World War II
When Japan attacked her base on 7 December 1941, Minneapolis was at sea for gunnery practice about 20 mi (32 km) from Pearl Harbor. She immediately took up patrol until late January 1942 when she joined a carrier task force about to raid the Gilberts and Marshalls. While screening Lexington on 1 February, she helped turn back an air attack in which three Japanese Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" medium bombers were shot down. She screened the carriers during their successful raids on 20 February and again on 10 March, when they blasted Japanese shipping at Lae and Salamaua, disrupting enemy supply lines to those garrisons.
Read more about this topic: USS Minneapolis (CA-36)
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