World War II in the Pacific |
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Anti-Aircraft Cruisers
Four ships were authorized in 1940 to mount the dual purpose 5"/38 gun. The Atlanta Class had eight double turrets, three stepped forward, three stepped aft and one on each side, midships. These were very light cruisers, 6,000 tons, whereas other WW2 light cruisers were 10,000 tons and heavy cruisers were 13,600 tons. The Atlanta Class turned out to be top heavy and the next two classes of anti-aircraft cruisers did not had the two midship turrets. The third batch also had the four middle turrets lowered one deck to further reduce the center of buoyancy.The needs of war required that Atlanta (CL-51) and Juneau (CL-52) participate in the night action of First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in which Atlanta sank the next day from damage and the damaged Juneau was torpedoed during the withdrawal and when down in seconds. San Diego (CL-53) provided protection to Enterprise (CV-6) during that three day battle. San Diego went on earn 15 battle stars and was the first USN ship to enter Tokyo Bay on 27Aug45. San Juan (CL-54) was escorting Saratoga (CV-3) to the South Pacific during that battle. Damaged twice early in the war, San Juan finished the war with 13 battle stars and also entered Tokyo Bay 27Aug45.
The second batch of anti-aircraft cruisers, the Oakland Class, arrived about two years later with six dual 5"/38 turrets and many 40mm and 20mm : Oakland (CL-95), Reno (CL-96), Flint (CL-97), and Tucson (CL-98). The proved handy with Kamikazes in the last months of the war.
The third batch, the Juneau Class, continued with six dual 5"/38 turrets, but with four of the turrets lowered one deck, 24- 40mm guns, and no torpedo tubes. These were commissioned in 1946 : Juneau II (CL-119), Spokane II (CL-120) and Fresno (CL-121).
Battle Cruisers
The large cruisers, Alaska (CB-1) and Guam (CB-2), were intended to be "cruiser killers" to outgun the Japanese 8" cruiser with a larger ship with 12" guns, yet was still be smaller, faster and cheaper than a full sized battleship. The thought was to use them as convoy escorts to defeat raids by Japanese heavy cruisers. The Japanese never used their cruisers as convoy raiders.The battle cruiser as a class had not fared well in WWI where, on the battle line, they were shown to be more vulnerable to damage than a battleship and without sufficient weight of broadside to sink enemy battleships. As an extra heavy cruiser, they have been incipiently fast to chase down other cruisers.
Alaska and Guam arrived on the scene in 1945 after the Japanese battle fleet had been destroyed. They had sufficient speed to keep up with the fast carrier task force, conduct anti-shipping sweeps in the East China Sea, and they were used for shore bombardment. There armor and anti-aircraft guns were useful during the Kamikaze attacks towards the end of the war.
Montana Class Battleships
. The five ships of the Montana class were designed to confront the Japanese Yamata Class superbattleships. When it became apparent that carriers were more important than battleships, the Montana's were canceled so that shipyard capacity could produce more Essex class fleet carriers. The Montanas were to be an extension of the Iowa Class, larger, 45,000 tons vs. 35,000, they were to carry a forth triple turret making 12- 16" guns vs 9- 18" guns of the Japanese: weight of broadsides was about the same. The Montanas were wider, they would not fit through the Panama Canal, much more heavy armored, able to survive hits, and somewhat slower. The Iowa Class, designed to escort fleet carriers, remained the fastest battleships ever built.Return to: WW2 Menu
About this page: ShipNote - Notes about some of the ship classes in World War II, Pacific War, the early years.
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