… The arrow was approaching 10 pm, but the cruiser continued the senseless battle. He shot and shot, as if he was afraid not to be in time. He shot for himself, for all cruisers of his type, for the entire class of heavy cruisers going down in history. Lightning up and shaking the Konwondo coastline with flashes in an attempt to convince everyone that he and his brethren were not built in vain.
Half a minute before the onset of the official truce, at 21 hours 59 minutes. In 27 seconds, Saint Paul fired the last round, autographed by the US admirals. Then he withdrew from the position and walked away at full speed to the east.
He met the dawn on the high seas, moving farther and farther from the war-torn Korean Peninsula.
It was not he who fought this war, but he was honored to end it. Just like eight years ago, when Saint Paul fired its last salvo along the coast of Japan, putting an end to the use of naval artillery in World War II …
Baltimore is called the best heavy cruiser, forgetting to clarify that it was not just the best.
"Baltimore" - the only type of heavy cruisers that were built during the war
When the pages of the previous agreements were charred by the flames of war, no one had the strength to continue the cruising and battleship arms race. The United States continued them alone. But even their industry was unable to quickly re-equip the Navy with ships of this level.
Of the 14 Baltimors built, only six were able to reach the war zone. The main part of these wonderful ships entered service after the war.
As a result, the Japanese remained to the end with their magnificent "Mioko", "Takao", "Mogami", and the Yankees, at the end of the day, received a small number of MCTs built without artificial restrictions. But history has left them no time.
The lead Baltimore entered service in 1943, two more - in 1944, the other three "veterans" came to smash the Japanese in recent months, when the Mikado fleet practically ceased to exist.
Saint Paul was the last to arrive in the bloody battle, already in July 1945. To fire symbolic volleys along the coast of the defeated enemy. It is significant that during his service he received 17 stars for participation in military operations, of which only one related to the events of World War II.
Another recruit, Quincy, immediately after entering service, set off to sail European waters, where by the summer of 1944 the last possibility of a naval battle with the participation of large (and even not very large) surface ships had evaporated. Therefore, the most significant operation of "Quincy" was the delivery of Roosevelt to the conference in Yalta.
Yes, it's good to fight and win with the weapon of the future. But this does not happen in life. The battle in the Java Sea, Guadalcanal, the "second Pearl Harbor", the "Iron Bottom" - all these events date back to 1942. When, under the onslaught of the Japanese fleet, one after another died "gray ghosts" - the American CMT of five pre-war projects.
The third point is related to design evaluation. If the rivalry in the class of cruisers had continued with the same excitement, then such a conservative project as Baltimore would hardly have retained the title of “best”. Compared to its predecessors, it did not contain any revolutionary changes, being a repetition of pre-war designs.
The composition of weapons and the scheme of protection "Baltimore" were generally identical to the "contract" cruiser of the "Wichita" (1937).
The Yankees extended the Wichita's hull by 20 meters and increased its width from 19 to 21.5 meters. Thus, they did what they could not do in the pre-war period: to increase the standard displacement of the cruiser to 14,500 tons. This at once relieved the Baltimore of all the issues that worried its predecessors, who suffered from constant overload and were forced to sacrifice a margin of stability.
At this point, we will make a combat turn and unleash a flurry of enthusiasm on the American cruisers.
The composition of weapons and the scheme of protection of the "Baltimore" were generally identical to the CMT of the "Wichita" type. But this is not a reason for ridicule.
In terms of armament and armor thickness, the Wichita was one of the best "contract" cruisers. whose appearance has become a foundation for the future
Having built a pair of Pensacols, six Nothamptons, two Portlands and seven New Orleans, the Americans by the mid-30s. gained considerable experience in the creation of ships of this class. They had the opportunity to see the results of certain decisions in practice, and developed a set of optimal requirements for a heavy cruiser.
9 guns in three main-caliber turrets, with a distance between the axes of the barrels of at least 1.7 meters.
8 universal-caliber guns, placed according to the "rhombus" pattern in the central part of the hull.
"Box" armor, which is most consistent with the offensive tactics of American SRT, combined with powerful defense of the towers and their barbets. With a total mass of armor protection reaching 1500 tons (excluding armored decks).
Power plant with a capacity of 100,000 hp was supposed to provide the cruiser with a quick set of speed, with its maximum value of 32-33 knots.
The only problem was that to implement such a set of characteristics, a ship with a standard displacement was required, 1, 4-1, 5 times the established limit (10,000 tons).
The Americans were one of the few who tried to follow the established rules (exceeding the displacement by 500 tons is a trifle compared to what, for example, the Italians did). The KRT "Wichita", the only representative of its type, nevertheless acquired the desired characteristics that made it possible to meet the challenges of the era. But on one condition: Wichita's stability raised serious concerns. The cruiser could capsize in battle even from minor flooding.
If there was an opportunity to build "Wichita" in a building of 14 thousand tons, there would be no price for it. You understand who we are talking about.
The Wichita design contained a lot of interesting solutions. However, it also contained drawbacks …
The American "box armor" was the ultimate all-or-nothing scheme that maximized armor thickness in critical compartments and left virtually the entire hull and superstructure unprotected.
Wichita had a very short citadel, only 55 meters long (less than 30% of the length), to protect the engine rooms. Protection was expressed in the form of a gradually thinning armor belt, which had a thickness: on the upper edge - 6.4 inches (160 mm), on the bottom - four inches (102 mm). The horizontal armored deck adjacent to the belt had a thickness of 2.25 inches (57 mm).
Protected feed cellars interior "Box" with a wall thickness of 102 mm. The protection of the bow cellars consisted of a belt of the same thickness, passing along the outer skin in the underwater part boards.
In other words, the DoD and the Wichita cellars received exceptional protection against armor-piercing shells of six or eight inches. However, a significant part of the hull, both in the upper part of the side and in the waterline area, remained defenseless against the explosions of aerial bombs and high-explosive shells.
The destruction of the cockpits and the chain box could be neglected, if we do not take into account the format of naval battles of that time, in which there was a real threat of loss of speed and death from flooding of the extremities, destroyed by numerous hits of "landmines".
For comparison: the armor belt of the main rivals, Japanese heavy cruisers, with a smaller thickness (102 mm), covered over 120 meters of their side length!
The Americans considered their scheme a virtue in the framework of the offensive tactics of the MCT. However, the war proved to be unpredictable. Instead of "little blood on foreign territory" situations arose when cruisers needed to perform various tasks. Operate as part of the diverse forces of the fleet. Do not attack yourself, but fend off sudden attacks. Steadfastly enduring the blows of the enemy.
All of the above advantages and disadvantages were proudly inherited by the Baltimore-class heavy cruisers
When the enthusiasm for 160-mm belt armor is heard again, remember that this applies only to the middle part of the hull (the main artillery nose group and the engine room).
The thickness of the Baltimore's armored deck was slightly increased compared to its predecessor, from 57 to 64 mm (from 2.25 to 2.5 inches). Such values provided reliable protection against the penetration of 250 kg of aerial bombs and, probably, against bombs of a larger caliber dropped from lower altitudes.
Excellent performance for a cruiser of that time.
The armored decks of the Baltimore and Wichita were one and a half to two times thicker than those of the Japanese MRT, in which the main deck had a differentiated thickness: 32 … 35 … 47 mm. But there were two nuances.
Firstly, the armored deck of American ships, like the belt armor, extended only over the Ministry of Defense and above the "boxes" of artillery cellars. It becomes clear why its mass was not even taken into account separately, counting together with the mass of the hull structures.
Secondly, the Japanese had a third of the horizontal protection area not on a flat deck, but on its armor bevels 60 mm thick! And this already corresponds to the indicators of the best "Baltimore".
What conclusion follows from the above circumstances?
The "best in the world" cruisers with a standard displacement of 14,500 tons had a very unobvious superiority in protection over their rivals
With regard to weapons, the main difference between the "Baltimore" and the "Wichita" consisted in six dual-gun installations of the universal caliber. It must be admitted that the Baltimore carried more five-inch guns than any ship of its class.
Main battery artillery - sheer delight. The ammunition load of American cruisers included the heaviest, unparalleled armor-piercing shells weighing 152 kg. The low flatness of the trajectory was dictated by the ideal weather conditions of the tropics - the main area of confrontation with the Imperial Navy. Where naval battles could take place at extreme distances.
For other conditions, there were the usual 118-kg "armor-piercing".
The cruising land mines contained almost 10 kg of explosives - also a record for 8-inch naval shells.
Unlike projects in other countries, where they tried to make universal units out of cruisers (a vivid example is the Hipper), the Baltimors received neither sonars, nor hydrophones, nor torpedoes. In accordance with the American concept, large surface ships were purely artillery platforms, whose zone of interest ended at the surface of the water. The means of searching for surface targets were observation posts and seaplanes, to which remarkable radars were later added. Anti-submarine defense and torpedo attacks were entirely assigned to the escort destroyers. A fair decision for the Navy with hundreds of destroyers.
The very concept of "cruiser" has long lost its original meaning. From now on, it was not a lone hunter, but a large squadron ship performing artillery support and air defense missions. Also capable of taking on the functions of a formation flagship or an armored evacuator for damaged ships.
We can only guess what Baltimore's rivals might have been …
The most realistic was the Japanese project Ibuki. Two MCTs of this type were laid down in 1942. The hull of one was launched, but was never completed - neither as a cruiser, nor as a high-speed tanker, nor an aircraft carrier.
The Ibuki designers were slightly less risk averse than the Americans when they built Baltimore. The result is a polished Mogami.
With such conservative approaches of both warring parties, the pre-war situation was repeated. The Japanese project, while developing the best designs of the 1930s, still surpassed the American project in offensive power, protection and power plant power.
The main advantage of American surface ships, which became apparent by the middle of the war, was the quantity and quality of air defense systems. Ships flying the flag of the Land of the Rising Sun also received a set of radars and centralized control of anti-aircraft fire, but the Japanese did not have their own analogue of the Bofors, as well as shells with a radio fuse.
Nevertheless, throughout the war, the air defense of Japanese cruisers remained the most powerful in comparison with cruisers in other countries of the world, second only to the Americans. In situations where Japanese MCTs were killed by air strikes, the Zara, Algeri or York would have died even faster. An example of this is the sudden death of the Dorsetshire and Cornwell.
Lagging behind in air defense capabilities, the Ibuki certainly surpassed the Baltimore in terms of the aggregate combat qualities. Its design capabilities allowed more than could be achieved in an American project.
It is "Ibuki", being completed, would become the main contender for the title of the best cruiser of the era.
The Germans advanced much farthest with the cruiser "Admiral Hipper"
"Hipper" appeared before "Baltimore" by as much as five years. The absence of strict international control allowed Germany to acquire cruisers with a standard displacement of 14,500 tons even before the start of the war. Which immediately put the Hippers on a par with the Baltimore and Ibuki.
A series of three cruisers, which "flew in" to the Reich at a cost, like the construction of two battleships of the "Bismarck" class!
If we abandon the unsuccessful design decisions, going to the essence of the concept, then the "Admiral Hipper" can be called the most advanced among all the cruisers of that time. The Germans were the first to bet not on the brutal power of the salvo, but on automation and high-quality fire control. At least, they tried to implement our plans in practice.
Automation "in German" led to an explosive growth in the size of the crew. 1,350 people - one and a half to two times more than all their peers! The fragile analog instruments on the upper deck were doomed almost immediately. The innovative power plant has been declared a disaster. And on the magnificent platforms stabilized in three planes, sexautomatic 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, firing four times slower than the "pom-poms" of the allies.
In traditional categories (caliber and number of guns), the Germans did not even try to compete with competitors, hoping to achieve superiority through the concept of an "intelligent" cruiser.
As a result, on the technological backlog of the 30s, neither "brute force of a volley" nor any high-quality fire was obtained.
But even the German designers, no matter how hard they tried, could not completely ruin the 14,500-ton ship. In terms of security, Hipper has shown excellent results.
The thickness of the Hipper's armor cannot be judged without a general protection scheme. For example, the armored bevels of the main deck were connected not to the upper, but to the LOWER edge of the belt. In other words, the real thickness of the vertical protection reached 130 mm (the shells had to penetrate the 80-mm belt + 50-mm bevel). Even taking into account the fact that one thick barrier is stronger than two thin ones, having the same thickness in total, the Hipper's vertical protection was hardly inferior to the 102-mm belts of the Japanese TKR.
But the main thing is that the Hipper was booked almost completely: from the stem to the stern!
Why is Baltimore the best?
Unlike Ibuki, it was built. And unlike "Hipper", it did not contain such a mass of stupid and critical flaws.
It's hard to compare with the Japanese cruisers of the pre-war projects "Baltimore". After all, they belong to different technological eras.
The breath of the future was felt in the Baltimore's design. In its hull, the portholes have completely disappeared (to increase survivability), all compartments have switched to artificial lighting and ventilation. The cruiser was equipped with turbine generators of unusually high power - 3 MW (almost twice as much as that of the "Wichita", and 1.5 times that of the German "Hipper"). Also, the power of the backup power supplies has increased significantly compared to its predecessors.
Simple technological design, smooth decks, exceptionally high freeboard along the entire length.
The crown of development? No, what are you. The legendary series served as the basis for the even more advanced MRT "Oregon City" and eight-inch machine guns of the "Des Moines" type, making 90 rounds per minute with the main caliber. It was these designs (1946-49) that became the apotheosis of the development of artillery cruisers of the twentieth century.
14 Baltimors were clearly late for the battle with Japan, but, like other massive projects at the end of the war (AV Essex, destroyers Gering), they became the backbone of the post-war fleet.
The quantity and quality of equipment built during 1945 and in the first post-war years covered all the needs of the Cold War fleet for decades to come. With units such as the Baltimore, the Americans did not think about laying new warships until the late 1950s.
