Repairs completed, Augusta
departed Boston on 29 January 1944 and steamed to
Casco Bay for post-overhaul training exercises. She
participated in bombardment, radar, illumination, and
tactical exercises with TF 22 off Maine, until
steaming to Boston on 7 April for limited
availability.
She left President
Roads, Boston, and rendezvoused with convoy UT 11 the
next day. However, she was soon detached from the
convoy and escorted by Earle
(DD-635) across the Atlantic to Belfast, Northern
Ireland. Arriving on 15 April, she steamed thence to
Plymouth, England, on 17 April. There, Rear Admiral
Alan G. Kirk, Commander, TF 122, came on board on 25
April and broke his flag. At 1300 on 25 May King George VI of England came on board to lunch with
Admiral Kirk, and departed the same day.
OPERATION
OVERLORD - Normandy Invasion
Hanson W.
Baldwin, military editor of the NY Times
assigned to the Augusta
recounted his experiences as the ship sortied
from Plymouth, England on the night of June
5, 1944, carrying Rear Admiral Alan G. Kirk,
Commander Western Task Force, General Omar
Bradley, Commander General, First Army, and
Captain E.H. Jones.
During the
bombardment on D-day Omar Bradley positioned
himself at a steel command cabin built for
him on deck, 20 feet by 10 feet, the walls
dominated by Michelin motoring maps of
France, a few  pin-ups and large scale maps of
Normandy. A row of clerks sat at typewriters
along one wall, while Bradley and his
personal staff clustered around the large
plotting table in the center. Much of that
morning, however, Bradley stood on the bridge
standing next to Task Force Commander Admiral
Kirk observing the landings through
binoculars, his ears plugged with cotton to
muffle the blast of Augusta's
guns.
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In
June, Augusta took part
in the Normandy invasion, standing out of
Plymouth on 5 June with Lieutenant General Omar
Bradley, USA, and his staff, embarked. Closing
the shore on 6 June, the heavy cruiser commenced
firing at 0618, hurling 51 rounds from her main
battery at shore installations. On 10 June
General Bradley and his staff left the heavy
cruiser to establish headquarters ashore. Augusta
was bombed at 0357 on 11 June but escaped damage
as the bomb exploded 800 yards off her port beam.
The following day, anchored as before off Omaha
Beach she fired eight 5-inch rounds at an enemy
plane at 2343, driving it off. On 13 June at 0352
she sent 21 rounds of 5-inch at a German plane,
and shot it down. Augusta
drove off other aircraft and bombarded the shore
with her heavy guns on 15 June and provided
antiaircraft defense to the forces off Normandy
on 18 June. |
Rear Admiral Kirk
shifted his flag to the destroyer Thompson
(DD-637) on 1 July, and Augusta
got underway the same day for Plymouth, mooring there
on 2 July. In anticipation of the upcoming invasion
of southern France ("Operation Dragoon")
the Augusta, in company
with TG 120.6, departed for Mers el Kebir, Algeria
four days later, arriving there on 10 July, only to
leave two days later with Hambleton (DSM-20)
for Palermo, Sicily. She moored at that port on 14
July and reported to TF 86 for duty. Rear Admiral L.
A. Davidson came on board and broke his flag the same
day, and Augusta stood out
with Macomb and Hambleton
for Naples, arriving the next day. She carried out
shore bombardment exercises on 23 July.
She returned to
Palermo on 27 July and steamed to Naples the
following day. She continued her training until 12
August, when as flagship for TF 86, she carried
Brigadier General B. W. Chidlaw, USA, to Propriano,
Corsica, arriving the following day.
OPERATION
DRAGOON (a/k/a
"ANVIL")
On 14 August, the
heavy cruiser departed the Golfe de Valinco at 1030
for Ile du Levant, southern France and the beginning
of operation "Dragoon". Augusta
arrived at 2155 at the staging area, joining the
"Sitka" Assault Group. On the morning of 15
August, Augusta trained her
main battery against targets on Port Cros Island, and
fired nine rounds. At 1125 she sent six 8-inch rounds
into enemy troops counterattacking on Cape Negre, and
ceased fire only when endangering friendly troops.
The heavy cruiser took a German strong point, an old
fort on Port Cros Island, under fire at 1512 and
hurled 92 rounds against it. Secretary of the Navy
James Forrestal came on board at 2023 for an official
visit with Admiral Davidson.
The next day, Augusta
patrolled the "Sitka" Assault Area and
Secretary Forrestal left her at 0850. The heavy
cruiser fired 63 more rounds at the fort on Port Cros
Island to soften it up. On 17 August, she patrolled
with Omaha (CL-4) and poured 138 rounds from her
8-inch battery into the island fort, which
surrendered that day.
An enemy sortie from
Toulon which was unknown and unsuspected to the Augusta
resulted in her appearing in the periscope
cross-hairs of U-230. The U-230(a type VIIc)
reportedly was the last German submarine in the
Mediterranean to put to sea. Lt. Eberbach, her young
C.O. with a scratch crew of sailors picked up on the
beach , moved out of the harbor on at 21:00 August 17
hoping to get a crack at the invasion fleet. After
hanging about the Mandrier Peninsula for two days he
spotted Augusta and tailed
her all day on the 20th. He
claims to have penetrated her destroyer screen and
was just about to fire four torpedoes when the
cruiser, completely unaware of his presence, was
braketed by a salvo from a shore battery and
high-tailed out, completely spoiling his aim. That
night U-230 ran aground,
was abandoned and blown up in position 43.07N,
20.38W.
The following day,
General Chidlaw left the ship to establish his
headquarters on shore, and Augusta
turned her fire on the remaining coastal defense
batteries. She departed on 19 August for a
reconnaissance-in-force of St. Mandrier Island off
Toulon, France, where the battery known as "Big
Willie" was located, bombarding shore
installations, and returning to the "Sitka"
Assault Area the same day. The Golfe Hotel, Hyeres,
France, was nearly leveled by 114 rounds from Augusta
on 20 August. Toulon and Marseilles surrendered eight
days later. On 29 August, a landing party drawn from
the marine detachments from Augusta
and Philadelphia went ashore on the islands of
Ratonneau and Chateau d'If in the harbor of
Marseilles and accepted the surrender of German
forces on those islands, taking 730 prisoners.
In support of
"Dragoon," Augusta
had fired over 700 rounds of 8-inch projectiles, and
had materially aided invading Allied forces. She
steamed to the Gulf of San Tropez, France, on 30
August, where Admiral Davidson shifted his flag to Philadelphia (CL-41) and Augusta
was detached from TF 86.
On 1 September, the
heavy cruiser sailed via Propriano to Naples, where
she joined Cruiser Division (CruDiv) 7. After calling
at Oran, Algeria, on 6 September, Augusta,
in company with Tuscaloosa,
Fitch (DD-462), and Murphy
(DD-603) stood out, bound for Philadelphia and an
extensive overhaul.
While undergoing these
repairs and alterations, Augusta
suffered an explosion of unknown origin on 20
November in her ice machine room, which killed three
yard workers and injured four crew members.
War Diary - 1944
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