This WWII color film “Your Ship in Action” shows the construction and launch of a Cleveland class light cruiser USS Denver (CL-58). It was intended as an “industrial incentive” film, shown to the American public to raise money for the WWII war effort. The ship shows the Camden, New Jersey shipyard manned by Rosie the Riveter women war workers (1:29) circa 1942. At 2:35 a commissioning ceremony is shown with the ship being prepared for sea and future combat in the Pacific.
USS Denver (CL-58) was a Cleveland-class light cruiser. Denver launched on 4 April 1942 by New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, New Jersey; and commissioned on 15 October 1942, Captain Robert Carney in command. The ship served in combat in the Solomons in March of 1943, and was heavily damaged in a Japanese attack in November of that year. In 1944 she bombarded Angaur, and participated in the Leyte landings and the destruction of the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Her service continued in 1945 supporting amphibious landings at Brunei Bay, Borneo, and later at Balikpapan. She helped support the landing of occupation forces in Japan before returning to the USA in November of 1945. The ship won the Navy Unit Commendation and Denver received 11 battle stars for her World War II service. Colorado was scrapped in 1960.
The Cleveland class ships were built for the U.S. Navy during World War II, and were the most numerous class of light cruisers ever built. The Cleveland-class was a development of the preceding Brooklyn-class. The ships were designed with the goal of increased cruising range, anti-aircraft armament, torpedo protection, etc., compared with earlier U.S. cruisers. To achieve this, the fifth 6 inch gun turret was omitted. This also gave room for the enlargement of the bridge spaces to accommodate the new combat information center and the necessary radars. However, the increase of light anti-aircraft artillery made the class top-heavy towards the end of World War II. To compensate for the weight increase, some ships had one catapult removed, also the range finders were removed from turret A.
Fifty-two ships of this class were originally planned, but nine of them were completed as the light aircraft carriers of the Independence class, and two of them were completed to a somewhat different design, with more compact superstructures and just a single stack. These two were called the Fargo class. Of the 27 Cleveland-class cruisers that were commissioned, one (Galveston) was completed as a guided missile cruiser and five were later modified as Galveston and Providence-class guided missile cruisers. Two of each of the guided missile cruiser-classes had enlarged superstructures to serve as flagships. Following the naming convention at the time, all the ships completed as cruisers were named for US cities and towns.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
