Columbia was a Cleveland-class light cruiser, CL-56. This is the sixth ship of that name. New York Shipbuilding at Camden launched her on 17 December 1941 and commissioned her on 29 July 1942, with Captain W. A. Heard in command. Twelve 6-inch guns stood in four triple turrets.
On 29 January 1943 she was covering transports off Rennell Island. Japanese aircraft attacked for two days. She helped shoot down three of them. Chicago was lost in that battle to aircraft torpedoes. That loss is not credited to one plane, and it was not hers.
On the night of 1–2 November 1943 she was in Merrill's cruiser line off Empress Augusta Bay, with Montpelier, Cleveland, and Denver. Merrill's flag was in Montpelier. The four cruisers sank Sendai. That fire is not credited to one of them. Columbia was not sunk.
On the night of 24 October 1944 she was with the cruisers and the old battleships in Surigao Strait. The Japanese ships lost in that strait are not credited to one ship. Mogami came out on fire. Aircraft stopped her, and the destroyer Akebono sank her that afternoon with one torpedo. Shigure was the only ship of Nishimura's column still underway.
At Lingayen Gulf the kamikazes found her. On 6 January 1945 one crashed close aboard and a second hit her port quarter. The plane and its bomb went through two decks. Thirteen men were killed and forty-four wounded. Two after turrets were out. She flooded two magazines, put the fire down, and finished the bombardment with the guns she had left. On the morning of the landings, 9 January, another kamikaze hit her while she lay in among the landing craft. Twenty-four men were killed and ninety-seven wounded. She put that fire out too and stayed on the gun line. She was not sunk. The Navy Unit Commendation was for that work.
She was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 30 November 1946 and sold on 18 February 1959. Ten battle stars.