World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseMilwaukee had her shakedown cruise from the United States to Sydney, Australia. With modern depth-finding equipment on board, she gathered a wealth of scientific data during the shakedown cruise. She spent the bulk of her pre-WW2 service in the Pacific Ocean, but did perform several key missions in the Caribbean Sea, including offering assistance at the Isle of Pines after a devastating hurricane in Oct 1926. On 14 Feb 1939, she found the greatest depth in the Atlantic off Puerto Rico, and the spot had since been named the Milwaukee Deep.

ww2dbaseIn WW2, though before the United States officially entered the war, Milwaukee sailed to Singapore, the Philippine Islands, and Guam as gesture that the US was not backing down from Japanese aggression in China. The trip lasted from 3 Jan until 27 Apr 1938. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, she was at New York Navy Yard for overhaul. She left the shipyard in Jan 1942 under the command of Captain Forest B. Royal, escorting a convoy to the Caribbean Sea then a troop transport fleet to the US Navy supply base at Bora Bora of the Society Islands in the South Pacific, then returned to the Atlantic Ocean where she joined the South Atlantic Patrol Force. On 19 May 1942, cruisers Milwaukee and Omaha and destroyers Moffett and McDougal rescued the crew of Brazilian merchantman Commandante Lyra, which was torpedoed by a German submarine. On 21 Nov 1942, cruisers Milwaukee and Cincinnati intercepted German blockade runner Annaliese Essenberger, which was scuttled by her own crew when they failed to evade the American cruisers; Milwaukee captured 62 prisoners from Annaliese Essenberger. She left the South Atlantic on 8 Feb 1944 for New York Navy Yard, from which she escorted a convoy for Belfast, Northern Ireland on 8 Mar 1944. On 29 Mar 1944, she escorted a convoy from Belfast to Murmansk; the convoy was challenged by German submarines repeatedly, but the attempts all failed at the cost of one to three submarines. Upon reaching Russian waters, she was escorted by four Russian ships into the Kola Inlet, where Milwaukee was transferred to the Soviet Union Northern Fleet on loan for the war effort. She was recommissioned on 20 Apr 1944 as the Russian cruiser Murmansk, and performed convoy and patrol duties until the end of the war.

ww2dbaseMilwaukee returned to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States on 16 Mar 1949. She was sold to the American Shipbreakers, Inc. in Wilmington, Delaware for scrapping on 10 Dec 1949.

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