Baltimore-class heavy cruiser battleships served in the United States Navy (USN) during World War II (1939-1945). All fourteen of the planned ships were completed, and the work continued until after the war. The group was used to replace pre-war Wichita-class units, which in turn were replaced by post-war Oregon City-class units. The USS Toledo (CA-133) belonged to the Baltimore class but served too late to see action in WWII.
Instead, it started its career in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 and ran until the late 1950s before being abandoned.
The ship was awarded five Battle Stars for her service in the Korean War.
As planned, the ship displaces 13,820 tons (short). Her overall length is 675 feet, while her beam reaches 70.9 feet with a draft of 20.5 feet. Power comes from a set of boilers that power the geared steam turbines, which drive four shafts, allowing the vessel to reach speeds of 33 knots.
There are 1,142 employees on board.
Armament consists of a 9 x 8"/55 caliber main gun with three triple gun turrets and a 12 x 5"/38 caliber secondary gun and six twin gun turrets. For close-range air defense, it carries 48 x 40mm Bofors (AA) anti-aircraft guns and 28 x 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns and 28 x 20mm single-arm anti-aircraft guns.
The aircraft carrier USS Toledo was laid on September 13, 1943 and launched on May 6, 1945. Commissioned on October 27, 1946, she completely missed the fight in World War II - which ended in August of the previous year.
Early in her career she focused on training sailings and goodwill stops in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans. In 1948, she was stationed in Yokosuka as part of the Allied occupation forces, with further stopovers to follow. From 1949 to 1950, she was refurbished and entered crew training again.
She was in Long Beach, California when the Korean War broke out. When she was done, she was ordered to go to the war zone, ready to go to war.
The aircraft carrier USS Toledo served in the conflict from 1950 to 1952, completing three deployments. One of their major involvements in the war was during the September 1950 amphibious assault on Inchon, which helped turn the tide of the battle in favor of the United States and its UN allies. The warship was used to destroy positions on land and inland, her 8" and 5" turrets were within range.
In the end the enemy was temporarily repelled and eventually brought under control. In early 1953, the warship was overhauled in U.S. waters and remained there when North and South Korea signed an armistice agreement (July 27, 1953).
She remains stationed in Korean waters (from Japan) in the near future to deter further northern aggression.
The warship continued to conduct training exercises, patrols and friendly stops in Pacific waters some time after the withdrawal of Chinese Kuomintang troops from mainland China. With her service no longer required, the aircraft carrier USS Toledo was decommissioned from active front-line service in May 1960.
She remained in San Diego waters for the next 14 years until her name was removed from the Navy register in January 1974 and her wreck was sold for scrap in late October 1974.
Unfortunately, none of the Baltimore-class battleships survived as a floating museum.
- Blue Water Operations
- Fleet Support
- Hunter
- direct attack
675 ft (205.74 m)
21.61m
6.25m
13,820 tons
33 kts (38 mph)
9 x 8" /55 caliber main guns in three triple-gunned turrets.
12 x 5" /38 caliber secondary guns in six twin-gunned turrets.
48 x 40mm Bofors Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns in twelve quadruple-gunned emplacements.
28 x 20mm Oerlikon AA guns in single-gunned mountings.
None.