Built as a heavy cruiser by Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California for the USA Navy.
09 March 1933 launched under the name USS SAN FRANCISCO (CA-38), sponsored by Miss Barbara M. Bally.
Displacement 10.136 tons standard, 12.483 tons full load. Dim. 179.22 x 18.82 x 6.93m. (draught)
Powered by Westinghouse geared turbines, 107.000 shp., four shafts, speed 32.7 knots.
Armament: 9 – 8 inch, 8 – 5 inch, 8 – 0.5 inch AA guns, four aircraft.
Crew 868.
10 February 1934 commissioned under command of Capt. Royal E. Ingersoll.
First making a shakedown cruise to waters off Hawaii, Mexico and British Columbia and to the Panama Canal, she returned to the builders for conversion in a flagship.
Early 1935 she joined the Pacific Fleet en the next four years she operated in the Eastern Pacific waters, 1939 she was transferred to the Caribbean.
March 1939 as flagship she made a goodwill tour around South America via Strait Magellan, visiting ports, returned via the Panama Canal.
When World War II broke out she made Neutrality Patrols in the waters of the Western Atlantic and Caribbean.
Early 1940 she returned to the Pacific based at Pearl Harbor, during the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese forces she underwent an overhaul in Pearl Harbor, she was not damaged in the attack, and overhaul work resumed after the attack, and she was made quickly ready for war duty.
14 December 1941 she left the yard and she joined Task Force 14. in the expedition to relieve the American outpost of Waka Island, but before they could reach the island it fell in Japanese hands, and the expedition was diverted to Midway.
Then she took part in the reinforcements of Allied positions in the southern Pacific, an attempted carrier raid on Rabaul and a successful raid on Japanese forces off northern New Guinea.
From August 1942 in the waters of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, and as flagship in the Battle of Cape Esperance on 11 and 12 October 1942.
Took part in the first Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 12 and 13 November 1942, in which she was severely damaged by a crashing Japanese plain and gunfire in which 15 men were killed.
11 December 1942 she arrived at San Francisco for repair at the Mare Island Navy Yard.
26 February 1943 she left the yard after her repairs and first escorted a convoy to the south Pacific, then she went to the Aleutians, and took part in the recovery of Attu and Kiska.
Stayed in these waters till September when she received orders to proceed to Hawaii for repairs.
After her repair she took part in the raids on Waka Island and took part in the capture of the Gilbert Islands, and made raids on the Marshall Islands.
Took part in invasion of the Marshall Islands in January/February 1944, and raids on Japanese central and south Pacific bases between February and April 1944, and the Marianas campaign during June/July 1944.
16 August 1944 she arrived at the west coast of the USA for an overhaul at San Francisco.
Then again used throughout the western Pacific took part in the amphibious operations to seize the northern Philippines and Iwo Jima.
From late March till June 1945 took part in the Ryukyus campaign.
After the war in mid-August she operated off China and Korea. And headed home on 27 November 1945, first based at the west coast of the USA but early January 1946 headed via the Panama Canal to Philadelphia, Penn.
10 February 1946 decommissioned and put in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until 01 March 1959 when she was struck from the Navy list.
09 September 1959 sold to the Union Mineral and Alloy Corp., New York for scrapping.
1961 Scrapped at Panama City, Florida.
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_San_Francisco_(CA-38) http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-u ... s/ca38.htm