USS Atlanta (CL-51) of the United States Navy was the lead ship of the of eight light cruisers. She was the third Navy ship named after the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Designed to provide anti-aircraft protection for US naval task groups, Atlanta served in this capacity in the naval battles Midway and the Eastern Solomons. Atlanta was heavily damaged by Japanese and friendly gunfire in a night surface action on 13 November 1942 during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. The cruiser was sunk on her captain's orders in the afternoon of the same day.
Atlanta, in some works, is designated CLAA-51 because of her primary armament as an anti-aircraft cruiser. Hence, all of the Atlanta-class ships are sometimes designated as CLAA. However, her entire battery of guns were dual-purpose (DP) guns, and were capable of being used against both air and surface targets, able to fire anti-aircraft, high-explosive and armor-piercing shells.
The Atlanta-class ships were lightly armored, making them poor surface combatants compared to a typical light cruiser. In terms of armament, the Atlanta-class was closer to a destroyer, being armed with 5-inch guns, than a light cruiser, which were generally equipped with 6-inch guns; but at well over in length, and combined with their large battery of sixteen guns, reduced to twelve in number for later ships of the class, they were designated as light cruisers. The unusual features of the Atlanta-class is a result of the class originally being intended to be a destroyer leader. A destroyer leader is larger than its destroyer counterparts to accommodate command staff and resources as well as other general utilities to support the destroyers that they would be paired with.
In-line with this intended role the ship was given a complement of torpedoes and relatively thin armor compared to other contemporary light cruisers. Later, the dimensions and tonnage of the ship resulted in a change in designation of the Atlanta-class from a destroyer leader to a light cruiser. Despite this change in designation, the Atlanta-class of ships maintained their destroyer leader features, including their destroyer-caliber guns, albeit while mounting significantly more 5 in guns than most contemporary destroyers.
Construction and commissioning
The first of the new class of ships was laid down on 22 April 1940 at Kearny, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.. She was launched on 6 September 1941, sponsored by Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind, and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 24 December 1941, with Captain Samuel P. Jenkins in command.
Armament
Atlanta was fitted with eight twin 5-inch gun mounts, placed in a unique configuration. She had three forward mounts and three aft mounts, mounted inline and increasing in height toward the midships, giving her a symmetrical appearance, with a "gap" in the middle superstructure. The aft battery also had one "wing-mounted" mount on each side, for a total of 16 five-inch guns.
The firing arcs of the forward and aft batteries intersected at a very limited angle, giving her an arc of 60° in which she could fire all of her guns broadside, excluding the wing mounts. Because Atlanta was able to bring all her guns to bear only within that narrow arc, her ability to engage surface targets was limited. Her firing arcs were ideally suited to bringing her guns to bear on an aircraft, with a minimum of six guns available from any angle.
Service history
After fitting out, Atlanta conducted shakedown training until 13 March 1942, first in Chesapeake Bay and then in Maine's Casco Bay, after which she returned to the New York Navy Yard for post-shakedown repairs and alterations. Adjudged to be "ready for distant service" on 31 March, the new cruiser departed New York for the Panama Canal Zone on 5 April. She reached Cristobal on 8 April.
As two other Japanese destroyers crossed her line, Atlanta engaged both with her forward mounts, while her aft mounts continued to blast away at the illuminated ship. An additional, unidentified assailant also opened up on the light cruiser from the northeast. Akatsukis destroyer consorts.
Atlanta lost all but auxiliary diesel power, suffered the interruption of her gunfire, and had to shift steering control to the steering engine room aft. Meanwhile, Akatsuki drifted out of the action and soon sank with heavy loss of life. Michiharu Shinya, Akatsukis Chief Torpedo Officer, one of her few survivors, was rescued the next day by US forces and spent the rest of the war in a New Zealand prisoner of war camp. He later stated unequivocally that Akatsuki had not been able to fire any torpedoes that night before being overwhelmed by gunfire.
Soon after being torpedoed, Atlanta was then hit by an estimated nineteen 8-inch (203 mm) shells when San Francisco, "in the urgency of battle, darkness, and confused intermingling of friend or foe", fired into her. Though almost all of the shells passed through the thin skin of the ship without detonating, scattering green dye, fragments from their impact killed many men, including Admiral Scott and members of his staff. Atlanta prepared to return fire on her new assailant, but San Francisco's own gun flashes disclosed a distinctly "non-Japanese hull profile" that resulted in a suspension of those efforts.
After the fire ceased, Atlantas Captain Jenkins took stock of the situation, and, having only a minor foot wound, made his way aft to Battle II. His ship was badly battered, largely powerless, down by the head and listing slightly to port, and a third of his crew was dead or missing. As the battle continued, the light cruiser's men began clearing debris, jettisoning topside weight to correct the list, reducing the volume of sea water in the ship, and succoring the many wounded.
Exploration of the wreck
The wreck of USS Atlanta was discovered in 1992 by an expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard using a remotely operated underwater vehicle, (ROV). Dr. Ballard was famous for leading the expeditions that discovered and the . Unfortunately, strong ocean currents and poor visibility prevented the expedition from thoroughly exploring Atlanta. Many other World War II wrecks discovered by Dr. Ballard in Iron Bottom Sound are beyond the current technical limit for scuba and are only accessible by ROVs or submersibles. Dr Ballard gives an account of this in his book The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal.
In 1994, two Australian technical divers Rob Cason and Kevin Denlay traveled to Solomon Islands with the intention of being the first scuba divers to dive Atlanta. This was unsuccessful because of the lack of a suitable surface support vessel and strong surface currents. This was the first mixed gas scuba diving expedition to Guadalcanal. They managed to dive one of the two other deepest diveable wrecks, the Japanese transport Azumasan Maru, which is almost deep at the stern.
In 1995, Denlay returned with American Terrance Tysall - with the specific intention of diving USS Atlanta - and one of their 'work-up dives' was on the Sasako Maru, one of the other deepest diveable wrecks at the time, which is over in the collapsed debris field of the bridge. They then went on to make the first successful scuba dive on USS Atlanta, which was at the time the deepest wreck dive by free swimming divers in the southern hemisphere.
In the following years, Denlay and Tysall mounted several larger expeditions to survey Atlanta, exploring and videoing the wreck in detail to a depth of at the bow. From late 1998, the civil unrest in the Solomon Islands prevented further diving around Guadalcanal for several years. On the final expedition in 1998, the then deepest wreck dive by a woman was made by Kevin's wife, Mirja, on Atlanta. Denlay's last visit to the wreck was in 2002 using a closed circuit rebreather or CCR, the first CCR dive on Atlanta.
Since then, very few dives have been conducted on Atlanta. In May 2011, a very experienced deep diving team from Global Underwater Explorers successfully videoed the wreck for documentary purposes, the first survey of the wreck since Denlay's expeditions up to 1998.
A dive conducted in April 2024 by Bruce Clulow and Peter Taw found the hull and bow of the Atlanta had completely collapsed just forward of the number one 5 inch gun.
Awards
Atlanta was awarded five battle stars for her World War II service and a Presidential Unit Citation for her "heroic example of invincible fighting spirit" in the battle off Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942.