USS Augusta, CA-31

USS Augusta, CA-31. . , USS Augusta, CA-31 , “Augie Maru” , Awarded Three Battle Stars for World War II Service, Laid down on 2 July 1928, USS Augusta launched on 1 February 1930. Commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 30 January 1931, Augusta navigated Asian waters so often during the thirties that her crew nicknamed her Augie Maru. In World War II this heavy cruiser played a pivotal role-a role that began four months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. , , Early on 5 August 1941, presidential yacht USS Potomac drew alongside her in Vineyard Sound. President Franklin D. Roosevelt embarked in the cruiser, and Potomac, still under presidential colors, departed with a stand-in impersonating the President. Augusta steamed toward Argentia, Newfoundland rendezvousing on 9 August with HMS Prince of Wales in time for British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to lunch with the President aboard the cruiser. , , Begun in fellowship at table, the Atlantic Conference, over the next three days, yielded the eight-point Atlantic Charter, which laid out the course the Allies would follow in defeating fascism. The two leaders made the defeat of Germany the Allies' first priority and in so doing planted the seeds for the amphibious landing that came to full flower at Normandy on D-Day. They parted company on 12 August with Prince of Wales making for England and Augusta bound for her rendezvous with Potomac . , , When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Augusta moored at Newport, Rhode Island. For the next ten months, she escorted convoys and conducted training. Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt came aboard as commander on 23 October 1942. The next day Major General George S. Patton, Western Task Force Commander for Operation Torch, embarked, and Augusta steamed for North Africa. From 8 through 11 November she supported the invasion with her eight-inch guns and interdicted Vichy ships until the French signed a cease-fire. , , On D-Day, Augusta was again flagship of Western Task Force, this time under command of Rear Admiral Alan G. Kirk, with Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, First US Army Commander, embarked. Her eight-inch guns delivered a preparatory bombardment for the Omaha Beach landings and provided artillery support for inland troops and antiaircraft defense through 1 July, when she stood out for Plymouth, England. , , A year later, Augusta sailed for Belgium, with President Harry S. Truman embarked. The President came ashore at Antwerp and proceeded inland to Potsdam, Germany, where the Allied leaders partitioned Germany, drafted protocols for her postwar administration, and presented a surrender ultimatum to Japan. The Potsdam Conference ran from 17 July through 2 August. President Truman again boarded Augusta , which sailed from Plymouth for Newport, arriving on 7 August 1945. Her central role in Operations Overlord and Neptune extends from the earliest concepts of D-Day through the invasion itself to the planning for postwar Europe, and it is unique. , , In honor of Lieutenant Malcolm U. "Mac" Pitt Jr., US Naval Reserve, who participated in and was wounded during the allied landing on Omaha Beach. Given by the Friends of Camp Virginia.