On display April 9, 2026, through February 14, 2027, in the Joe W. and Dorothy D. Brown Foundation Special Exhibit Gallery 

The National WWII Museum’s new original special exhibit, Come Back Fighting: USS New Orleans at War, follows the prolific history and remarkable resilience of the decorated heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) and her veteran crew that mirror the indomitable spirit of her namesake city.

Exploring the US Navy warship’s short but accomplished career, the exhibit examines the vessel’s triumphs and tragedies—from her prewar commission to her participation in nearly every major campaign of the Pacific war—as well as her crew’s creativity, improvisation, and determination to save their ship after the devastating attack that cost the New Orleans her bow and claimed more than 180 lives. 

Come Back Fighting features artifacts from the Museum’s collection, including uniforms, photographs, and souvenirs, as well as archival newsreels, oral histories from former crewmembers, and music recorded by the Victory Belles. An interactive installation traces the ship’s evolution over the course of World War II, and a six-foot-long scale model offers a look at the cruiser’s structural details.

The USS New Orleans (CA-32) steams through a tight turn in Elliot Bay, Washington, on July 30, 1943, following battle damage repairs and overhaul at the Puget Sound Navy Yard. Photograph courtesy US Navy.

Christened at Brooklyn Navy Yard with water from the Mississippi River in 1933, the USS New Orleans was among the last US cruisers built to the specifications of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, weighing less than 10,000 tons but heavily armed.  

Her career before World War II included voyages to Europe, South America, and the US territories of Alaska and Hawaii, as well as visits to her namesake city. The exhibit follows the New Orleans’ prewar path around the world as the vessel—also known as “NO Boat” —became home to roughly a thousand crewmembers for months at a time, and as uninitiated “Pollywog” sailors became seasoned “Shellbacks” with each crossing of the equator.

In late 1939, the New Orleans settled at Pearl Harbor; the rest of the US Pacific Fleet would soon follow as relations with Japan began to sour. The cruiser was undergoing repairs there when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941. Without steam or shore power, her crew was forced to work their antiaircraft guns manually. As sailors hauled ammunition up ladders, the ship’s chaplain, Lieutenant Howell M. Forgy, shouted, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!” The exhibit features Forgy’s story and artifacts highlighting the cheer’s evolution into a popular patriotic song and a rallying cry of the tumultuous Pacific war.  

Escaping the Japanese attack largely unscathed, the heavily armed USS New Orleans served in numerous Pacific battles throughout 1942. At Coral Sea, Midway, and the Solomon Islands, the cruiser escorted, protected, and even rescued American aircraft carriers and their crewmembers, witnessing some of the most consequential naval battles that would change the course of the war in the Pacific.

Bow-less and flooding after the explosion, New Orleans was heroically saved by damage control crew members, who stayed at their posts and saved their ship but not themselves. The ship limped back to the nearby Tulagi harbor, where, using coconut logs, the crew was able to stabilize the ship well enough to sail backward to the United States for permanent repairs. US National Archives

But tragedy would strike the New Orleans on November 30, 1942, off Guadalcanal’s Tassafaronga Point. Hit by a Japanese torpedo, more than 180 sailors were killed as “NO Boat’s” bow was cleaved completely free from the rest of the warship. Surviving crewmembers rallied to patch up the vessel with hardwood logs for a voyage out of the war zone. Among the rare artifacts displayed in Come Back Fighting are a handful of fire-scorched pocket change found strewn over the ship’s decks during the battle and a souvenir slice of wood used to strengthen the battered cruiser during her run, sometime stern first, to safety in Australia.

A year and a new bow later, the USS New Orleans was back in the Pacific in October 1943, pummeling targets at Wake Island with her eight- and five-inch guns. In the months after, the vessel crisscrossed the Pacific, most often leveraged to hammer the next stepping stone in America’s island-hopping campaign: the Gilberts, the Marshalls, the Marianas, the Philippines, and Okinawa. “NO Boat” was in the Philippines when the war ended in August 1945 before hastily dispatching to ports in China to secure Japanese warships. She later brought a large complement of homesick servicemembers home from the island of Guam as part of Operation Magic Carpet.  

In 1946, after dropping off soldiers in San Francisco, the New Orleans crossed through the Panama Canal and arrived at the City of New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras—the first large-scale Carnival celebration since 1941.

The ship was sold for scrap in 1959, seemingly ending the story of one of the most decorated and famous WWII vessels in the Pacific. But in 2025, the original bow of the USS New Orleans was discovered off Guadalcanal at Ironbottom Sound, the site of five major WWII naval battles and the wreckage of many warships. The sunken bow represents the largest surviving piece of the veteran vessel—and marks the final resting place for many of her sailors lost on the night of November 30, 1942.  

Despite being wounded in combat half a dozen times, the USS New Orleans and her crew refused to ever give up. Come Back Fighting showcases their dogged determination and famous Crescent City spirit that refused to be dampened—come hell and high water.

This exhibit is supported by The Toler Foundation.