#AtoZchallenge – USS Birmingham (CL-62)

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter B

USS Birmingham (CL-62) was a Cleveland class light cruiser named for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, the “Pittsburgh of the South”. She was launched by Mrs Cooper Green, wife of the president of the Birmingham City Commission on 20^th March 1942. She earned eight battle stars and received heavy damage on at least three occasions.

Birmingham gave gunfire support during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Afterwards she was assigned to the Pacific Fleet, taking part in battles on Tarawa, Wake Islands, and Empress Augusta Bay. Also participating in those actions were her sister ships Cleveland, Columbia, Montpelier, and Denver marking the first major action by the new Cleveland class light cruisers that were just entering the fleet.

During 1944-45 Birmingham took part in eleven major raids and battles. They included such actions as Battles of Saipan, Okinawa, Leyte Gulf, and Iwo Jima. She was damaged for a third time when a Japanese kamikaze hit her up forward. Forty-seven sailors were killed, 81 wounded, and 4 were missing in action.

Following repairs, she steamed to Brisbane, Melbourne and other Australian ports and returned to San Francisco in 1946. She was taken out of commission and placed in reserve in 1947. Then, in 1959 she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and scrapped at Long Beach, California.

#AtoZchallenge is not only about me. Many, many other bloggers are participating this year. I encourage you to visit a few. Don’t forget to like and comment so we know who you are so we can thank you. Additionally, you may find a blog or three you like enough to follow. If you do, hit those subscribe buttons and get to reading! Thanks for coming by today; here are a few suggestions you might want to look at:

Write Side of the Bed: www.writesideofthebed.com
Second Thoughts First: http://www.poojapriyamvada.blogspot.com
Wilbur’s Travels: https://wilburstravels.com/
Ronel the Mythmaker: https://www.ronelthemythmaker.com/blog/
Literacious: https://www.literacious.com

So, come back to see me, won’t you? See ya tomorrow!

About Ol' Big Jim

Ol' Big Jim, has been a storekeeper, an embalmer, a hospital orderly, a medical biller, and through it all, a teller of tall tales. Many of his stories, like his first book, New Yesterdays, are set in his hometown of Piedmont, Alabama. For seven years, he lived in the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Amman, Jordan where he spends his time trying to visit each one of the thousands of Ammani coffee shops and scribbling in his ever-present notebook. These days, you can find him back stateside, still filling notebooks.

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1 Response to #AtoZchallenge – USS Birmingham (CL-62)

John W. Howell says:

02/04/2021 at 07:29

Thanks, Jim. I always hate to hear that these ships have been scrapped. I know the families of those who served and died on them would miss them as well as their loved ones.

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