Okinawa in support of the Allied landings during the
Okinawa campaign. The Japanese air arm had been decimated by this point in the war, and the lack of trained and experienced pilots led to the most extensive deployment of the
kamikaze;
Portland endured 24 air raids, shot down four Japanese aircraft, and assisted in downing two others. From 8 May to 17 June, she supported ground forces on Okinawa providing artillery support for ground forces, departing on 17 June for maintenance at Leyte before returning to
Buckner Bay on 6 August, where she remained conducting shore bombardments until the
end of the war. ==Post-war==