The six ships of the Northampton (CA-26) class defined the main gun battery distribution of all following U.S. Navy 8-inch gun cruisers: three triple mountings, two forward and one aft. The final three ships had lengthened forecastles to increase accommodations and staff spaces to allow them to act as fleet flagships; among the trio, the Chicago (CA-29) and Houston (CA-30) were war losses, and only the Augusta (CA-31) survived World War II.
Ordered on 13 June 1927 and built by Newport News Ship Building, the 600- foot, 3-inch, Augusta displaced 10,529 tons on trials and was commissioned on 30 January 1931. Her initial service was as flagship, Scouting Force, Atlantic Fleet, but in February 1932 the cruisers of the force were deployed to the Pacific, where they remained in a vain attempt to influence Japan’s growing expansionist ambitions. The Augusta was relieved that October, when she departed for China and was designated as flagship, Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet. Over the next eight years, she remained in East Asian waters, making visits from as far south as the Dutch East Indies and Singapore to Japan and even to Vladivostok (in July 1937). Attacked unsuccessfully by Nationalist Chinese bombers while at Shanghai on 18 August 1937, the Augusta provided succor to the survivors of the river gunboat Panay (PR-5), sunk by Japanese aircraft that December.
The Augusta's Far East tour ended in November 1940, when she was sent to Mare Island Navy Yard for a major refit that saw her become the last of the “Treaty Cruisers” to have the 5-inch antiaircraft battery doubled to eight mountings. Fire-control systems were updated and provision was made for installation of four quadruple 1.1-inch antiaircraft gun mounts (four 3-inch guns—without control systems—were fitted temporarily). In April 1941, the refitted Augusta was reassigned to the Atlantic Fleet, where she spent the remainder of her operational career. Her first assignment was as flagship for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his meetings with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in August 1941 at Argentia, Newfoundland, where the vital Atlantic Charter was drafted and signed on board ship. The Augusta later escorted Roosevelt during his return from the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and carried President Harry Truman to Europe for the Potsdam Conference that July.
The heavy cruiser’s missions were not all diplomatic. In June and August 1942, the Augusta escorted the carrier Ranger (CV-4), which carried U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft to Dakar, and she saw combat against the French that November, providing shore bombardment and sinking the attacking French destroyer Le Boulonnais with gunfire. On 9 November, the Augusta was near-missed by 15-inch shells from the supposedly disabled battleship Jean Bart. The cruiser joined the British Home Fleet in August 1943 and after overhaul at Boston Navy Yard that ended in January 1944 was assigned to bombard German positions at Omaha Beach during the Normandy landings. The cruiser was in action again during the invasion of southern France in August 1944, firing more than 700 main battery rounds at shore targets. The Augusta had a final updating from November 1944 to January 1945 but saw no further combat. After serving as a “Magic Carpet” transport to bring home troops from Europe, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 16 July 1946 at Philadelphia, where she remained until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1959.
Seen on 31 March 1941, after her first major refit, the Augusta has had four additional 5-inch guns added atop the aircraft hangar amidships, and the gunnery control systems upgraded.
The final operational configuration of the Augusta, photographed on 29 August 1945, saw the heavy tripod mast aft replaced by a deckhouse to support the after Mk 33 5-inch gun director, and a light tripod stepped at the forward end of the after stack. The Augusta never had her light antiaircraft battery (which at the end of the war included four twin and four quadruple 40-mm mounts and 22 single 20-mm cannon—but no radar fire-control equipment) upgraded. The wooden weather decks fore and aft have been stripped of paint and the ship has both catapults (to save weight, one was removed from her Pacific Fleet contemporaries). By this time, the ship displaced more than 14,000 tons full load.