Building and pre-war service
Salt Lake City, a Pensacola-class cruiser and the first ship named for the Utah capital, was laid down on 9 June 1927 by American Brown Boveri Electric Corporation, a New York Shipbuilding subsidiary, at Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 23 January 1929, sponsored by Helen Budge, a granddaughter of the Mormon missionary William Budge, and commissioned at Philadelphia on 11 December 1929. Her ten 8-inch guns on a light treaty hull gave her a low, sagging sheer, and sailors called her "Swayback Maru." Built as light cruiser CL-25, she was redesignated heavy cruiser CA-25 on 1 July 1931 under the London Naval Treaty.
After shakedown off Maine she operated on the East Coast. In 1932 she went to the West Coast with Chicago and Louisville for fleet maneuvers, and she served with Cruiser Division 4 from September 1933. Through the mid-1930s her duty included gunnery practice at San Clemente, exercises off Panama in 1936, a Hawaiian cruise in 1937, and a Caribbean cruise in 1939. From October 1939 to June 1940 she cruised between Pearl Harbor, Wake and Guam, and in August 1941 she visited Brisbane.
1942
On 7 December 1941 she was with Enterprise, 200 miles west of Pearl Harbor and returning from Wake, under Captain Ellis M. Zacharias. Her planes searched without result for the retiring Japanese. She was in the carrier group that sank the submarine I-70, and she fired on a second submarine. She bombarded Wotje in the February 1942 Marshalls raid, took part in the raids on Wake and Marcus, and in April escorted Task Force 16 for the Doolittle Raid. In the Guadalcanal campaign she was with Wasp when the carrier was torpedoed and sunk on 15 September.
At Cape Esperance on the night of 11–12 October 1942, the American cruisers fired for seven minutes before the confused Japanese realized what was happening. Furutaka and Fubuki were sunk and Aoba was badly damaged. Salt Lake City's own search plane had caught fire on launch when its flares ignited, and she took three heavy hits in the fight.
The Komandorski Islands
In March 1943 she went north to Adak to cut off supplies to the Japanese garrisons on Attu and Kiska. On 26 March, sailing in Task Force 8 with Richmond and four destroyers, she met a convoy covered by Vice Admiral Boshirō Hosogaya's heavy cruisers Nachi and Maya, light cruisers Tama and Abukuma, and four destroyers. The Battle of the Komandorski Islands was a daylight gunnery battle fought at long range. Salt Lake City drew most of the Japanese fire and was hit amidships, killing two men, while her own fire was very accurate. Another hit flooded her forward compartments. Under smoke and torpedo attacks by the destroyers, including Bailey, which took two 8-inch hits while firing her torpedoes, the cruisers turned away. Then Salt Lake City's boiler fires died one by one and she went dead in the water. Hosogaya broke off and withdrew without pressing home his advantage, and the convoy never reached the garrisons.
The Central Pacific
She supported the Gilberts landings, bombarding Betio at Tarawa on 19 November 1943, and fought off torpedo planes around the carriers. She shelled the bypassed Wotje and Taroa from 29 January to 17 February 1944, then supported carrier strikes across the Central Pacific. In 1944 she bombarded Marcus twice, including the October diversion for the Formosa raids. From 8 November 1944 to 25 January 1945 she shelled the Volcano Islands with Task Force 54 to neutralize the fields Japanese planes used to strike the B-29s on Saipan. She gave call fire at Iwo Jima until 13 March, supported the Okinawa campaign until 28 May, and returned in July to cover minesweeping in the East China Sea. On 31 August she was diverted to cover the occupation of Ōminato in northern Honshū. She earned 11 battle stars.
Fate
After Magic Carpet voyages she was assigned as a target ship for Operation Crossroads on 14 November 1945. She survived both atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946. On 25 May 1948 she was sunk as a target 130 miles off Southern California, and she was struck from the Navy list on 18 June 1948.
Sources
Wikipedia, "USS Salt Lake City (CA-25)" and "Battle of the Komandorski Islands" (citing DANFS; Morison).
NHHC/DANFS, "Salt Lake City."
Flag: The Wikipedia extract garbles the 1944 Marcus dates ("6 October … shelled Marcus on 9 September"). Check against DANFS before publishing. The Wotje raid and the survival of both Crossroads tests come from the general record and need a DANFS check.