USS Canberra, a 13,600 ton Baltimore class heavy cruiser, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. She was commissioned in mid-October 1943 and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, early in February 1944, in time to take part in the invasion of Eniwetok a few weeks later. During the next three months the new cruiser escorted aircraft carriers as they raided Japanese positions in the Central Pacific and supported landings on the north coast of New Guinea. In June Canberra participated in the assault on Saipan, and the resulting Battle of the Philippine sea. For the rest of the summer she continued her carrier screening operations as the Marianas Campaign was completed, more raids conducted closer to Japan, and U.S. forces stormed ashore in the Palaus and at Morotai.

In mid-October 1944 Canberra's task group raided Japanese air fields and other facilities on Okinawa and Formosa, in preparation for the forthcoming Leyte invasion. Japanese torpedo planes counterattacked and, during the evening of 13 October, she was hit by a torpedo that opened her hull amidships, bent a propeller shaft, and left her with both engine rooms and the after firerooms flooded. Though the ship's forward boiler rooms could still generate plenty of steam, her engines were completely out of action, and she was dead in the water less than a hundred miles from Formosa, a major enemy air base. Demonstrating masterful night-time seamanship, the heavy cruiser Wichita (CA-45) rigged a tow line and began to slowly pull the stricken Canberra out of range of hostile planes. The following night the light cruiser Houston (CL-81) was also hit and taken under tow. Despite more air attacks, which hit Houston again on 16 October, by month's end both crippled cruisers made it safely to the Navy advanced base at Ulithi. Canberra was later taken to Manus, where she was repaired enough to return to the U.S. under her own power.

Completely refurbished at the Boston Navy Yard between February and October 1945, Canberra served in the West Coast area from late 1945 until March 1947, when she was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Bremerton, Washington. Nearly five years later, in January 1952, she was reclassified as a guided-missile heavy cruiser, with the new hull number CAG-2. She was then towed to Camden, New Jersey, for conversion work that lasted well into 1956.