Alaska-class cruiser
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The ''Alaska'' class were six very large cruisers ordered before
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
for the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, of which only two were completed and saw service late in the war. The US Navy designation for the ships of this class was 'large cruiser' (CB) and the majority of leading reference works consider them as such. However, various other works have alternately described these ships as battlecruisers despite the US Navy having never classified them as such. The Alaskas were all named after territories or
insular area In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three so ...
s of the United States, signifying their intermediate status between larger
battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
s and smaller
heavy Heavy may refer to: Measures * Heavy (aeronautics), a term used by pilots and air traffic controllers to refer to aircraft capable of 300,000 lbs or more takeoff weight * Heavy, a characterization of objects with substantial weight * Heavy, ...
and
light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
s. The idea for a large cruiser class originated in the early 1930s when the U.S. Navy sought to counter the "
pocket battleship The ''Deutschland'' class was a series of three ''Panzerschiffe'' (armored ships), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the ''Reichsmarine'' officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The ships of the cl ...
s" being launched by Germany. Planning for ships that eventually evolved into the ''Alaska'' class began in the late 1930s after the deployment of Germany's s and rumors that Japan was constructing a new large cruiser class, the B-65 cruiser.Worth, 305. To serve as "cruiser-killers" capable of seeking out and destroying these post-
treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations An international organization or international o ...
heavy cruisers, the class was given large guns of a new and expensive design, limited armor protection against 12-inch shells, and machinery capable of speeds of about . Of the six planned, ''USS '' and ''USS '' were the only two to be completed; a third (''USS Hawaii'') which was still building at the war's end had its construction suspended on 16 April 1947 and the last three were cancelled. ''Alaska'' and ''Guam'' served with the U.S. Navy for the last year of World War II as bombardment ships and fast carrier escorts. They were decommissioned in 1947 after spending only 32 and 29 months in service, respectively.


Background

Heavy cruiser development formalized between World War I and World War II due to the terms of the
Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...
and successor treaties and conferences, where the United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy agreed to limit
heavy cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...
s to 10,000 tons
displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
with 8-inch main armament. Up until the ''Alaska'' class, US cruisers designed between the wars followed this pattern. The initial impetus for the ''Alaska'' design came from the deployments of Germany's so-called
pocket battleships The ''Deutschland'' class was a series of three ''Panzerschiffe'' (armored ships), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the ''Reichsmarine'' officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The ships of the c ...
in the early 1930s. Though no actions were immediately taken, these thoughts were revived in the late 1930s when intelligence reports indicated Japan was planning or building "super cruisers" of the B-65 class that would be much more powerful than the current US heavy cruisers.Scarpaci, 17. The navy responded in 1938 when the
General Board The General Board of the United States Navy was an advisory body of the United States Navy, somewhat akin to a naval general staff and somewhat not. The General Board was established by general order 544, issued on March 13, 1900 by Secretary ...
asked the
Bureau of Construction and Repair The Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) was the part of the United States Navy which from 1862 to 1940 was responsible for supervising the design, construction, conversion, procurement, maintenance, and repair of ships and other craft for the ...
to conduct a "comprehensive study of all types of naval vessels for consideration for a new and expanded building program".Dulin and Garzke, 189. The US president at the time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, may have taken a lead role in the development of the class with his desire to have a counter to raiding abilities of Japanese cruisers and German pocket battleships. While these claims are difficult to verify,Morison and Polmar, 85. others have speculated that their design was "politically motivated" rather than strategic.


Design

One historian described the design process of the ''Alaska'' class as "torturous" due to the numerous changes and modifications made to the ship's layouts by numerous departments and individuals. Indeed, there were at least nine different layouts, ranging from 6,000-ton anti-aircraft cruisers to "overgrown" heavy cruisers and a 38,000-ton mini-
battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
that would have been armed with twelve 12-inch and sixteen 5-inch guns.Dulin and Garzke, 179. The General Board, in an attempt to keep the displacement under 25,000 tons, allowed the designs to offer only limited underwater protection such that they were vulnerable, by comparison with a battleship, to torpedoes and to shells that fell short of the ship.Dulin and Garzke, 183. The final design was a scaled-up that had the same machinery as the s. This ship combined a main armament of nine 12-inch guns with protection against 10-inch gunfire into a hull that was capable of . The ''Alaska''s were officially funded in September 1940 along with a plethora of other ships as a part of the
Two-Ocean Navy Act The Two-Ocean Navy Act, also known as the Vinson-Walsh Act, was a United States law enacted on July 19, 1940, and named for Carl Vinson and David I. Walsh, who chaired the Naval Affairs Committee in the House and Senate respectively. The largest ...
.Rohwer, 40. Their role had been altered slightly: in addition to their surface-to-surface role, they were planned to protect carrier groups. This carrier escort capability was favored by Admiral King. Because of their bigger guns, greater size and increased speed, they would be more valuable in this role than heavy cruisers, and would provide insurance against reports that Japan was building super cruisers more powerful than the American heavy cruisers. The escort concept would also free the few existing heavy cruisers for scouting (their original purpose).


Possible conversion to aircraft carriers

Yet another drastic change was considered during the "carrier panic" in late 1941, when the US Navy realized that they needed more
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
s as quickly as possible. Many hulls currently under construction were considered for conversion into carriers. At different times, they considered some or all of the
light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
s, the
heavy cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...
s, the ''Alaska'' class, and even one of the s; in the end, they chose the ''Cleveland''s,Friedman, 190. resulting in the conversion of nine ships under construction at the
New York Shipbuilding Corporation The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United ...
shipyard as the light aircraft carriers comprising the . A conversion of the ''Alaska'' cruisers to carriers was "particularly attractive" because of the many similarities between the design of the s and the ''Alaska'' class, including the same machinery.Fitzsimons, Volume 1, 58. However, when ''Alaska'' cruisers were compared to the ''Essex'' carriers, converted cruisers would have had a shorter flight deck (so they could carry only 90% of the aircraft), would have been lower in the water, and could travel less at . In addition, the large cruiser design did not include the extensive underwater protections found in normal carriers due to the armor weight devoted to counter shell fire. Lastly, an ''Alaska'' conversion could not satisfy the navy's goal of having new aircraft carriers quickly, as the work needed to modify the ships into carriers would entail long delays. With this in mind, all planning to convert the ''Alaska''s was abandoned on 7 January 1942.Friedman, 191.


Construction

Of the six ''Alaska''-class cruisers that were planned, only three were laid down. The first two, and , were completed by the
New York Shipbuilding Corporation The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United ...
. Construction of , the third, was suspended on 16 April 1947 when she was 84% complete. The last three, ''Philippines'', ''Puerto Rico'', and ''Samoa'', were delayed since all available materials and slipways were allocated to higher priority ships, such as aircraft carriers,
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
s, and
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s. Construction had still not begun when steel shortages and a realization that these "cruiser-killers" had no more cruisers to hunt—as the fleets of Japanese cruisers had already been defeated by aircraft and submarines—made the ships " white elephants". As a result, construction of the last three members of the class never began, and they were officially cancelled on 24 June 1943.


Service history

and served with the U.S. Navy during the last year of World War II, forming Cruiser Division 16 commanded by Rear Admiral Francis S. Low, USN.. Similar to the
fast battleship A fast battleship was a battleship which emphasised speed without – in concept – undue compromise of either armor or armament. Most of the early World War I-era dreadnought battleships were typically built with low design speeds, s ...
s, their firepower was useful in
shore bombardment Naval gunfire support (NGFS) (also known as shore bombardment) is the use of naval artillery to provide fire support for amphibious assault and other troops operating within their range. NGFS is one of a number of disciplines encompassed by th ...
, and their speed made them excellent fast carrier escorts, a role for which the two had become celebrated within the fleet by the war's end. Both ''Alaska'' and ''Guam'' protected when she was on her way to be repaired in Guam after being hit by two Japanese bombs. Afterward, ''Alaska'' supported the landings on Okinawa, while ''Guam'' went to San Pedro Bay to become the leader of a new task force, Cruiser
Task Force 95 Task Force 95 was a United States Navy force of World War II. It was established at Okinawa in July 1945 and conducted three operations into the East China Sea before the end of the war in mid-August that year. Task Force 95 was active as late as N ...
, under the overall command of Vice Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf. ''Guam'', joined by ''Alaska'', four light cruisers, and nine destroyers, led the task force into the
East China East China () is a geographical and a loosely defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China. A concept abolished in 1978, for economical purposes the region was defined from 1949 to 1961 by the Chinese Central Governme ...
and
Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour ter ...
s to conduct raids upon shipping; however, they encountered only Chinese junks. After the war, both ships served as part of Task Force 71, the designation for the
U.S. Seventh Fleet The Seventh Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. It is headquartered at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of th ...
's North China Naval Force. Its mission was to support the allied occupation of the Korean peninsula. This included executing various show-the-flag operations along the western coast of Korea as well as in the
Gulf of Chihli The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of a ...
. These naval demonstrations preceded Operation Campus, the amphibious landing of U.S. Army ground forces at
Jinsen Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...
, Korea, on 8 September 1945. Subsequently, both ships returned to the United States in mid-December 1945, and they were decommissioned and " mothballed" in 1947, after having spent 32 months (''Alaska'') and 29 months (''Guam'') in service. In 1958, the Bureau of Ships prepared two feasibility studies to explore whether ''Alaska'' and ''Guam'' could be suitably converted into
guided-missile cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...
s. The first study involved removing all of the guns in favor of four different missile systems. At $160 million, the cost of this proposed removal was seen as prohibitive, so a second study was initiated. The study left the forward batteries (the two 12-inch triple turrets and three of the 5-inch dual turrets) unchanged, and added a reduced version of the first plan on the stern of the ship. Even though the proposals would have cost approximately half as much as the first study's plan ($82 million), it was still seen as too expensive.Dulin and Garzke 187. As a result, both ships were stricken from the
Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...
on 1 June 1960. ''Alaska'' was sold for scrap on 30 June 1960, and ''Guam'' on 24 May 1961. The still-incomplete was considered for a conversion to be the Navy's first guided-missile cruiser; this thought lasted until 26 February 1952, when a different conversion to a " large command ship" was contemplated. In anticipation of the conversion, her classification was changed to CBC-1. This would have made her a "larger sister" to , but a year and a half later (9 October 1954) she was re-designated CB-3. ''Hawaii'' was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 9 June 1958 and was sold for scrap in 1959.


"Large cruisers" or "battlecruisers"

The ''Alaska'' class, along with the Dutch
Design 1047 battlecruiser Design 1047, also known as Project 1047,Noot (1980), p. 257 was a series of plans for a class of Dutch battlecruisers prior to the Second World War. These large capital ships were intended to counter the threat posed by Japanese aggression toward ...
and the Japanese
Design B-65 cruiser Design B-65 was a class of Super Type A cruisersAccording to ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946'', p. 178, the Japanese classified Super Type A cruisers as heavy cruisers; however, Garzke and Dulin assert in ''Battleships: Axi ...
, were specifically to counter the heavy cruisers being built by their naval rivals. All three have been described as "super cruisers", "large cruisers" or even "unrestricted cruisers", with some advocating that they even be considered as battlecruisers, however, they were ''never'' officially classified as capital ships, as that designation was reserved for true battlecruisers and battleships. Early in its development, the class used the US battlecruiser designation CC, which had been planned for the . However, the designation was changed to CB to reflect their new status, "large cruiser", and the practice of referring to them as battlecruisers was officially discouraged. The U.S. Navy then named the individual vessels after
U.S. territories Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and tribal reservations as they are not sover ...
, rather than states (as was the tradition with battleships) or cities (for which cruisers were traditionally named), to symbolize the belief that these ships were supposed to play an intermediate role between heavy cruisers and fully-fledged battleships. The ''Alaska'' class certainly resembled contemporary US battleships (particularly the , , and ) in appearance, including the familiar 2-A-1 main battery and massive columnar mast. Their displacement was twice that of the newest heavy cruisers (the ),Morison, Morison and Polmar, 84. being only 5,000 tons less than the Washington Treaty's battleship standard displacement limit of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) (unchanged through the final naval treaty, the London Treaty of 1936). They were also longer than several treaty battleships such as the and ''North Carolina'' class. In overall terms, the design of the ''Alaska'' class was scaled up from that of the (themselves the first cruisers in the US Navy to be designed without the limitations of the London Naval Treaty, and exceeding 10,000 tons standard displacement). The armor scheme of the ''Alaska''s was deemed sufficient to provide protection against not only 8″ heavy cruiser shells but even the larger 11″ shells used by Germany's "pocket battleships" and -class battleships. However, they lacked the comprehensive underwater protection systems found on the larger US battleships or even on smaller, earlier battleships like the French and German ''Scharnhorst'' classes. Thus, the ''Alaska''s were potentially as vulnerable to torpedoes as a heavy cruiser was, as well as to effects from near-misses and 'shorts'. In addition, despite being much larger than the ''Baltimore'' class, the secondary battery of the ''Alaska''s was identical, with an improvement in light anti-aircraft battery size. Whereas the ''Alaska'' class carried twelve 5"/38 caliber in six twin turrets, fifty-six 40 mm, and thirty-four 20 mm guns, the ''Baltimore'' class carried the same number of 5"/38s, eight fewer 40 mm, and ten fewer 20 mm, considerably fewer than new U.S. battleships that had ten (save for ) 5"/38 twin mounts while older refitted U.S. battleships had eight. The dearth of anti-aircraft weaponry for a ship of its size was attributed to the amidships aircraft catapult like older US cruisers; while other modern U.S. cruisers and battleships opted for stern-mounted aircraft catapults to free up space along the central superstructure for more secondaries and anti-aircraft guns. In common with U.S. heavy cruisers, they had aircraft hangars and a single large rudder; the single rudder combined with the hull's long length gave the ''Alaska''s a turning radius of , which exceeded the turning circles of larger battleships and carriers in the U.S. Navy. Author Richard Worth remarked that when they were finally completed, launched, and commissioned, they had the "size of a battleship but the capabilities of a cruiser". The ''Alaska'' class was similarly expensive to build and maintain as contemporary battleships, yet far less capable due to armor deficiencies, while able to put up an anti-aircraft defense comparable only to the much cheaper ''Baltimore'' cruisers. Despite these cruiser-like characteristics, and the U.S. Navy's insistence on their status as cruisers, the ''Alaska'' class has been frequently described as battlecruisers. The official navy magazine ''
All Hands ''All Hands'' was a monthly published magazine of the United States Navy for its sailors. It had been published since August 1922 under different names; the current title was established in 1945. Its last issue was published on December 2011, alt ...
'' said "The ''Guam'' and her sister ship ''Alaska'' are the first American battle cruisers ever to be completed as such." Author Chris Knupp noted that while "other nations fulfilled the battlecruiser role by designing vessels like battleships, but stripped of armor and other features to gain speed", the United States "fulfilled the battlecruiser role by creating a larger, more powerful heavy cruiser... hosedesign already offered less armor and higher speed, but by enlarging the ship they gained the heavier firepower". The ''Alaska''s percentage of armor tonnage, 28.4%, was slightly less than that of
fast battleship A fast battleship was a battleship which emphasised speed without – in concept – undue compromise of either armor or armament. Most of the early World War I-era dreadnought battleships were typically built with low design speeds, s ...
s; the British ''King George V'' class, the American ''Iowa'' class, and the battlecruiser/fast battleship all had armor percentages between 32 and 33%, whereas the ''Lexington''-class battlecruiser design had a nearly identical armor percentage of 28.5%. In fact, older battlecruisers, such as (19.9%), had a significantly lower percentage. Armament-wise, they had much larger guns than contemporary heavy cruisers; while the ''Baltimore'' class only carried nine 8"/55 caliber Marks 12 and 15 guns, the ''Alaska'' class carried nine 12"/50 caliber guns that were as good as, if not superior to, the old 14"/50 caliber gun used on the U.S. Navy's pre-treaty battleships.


Armament


Main battery

As built, the ''Alaska'' class had nine 12"/50 caliber Mark 8 guns mounted in three triple (3-gun) turrets, with two turrets forward and one aft, a configuration known as "2-A-1". The previous 12" gun manufactured for the U.S. Navy was the Mark 7 version, which had been designed for and installed in the 1912 s. The Mark 8 was of considerably higher quality; in fact, it "was by far the most powerful weapon of its caliber ever placed in service". Designed in 1939, it weighed including the
breech Breech may refer to: * Breech (firearms), the opening at the rear of a gun barrel where the cartridge is inserted in a breech-loading weapon * breech, the lower part of a pulley block * breech, the penetration of a boiler where exhaust gases leav ...
, and could sustain an average rate of fire of 2.4–3 rounds a minute. It could throw a Mark 18
armor-piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many wars ...
shell at an elevation of 45°, and had a 344-shot barrel life (about 54 more than the much larger but similar 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 gun found on the ''Iowa'' battleships.). The ''Alaska''s Mark 8 guns were the heaviest main battery of any cruiser of World War II, and as capable as the old 14"/45 caliber gun used on the U.S. Navy's pre-treaty battleships. The turrets were very similar to those of the ''Iowa''-class battleships, but differed in several ways; for example, the ''Alaska'' class had a two-stage powder hoist instead of the ''Iowa'' class's one-stage hoist. These differences made operating the guns safer and increased the rate of fire. In addition, a "projectile rammer" was added to ''Alaska'' and ''Guam''. This machine transferred shells from storage on the ship to the rotating ring that fed the guns. However, this feature proved unsatisfactory, and it was not planned for ''Hawaii'' or any subsequent ships. Because ''Alaska'' and ''Guam'' were the only two ships to mount these guns, only ten turrets were made during the war (three for each ship including ''Hawaii'' and one spare). They cost $1,550,000 each and were the most expensive heavy guns purchased by the U.S. Navy in World War II.


Secondary battery

The secondary battery of the ''Alaska'' class was composed of twelve dual-purpose (anti-air and anti-ship) 5"/38 caliber guns in twin mounts, with four offset on each side of the superstructure (two on each beam) and two centerline turrets fore and aft. The 5"/38 was originally intended for use on only
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
s built in the 1930s, but by 1934 and into World War II it was being installed on almost all of the U.S.'s major warships, including aircraft carriers, battleships, and heavy and light cruisers.


Anti-aircraft battery

Medium anti-aircraft armament (a key component of area air defence within a Task Group) on the ''Alaska''-class ships was 56 x 40mm
Bofors gun AB Bofors ( , , ) is a former Swedish arms manufacturer which today is part of the British arms concern BAE Systems. The name has been associated with the iron industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years. History Located i ...
s and for close-in air defence they carried 34 × 20 mm guns. These numbers may be compared with; 48 × 40 mm and 24 × 20 mm on the smaller ''Baltimore''-class heavy cruisers, 60 x 40 mm and 36 x 20 mm on the larger battleship ''North Carolina'' at the end of the war, and 80 × 40 mm and 49 × 20 mm on the even larger ''Iowa''-class battleships.


Ships in class

* was commissioned on 17 June 1944. She served in the Pacific, screening aircraft carriers, providing shore bombardment at
Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...
, and going on raiding missions in the East China Sea. She was decommissioned on 17 February 1947 after less than three years of service and was scrapped in 1960. * was commissioned on 17 September 1944. She served in the Pacific with ''Alaska'' on almost all of the same operations. Along with ''Alaska'', she was decommissioned on 17 February 1947 and was scrapped in 1961. * was intended as a third ship of the class, but she was never completed. Numerous plans to utilize her as a guided-missile cruiser or a large
command ship Command ships serve as the flagships of the commander of a fleet. They provide communications, office space, and accommodations for a fleet commander and their staff, and serve to coordinate fleet activities. An auxiliary command ship features ...
in the years after the war were fruitless, and she was scrapped. * USS ''Philippines'' (CB-4), ''Puerto Rico'' (CB-5), and ''Samoa'' (CB-6) were planned as the fourth, fifth, and sixth ships of the class, respectively. All three ships were to be built at
Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...
, but they were cancelled before construction could begin.


See also

*
Design B-65 cruiser Design B-65 was a class of Super Type A cruisersAccording to ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946'', p. 178, the Japanese classified Super Type A cruisers as heavy cruisers; however, Garzke and Dulin assert in ''Battleships: Axi ...
*
List of cruisers of the United States Navy This list of cruisers of the United States Navy includes all ships that were ever called "cruiser", either publicly or in internal documentation. The Navy has 17 cruisers in active service, as of 29 September 2022, with the last tentatively s ...
*
List of ship classes of the Second World War The List of ship classes of World War II is an alphabetical list of all ship classes that served in World War II. Only actual classes are included as opposed to unique ships (which are still included if they were the only one of a class to be buil ...
* ''Stalingrad''-class battlecruiser


Footnotes


Citations


References

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External links





From U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence recognition manual ONI 200, issued 1 July 1950
Detailed video discussion of the ''Alaska'' Class Cruiser
{{WWII US ships Battlecruiser classes Cruiser classes New York Shipbuilding Corporation