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In June 1945, the American cruiser USS Pittsburgh was in the middle of the Pacific when a typhoon tore off approximately 32 meters of its bow. The ship did not sink. The crew sealed the compartments, reinforced what remained of the hull, and sailed to Guam without the forward section of the vessel. The missing bow section was later found floating separately.It was the final phase of World War II.The U.S. Third Fleet was operating east of Okinawa, conducting attacks against Japanese airfields, when a tropical storm developed in the region. Meteorological information was imperfect, and various reports on the storm's position were contradictory.On June 5, 1945, several naval groups were caught in a typhoon.The winds reached hurricane force, and enormous waves battered the formations. Aircraft carriers suffered damage to their flight decks, planes were destroyed, and numerous ships were affected. The USS Pittsburgh (CA-72) took some of the worst hits.The violent waves began to deform its bow structure. The steel buckled until the section forward of approximately frame 26 completely broke off.About 104 feet, or 32 meters, of the ship was lost.The situation could have led to catastrophic flooding. However, the watertight measures taken before and during the storm contained the water. The crew reinforced the forward bulkhead while the officers used the engines to keep the surviving hull in a less vulnerable position against the waves.No crew members died.When the weather improved, the Pittsburgh set course for Guam under its own power.The photographs taken afterward are extraordinary. The cruiser appears to end abruptly in a massive wall of steel where the bow should have continued.And there was still one more detail.The torn-off section did not sink immediately. It was located afloat, recovered, and towed to Guam. The sailors humorously nicknamed it USS McKeesport, after a town near Pittsburgh. Official photographs exist of both the ship without its bow and the severed bow section being towed.The cruiser underwent temporary repairs and was later fitted with a new forward section.For a few days in the summer of 1945, there were, in a sense, two USS Pittsburghs: a massive cruiser sailing without its bow and its bow, still afloat, traveling separately to the same port.#usspittsburgh #NavalHistory #WorldWarII