USS Milwaukee (CL-5) was an light cruiser built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. The ship spent most of her early career assigned to the Asiatic and Battle Fleets. In 1941, she was assigned to the Neutrality Patrol until she was refitted in New York in late 1941. She escorted a troop convoy to the Pacific in early 1942 before returning to the South Atlantic where she patrolled for German commerce raiders and blockade runners. In November, she intercepted one of the latter, but it scuttled itself before it could be captured. In 1944, she was temporarily transferred to the Soviet Navy and commissioned as Murmansk. The ship was returned by the Soviets in 1949 and sold for scrap in December.
Description
thumb|left|Right elevation drawing and photo of Milwaukee
Milwaukee was long at the waterline and long overall, with a beam of and a mean draft of . Her standard displacement was and at full load. Her crew consisted of 29 officers and 429 enlisted men. The ship was fitted with a powerful echo sounder.
Milwaukee mounted a dozen 53-caliber guns; four in two twin gun turrets and eight in tiered casemates fore and aft. The ship carried above-water two triple and two twin torpedo tube mounts for torpedoes. The triple mounts were fitted on the upper deck, aft of the aircraft catapults, and the twin mounts were one deck lower, covered by hatches in the side of the hull. These lower 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 guns to four, all mounted in the ship's waist.
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 only protected against muzzle blast and the conning tower had 1.5 inches of armor.
Wartime changes
After 1940 the lower aft six-inch guns were removed and the casemates plated over. The ship's anti-aircraft armament was augmented by two quadruple 1.1-inch gun mounts by early 1942, although these were replaced by twin Bofors 40 mm gun mounts later in the war. At about the same time, Milwaukee received eight Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. She was launched on 24 March 1921 and was commissioned on 20 June 1923.
During Fleet Problem VI, she collided with her sister ship in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 1 February 1926, although neither ship was seriously damaged. Milwaukee and the destroyer assisted victims of a fierce hurricane which had devastated the Isle of Pines in October. In 1933, the ship was assigned to Cruiser Division 3 of the Battle Fleet. part of the Neutrality Patrol established after the war began.
World War II
South Atlantic
Milwaukee, commanded by Captain Forrest B. Royal, was being overhauled in the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December. The ship escorted a convoy to the Caribbean from New York on 31 December and then escorted eight troop transports from the Panama Canal to the Society Islands. She rejoined the South Atlantic Patrol Force upon her return and spend the next two years making patrols between Brazil and the African coast. On 19 May she received an SOS from the Brazilian cargo ship SS Commandante Lyra, which had been torpedoed by the off the coast of Brazil. Milwaukee found the freighter abandoned, burning, and listing to port. She rescued 25 survivors from their lifeboats, including the ship's master. Reinforced by her sister and the destroyer , the fires were brought under control, cargo was jettisoned to lighten the ship, and Commandante Lyra was towed to Fortaleza, Brazil.
Rear Admiral Oliver M. Read assumed command of Cruiser Division 2 in October and hoisted his flag aboard Milwaukee. On 21 November, Milwaukee, her sister and the destroyer Somers intercepted the German blockade runner . When Somers had closed to , the German ship scuttled herself to prevent capture. Milwaukee rescued 62 of the ship's crew. On 2 May 1943, while the ship was under repair at Recife, her crew helped to fight a fire on the oil tanker . The ship sailed for the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 8 February 1944, She escorted a convoy to Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 8 March before forming part of the escort of Convoy JW 58 during her voyage to Murmansk beginning on 29 March. On 16 March 1949, Milwaukee was transferred back to the United States. She was the first of 15 American warships returned by the Soviet Union. She entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 18 March 1949, and was sold for scrapping on 10 December to the American Shipbreakers, Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware.