page_title: USS Savannah (CL-42)
section_title: Later wartime activities
hierarchical_section_title: USS Savannah (CL-42) / World War II / Later wartime activities
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Savannah (CL-42) off the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, 5 September 1944, following battle damage repairs and modernization.
context_page_description: USS Savannah (CL-42) was a light cruiser of the Brooklyn-class that served in World War II in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres of operation.
  Savannah conducted Neutrality Patrols and wartime patrols in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and supported the invasion of French North Africa in Operation Torch. She sought German-supporting blockade runners off the east coast of South America, and supported the Allied landings on Sicily and at Salerno. Off Salerno on 11 September 1943, a German radio-controlled Fritz X glide-bomb caused extensive casualties aboard and serious damage to Savannah, requiring emergency repairs in Malta and permanent repairs at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. After repairs and upgrades, she served in the task force that carried President Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in early 1945.
context_section_description: Savannah's Navy Yard repairs of combat damage, and the upgrading or her weapons, were completed on 4 September 1944. Nonetheless, she was never sent to a combat zone for the remainder of the war.  She steamed out of Philadelphia Harbor on the next day, and reported to the Commander, Fleet Operational Training Command on 10 September for a shakedown cruise and sailor's refresher training. She returned to Norfolk on 12 October 1944 for readiness training with CruDiv 8.
  Savannah sailed on 21 January 1945 to rendezvous with the heavy cruiser Quincy, which was carrying President Roosevelt to the Mediterranean Sea, en route to Yalta, Crimea, in the Soviet Union for a conference with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.
  Savannah entered Grand Harbor, Valletta, Malta, on 2 February 1945. At that island, the President and his party disembarked and traveled to Yalta by airplane. A memorial service was held at the graves of Savannah's sailors and marines killed in her bombing off Salerno. Savannah departed from Malta on 9 February 1945 and steamed to Alexandria, Egypt, to await the President's 12 February return to Quincy. The Presidential convoy departed Alexandria on 15 February and arrived at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 27 February.
  Savannah was underway on 28 February 1945 and steamed towards a new homeport, Newport, Rhode Island, on 8 March. Until 24 May 1945, Savannah was used as a school ship for the nucleus of crews of warships that had not yet been commissioned.
caption: Savannah in Philadelphia on 5 September 1944, after repair and upgrades
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