page_title: USS Columbia (CL-56)
section_title: 1945
hierarchical_section_title: USS Columbia (CL-56) / Service history / World War II / 1945
caption_attribution_description: English: A Japanese Kamikaze hits the U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Columbia (CL-56) at 1729 hrs on 6 January 1945, during the Lingayen Gulf operation. This plane hit the main deck by the after gun turret, causing extensive damage and casualties. The plane and its bomb penetrated two decks before exploding, killing 13 and wounding 44.
context_page_description: USS Columbia (CL-56) was one of 26 United States Navy Cleveland-class light cruisers completed during or shortly after World War II. The ship, the sixth US Navy ship to bear the name, was named for the city of Columbia, South Carolina. Columbia was commissioned in July 1942, and saw service in several campaigns in the Pacific. Like almost all her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, and never saw active service again. Columbia was scrapped in the early 1960s. A memorial to the ship and men who served on her exists in Columbia, SC.
context_section_description: On 1 January 1945, Columbia sailed for the landings in Lingayen Gulf and on 6 January, as pre-invasion bombardments were getting underway, Japanese kamikaze attacks began. Columbia suffered a near miss by a kamikaze and was then struck on her port quarter by a second. The plane and its bomb penetrated two decks before exploding, killing 13 (including 3 survivors of the USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) who had been rescued two days earlier after their ship was sunk following a kamikaze attack) and wounding 44 men, putting her aft turrets out of action, and setting the ship afire. Prompt flooding of two magazines prevented further explosions, and impressive damage control measures enabled Columbia to complete her bombardment with her two operative forward turrets, and remain in action to give close support to underwater demolition teams. Ammunition was removed from the after magazines to refill the forward magazines; much of this was done by hand. On the morning of the landings, 9 January, as Columbia lay close inshore and so surrounded by landing craft that she was handicapped in maneuver, she was again struck by a kamikaze, knocking out six gun directors and a gun mount. 24 men were killed and 97 wounded, but short-handed as she was, Columbia again put out fires, repaired damage, and continued her bombardment and fire support. Columbia sailed that night, guarding a group of unloaded transports. Her crew's accomplishments in saving their ship and carrying out their mission without interruption were recognized with the Navy Unit Commendation for this operation.
  Columbia received emergency repairs at San Pedro Bay, Leyte, and sailed on to an overhaul on the west coast, returning to Leyte on 16 June. Three days later, she sailed for Balikpapan, Borneo, off which she lay from 28 June, guarding minesweeping which preceded the invasion of the island on 1 July. She covered the landing of Australian troops, and gave them gunfire support through the next day, sailing then to join Task Force 95 (TF 95) in its repeated sweeps against Japanese shipping in the East China Sea. At the close of the war, she carried inspection parties to Truk, the important Japanese base bypassed during the war, and carried Army passengers between Guam, Saipan, and Iwo Jima until sailing for home on 31 October.
  After calling on the west coast, Columbia arrived at Philadelphia on 5 December for overhaul and service training Naval Reserve men until 1 July 1946. She was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Philadelphia on 30 November 1946, and sold for scrapping on 18 February 1959. In an odd coincidence, the tug that towed Columbia to the breakers, the Triton, owned by Curtis Bay Towing, was also one of the tugs present at her launching, 18 years earlier.
caption: The kamikaze hits Columbia at 1729. The plane and its bomb penetrated two decks before exploding, killing 13 and wounding 44.
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