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USS Biddle (CG-34)

USS Biddle (DLG-34/CG-34) was a Belknap-class cruiser guided missile frigate/cruiser of the United States Navy. She saw action in Vietnam, where she is believed to be the last ship to down an enemy aircraft with hand-loaded guns. She was involved in the Gulf of Sidra incident in 1981. The cruiser was decommissioned on 30 November 1993 and sold for scrap on 4 December 2000.

History
Biddle was laid down by the Bath Iron Works Corporation at Bath, Maine on 9 December 1963, launched on 2 July 1965 and commissioned as DLG-34 on 21 January 1967. She was named for Captain Nicholas Biddle of the Continental Navy. Her call sign was "Hard Charger".

Five months after commissioning, Biddle completed preparations for her final acceptance trials, concluded those trials, and conducted shakedown training out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She completed shakedown on 29 May and headed, via Yorktown, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts. The Destroyer Leader "guided-missile" arrived in Boston on 2 June and began post-shakedown availability at the Boston Naval Shipyard five days later. Biddle completed the availability on 30 October and got underway for her new home port, Norfolk, Virginia, the following day. The warship entered Hampton Roads early in November, but stayed only four days, putting to sea on 7 November for the first in a series of exercise and weapons-qualifications cruises to the Caribbean. Those at-sea periods occupied her until mid-December when she began holiday standdown and preparations for overseas movement.

On 22 January 1968, Biddle put to sea bound ultimately for the combat zone off the coast of Vietnam. Along the way, she transited the Panama Canal and made stops at Pearl Harbor and Guam before reaching her base of operations at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 24 February. After an availability, the guided-missile frigate departed Subic Bay for Vietnamese waters on 3 March. She entered port at Danang, South Vietnam, on 5 March and, the following day, was on her way for a PIRAZ (Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone) station. For the next four months, Biddle alternated between periods at sea—either carrying out PIRAZ duty, serving as an antiair warfare (AAW) picket, or acting as a sea-air rescue (SAR) vessel—with time in port at Subic Bay or Yokosuka, Japan.

On 14 July, the warship completed her final tour of duty off the coast of Vietnam. She returned to Subic Bay for the period 16 to 19 July and then got underway for the voyage home. During the voyage, she completed a circumnavigation of the world and visited such diverse places as Singapore, Lourenco Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique, the Cape Verde Islands, Lisbon in Portugal, and Copenhagen in Denmark. The warship arrived back in Norfolk on 12 September and remained in port until mid-November. On the 15th, Biddle got underway for missile exercises in the West Indies. She returned to Norfolk on 25 November and remained there through the end of the year.

On 13 January 1969, she got underway from Norfolk bound for Philadelphia. The warship spent five days there for fire fighting and damage control training, returning to Norfolk on 20 January. Biddle's sojourn at Norfolk lasted until 28 March when she put to sea, bound for the Caribbean. While there, the warship conducted tests on recent modifications to her radar and made six missile shoots. Returning to the Hampton Roads area, she loaded missiles, torpedoes, and ammunition at Yorktown, Virginia, on 30 April before reentering Norfolk on 1 May.

On 26 May, Biddle departed Norfolk on her way to the western Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 31 May and 1 June and then set a course for Hawaii. The guided-missile frigate stopped at Pearl Harbor from 10 to 12 June before resuming her voyage. She made a brief stop at Guam for fuel on the 20th and arrived in Subic Bay on 24 June. After a four-day stop, Biddle stood out of Subic Bay on her way to South Vietnam. The warship made a brief stop at Danang on 30 June before relieving the cruiser USS Chicago (CG-11) on 1 July as strike-support and search-and-rescue ship. The guided-missile frigate kept watch off the Vietnamese coast for the next month. The only event of note occurred near the end of the month when she rescued several North Vietnamese fishermen adrift in their boat.

Relieved by Chicago on 1 August, Biddle dropped the fishermen off at Danang and then headed for the Philippines. The warship spent a week at Subic Bay and three days at Manila before heading back to Vietnam on 13 August. On 15 August, she relieved Chicago on station in the Gulf of Tonkin. She served as strike-support and search-and-rescue ship until 22 August when she relieved Chicago as PIRAZ (Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone) ship. The warship alternated between those two tasks until 10 September when she was relieved on PIRAZ station by the destroyer USS Jouett (DLG-29). The guided-missile frigate entered Yokosuka, Japan on 14 September, after a brief stop at Subic Bay to disembark her helicopter detachment.

Biddle completed a two-week tender availability on 27 September and departed Yokosuka for the combat zone. Steaming by way of Subic Bay, she arrived back on Yankee Station on 2 October. Between the 2d and the 6th, Commander, Destroyer Squadron (ComDesRon) 3, rode in Biddle and served as antiair warfare coordinator for Task Force (TF) 77. On the 6th, the warship resumed PIRAZ duty, relieving Jouett. For almost a month, she operated alternately as PIRAZ ship and as strike-support and search-and-rescue ship. Relieved by the cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9) on 27 October, Biddle put into Hong Kong on 29 October for a six-day liberty call. The guided-missile frigate departed Hong Kong on 4 November, made a fuel stop at Subic Bay, and then headed back to Vietnam.

She arrived back in the Gulf of Tonkin on 7 November and spent the next six days serving as plane guard for the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CVA-43). On 13 November, the warship cleared Vietnamese waters. She stopped at Subic Bay from 15 to 18 November and then embarked on the long voyage home. After a brief fuel stop at Guam and a three-day liberty call at San Francisco, California, Biddle arrived in the Canal Zone on 16 December. She completed the canal transit on the 17th and shaped a course for Norfolk. Upon her arrival in Norfolk on 21 December, her crew began a combination post-deployment and holiday standdown.

1970–1971
Biddle spent the first three months of 1970 in port at Norfolk. During that period, she underwent several inspections and received modifications to some of her equipment, notably to her radar. On 13 April, the guided-missile frigate stood out of Norfolk on a five-week cruise to the Caribbean for training and for technical evaluation of her new and modified radar equipment. She returned to Norfolk on 5 June and remained in the area until the end of July getting ready for her first regular overhaul. She entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 31 July and spent the remainder of 1970 undergoing overhaul.

The guided-missile frigate completed overhaul in mid-January 1971. On 19 January, she got underway for post-repair trials in the Virginia Capes operating area and returned to port the following day. For the next four months, Biddle spent most of her time in port at Norfolk, getting underway infrequently for brief drill sessions in the immediate vicinity. On 1 June, she departed Norfolk for two months of refresher training in the West Indies. The warship reentered Norfolk on 1 August. For the remainder of the year, Biddle operated out of Norfolk conducting training missions and technical evaluations on equipment. The most notable training mission came late in September when she joined several other Navy ships, a Canadian ship, and a Dutch ship in a NATO seapower review.

1972–1973
The warship began 1972 with several more periods of technical evaluations at sea in January and February. In March, she entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard to be modified to carry a LAMPS (Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System) helicopter. That work came to a conclusion early in April; and, on 12 April, Biddle departed Norfolk on her way back to southeast Asia. Along the way, she transited the Panama Canal and visited Pearl Harbor and Guam before arriving in Subic Bay on 11 May. On 14 May, the warship put to sea for the combat zone. She entered the zone on 15 May and, the following day, relieved the destroyer USS Sterett (DLG-31) on the northern Search and Rescue (SAR) station. Biddle spent over a month on station operating as a SAR picket and directing antiair warfare before returning to Subic Bay on 26 June.

On Independence Day, the warship got underway for her second tour of duty off Vietnam. After a week on the northern SAR station, she relieved Sterett again on 13 July, but this time as PIRAZ ship. On the night of 19 July, five MiGs attacked Biddle in two raids. In the first raid, the guided-missile frigate's Terrier missiles destroyed one of the intruders. She claimed a possible kill in the second raid and credited it to her gun batteries. The warship drove off the remaining attackers and suffered no damage herself.

Biddle remained on station serving as either SAR picket or PIRAZ ship until early in August. She visited Hong Kong from 12 to 15 August and was in Subic Bay from 17 to 20 August. The guided-missile frigate returned to duty on the northern SAR station on 22 August. Thereafter, she again alternated between SAR and PIRAZ assignments until mid-September. Long Beach relieved her for the last time on 17 September, and Biddle unloaded equipment at Subic Bay between 20 and 24 September. On 24 September, she began the long voyage back to Norfolk. Following stops at Guam, Pearl Harbor, and San Diego, she transited the Panama Canal on 22 October and arrived back at Norfolk on 26 October to close out the year in port.

Throughout 1973 and the first five months of 1974, Biddle operated out of Norfolk conducting training missions and technical evaluations. During those operations, she visited not only waters of the western Atlantic but also those of the West Indies and the Caribbean Sea. Late in the fall of 1973, the warship participated in a joint exercise with other elements of the Atlantic Fleet and with ships of the Canadian Navy.

1974
On 14 June 1974, Biddle stood out of Norfolk on her way to the Mediterranean Sea. She arrived in Rota, Spain, on 24 June and relieved the destroyer USS Conyngham (DDG-17). On 26 June, the warship departed Rota and entered the Mediterranean in company with Task Group (TG) 60.2. After about a month of 6th Fleet operations and port visits, Biddle was dispatched to waters adjacent to Cyprus on 22 July to join in special operations. On 1 August, the warship received orders to the area north of Crete and later operated to the west of that island. On 19 August, the United States ambassador to Cyprus was assassinated; soon thereafter, Biddle joined a special task group off the island to assist in the event of an evacuation of American citizens.

That eventuality did not come to pass, and the special task group was dissolved on 23 August. The guided-missile frigate then headed for Naples, Italy, where she arrived on 24 August. During the short voyage to Naples the ship was steaming at flank speed, which required the two boiler rooms to be "split", with the forward boiler feeding steam to the forward engine room and the after boiler feeding steam to the after engine room. The forward engine room powered the port propeller. The main feed pump in the forward engine room failed catastrophically, which caused the port propeller to suddenly stop. The ship, still at flank speed from the starboard propeller, turned so sharply to port that seawater sprayed from the ship entered the ship's ventilators. There were no serious injuries to the crew. Biddle remained at Naples until 5 September 1974 at which time she resumed operations the eastern Mediterranean. Between 8 and 10 September, the warship joined in the unsuccessful search for survivors from a TWA Boeing 707 that had crashed in the Ionian Sea. Following that mission, she resumed her schedule of 6th Fleet operations and port visits. After five days at Civitavecchia, Italy, for liberty in Rome, Biddle got underway for the eastern Mediterranean and a transit of the Straits of Bosporus and the Dardanelles. She operated in the Black Sea for five days and retransited the Straits on 11 September. Training exercises and port visits kept her busy until early December. She completed turnover procedures at Rota on 5 December and then put to sea to return to the United States. Biddle arrived back in Norfolk on 14 December and remained in port for the rest of the year.

1975–1976
The warship spent the first three months of 1975 at various locations around Hampton Roads preparing for an extended overhaul. On 15 April, she got underway for Bath, Maine, arriving there on the 18th. The overhaul began immediately and lasted through the end of 1975 and into 1976. On 30 June 1975, Biddle was reclassified a guided-missile cruiser and redesignated CG-34. On 15 March 1976, Biddle got underway for Bayonne, New Jersey, where she arrived on 17 March. At Bayonne, she continued her overhaul in drydock. On 24 April, the guided-missile cruiser left the drydock and, after some tests, headed south to Norfolk. She arrived at Yorktown on the 26th and began loading ordnance. Two days later, the warship reentered Norfolk. During the ensuing four months, Biddle conducted post-overhaul tests, drills, and refresher training along the east coast and in the West Indies.

On 3 September, the guided-missile cruiser departed Norfolk and headed for the waters of northern Europe and the Baltic Sea. She arrived in Scapa Flow, the British naval base in the Orkney Islands located north of Scotland, on 14 September. After a series of amphibious exercises in Norwegian waters, the warship visited Copenhagen, Denmark, from 25 to 28 September. On the latter day, she departed Copenhagen for a further series of multi-national exercises in the Baltic Sea. At the end of those maneuvers, Biddle made port visits at Hamburg in Germany, Antwerp in Belgium, and Cherbourg in France before getting underway for home on 29 October. She arrived back in Norfolk on 9 November and, except for a brief underway period on 18 and 19 November, remained in port for the rest of 1976.

1977–1980
During the first six months of 1977, Biddle operated out of Norfolk along the eastern seaboard and in the West Indies. Those operations included various drills and exercises as well as evolutions with warships of NATO nations and South American countries. On 11 July, she stood out of Norfolk on her way to join the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. That deployment brought visits to ports throughout the Mediterranean basin and a variety of training missions, often conducted in company with units of Allied and friendly navies. She completed the cruise on 22 December when she arrived back in Norfolk.

Over the first nine months of 1978, Biddle operated out of Norfolk. While in port, she underwent a series of inspections and examinations for the purpose of assessing various aspects of the ship's operation. At sea, the warship ranged from the New England coast south to the West Indies participating in multiship exercises, conducting independent ship's drills, and making missile and gun shoots. On 3 October, Biddle exited Chesapeake Bay and embarked upon the third Mediterranean deployment of her career. She arrived in Lisbon Portugal, on 14 October and relieved the cruiser USS Harry E. Yarnell (CG-17). On 18 October, the guided-missile cruiser left Lisbon with units of TG 60.2 and entered the Mediterranean.

After about a month of 6th Fleet operations and port visits, Biddle transited the Straits of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles and entered the Black Sea once again. On 22 November, she entered port at Constanta, Romania, to begin what was characterized as a highly successful goodwill visit. The guided-missile cruiser departed Constanta on 27 November and completed her retransit of the Straits on 28 November. She resumed normal 6th Fleet operations, conducting multiship drills and exercises and making goodwill visits to ports in the Mediterranean. That employment carried her into March 1979. She completed turnover procedures between 23 and 25 March and then began the voyage home. The warship arrived in Norfolk on 5 April and spent the rest of the month in post-deployment standdown.

Biddle resumed 2d Fleet operations in May. Over the next three months, she put to sea a number of times to train Naval Academy and NROTC midshipmen. Early in August, she participated in a joint Navy/Air Force electronics warfare exercise. The latter part of the month, she spent at sea taking part in simulated war exercises. Upon her return to Norfolk, Biddle began preparations for her regular overhaul. On 24 September, the guided-missile cruiser departed Norfolk and shaped a course for Philadelphia. She arrived at her destination on 25 September and, three days later, entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to commence her extended repair period. The overhaul lasted more than a year, taking up the remainder of 1979 and apparently all of 1980.

1981–1983
January 1981 found Biddle conducting post-overhaul shakedown. On 4 February, she stood out of Chesapeake Bay on her way to refresher training in the West Indies. The guided-missile cruiser completed refresher training on 6 April and reentered Hampton Roads on 14 April. During the following three months, Biddle operated out of her home port both in the Virginia Capes operating area and in the West Indies. On 4 August, the warship put to sea for another tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. She passed through the Strait of Gibraltar on 11 August. Between 17 and 20 August, she was part of the task group that conducted freedom-of-navigation operations in the Gulf of Sidra off the Libyan coast in defiance of the Libyan leader, Col. Muamar Qaddafi, who claimed sovereignty over the area. During that operation, Soviet-built Libyan Sukhoi Su-7 interceptors fired on American naval aircraft. In response F-14s from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) shot down two of the attackers. Later that month, Biddle entered the Black Sea for the third time.

Back in the Mediterranean on 4 September, she resumed normal 6th Fleet operations—multiship exercises and port visits. In mid-October she joined a contingency force off the northern coast of Egypt in the wake of the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. The destroyer USS Coontz (DDG-40) relieved her on 23 October and, after a stop at Rota from 27 to 29 October, Biddle headed home. She arrived back in Norfolk on 8 November and, except for two brief periods at sea early in December, remained in port for the rest of the year.

The first five months of 1982 brought a return to normal operations along the east coast and in the West Indies. On 8 June, the warship embarked upon another deployment to the 6th Fleet. Biddle changed operational control to the 6th Fleet on 18 June. By mid-July, she was on PIRAZ station in the eastern Mediterranean with the contingency force supporting Marine Corps troops ashore in Lebanon. The guided-missile cruiser departed the area in company with the frigate USS Estocin (FFG-15). After crossing the Aegean Sea and transiting the Straits of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, the two warships entered the Black Sea on 1 August. They completed their Black Sea operations on 5 August and anchored at Istanbul for a four-day port visit.

On 9 August 1982, Biddle and her colleagues headed back to the contingency force off Lebanon. Between 21 and 28 August, she served as escort for Palestinian Liberation Organization refugees leaving Beirut for Tunisia on board the Cypriot merchantman SS Sol Phryne. Port visits and exercises occupied her time until mid-September when the situation in Lebanon began to break down again. Biddle returned to PIRAZ station on 18 September and remained there until 23 November. After a visit to Athens, she moved west to rendezvous with Nimitz for another freedom of navigation operation in the Gulf of Sidra. Biddle then set out for home early in December and reached Norfolk on the 22nd.

The guided-missile cruiser completed post-deployment standdown in mid-January 1983 and resumed operations out of her home port. During the first five months of the year, Biddle operated along the east coast and in the West Indies. On 26 May, the warship put to sea for NATO Exercise "United Effort/ Ocean Safari 83." At the conclusion of that exercise, she commenced a series of port visits alternated with operations in the Baltic Sea. After leaving the Baltic on 7 July, Biddle visited Leith, Scotland, and participated in a joint British-American exercise. Following another four-day visit to Leith, she got underway for home on 26 July. The guided-missile cruiser arrived back in Norfolk on 5 August and resumed normal east coast operations. That employment lasted until 14 October when she began a selected restricted availability at the Norfolk Shipbuilding Co. Those repairs occupied her time for the remainder of 1983.

1985–1986
In October 1985, Biddle deployed for the Mediterranean with the USS Coral Sea (CV-43) battle group. In November as planned, she detached from the Coral Sea battle group and joined the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-60) for a transit through the Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean for the bulk of operations in the North Arabian Sea. The battle group crossed the equator on 10 December 1985 and participating crewmembers became "Shellbacks." During a port visit in early January 1986 at Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, the battle group was informed that they needed to get underway on very short notice. Included with replenishment supplies was a videotape of President Reagan's address to the nation blaming Libyan President Muammar al-Gaddafi for connections with Christmas Day airport bombings in Europe. Both Saratoga and Coral Sea were integrated into one carrier battle group.

Three patrols near the "Line of Death" marked in the Gulf of Sidra were largely unremarkable. The fourth patrol resulted in three Libyan patrol boats being attacked and sunk. Just prior, the aircraft carrier USS America (CV-66) joined the now 3 carrier battle group, with RADM Jeremy "Mike" Boorda commanding the group. Biddle had an opportunity to fire a Harpoon missile, but due to the proximity of other American ships, no attempt was made. For this action against Libya, the battle group was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation. For the most part, Biddle was far from action, instead being primary picket ship for Coral Sea.

Saratoga detached and was replaced by USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). Coral Sea and her escorts were enjoying what was to be her last port visit prior to leaving the Mediterranean. As the ships left port, it was quickly noticed that the ships were heading in the wrong direction. The 5th patrol off Libya now included Operation El Dorado Canyon, the aerial attacks on Tripoli and terrorist camps near Benghazi. Participating units were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. There was an uneventful 6th patrol. Biddle arrived home to much fanfare at Norfolk, Virginia on Armed Forces Day, May 1986. For the entire period, Biddle and other participating units were awarded the Navy Expeditionary Medal. Since most of the crew earned two different expeditionary medals, they were forced to choose which one to accept.

1986–1988
In July, Biddle made her way to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for overhaul. In addition, she would be the first ship to be converted to the New Threat Upgrade, a package to add new weapons technology to older guided missile destroyers and guided missile cruisers. The centerpiece would be the added capability of the Standard Missile 2 – Extended Range system, which added a solid rocket booster to the Medium Range missile and extending maximum range from about 60 mi to over 100 mi. Other radar, sonar and electronics upgrades were installed. Most notably, the forward superstructure was changed to accommodate many of the improvements, also changing the look of the ship. During the second half of 1987 and the first half of 1988, Biddle made numerous trips off Wallops Island, Virginia and the Caribbean to test the new technology, accomplishing many firsts along the way.

Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm
USS Biddle was deployed to the Middle East in September 1990 as part of Operation Desert Shield, where she joined the USS Saratoga (CV-60) battle group at the Red Sea. On 12 September she diverted the first merchant ship of the operation. By 4 December, she had made a total of 27 boardings and four diversions, when on that date she suffered a major maneuver casualty when inexplicably her rudder broke off her rudder post and sank to the bottom of the Red Sea. The US Navy flew a replacement rudder, via USAF C-5B aircraft to Toulon, France, where repairs were effected at the French Naval Shipyard. After spending Christmas at Toulon, France, Biddle rejoined the operations, this time to provide antiaircraft support for the two US battle groups on station in the northern Red Sea. By the beginning of Desert Storm the cruiser had boarded 30 freighters. At the end of hostilities, Biddle made another six boardings, and was the only warship to seize a merchant in the war. She left the Red Sea with the highest percentage of diversions of any coalition vessel, with 22.2 percent of her boardings ending with diversions for further inspection.

Fate
The cruiser was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 November 1993 and sold for scrap to Metro Marine Corporation of Philadelphia on 4 December 2000.

title: USS Biddle (CG-34)


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Supreme Court of California

The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts. Since 1850, the court has issued many influential decisions in a variety of areas including torts, property, civil and constitutional rights, and criminal law.

Composition
Under the original 1849 California Constitution, the Court started with a chief justice and two associate justices. The Court was expanded to five justices in 1862. Under the current 1879 constitution, the Court expanded to six associate justices and one chief justice, for the current total of seven. The justices are appointed by the Governor of California and are subject to retention elections.

According to the California Constitution, to be considered for appointment, as with any California judge, a person must be an attorney admitted to practice in California or have served as a judge of a California court for 10 years immediately preceding the appointment.

To fill a vacant position, the Governor must first submit a candidate's name to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation of the State Bar of California, which prepares and returns a thorough, confidential evaluation of the candidate. Next, the Governor officially nominates the candidate, who must then be evaluated by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, which consists of the Chief Justice of California, the Attorney General of California, and a senior presiding justice of the California Courts of Appeal. The Commission holds a public hearing and if satisfied with the nominee's qualifications, confirms the nomination. The nominee can then immediately fill an existing vacancy, or replace a departing justice at the beginning of the next judicial term.

If a nominee is confirmed to fill a vacancy that arose partway through a judicial term, the justice must stand for retention during the next gubernatorial election. Voters then determine whether to retain the justice for the remainder of the judicial term. At the term's conclusion, justices must again undergo a statewide retention election for a full 12-year term. If a majority votes "no", the seat becomes vacant and may be filled by the Governor.

The electorate has occasionally exercised the power not to retain justices. Chief Justice Rose Bird and Associate Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin were staunchly opposed to capital punishment and were subsequently removed in the 1986 general election. Newly reelected Governor George Deukmejian was then able to elevate Associate Justice Malcolm M. Lucas to Chief Justice and appoint three new associate justices (one to replace Lucas in his old post and two to replace Reynoso and Grodin).

Structure
Between 1879 and 1966, the court was divided by the state constitution into two three-justice panels, Department One and Department Two. The chief justice divided cases evenly between the panels and also decided which cases would be heard "in bank" (en banc) by the Court sitting as a whole. During the late 1920s, the court gradually transitioned to routinely hearing all appeals in bank, apart from two unusual exceptions in 1941 when it again tried to sit in departments. The 1966 formal abolition of the department system merely confirmed how the court had been actually operating for quite some time. Oral argument was mandatory only for in bank hearings of appeals, which meant that many appeals were decided by three-justice departments on the briefs alone. However, the state constitution required department decisions to be unanimous to produce a final judgment. Any dissent automatically triggered an in bank hearing. After a constitutional amendment in 1966, the Court currently sits in bank (all seven together) when hearing all appeals. When there is an open seat on the court, or if a justice recuses himself or herself on a given case, justices from the California Courts of Appeal are assigned by the chief justice to join the court for individual cases on a rotational basis.

The procedure for when all justices recuse themselves from a case has varied over time. For a 1992 case, the chief justice requested the presiding justice of a Court of Appeal district (different from the one where the case originated) to select six other Court of Appeal justices from his district, and they formed an acting Supreme Court for the purpose of deciding that one case. However, in a later case where all members of the Court recused themselves when Governor Schwarzenegger sought a writ of mandate (Schwarzenegger v. Court of Appeal (Epstein)), seven justices of the Courts of Appeal were selected based on the regular rotational basis, not from the same district, with the most senior one serving as the acting chief justice, and that acting supreme court eventually denied the writ petition. In a yet more recent case (Mallano v. Chiang) where all members of the Court recused themselves on a petition for review by retired Court of Appeal justices on a matter involving those justices' salaries (that apparently involved matters up to and including the 2016–2017 fiscal year), the Court ordered that six superior court judges be selected from the pool that took office after July 1, 2017, to serve as the substitute justices for the six sitting justices, with the senior judge among that group serving as the acting Chief Justice; that acting Supreme Court eventually denied the petition for review.

Membership
Six current justices were appointed by Democrats (Liu, Kruger, Groban, Jenkins, Guerrero and Evans) and one by Republicans (Corrigan).

There are three African American (Kruger, Jenkins, Evans) justices, one East Asian American justice (Liu), two non-Hispanic white justices (Corrigan, Groban) and one Latina (Guerrero). One justice earned an undergraduate degree from a University of California school (Guerrero at Berkeley), five from private universities in California (Corrigan at Holy Names, Liu, Groban and Evans at Stanford, and Jenkins at Santa Clara), and one from an out-of-state private university (Kruger at Harvard). Two justices earned their law degrees from a University of California law school (Corrigan at UC Law SF and Evans at Davis), two from a private California university (Guerrero at Stanford and Jenkins at the University of San Francisco), and three from law schools at out-of-state private universities (Liu and Kruger at Yale, and Groban at Harvard).

The most recent addition to the court is Associate Justice Kelli Evans, who was sworn in on January 2, 2023, to replace then-Associate Justice Patricia Guerrero, who was elevated to chief justice. In 2023, Guerrero became the first Latina to serve as chief justice.

The court first had a female majority from 2011 to 2017. This majority had been achieved in 2011 after Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to the court, joining Justice Joyce L. Kennard (an appointee of Republican Governor George Deukmejian), Justice Kathryn Werdegar (appointed by Republican Governor Pete Wilson), and Justice Carol A. Corrigan (another Schwarzenegger appointee). When Kennard retired in 2014, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown preserved the female majority by appointing Leondra Kruger to succeed her; while this first female majority later ended with the 2017 retirement of Werdegar and appointment of Groban by Brown to succeed her, a second female majority was later established in 2022, upon the swearing-in of Guerrero to replace Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar.

Jurisdiction
The Constitution of California gives the Court mandatory and exclusive appellate jurisdiction in all cases imposing capital punishment in California, although the Court has sponsored a state constitutional amendment to allow it to assign death penalty appeals to the California Courts of Appeal. The Court has discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all cases reviewed by the Courts of Appeal; the latter were created by a 1904 constitutional amendment to relieve the Supreme Court of most of its workload so the Court could then focus on dealing with non-frivolous appeals that involved important issues of law.

According to research by Justice Goodwin Liu, each year the Court has averaged 5,200 petitions for writs of certiorari and 3,400 petitions for habeas corpus, plus 40 additional petitions from inmates already on death row. In an average year the Court will decide to hear 83 cases and will be required to hear appeals from 20 new inmates joining death row. Each week, the Court votes on 150 to 300 petitions, paying special attention to a staff-recommended "A list" as well as to certified questions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Internal procedure
The Court is open for business year-round (as opposed to operating only during scheduled "terms" as is commonplace in jurisdictions that observe the legal year). The Court hears oral argument at least one week per month, 10 months each year (except July and August). It has been headquartered in San Francisco since 1874. Since 1878, it has regularly heard oral argument each year at San Francisco (four months), Los Angeles (four months), and Sacramento (two months).

According to Justice Liu, when a case is granted review, the Chief Justice assigns the case to a justice, who, after the parties finish briefing, then prepares a draft opinion. Each justice writes a preliminary response to the draft opinion, and if the assigned justice is in the minority, she may ask the Chief Justice to reassign the case to someone in the majority. The Court then hears oral arguments and, immediately afterwards, meet alone to vote. The California Constitution requires suspension of the justices' salaries if the Court fails to then file a decision within 90 days. The Court issues unanimous opinions in 77% of cases, compared to 43% by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Throughout the year (including July and August), the justices have a conference every Wednesday the Court is not hearing oral argument, with the exception of the last week, respectively, of November and December (Thanksgiving and New Year's). New opinions are published online on Monday and Thursday mornings at 10 a.m. Paper copies also become available through the clerk's office at that time.

The Court is one of the few U.S. courts apart from the U.S. Supreme Court that enjoys the privilege of having its opinions routinely published in three hardcover reporters. The Court's Reporter of Decisions contracts with a private publisher (currently LexisNexis) to publish the official reporter, California Reports, now in its fifth series; note that the series number changes whenever the publisher changes, although the most recent changeover to the fifth series did not involve a change in reporter. West publishes California decisions in both the California Reporter (in its second series) and the Pacific Reporter (in its third series). (The New York Court of Appeals opinions are similarly published in three reporters.)

Each justice has five assigned chambers attorneys. Since the late 1980s, the Court has turned away from the traditional use of law clerks, and has switched to permanent staff attorneys. Justices Goodwin Liu and Leondra Kruger, however, have returned to the traditional use of recent law school graduates as one-year clerks for some of their staff positions. The Court has about 85 staff attorneys, some of whom are attached to particular justices; the rest are shared as a central staff. The advantage to this system is that the reduced turnover of staff attorneys (versus the traditional system of rotating through new law clerks every year) has improved the efficiency of the court in dealing with complex cases, particularly death penalty cases.

During its first half-century of operation, the Court struggled to keep up with its soaring caseload and very frequently fell behind, until the California Courts of Appeal were created in 1904. This resulted in provisions in the 1879 Constitution requiring the Court to decide all cases in writing with reasons given (to get rid of minor cases, it had often given summary dispositions with no reasons given ) and requiring California judges to certify in writing every month that no matter submitted for consideration had been outstanding for more than 90 days, or else they will not be paid. To comply with the latter provision, the Court does not schedule oral argument until the justices and their staff attorneys have already studied the briefs, formulated their respective positions, and circulated draft opinions. Then, after the matter is formally "argued and submitted" before the Court, the justices can polish and file their opinions well before reaching the 90-day deadline. This differs sharply from the practice in all other federal and state appellate courts, where judges can schedule oral argument not long after written briefing is finished, but then may take many months (or even a year) after oral argument to file their opinions.

Historical procedure
In March 1885, the state legislature authorized the creation of the Supreme Court Commission to help with the Court's overwhelming backlog of pending appeals. The justices were initially allowed to hire three commissioners. Since oral argument was not mandatory except for in bank hearings of appeals, the justices began to assign cases to the commissioners which could likely be resolved on the briefs alone. The number of commissioners was expanded in five in 1889.

In retrospect, the commissioners can be seen as an important precursor of the law clerks and staff attorneys which the Court began to hire in the 1930s. In contrast to modern practice, where appellate justices are expected to take ownership of the opinions to which they sign their names and staff members are mere ghostwriters, the commissioners openly signed their opinions. Each of the approximately 4,400 appeals (3,700 reported, 700 unreported) handled by the commissioners was resolved by an opinion signed by one commissioner with the concurrence of two others. The opinions always ended in a recommended disposition, such as: "We find no error in the record and the judgment should be affirmed." Originally, this was followed by a one-line unsigned per curiam statement in the name of "The Court," such as: "For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion the judgment is affirmed." Starting in 1892, the three justices who reviewed and summarily adopted each commissioners' opinion began to also sign their names.

The commissioners were only partially successful in reducing the chronic backlog. The Commission was also subject to heavy criticism as an unelected "auxiliary court". Attorneys who enjoyed appellate work but had difficulty holding onto judicial seats in partisan elections repeatedly bounced back and forth between serving as elected justices and unelected commissioners. After two more decades of debate, the state legislature recognized that the state needed to establish intermediate appellate courts and referred the issue to the electorate. In November 1904, Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 2 was approved by the state's voters, which abolished the Supreme Court Commission and created the California Courts of Appeal. All five commissioners were promptly appointed in 1905 to serve among the original nine justices of the Courts of Appeal.

Publication of opinions
Except for one decade at its founding, the Court has never been required by constitutional or statutory law to publish all its opinions. The Court currently chooses to publish all opinions as a matter of public policy, as disclosed in rule 8.1105(a) of the California Rules of Court. The original California Constitution of 1849 authorized the Court to publish all opinions that it "may deem expedient," and the current California Constitution of 1879 authorizes the Court to publish all opinions that it "deems appropriate." In 1850, a statute was enacted directing the Supreme Court to publish opinions in all cases, but in 1855, the Court began to direct that some opinions should not be reported, and this procedure was retroactively approved by the legislature in an 1860 statute. Over 1,800 unreported opinions were filed by the Court over the next 25 years (which includes the 700 unreported opinions filed by the commissioners). The Pacific Reporter started to collect and publish the Court's unreported opinions at its launch in 1883, and then the Court gave in and switched back to publication of all opinions. A small group of lawyers later recovered and compiled all the unreported opinions filed by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court Commission before that point, which were published in a separate seven-volume reporter called California Unreported Cases starting in 1913. Despite its name, those cases are citable as precedent.

Ancillary responsibilities
The Court supervises the lower courts (including the trial-level California superior courts) through the Judicial Council of California and the California Commission on Judicial Performance, and also supervises California's legal profession through the State Bar of California. All lawyer admissions are done through recommendations of the State Bar, which then must be ratified by the Supreme Court, and attorney discipline is delegated to the State Bar Court of California (although suspensions longer than three years must be independently decided upon by the Court). California's bar is the largest in the U.S. with 210,000 members, of whom 160,000 are practicing. In 2018 and in 2023, the Court issued reform directives regarding corrupt practices within the State Bar of California.

The court, with the assistance of the Reporter of Decisions, publishes the California Style Manual for use by the California Courts of Appeal and the superior courts.

Reputation
As The Wall Street Journal stated, in 1972:

"The state's high court over the past 20 years has won a reputation as perhaps the most innovative of the state judiciaries, setting precedents in areas of criminal justice, civil liberties, racial integration, and consumer protection that heavily influence other states and the federal bench."

Statistical analyses conducted by LexisNexis personnel at the Court's request indicate that the decisions of the Supreme Court of California are by far the most followed of any state supreme court in the United States. Between 1940 and 2005, 1,260 decisions of the Court were expressly followed by out-of-state courts (meaning that those courts expressly found the Court's reasoning persuasive and applied it to the cases before them).

Many important legal concepts have been pioneered or developed by the Court, including strict liability for defective products, fair procedure, negligent infliction of emotional distress, palimony, insurance bad faith, wrongful life, and market-share liability.

The major film studios in and around Hollywood and the high-tech firms of Silicon Valley both fall under the Court's jurisdiction. Thus, the Court has decided a number of cases by, between, and against such companies, as well as several cases involving Hollywood celebrities and high-tech executives.

The California Supreme Court and all lower California state courts use a different writing style and citation system from the federal courts and many other state courts. California citations have the year between the names of the parties and the reference to the case reporter, as opposed to the national standard (the Bluebook) of putting the year at the end. For example, the famous case Marvin v. Marvin, which established the standard for non-marital partners' ability to sue for their contributions to the partnership, is rendered Marvin v. Marvin (1976) 18 Cal.3d 660 [134 Cal.Rptr. 815, 557 P.2d 106] in California style, while it would be Marvin v. Marvin, 18 Cal. 3d 660, 557 P.2d 106, 134 Cal. Rptr. 815 (1976), in Bluebook style. The California citation style, however, has always been the norm of common law jurisdictions outside the United States, including England, Canada and Australia.

While the U.S. Supreme Court justices indicate the author of an opinion and who has "joined" the opinion at the start of the opinion, California justices always sign a majority opinion at the end, followed by "WE CONCUR," and then the names of the joining justices. California judges are traditionally not supposed to use certain ungrammatical terms in their opinions, which has led to embarrassing fights between judges and the editor of the state's official reporters. California has traditionally avoided the use of certain French and Latin phrases like en banc, certiorari, and mandamus, so California judges and attorneys use "in bank," "review," and "mandate" instead (though "in bank" has become quite rare after 1974).

Finally, the Court has the power to "depublish" opinions by the Courts of Appeal (as opposed to the federal practice of not publishing certain "unpublished" opinions at all in the federal case reporters). This means that even though the opinion has already been published in the official state reporters, it will be binding only upon the parties. Stare decisis does not apply, and any new rules articulated will not be applied in future cases. Similarly, the California Supreme Court has the power to "publish" opinions by the California Courts of Appeal which were initially not published.

Important cases
The California Supreme Court has handed down important and influential decisions since 1850. Some of the most significant of these important and influential Court decisions are listed below in date ascending order. Most of the Court decisions that follow were landmark decisions that were among the first such decisions in the United States or the world.
 * People v. Hall (1854): A case which held that Chinese persons may not testify against a white man, even if the white man is accused of murdering a Chinese person; effectively overturned by state law in 1873. The Hall case has been described as “containing some of the most offensive racial rhetoric to be found in the annals of California appellate jurisprudence” and “the worst statutory interpretation case in history.”
 * Houston v. Williams (1859): A leading case on the separation of powers under the California Constitution.
 * Escola v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (1944): Then-Associate Justice Roger Traynor suggested in a now-famous concurring opinion that the Court should dispose of legal fictions like warranties and impose strict liability for defective products as a matter of public policy.
 * Perez v. Sharp (1948): The Court overturned the statutory ban on interracial marriage as unconstitutional. Perez directly influenced the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on this issue, Loving v. Virginia (1967).
 * Summers v. Tice (1948): The Court shifted the burden to the defense to disprove causation when it was clear that one of two defendants must have caused the plaintiff's injury, but it was not clear which one.
 * Dillon v. Legg (1968): The Court radically expanded the tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) beyond its traditional form, which historically had been limited to plaintiffs standing in the same "zone of danger" as a relative who was killed.
 * Pacific Gas & E. Co. v. G. W. Drayage & Rigging Co., Inc. (1968): The Court held that parol evidence could be conditionally received by a trial court to determine if a contract was ambiguous when not ambiguous on its face. This decision has not been followed by the courts of any other state.
 * Rowland v. Christian (1968): The Court abolished the old distinctions between different types of persons entering land and imposed a general duty of care in the context of the tort of negligence.
 * People v. Belous (1969): The Court held the state's criminal statute prohibiting abortions to be unconstitutionally vague, in a 4-3 decision.
 * People v. Anderson (1972): The Court relied upon the state constitutional clause prohibiting "cruel or unusual punishment" (note the difference from the federal Constitution's "cruel and unusual punishment" clause) to abolish capital punishment in California. The state electorate promptly overruled Anderson that same year with a popular initiative, Proposition 17, that kept the "cruel or unusual" clause but declared the death penalty to be neither cruel nor unusual.
 * Pitchess v. Superior Court (1974): The Court held that criminal defendants have a right to access the arresting officer's personnel file when the defendant alleges in an affidavit that the officer used excessive force or lied about the circumstances of the arrest.
 * Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975): The Court embraced comparative negligence as part of California tort law and rejected strict contributory negligence.
 * Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California (1976): The Court held that mental health professionals have a duty to protect individuals who are being threatened with bodily harm by a patient. The original 1974 decision mandated warning the threatened individual, but a 1976 rehearing resulted in a decision calling for a "duty to protect" the intended victim, which did not necessarily require that a potential victim be informed of the threat.
 * Marvin v. Marvin (1976): The Court ruled in favor of the enforceability of non-marital relationship contracts, express or implied, to the extent that they are not founded purely upon meretricious sexual services. In other words, even though California does not recognize common law marriage, persons who cohabit for long periods of time and commingle their assets are allowed to plead and prove marriage-like contracts for support and division of property.
 * Robins v. Pruneyard Shopping Center (1979): The Court found that the broad right to freedom of speech in the state constitution included an implied right to freedom of speech in private shopping centers. The U.S. Supreme Court in turn held that the state supreme court's decision did not amount to a "taking" of the shopping center under federal constitutional law.
 * Sindell v. Abbott Laboratories (1980): The Court imposed market share liability on the makers of fungible hazardous products.
 * Thing v. La Chusa (1989): The Court withdrew from the expansive form of NIED set forth in Dillon and imposed a rigid bright-line test for recovery in bystander NIED cases. The Thing decision included extensive dicta hostile to plaintiffs which more generally limited the scope of recovery for both the tort of negligence and emotional distress damages in California.
 * Moore v. Regents of the University of California (1990): The Court held that patients do not have intellectual property rights in profits from medical discoveries made with their body parts.
 * Wendland v. Wendland (2001): The Court held that in the absence of a legally recognized method of determining who should make medical decisions on the behalf of an incompetent patient, the constitutional right to life and right to privacy granted special protection to the incompetent person.
 * Yount v. City of Sacramento (2008): The Court held that a criminal conviction does not limit an individual's right to bring civil action for deprivation of rights in cases of excessive use of force.
 * In re Marriage Cases (2008): The Court held that sexual orientation is a protected class which requires strict scrutiny and under such scrutiny, laws prohibiting same-sex marriage are unconstitutional under the state constitution. The state electorate overturned the marriage portion of the decision that same year by enacting a popular initiative, Proposition 8, but left in place the discrimination protections.
 * Silicon Valley Taxpayers' Assn., Inc. v. Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (2008): The Court unanimously held in a Proposition 218 ("Right to Vote on Taxes Act") case that courts must exercise their independent judgment in reviewing local agency legislative decisions adopting special assessments. The highly deferential standard of review before Proposition 218 became law was grounded in separation of powers. Because the constitutional provisions of Proposition 218 were of equal dignity to the separation of powers doctrine, it no longer justified allowing a local agency to usurp the judicial function of interpreting and applying the constitutional provisions that governed assessments under Proposition 218.
 * People v. Diaz (2011): The Court held that the warrantless search of information in a cell phone was valid when incident to a lawful arrest. (The holding in Diaz was eventually repudiated by the United States Supreme Court in Riley v. California.)

Notable former justices

 * Serranus Clinton Hastings, Chief Justice (1850–1852) (First Chief Justice, founded UC Law SF)
 * Solomon Heydenfeldt, Associate Justice (1852–1857) (First Jewish justice to be elected by direct vote of the people)
 * David S. Terry, Chief Justice (1857–1859) (Killed while attempting to assassinate his successor, Stephen Field)
 * Stephen J. Field, Chief Justice (1859–1863) (Appointed by President Lincoln to the U.S. Supreme Court)
 * Addison Niles, Associate Justice (1872–1880)
 * Curtis D. Wilbur, Chief Justice (1923–1924) (Appointed by President Coolidge as U.S. Secretary of the Navy)
 * Mathew Tobriner, Associate Justice (1962–1982)
 * Roger J. Traynor, Chief Justice (1964–1970), Associate Justice (1940–1964) (Well-respected legal scholar; generally regarded as the greatest justice in the history of the Court)
 * Stanley Mosk, Associate Justice (1964–2001) (Longest serving justice)
 * Wiley W. Manuel, Associate Justice (1977–1981) (First African-American on the Court; well known for his pro bono work)
 * Rose E. Bird, Chief Justice (1977–1987) (First woman appointed to the Court; only Chief Justice ever not to be retained by the electorate)
 * Otto Kaus, Associate Justice (1981–1985)
 * Allen Broussard, Associate Justice (1981–1991)
 * Cruz Reynoso, Associate Justice (1982–1987) (First Latino on the Court)
 * Janice Rogers Brown, Associate Justice (1996–2005) (Appointed by President G.W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit)
 * Ronald M. George, Chief Justice (1996–2011), Associate Justice (1991–1996)
 * Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice (2011-2023) (first Asian American chief justice)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Supreme Court of California


text:
USS Birmingham (CL-2)

USS Birmingham (CS-2/CL-2), named for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, was a Chester-class cruiser scout cruiser, reclassified a light cruiser in 1920. Entering service in 1908, the ship became known for the first airplane takeoff from a ship in history in 1910. During World War I, Birmingham escorted convoys across the Atlantic. The cruiser was decommissioned in 1923 and sold for scrap in 1930.

Construction and career
The cruiser was laid down by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company at Quincy, Massachusetts, on 14 August 1905, and launched on 29 May 1907; sponsored by Miss Mary Campbell. Birmingham was commissioned on 11 April 1908, Commander Burns Tracy Walling in command.

Birmingham served with the Atlantic Fleet until 27 June 1911, and went into reserve at Boston three days later. One of her sailors, Chief Electrician William E. Snyder, received the Medal of Honor for rescuing a shipmate from drowning on 4 January 1910. From Birmingham's deck, civilian pilot Eugene Ely made the first airplane take-off from a warship on 14 November 1910 in a Curtiss Model D biplane designed by Glenn Curtiss.

Recommissioned on 15 December 1911, she made a short cruise to the West Indies and then reverted to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia on 20 April 1912. From 19 May – 11 July, she was in commission for service on Ice Patrol and then returned to the Philadelphia Reserve Group. Recommissioned on 1 October 1913, Birmingham carried the Commissioners of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition on a South American tour from 3 October – 26 December, and was then outfitted at Philadelphia Navy Yard as a tender to the Torpedo Flotilla.

She left the yard on 2 February 1914, and resumed operations with the Atlantic Fleet as flagship of the Torpedo Flotilla. On April 20, she received orders to carry a detachment of aircraft to Tampico as part of the US occupation of Veracruz, becoming part of the first operational use of naval aircraft. On May 24, after spending a month near Tampico, she rendezvoused with the fleet at Veracruz before returning to the United States.

World War I and fate
Following American entrance into World War I, Birmingham patrolled along the northeast U.S. coast until 14 June 1917, when she sailed from New York as part of the escort for the first US troop convoy to France. After returning to New York she was fitted for service in Europe and in August reported to Gibraltar as flagship for Rear Admiral A. P. Niblack, Commander, US Forces Gibraltar. She escorted convoys between Gibraltar, the British Isles, and France until the Armistice. After a short cruise in the eastern Mediterranean, she returned to the United States in January 1919.

From July 1919 to May 1922, she was based at San Diego, California, as flagship of Destroyer Squadrons, Pacific Fleet, and then moved to Balboa, Canal Zone as flagship of the Special Service Squadron. After cruising along the Central American and northern South American coast, she returned to Philadelphia and was decommissioned there on 1 December 1923, being sold for scrap on 13 May 1930.

Commanders

 * Burns Tracy Walling 11 April 1908 – 9 May 1909
 * William Bartlett Fletcher 28 October 1909 – 1910
 * Charles Frederick Hughes 18 December 1911 – 1912
 * William Veazie Pratt c. 1914 –
 * David Foote Sellers January 1915 – 9 June 1916
 * DeWitt Blamer 9 June 1916 – November 1916
 * Charles Lincoln Hussey c. 1917 – c. 1918
 * Franck Taylor Evans 28 April 1919 – November 1919
 * George Bertram Landenberger 1920 –

title: USS Birmingham (CL-2)


text:
Type species

In zoological nomenclature, a type species (species typica) is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen (or specimens). A similar concept is used for suprageneric groups and called a type genus.

In botanical nomenclature, these terms have no formal standing under the code of nomenclature, but are sometimes borrowed from zoological nomenclature. In botany, the type of a genus name is a specimen (or, rarely, an illustration) which is also the type of a species name. The species name with that type can also be referred to as the type of the genus name. Names of genus and family ranks, the various subdivisions of those ranks, and some higher-rank names based on genus names, have such types.

In bacteriology, a type species is assigned for each genus. Whether or not currently recognized as valid, every named genus or subgenus in zoology is theoretically associated with a type species. In practice, however, there is a backlog of untypified names defined in older publications when it was not required to specify a type.

Use in zoology
A type species is both a concept and a practical system that is used in the classification and nomenclature (naming) of animals. The "type species" represents the reference species and thus "definition" for a particular genus name. Whenever a taxon containing multiple species must be divided into more than one genus, the type species automatically assigns the name of the original taxon to one of the resulting new taxa, the one that includes the type species.

The term "type species" is regulated in zoological nomenclature by article 42.3 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, which defines a type species as the name-bearing type of the name of a genus or subgenus (a "genus-group name"). In the Glossary, type species is defined as

"The nominal species that is the name-bearing type of a nominal genus or subgenus."

The type species permanently attaches a formal name (the generic name) to a genus by providing just one species within that genus to which the genus name is permanently linked (i.e. the genus must include that species if it is to bear the name). The species name in turn is fixed, in theory, to a type specimen.

For example, the type species for the land snail genus Monacha is Helix cartusiana, the name under which the species was first described, known as Monacha cartusiana when placed in the genus Monacha. That genus is currently placed within the family Hygromiidae. The type genus for that family is the genus Hygromia.

The concept of the type species in zoology was introduced by Pierre André Latreille.

Citing
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature states that the original name (binomen) of the type species should always be cited. It gives an example in Article 67.1. Astacus marinus Fabricius, 1775 was later designated as the type species of the genus Homarus, thus giving it the name Homarus marinus (Fabricius, 1775). However, the type species of Homarus should always be cited using its original name, i.e. Astacus marinus Fabricius, 1775, even though that is a junior synonym of Cancer grammarius Linnaeus, 1758.

Although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants does not contain the same explicit statement, examples make it clear that the original name is used, so that the "type species" of a genus name need not have a name within that genus. Thus in Article 10, Ex. 3, the type of the genus name Elodes is quoted as the type of the species name Hypericum aegypticum, not as the type of the species name Elodes aegyptica. (Elodes is not now considered distinct from Hypericum.)

title: Type species


text:
USS Birmingham (CL-62)

USS Birmingham (CL-62) was a Cleveland-class cruiser light cruiser of the United States Navy, which were built during World War II. The class was designed as a development of the earlier Brooklyn-class cruisers, the size of which had been limited by the First London Naval Treaty. The start of the war led to the dissolution of the treaty system, but the dramatic need for new vessels precluded a new design, so the Clevelands used the same hull as their predecessors but were significantly heavier. The Clevelands carried a main battery of twelve 6 in guns in four three-gun turrets, along with a secondary armament of twelve 5 in dual-purpose guns. They had a top speed of 32.5 kn.

She was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Newport News, Virginia, on 17 February 1941 and launched on 20 March 1942 by Mrs. Cooper Green, wife of the president of the Birmingham City Commission. She was commissioned on 29 January 1943, Captain John Wilkes in command. Birmingham earned eight battle stars, receiving heavy damage on at least three occasions.

Design

The Cleveland-class light cruisers traced their origin to design work done in the late 1930s; at the time, light cruiser displacement was limited to 8000 LT by the Second London Naval Treaty. Following the start of World War II in September 1939, Britain announced it would suspend the treaty for the duration of the conflict, a decision the US Navy quickly followed. Though still neutral, the United States recognized that war was likely and the urgent need for additional ships ruled out an entirely new design, so the Clevelands were a close development of the earlier Brooklyn-class cruisers, the chief difference being the substitution of a two-gun 5 in dual-purpose gun mount for one of the main battery 6 in gun turrets.

Birmingham was 610 ft long overall and had a beam of 66 ft and a draft of 24 ft. Her standard displacement amounted to 11744 LT and increased to 14131 LT at full load. The ship was powered by four General Electric steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Rated at 100000 shp, the turbines were intended to give a top speed of 32.5 kn. Her crew numbered 1285 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 6 in /47-caliber Mark 16 guns in four 3-gun turrets on the centerline. Two were placed forward in a superfiring pair; the other two turrets were placed aft of the superstructure in another superfiring pair. The secondary battery consisted of twelve 5 in /38-caliber dual-purpose guns mounted in twin turrets. Two of these were placed on the centerline, one directly behind the forward main turrets and the other just forward of the aft turrets. Two more were placed abreast of the conning tower and the other pair on either side of the aft superstructure. Anti-aircraft defense consisted of twenty-eight Bofors 40 mm guns in four quadruple and six double mounts and twenty-one Oerlikon 20 mm guns in single mounts.

The ship's belt armor ranged in thickness from 3.5 to 5 in, with the thicker section amidships where it protected the ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. Her deck armor was 2 in thick. The main battery turrets were protected with 6.5 in faces and 3 in sides and tops, and they were supported by barbettes 6 inches thick. Birmingham's conning tower had 5-inch sides.

Service history
Birmingham was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia on 17 February 1941. The completed hull was launched on 20 March 1942. Fitting-out work was completed less than a year later, by which time she had been moved to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and she was commissioned there on 29 January 1943. Captain John E. Wilkes served as the ship's first commander. On 20 February, Birmingham embarked on her shakedown cruise in the Chesapeake Bay, which also included gunnery tests to confirm the structural integrity of her main battery turrets, practice launching and recovering her seaplanes, and shooting practice for her gun crews. On 19 March, the ship sailed for Annapolis, Maryland, to be inspected, before returning to Norfolk on 3 April for repairs. Another round of initial training followed in the Chesapeake from 23 April, including night firing practice, refueling at sea, and fighter director exercises. In late May, she returned to Norfolk for additional repairs, before departing on 8 June for the Mediterranean Sea to join forces then engaged in the Mediterranean Theater.

European Theater
Birmingham reached Mers El Kébir in French Algeria on 22 June, where she made preparations to join the invasion fleet that was to conduct Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. She was assigned to Task Group (TG) 86.1, along with the light cruiser USS Brooklyn (CL-40) and the destroyers USS Buck (DD-420) and USS Ludlow (DD-438), which sortied on 29 June. The ships escorted part of the invasion force, which arrived off the landing beaches on the morning of 9 July. TG 86.1 helped guide the landing ships to their designated beaches, after which Birmingham shifted to shore bombardment to cover their approach. She launched two of her seaplanes to help spot the fall of shot and search for Axis artillery batteries.

During operations off the invasion beaches, Birmingham was escorted by Ludlow and the destroyer USS Edison (DD-439). Poor visibility hampered the cruiser's gunners, and her aircraft were repeatedly engaged by friendly forces that mistook them for hostile planes. At 07:15, one of the aircraft returned to Birmingham, having been badly damaged by friendly ground fire and a German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, and half an hour later, the second seaplane withdrew as well, having nearly been shot down by a pair of British Bell P-39 Airacobra fighters. At 09:18, Birmingham checked her fire, as Allied ground forces had achieved their initial objectives by that time. The ship continued to operate off the Sicilian coast for the next nine days, providing fire support to ground forces as they fought their way inland, and protecting minesweepers as they cleared Axis mines from the area.

Birmingham left the waters off Sicily on 21 July to refuel at Bizerte in French Tunisia; she thereafter sailed to Algiers in French Algeria before moving on to Mers El Kébir. On 27 July, she departed for the United States, arriving in Norfolk on 8 August, where she underwent repairs that lasted for ten days. From there, she sailed to join the forces engaged with Japan in the Pacific Ocean. She passed through the Panama Canal on 22 August and reached Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on 5 September.

Pacific Theater
After arriving in Pearl Harbor, Birmingham was assigned to TG 15.1 as part of the escort for the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) and the light carriers USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) and USS Princeton (CVL-23). The unit sortied on 11 September to launch a raid on Japanese positions at Tarawa and Makin, returning to Pearl Harbor on 23 September. After refueling and rearming, they sortied again on 29 September to attack Wake Island. Birmingham was detached from the carrier group on 5 October to carry out shore bombardments of the island, targeting coastal batteries and storage dumps. Her spotter aircraft came under attack by a Mitsubishi A6M Zero, but the spotter was only hit by two bullets from the Zero before it escaped. TG 15.1 left the area on 6 October and arrived back in Pearl Harbor five days later.

Solomon Islands operations

Birmingham was reassigned to the Solomon Islands campaign, and she got underway on 21 October to join the naval forces operating there. She reached Espiritu Santo on 4 November, and the next day joined the escort for a convoy of six transport ships headed to Bougainville; two other light cruisers and four destroyers comprised the rest of the escort group. The group safely arrived in Empress Augusta Bay on the morning of 8 November and while they were unloading their cargoes, Birmingham and the other escorts patrolled to the southwest of the bay. Throughout the afternoon and early evening, Birmingham and her sister ship USS Mobile (CL-63) detected a total of thirteen Japanese aircraft in the distance, but none of them attacked the Allied flotilla during this period. At around 18:30, a Japanese Mitsubishi G4M medium bomber closed with the American ships. At the same time, the air-search radars on the American cruisers picked up a large attack force incoming, at a distance of about 25000 yd.

Birmingham and the other two cruisers opened fire with their main batteries at 19:11, at a range of 18000 yd, to try to disrupt the incoming aerial attack. As the Japanese aircraft closed in the darkness, the American ships launched flares to illuminate the planes. Birmingham engaged an Aichi D3A Val that was approaching the ship and inflicted fatal damage with her 20 mm and 40 mm guns, though not before the Val released its bomb. It skipped on the water and struck Birmingham's hull on the starboard quarter; the explosion tore a hole in the hull that was 15 ft wide and destroyed her aircraft hangar. Almost immediately after, another aircraft hit Birmingham with a torpedo on her port bow, blowing a 30 ft hole and causing significant damage to the hull structure. Two of her fuel oil storage compartments were also flooded. The ship's damage control teams quickly moved to contain the flooding and suppress fires from both hits, but a second Val made an attack run at Birmingham. The anti-aircraft gunners destroyed the plane as it dove on Birmingham, but its bomb nevertheless struck turret #4. The mount and all three gun barrels were damaged in the blast. In total, the three attacks killed two men and wounded another thirty-two.

Birmingham was still able to steam at 30 kn and maintain her position in the formation. Further Japanese attacks occurred throughout the night, but the ships' 5-inch guns kept the aircraft at bay. At 19:58, Birmingham shot down a G4M that was dropping flares over the formation, and later that night her 5-inch guns destroyed another G4M at a range of 4000 yd. Birmingham withdrew without further damage, and reached the central Solomons by the morning; from there, the ships sailed on to Florida Island on 10 November. There, the ship received temporary repairs to shore up the damaged bulkheads. A vent for the flooded compartments in the bow was also created to reduce pressure on the forward bulkheads, and while steaming back to the United States, it created periodic geysers of water, which earned the ship the nickname "Old Faithful". Birmingham left Florida on 16 November for Espiritu Santo, though she stayed there only briefly before continuing on to Hawaii, which she reached on 1 December.

Repairs and training
The ship was dry docked in Pearl Harbor for repairs to her hull, and on 18 December she departed for the Mare Island Navy Yard in San Francisco, California, arriving there four days later. There, she underwent permanent repairs, including six new 6-inch guns and new aircraft catapults. On 7 February 1944, while she was being moved in the harbor, Birmingham accidentally collided with the merchant vessel SS Manukai, and had her bow damaged again. Further repairs were necessitated, which lasted about a week. She thereafter conducted a short shakedown cruise before sailing from Mare Island on 18 February to return to Pearl Harbor, arriving there on 23 February. The ship thereafter took part in training exercises off Kahoolawe in the Hawaiian islands before leaving Hawaii on 5 March. She sailed next to the Ellice Islands, refueling at Funafuti on 10 March, before continuing on to the Solomons. She arrived in Purvis Bay there four days later, where she was assigned to Task Group 53.1.

Birmingham spent the next two months conducting training exercises in preparation for upcoming amphibious invasions planned for the Marianas Islands. These exercises included shore bombardment practice and coordination practice between shore-based fire control teams and the ship's gunners, along with bombardments of Japanese positions on the Shortland Islands in company with her sisters USS Cleveland (CL-55) and USS Montpelier (CL-57) and four destroyers. During this action, she engaged in a gunnery duel with shore batteries on the island. On 24 May, she took part in a large-scale simulated amphibious invasion on Guadalcanal, which included live-fire practice in Kula Gulf. On 3 June, the ship returned to Purvis Bay, by which time some fifty men aboard the vessel were suffering from bacillary dysentery. As a result, the ship's medical team fumigated the ship to kill disease-carrying insects. The next day, she sortied as part of the escort for a convoy of transports and Landing Ships, Tank bound for the Marshall Islands, which were being used as the staging ground for the upcoming invasion of the Marianas. Dysentary continued to spread among the crew, and by 10 June, a total of 244 men had been infected. She nevertheless sailed that day as part of the invasion fleet.

Mariana and Palau Islands campaign

Birmingham was transferred to TG 52.17, which arrived off Saipan on 14 June for the imminent invasion of Saipan; the ship protected minesweepers clearing Japanese mines off the island and covered Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) clearing obstacles around the landing beaches. She also fired on Japanese positions in the area. The next day, Birmingham cruised off Garapan to cover UDTs on the beach and engaged Japanese coastal artillery and anti-aircraft guns in the area. She then closed to 3000 yd from shore, and at 08:46, she came under heavy fire from several Japanese guns. The ship received light damage to her upper works, but quickly returned fire, and over the course of the next two hours, silenced most of the guns and destroyed two ammunition dumps being used to supply them. In the course of the action, she had fired 1,345 rounds from her main battery and 1,172 shells from her secondary guns. Later in the day, she again closed with the beach to draw fire from shore guns, which were then engaged by American carrier planes.

On 16 June, Birmingham returned to the invasion beaches and joined the shore bombardment group that supported the ground forces as they went ashore. Birmingham shelled Japanese positions near an airfield as marines fought to secure it. By 09:00, her crew had begun coordinating with a ground-based fire control team, and the ship spent the rest of the day responding to fire support requests. Later that day, she was assigned to Task Unit 52.1.1, which spent the next two days bombarding Japanese positions on Saipan and neighboring Tinian. By that time, the US had received reports of a large scale Japanese counteroffensive approaching from the Philippines. Birmingham accordingly withdrew to replenish ammunition and stores from the attack cargo ship USS Alhena (AKA-9) before rejoining the fleet on 17 June.

The ship joined TG 58.3, which was centered on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) and the light carriers Princeton and USS San Jacinto (CVL-30). The fleet had positioned itself some 150 nmi to the west of the Marianas to protect the invasion force. Japanese patrol aircraft located the American fleet on the morning of 19 June and, in the ensuing Battle of the Philippine Sea, launched a series of air strikes, but American combat air patrols intercepted most of them before they reached the fleet. After shooting down hundreds of Japanese aircraft, the American aircraft launched strikes of their own against the Japanese carriers on 20 June and inflicted further losses on the Japanese fleet, including the sinking of the carrier JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Hiyō. The American aircraft arrived back at their carriers late in the evening and faced difficult night landings; Birmingham assisted by lighting signal smoke pots, and she also put life rafts to rescue pilots who had to ditch their aircraft at sea. The Americans pursued the retreating Japanese on 21 June, but were unable to catch them and returned to the Marianas.

Birmingham next left the fleet on 26 June in company with three destroyers to shell Japanese positions on Tinian, particularly in Tinian Town, the main settlement on the island. They also used white phosphorus shells to set fire to sugar cane fields near the town, and they sank five sampans in port. The Americans then withdrew to replenish ammunition before returning to Tinian the next day for further bombardments. Over the course of the day's shelling, the ships destroyed about seventy-five percent of Tinian Town and burned much of the surrounding farmland. Birmingham moved back to Saipan on 28 June and resumed gunfire support duties off Garapan, which she carried out for the next several days. These operations included destroying three Japanese tanks on 5 July. The next day, Birmingham returned to Tinian to resume attacks on that island through the day, before withdrawing later in the evening.

With Saipan under American control, the ship next joined the bombardment group covering the invasion of Guam on 21 July. She attacked Japanese positions on the island as American troops went ashore but encountered little return fire. On 23 July, she returned to Saipan to begin preparatory bombardments for the invasion of Tinian, which took place two days later. During the preparatory phase, Birmingham closed with the shore and used her 20 mm and 40 mm guns to attack Japanese trench lines. On the 25th, one of her spotter aircraft estimated that the ship had killed approximately 250 soldiers. She remained off Tinian through 1 August, bombarding Japanese forces as American troops fought to secure the island. In the course of operations during the campaign, Birmingham fired a total of 7,683 rounds from her main guns and 10,875 shells from her 5-inch guns. On 7 August, Birmingham got underway, bound for Eniwetok for maintenance and to replenish ammunition and stores in preparation for the next stage of the campaign.

She then joined TG 38.5, which sortied on 3 September to attack the Palau Islands in the western Carolines. She joined the screen for the carriers USS Essex (CV-9) and Lexington and the light carrier USS Langley (CVL-27), which carried out a series of air strikes on Anguar, Pelelieu, and Babeldaob between 6 and 7 September. These marked the beginning of preparatory attacks leading to the invasion of Pelelieu the following week. The Fast Carrier Task Force moved on to attack airfields in the southern Philippines, both to draw Japanese attention away from Palau and to neutralize aircraft that might interfere with the invasion. These attacks began on 9 September. During one of these raids, aircraft spotted a Japanese convoy of small coastal vessels off Mindanao; Birmingham, her sister USS Santa Fe (CL-60), and the destroyers USS Laws (DD-558), USS Longshaw (DD-559), USS Morrison (DD-560), and USS Pritchett (DD-561) were detached to intercept it. American aircraft helped direct the ships to their target, and in the course of the action, Birmingham sank three cargo ships, a large sampan, and a small motor boat, and she assisted in the destruction of eight smaller vessels. Birmingham and the rest of the ships returned to the carriers, which continued to strike targets in the Philippines through 12 September. During this period, Birmingham used one of her seaplanes to recover a downed pilot from the carrier USS Wasp (CV-18). The fleet returned to the Carolines for further strikes there, before resuming attacks on the Philippines later in September. On 27 September, the fleet withdrew to the Kossol Roads to refuel and replenish ammunition.

Philippines campaign

The fleet then moved north to its next staging ground at Ulithi, and Birmingham arrived there on 2 October. There, she was assigned to TG 38.3, which sortied the next day to carry out an attack on the Ryukyu Islands. This raid was intended to reduce Japanese forces in the region that might interfere with the planned invasion of Leyte in the Philippines. The Fast Carrier Task Force arrived off the Ryukyus on 10 October and inflicted significant damage to Japanese aircraft and installations on the islands. The following day, the carriers turned their attention to the island of Luzon in the Philippines, striking airfields there and then shifting once again to Formosa on 12 October. The Formosa Air Battle continued into the next day, which saw intense Japanese counterattacks that damaged the heavy cruiser USS Canberra (CA-70). Birmingham was among the vessels detached to cover the withdrawal of Canberra, which was towed by the heavy cruiser USS Wichita (CA-45). The carriers' combat air patrol kept Japanese aircraft at bay, but later that morning, Birmingham left the Canberra group to cover the withdrawal of her sister USS Houston (CL-81), which had also been badly damaged by a Japanese torpedo bomber. The ships were still retreating on 16 February when they came under attack once again; Birmingham shot down a Nakajima B6N torpedo bomber, but it had already hit Houston with another torpedo. Birmingham also assisted in the destruction of another B6N that had attempted to attack Santa Fe.

Birmingham left the withdrawing formation on 17 October and rejoined TG 38.3, where she refueled at sea from the oiler USS Tappahannock (AO-43). The Fast Carrier Task Force then covered the invasion of Leyte from 19 October, carrying out air strikes on various targets through the Philippines. Japanese air forces launched a series of counterattacks on 24 October, and during one of these, a Yokosuka D4Y dive bomber scored a hit on Princeton that caused serious damage and several large fires; Birmingham and the three destroyers Morrison, USS Gatling (DD-671) and USS Irwin (DD-794) remained with the stricken carrier after she fell out of formation. The destroyers initially attempted to come alongside and spray the burning carrier to help the ship's crew suppress the fires, but they repeatedly collided with Princeton in the heavy seas. Birmingham then came alongside instead, as her larger hull could better absorb collisions. She sent thirty-eight men and fourteen water hoses over to Princeton, and they helped the carrier's crew put out one of the two large fires.

Later in the day, Birmingham received reports of Japanese aircraft approaching, and around the same time, one of the destroyers reported detecting a submarine just 2000 yd away. Birmingham immediately pulled away from Princeton so she could evade any incoming attacks. Only one Japanese aircraft actually approached the formation, but it did not attack, and the submarine report was determined to have been a false alarm. Birmingham then returned alongside Princeton to resume firefighting, but at 15:22, just as she was coming back alongside Princeton, the fires reached the carrier's aft magazines, setting off a catastrophic explosion. The blast destroyed much of the carrier's stern, throwing debris all along Birmingham's starboard side and inflicting grave casualties among the cruiser's crew. Out of her crew of nearly 1,300, 241 men were killed, 211 were seriously wounded, and 201 received lighter injuries, more than half of the crew. The surviving crew began fighting several fires aboard Birmingham and treating the survivors, and then she broke off from the stricken carrier. Efforts continued aboard Princeton, but these ultimately proved futile, and Reno and Irwin scuttled her with torpedoes. Birmingham eventually arrived back at Mare Island in early November for repairs; during this period, she also received modifications to allow her to serve as a flagship. Her propulsion system was also overhauled, and she received all new 5- and 6-inch gun barrels, along with additional 20- and 40-millimeter gun mounts. Work on the ship was completed on 17 January 1945.

Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
After returning to service, Birmingham briefly cruised off San Francisco to calibrate her equipment, before moving to San Diego for combat practice on 24 January. Over the next week, her crew took part in anti-aircraft gunnery drills, practicing operating her seaplanes, and other exercises, before departing on 4 February to rejoin the fleet. She stopped briefly in Pearl Harbor on the way, and arrived at Saipan on 25 February to refuel. The following day, she reached the fleet off Iwo Jima, where the Battle of Iwo Jima was already in full swing. On 1 March, she joined the coastal bombardment force and began engaging Japanese targets on the island. She operated there for the next five days, during which time she destroyed Japanese defensive positions in support of a marine advance on 1 March, supported another offensive on the eastern side of the island on 3 March, and shelled Japanese held caves from a distance of 2550 yd on 4 March. By that time, the marines had secured the airfield on the southern end of the island.

On 5 March, the heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) replaced Birmingham in the shore bombardment unit, and the latter vessel departed for Ulithi. After arriving on 8 March, she began to make preparations for the planned attack on Okinawa. She and the rest of the invasion fleet sortied on 21 March for the Ryukyus, arriving off the island four days later. She took part in a preparatory bombardment on the morning of 25 March, she retired to cover minesweepers clearing paths for the invasion craft. The next day, she joined a bombardment group that consisted of the battleships USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS Nevada (BB-36), the light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49), and the heavy cruiser Wichita, along with escorting destroyers. The unit was stationed off the western coast of Okinawa to support American ground forces there, which had not yet gone ashore. The American commanders believed that the Japanese units on the island might attempt to board vessels in the invasion fleet, Birmingham distributed M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles to the 20 mm and 40 mm gun crews to defend against boarders.

On 26 March, numerous Japanese aircraft attacked the invasion fleet, and Birmingham's gunners contributed to the fleet's anti-aircraft defense. Later in the day, the bombardment group closed with the beaches to bombard Japanese defenses. Birmingham repeated these attacks in different sectors on 28 and 29 March, and also covered the operation of UDT units preparing the invasion beaches. The assault began on the morning of 1 April, and at 06:08, Birmingham opened fire on the target beaches. Shortly thereafter, a D3A bomber closed with the ship, but a 5-inch shell damaged the aircraft as it approached, slowing it so the 20 mm and 40 mm guns could take it under fire; the bomber exploded in mid-air some 50 yd from the ship. Following the preparatory bombardment, the amphibious assault vessels began to go ashore, and Birmingham transferred control of her guns to a fire direction party ashore; she spent the rest of the day responding to requests for fire support as the soldiers and marines fought their way inland.

The ship remained off the island for the next several days, and on 6 April, she helped repel a large-scale aerial attack, during which her gunners shot down a D3A bomber and assisted with the destruction of three D4Y bombers. Planned fire support duty was canceled the following day when the American fleet received reports that the large battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Yamato and several other vessels had sortied to attack the invasion fleet. Birmingham was among the vessels assembled to block the Japanese flotilla should it break through; she and two cruisers and ten destroyers took up a screening position on the right flank of the Allied fleet. At 19:11, Birmingham received news that American carrier aircraft had sunk Yamato, two light cruisers, and three destroyers, neutralizing the threat to the invasion beaches. She resumed bombardment duties the next day, remaining on station off the island until 12 April, when she was recalled to help defend the main fleet from a major Japanese air attack. During the action, her gunners claimed one Japanese aircraft.

Birmingham next moved to Iejima to conduct preparatory bombardments over the following three days before American forces landed on 16 April. The ship then withdrew to Kerama Retto to replenish ammunition and stores before returning to Okinawa to resume fire support missions there. These operations continued until 22 April, when she withdrew to Kerama Retto to take on more ammunition. She resumed bombarding Japanese positions on the island through the end of the month and into early May. These included attacks on the airfield at Naha to disrupt Japanese operations there. On 4 May, another major Japanese counterattack appeared, and at around 08:40, a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa kamikaze made a diving attack on Birmingham; the pilot approached from such a steep angle that only the 20 mm guns could elevate high enough to engage the aircraft, and they lacked the power to destroy the plane before it crashed into the ship. The blast destroyed the ship's sick bay, penetrated three deck levels, and tore a hole in the hull below the waterline on the starboard side. The resulting fires were quickly suppressed and seriously injured men were transferred to the hospital ship USS Mercy (AH-8). The kamikaze killed fifty-two men and wounded another eighty-two. Birmingham came alongside the salvage ship USS Shackle (ARS-9) for temporary repairs before departing for Guam on 5 May; she arrived there five days later, where she was dry-docked on 13 May.

End of the war and later career

On 21 May, Birmingham got underway to return to Pearl Harbor, arriving there seven days later. There, she was dry-docked at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 7 June for repair work that lasted for six weeks. She emerged from the shipyard on 22 July, after which she took on ammunition, fuel, and stores before embarking on combat training in Hawaiian waters in preparation to resume operations against Japan. She departed Pearl Harbor on 12 August and joined TG 12.3, which was steaming to Wake Island, where she was to shell the isolated Japanese garrison there to practice gunnery drills. Three days later, while still en route to Wake, the ships received word that Japan had surrendered, so the attack on the island was called off. Over the course of her wartime career, Birmingham was awarded eight battle stars. The ship headed to Eniwetok, which she reached on 19 August. She refueled there and continued on to Okinawa, arriving there on 26 August. She was initially ordered to sail for Kyushu to take part in the occupation of Japan, and she got underway on 7 September, but while on the way her orders were changed to send her south to the naval forces stationed in Australia and New Guinea.

Birmingham sailed south, passing through Leyte on 14 September to refuel, and continuing on until she reached Brisbane, Australia, on 23 September. There, she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Clifford E. Van Hook, the commander of US naval forces in Australia. She served in this capacity for the next five months, cruising between Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The ship eventually returned to San Francisco on 22 March 1946. On 2 April, she was moved to San Diego, where she was assigned to the 19th Fleet, to be prepared for decommissioning. On 16 October, she was assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Diego, and on 2 January 1947, she was formally decommissioned. She remained in the Navy's inventory for the next decade, ultimately being stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1959. Birmingham was then sold to the National Metals and Steel Corp. on 13 October to be broken up for scrap.

title: USS Birmingham (CL-62)