Ships
- USS Louisville (CA-28) Captain from 5 January 1944 · Relieved on 15 December 1944
Samuel Hansford Hurt was born in Blackstone, Virginia, on 7 February 1896. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1918 and spent his career in the Navy. He was promoted to commander on 23 June 1938 and to temporary captain on 15 June 1942. He retired as a rear admiral and died on 30 August 1991.
His command in the Pacific war was the heavy cruiser Louisville. He took her on 5 January 1944, when she returned to the South Pacific as flagship for Rear Admiral Jesse Barrett Oldendorf, who was assembling the naval gunfire that would cover the amphibious landings ahead. Hurt commanded the cruiser. Oldendorf directed the bombardment forces that used her as their flagship.
At the end of January Louisville shelled Wotje, west of Kwajalein, and then fired on the airfield and troop positions at Roi and Namur, on the southern end of the atoll. Those islands were in American hands by 3 February. About two weeks later the cruiser led the gunfire-support group against Eniwetok, which fell on 22 February. In March she went with the fast carriers against the Palau Islands, and in April she bombarded Truk and Satawan.
The Marianas campaign followed in June and July. Louisville lay in the bombardment line off Saipan and fired through the first eleven days of that assault, then shelled Tinian, and finished with the landings on Guam. Hurt received the Legion of Merit for his service as commanding officer of Louisville in the South Pacific from 20 January to 17 October 1944.
On 18 October Louisville entered Leyte Gulf and spent the next week pounding Japanese positions ashore. On the night of 24–25 October a Japanese force tried to force Surigao Strait and break into the gulf. Hurt fought the cruiser in the American battle line, brought her guns to bear, and then took her in pursuit. Her fire shared in the sinking of several enemy warships and in removing the threat to the transports and other ships inside Leyte Gulf. During that action he twice maneuvered Louisville clear of suicide dive bombers and kept her from serious damage. The Navy Cross was awarded for his conduct that night.
He was relieved in command of Louisville on 15 December 1944. The tour had carried the ship from the Marshalls through the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The cruiser’s fighting off Luzon in January 1945 came after he had left her.