[4] Following a shakedown cruise to Cuba and Haiti in the spring, Savannah returned to Philadelphia on 3 June for alterations followed by final trials off Rockland, Maine.

This cruiser, prepared to protect American nationals should war break out in Europe, steamed out from Philadelphia bound for England on 26 September, and she reached Portsmouth on 4 October.

[4] As the flagship of Cruiser Division 8 (CruDiv 8), Savannah conducted Neutrality Patrols in waters ranging south to Cuba and back up the seaboard to the Virginia Capes.

[4] Savannah became a unit of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt's Western Naval Task Force which would land some 35,000 Army troops and 250 tanks at three different points on the Atlantic coast of French Morocco.

As part of the Northern Attack Group, commanded by Rear Admiral Monroe Kelly, Savannah departed from Norfolk on 24 October 1942, and then rendezvoused with the Western Naval Task Force four days later at a point about 450 mi (720 km) south southeast of Cape Race.

The Task Force, including the outer screen, covered an area approximately 20-30 mi (30–50 km), making it the greatest warship fleet to be sent out by the United States up to that time.

Shortly before midnight on the night of 7 – 8 November 1942, three separate task groups closed in on three different points on the Moroccan coast to begin Operation Torch.

[4] Savannah's Northern Attack Group was to land Brigadier General Lucian K. Truscott's 9,099 officers and men, including 65 light tanks, on five widely separated beaches on either side of Mehedia.

[4] During that same day, Savannah's scout planes started a new phase of warfare by successfully bombing some tank columns with their depth charges, whose fuses had been set to detonate on impact.

After brief repairs following her combat missions, at New York City, Savannah steamed on 25 December to join the U.S. Navy's South Atlantic Patrol, arriving at Recife, Brazil, on 7 January 1943.

Teamed with the new U.S. Navy escort carrier Santee, plus a screen of destroyers, Savannah put to sea on 12 January 1943 on a long patrol that resulted in no combat with the enemy.

[4] Kota Tjandi, a former Dutch ship called Karin by her Kriegsmarine crew, was brought to a halt by shots fired across her bow by the two American warships.

The cliffy coast there was topped by heavy coastal defense batteries, and no landing place could be found besides a 5,000 yd (4,600 m) stretch of shore about 1 mi (2 km) east of the mouth of the Gela River.

Poised on the plateau above the beach was the Luftwaffe's Hermann Göring Division, ready to strike back against any amphibious landing,[4] along with other German and Italian troops.

Savannah destroyed more tanks later in the afternoon, however, and next she finished out the remaining hours of daylight by helping the Army Rangers in repelling an Italian infantry attack.

That day, Savannah's doctors and hospital corpsmen also gave medical care to 41 wounded infantrymen, while the warship bombarded enemy troop concentrations far inland, and also shelled their artillery batteries high in the hills.

On 30 July, carrying the pennant of Rear Admiral Lyal A. Davidson, Savannah arrived at Palermo Harbor on the north coast of Sicily to provide daily fire support.

On 8 August, her task force supported the landing of the 30th Regimental Combat Team, including army artillery and tanks, on a beach nine miles east of Monte Fratello.

[4] Savannah returned to Algiers on 10 August 1943 in order to train with U.S. Army troops for the Operation Avalanche amphibious landings to be made at Salerno, Italy.

USAAF P-38 Lightnings and Savannah's anti-aircraft gunners, tracking this warplane at 18,700 ft (5,700 m), failed to stop the Fritz X bomb, trailing a stream of smoke.

3 gun turret, passed through three decks into the lower ammunition-handling room, where it exploded, blowing a hole in her keel and tearing a seam in the cruiser's port side.

[4] After emergency repairs were completed, Savannah departed Malta on 7 December 1943, bound for the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard by way of Tunis, Algiers, and Bermuda.

[4] After a visit to New York and installation of radar-guided fire control equipment for her 40 mm anti-aircraft guns, Savannah became the flagship of a midshipmen's training squadron under Rear Admiral Frank E. Beatty.

[4] One of two Brooklyn-class cruisers modernized with bulges, twin 5in/38 guns and Mark 37 directors, she was retained by the USN when most of her surviving sister ships were sold to South American navies.

[citation needed] Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1959, and she was sold for scrapping on 6 January 1960 to the Bethlehem Steel Company.

[12][13] The museum subsequently maintained an online tribute, Battle Voices – Salerno, Italy 1943, that included photographs, a newsreel, the ship's Muster Roll, and quotations from crew members, war correspondents, and Savannah's General Quarters Narrative.

[12] In late 2018, on the 75th anniversary of the Salerno landing, the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah provided a commemoration display titled "An Irregular Morning", including newsreel cuts and surviving artifacts.