After five hours of pounding by naval gunfire, aerial bombs, rockets and torpedoes, the heavy cruiser Salt Lake City today was sunk in 1800 fathoms, 130 miles southwest of here. [off San Clemente, CA.]

The sinking of the obsolete cruiser, a phase of First Task Fleet maneuvers, was the first training operation of its type since 1923, when bombers sank a battleship in the famed Billy Mitchell air power test.

The battle-scarred cruiser was a veteran of 31 Pacific war engagements and also survived the Bikini atom bomb tests. And it took the Navy's most powerful known weapon---a torpedo--to administer the "coup de grace" to the gallant fighting ship.

The rusted cruiser, 'still believed' to be radioactive from the Bikini tests and hence unusable for scrap, was towed to its final resting place from San Pedro this morning, and left adrift.

At 8:55 a.m., units of the task fleet opened fire on the target vessel. Several shots from four auxiliary vessels ripped into the superstructure of the Salt Lake City.

Then came waves of fighters and dive-bombers from the carriers Princeton, Boxer and Bodoeng Strait. Their light bombs and cannon fire burst brilliantly across the cruiser's decks.

Destroyers and heavy cruisers were next to attack. Firing from a distance of nearly nine miles, they scored several hits on the battered vessel. They were followed by several waves of dive-bombers and fighters firing rockets from low level. Still the cruiser would not sink.

At 1:33 p.m. the submarines, Entemedor and Blenny closed in for the kill. They fired their torpedoes individually. They first hit the cruiser at the bow. She listed steeply to port and began to settle forward.

The second torpedo, from the Blenny, exploded amidships. The stricken cruiser slowly capsized, reared clumsily astern, then vanished into the hissing foam.

Rear Admiral Bertram J. Rodgers, who was Captain of the cruiser at the battle of the Komandorskies, off Attu, said: "Today the Navy is doing what the Japs could not do---we are sinking our own ship. She has fulfilled her destiny.".

The Salt Lake City was built 19 years ago. She was a target in the Bikini Atom Bomb tests two years ago and was still radioactive. A tug towed her out from San Pedro for her final day at sea.