USS Milwaukee (CL-5)

After 1940 the lower aft six-inch guns were removed and the casemates plated over. The ship's anti-aircraft armament was augmented by two quadruple 1.1-inch gun mounts by early 1942, although these were replaced by twin Bofors 40 mm gun mounts later in the war. At about the same time, Milwaukee received eight Oerlikon 20 mm cannon.[7]

The contract for Milwaukee, the third ship named for the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,[3] was signed on 27 August 1917, and the ship was laid down by Todd Dry Dock & Construction Co., at their Tacoma, Washington shipyard on 13 December 1918.[8] She was launched on 24 March 1921 and was commissioned on 20 June 1923.[1] During the ship's shakedown cruise, she visited Sydney, Australia, during the Pan-Pacific Scientific Congress which opened on 23 August. With her new depth–finding equipment, Milwaukee surveyed the floor of the Pacific en route. "The Milwaukee Seamounts in the Northern Pacific are named after a set of soundings taken by Milwaukee in 1929."[3]

During Fleet Problem VI, she collided with her sister ship Detroit in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 1 February 1926, although neither ship was seriously damaged.[9] Milwaukee and the destroyer Goff assisted victims of a fierce hurricane which had devastated the Isle of Pines in October 1926.[3] She was assigned to Cruiser Division 2 of the Asiatic Fleet in 1928.[7] During an engagement with "enemy" cruisers during Fleet Problem IX on 16 April 1930, the ship was ruled to have been knocked out by the exercise's umpires. Three years later, during Fleet Problem XIV, Milwaukee was spotted by fighters from the aircraft carrier Saratoga and sunk by some of the opposing cruisers.[10] In 1933, the ship was assigned to Cruiser Division 3 of the Battle Fleet.[7] After the Panay Incident in December 1937, Milwaukee made a cruise through the Western Pacific from January to April 1938.[3]

While steaming north of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico on 14 February 1939, Milwaukee discovered the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean. The spot—which has a depth of 28,680 feet (8,740 m)—is now known as the "Milwaukee Deep".[3] By January 1941, the ship had returned to Cruiser Division 2 which was now assigned to the Caribbean Patrol, commanded by Rear Admiral Jonas H. Ingram,[11] part of the Neutrality Patrol established after the war began.[7] Cruiser Division 2 was ordered to patrol the Atlantic between Trinidad, the Cape Verde Islands and the eastern bulge of Brazil in April, although Milwaukee was not immediately available. The ship, escorted by the destroyers Somers and Jouett, began her first patrol in May, making a port visit to Recife, Brazil, on 1 June, before returning to San Juan, Puerto Rico. These patrols continued in the same manner for most of the rest of the year.[12]

Milwaukee, commanded by Captain Forrest B. Royal, was being overhauled in the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December. The ship escorted a convoy to the Caribbean from New York on 31 December and then escorted eight troop transports from the Panama Canal to the Society Islands. She rejoined the South Atlantic Patrol Force upon her return and spend the next two years making patrols between Brazil and the African coast. On 19 May she received an SOS from the Brazilian cargo ship SS Commandante Lyra, which had been torpedoed by the Italian submarine Barbarigo off the coast of Brazil. Milwaukee found the freighter abandoned, burning, and listing to port. She rescued 25 survivors from their lifeboats, including the ship's master. Reinforced by her sister Omaha and the destroyer McDougal, the fires were brought under control, cargo was jettisoned to lighten the ship, and Commandante Lyra was towed to Fortaleza, Brazil.[3] Shortly after, on the night of 20 May, she was attacked by the Barbarigo, commanded by Enzo Grossi (who mistook her for a "Maryland- or California- type battleship") with two torpedoes, which missed and were not even noticed by the American ships; however, Grossi claimed to have sunk his target, and was promoted to Capitano di Fregata (Commander) and decorated with the Gold Medal of Military Valour and the Iron Cross. Two subsequent commissions in 1949 and 1962 would eventually reverse the promotion and the decorations.[13]

Rear Admiral O. M. Read assumed command of Cruiser Division 2 in October and hoisted his flag aboard Milwaukee.[14] On 21 November, Milwaukee, her sister Cincinnati and the destroyer Somers intercepted the German blockade runner Anneliese Essberger. When Somers had closed to 4 miles (3.5 nmi; 6.4 km), the German ship scuttled herself to prevent capture.[15] Milwaukee rescued 62 of the ship's crew. On 2 May 1943, while the ship was under repair at Recife, her crew helped to fight a fire on the oil tanker SS Livingston Roe.[3] Milwaukee and Omaha collided on 31 May off the coast of Brazil, although the extent of the damage is not known.[16] The ship sailed for the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 8 February 1944,[3] preparatory to her temporary transfer to the Soviet Union in lieu of Italian ships allotted after the Italian surrender that could not be delivered.[17] She escorted a convoy to Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 8 March before forming part of the escort of Convoy JW 58 during her voyage to Murmansk beginning on 29 March.[3]

Murmansk off Lewes, Delaware, 8 March 1949

On 20 April, the ship was transferred on loan to the Soviet Northern Fleet in Murmansk. She was commissioned in the Soviet Navy as Murmansk and performed convoy and patrol duty in the Arctic Ocean for the remainder of the war. Afterward, she became a training ship and participated in the 1948 fleet maneuvers.[18] On 16 March 1949, Milwaukee was transferred back to the United States. She was the first of 15 American warships returned by the Soviet Union. She entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 18 March 1949, and was sold for scrapping on 10 December to the American Shipbreakers, Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware.[3]