The following story happened to the cruising forces in the Pacific Ocean - they were undeservedly forgotten and buried under the ashes of time. Who is interested in the pogrom at Savo Island, artillery duels in the Java Sea and at Cape Esperance now? After all, everyone is already convinced that naval battles in the Pacific are limited to the raid on Pearl Harbor and the battle at Midway Atoll.
In the real war in the Pacific, cruisers were one of the key operating forces of the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy - this class accounted for a large proportion of the sunken ships and vessels from both opposing sides. The cruisers provided close air defense of squadrons and aircraft carrier formations, covered convoys and carried out patrol missions on sea lanes. If necessary, they were used as armored "evacuators", taking damaged ships out of the combat zone in tow. But the main value of the cruisers was discovered in the second half of the war: the six- and eight-inch guns did not stop for a minute, "spudding" the Japanese defensive perimeter on the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
In daylight and darkness, under any weather conditions, through an impenetrable wall of tropical rain and a milky veil of fog, the cruisers continued to pour lead rain on the head of the unfortunate enemy, trapped in tiny atolls in the middle of the Great Ocean. Multi-day artillery preparation and fire support for the landing - it was in this role that the heavy and light cruisers of the US Navy shone brightest - both in the Pacific Ocean and in European waters of the Old World. Unlike the monstrous battleships, the number of American cruisers participating in the battles approached eight dozen (the Yankees alone riveted 27 units), and the absence of especially large-caliber artillery on board was compensated by the high rate of fire of eight-inch guns and smaller guns.
The cruisers had tremendous destructive power - the 203 mm shell of the 8 '/ 55 gun had a mass of 150 kilograms and left the barrel cut with a speed exceeding two speeds of sound. The rate of fire of the 8 '/ 55 naval gun reached 4 rds / min. All in all, the heavy cruiser Baltimore carried nine such artillery systems housed in three main turrets.
In addition to impressive offensive capabilities, the cruisers had good armor, excellent survivability and a very high speed of up to 33 knots (> 60 km / h).
High speed and security were highly appreciated by sailors. It is no coincidence that the admirals so often held their flag on the cruisers - spacious working rooms and an amazing set of electronic equipment made it possible to equip a full-fledged flagship command post on board the ship.
USS Indianapolis (CA-35)
At the end of the war, it was the Indianapolis cruiser that was entrusted with the honorable and responsible mission of delivering nuclear warheads to the Tinian island airbase.
The cruisers that took part in World War II are divided into two large categories: built before and after the war (meaning the end of the 30s and later). As for the pre-war cruisers, a great many designs were united by one important circumstance: most of the pre-war cruisers were victims of the Washington and London naval agreements. As time has shown, all the countries that signed the agreement, one way or another, committed a forgery with the displacement of the cruisers under construction, exceeding the prescribed limit of 10 thousand tons by 20% or more. Alas, they still did not get anything worthwhile - they could not prevent the World War, but they spent a million tons of steel on defective ships.
Like all "Washingtonians", American cruisers built in the 1920s - the first half of the 1930s had a skewed ratio of combat characteristics: low protection (the thickness of the walls of the main ships of the cruiser Pensacola barely exceeded 60 mm) in exchange for firepower and solid range swimming. In addition, the American projects "Pensacola" and "Notrhampton" were underutilized - the designers were so carried away by "squeezing" the ships that they could not effectively use the entire displacement reserve. It is no coincidence that in the navy these masterpieces of shipbuilding received the eloquent name "tin cans".
Heavy cruiser "Wichita"
American "Washington" cruisers of the second generation - "New Orleans" (built 7 units) and "Wichita" (the only ship of its type) turned out to be much more balanced combat units, however, also not without drawbacks. This time, the designers were able to maintain decent speed, armor and armament in exchange for such an intangible parameter as "survivability" (the linear arrangement of the power plant, a more dense layout - the ship had a high chance of being killed by a single torpedo).
The outbreak of world war overnight annulled all world treaties. Having thrown off the shackles of all kinds of restrictions, shipbuilders in the shortest possible time presented projects of balanced warships. Instead of the previous "cans" on the stocks, formidable combat units appeared - true masterpieces of shipbuilding. Armament, armor, speed, seaworthiness, cruising range, survivability - the engineers did not compromise on any of these factors.
The fighting qualities of these ships turned out to be so excellent that many of them continued to be operated in the US Navy and other countries even three to four decades after the end of the war!
Frankly speaking, in the format of an open naval battle "ship against ship", each of the cruisers presented below will be stronger than any of their modern descendants. An attempt to "play off" some rusty "Cleveland" or "Baltimore" with the missile cruiser "Ticonderoga" will be disastrous for a modern ship - approaching a couple of tens of kilometers, "Baltimore" will tear the "Ticonderoga" apart like a heating pad. The possibility of using missile weapons with a firing range of 100 kilometers or more in this case by the Ticonderogo does not solve anything - old armored ships are hardly susceptible to such "primitive" means of destruction as the warheads of the Harpoon or Exocet missiles.
I invite readers to get acquainted with the most enchanting examples of the American shipbuilding of the war years. Moreover, there is something to see there …
Light cruisers of the "Brooklyn" class
Number of units in a series - 9
The years of construction are 1935-1939.
Full displacement 12 207 tons (design value)
Crew 868 people
Main power plant: 8 boilers, 4 Parsons turbines, 100,000 HP
Maximum stroke 32.5 knots
Cruising range 10,000 miles at 15 knots.
Main armor belt - 140 mm, maximum armor thickness - 170 mm (walls of main battery turrets)
Armament:
- 15 x 152 mm main guns;
- 8 x 127 mm universal guns;
- 20-30 anti-aircraft guns "Bofors" caliber 40 mm *;
- 20 anti-aircraft machine guns "Oerlikon" caliber 20 mm *;
- 2 catapults, 4 seaplanes.
The close breath of the World War made us reconsider approaches to ship design. In early 1933, the Yankees received alarming information about the laying in Japan of Mogami-class cruisers armed with 15 six-inch guns in five towers. In reality, the Japanese made a major forgery: the standard displacement of the Mogami was 50% more than the declared one - these were heavy cruisers, which, in the future, were planned to be armed with ten 203 mm cannons (which happened with the beginning of the war).
But in the early 1930s, the Yankees were not aware of the insidious plans of the samurai and, in order to keep up with the "potential enemy", rushed to design a light cruiser with five main-caliber turrets!
Despite the current limitations of the Washington Treaty and non-standard design conditions, the Brooklyn-class cruiser turned out to be damn good. Impressive offensive potential, coupled with excellent booking and good seaworthiness.
All nine built cruisers took an active part in World War II, while (just right to be surprised!) None of them died in the battles. "Brooklyn" came under bomb and torpedo attacks, artillery fire and attacks by "kamikaze" - alas, each time the ships remained afloat and returned to service after repairs. Off the coast of Italy, the German guided super-bomb Fritz-X hit the cruiser Savannah, however, this time, despite the colossal destruction and death of 197 sailors, the ship was able to limp to the base in Malta.
"Phoenix" poses in front of a burning naval base Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
Cruiser "Phoenix" off the coast of the Philippines, 1944
Argentine cruiser "General Belgrano" (ex-Phoenix) with its nose torn off by an explosion, May 2, 1982
Damaged cruiser "Savannah" off the coast of Italy, 1943. A 1400-kg Fritz-X radio-controlled bomb hit the roof of the third main turret
But the most amazing adventures fell to the lot of the cruiser "Phoenix" - this joker deftly escaped from the Japanese strike in Pearl Harbor, without receiving a scratch. But he could not escape fate - 40 years later he was sunk by a British submarine during the Falklands War.
Atlanta-class light cruisers
Number of units in a series - 8
The years of construction are 1940-1945.
Full displacement 7 400 tons
Crew 673 people
Main power plant: 4 boilers, 4 steam turbines, 75,000 HP
Maximum stroke 33 knots
Cruising range 8,500 miles at 15 knots
The main armor belt is 89 mm.
Armament:
- 16 x 127 mm universal guns;
- 16 automatic anti-aircraft guns of 27 mm caliber (the so-called "Chicago piano");
on the last ships of the series were replaced with 8 Bofors assault rifles;
- up to 16 anti-aircraft machine guns "Oerlikon" caliber 20 mm;
- 8 torpedo tubes of 533 mm caliber;
- by the end of the war, sonar and a set of depth charges appeared on the ships.
Some of the most beautiful cruisers of the Second World War. Specialized air defense ships capable of bringing down 10 560 kg of hot steel on the enemy in a minute - the salvo of the small cruiser was amazing.
Alas, in practice, it turned out that the US Navy did not suffer from a shortage of 127 mm universal anti-aircraft guns (hundreds of destroyers were armed with similar weapons), but sometimes medium-caliber artillery was not enough. In addition to the weakness of the armament, the Atlanta suffered from low protection - the small size and too "thin" armor affected.
As a result, two of the eight ships were killed in the battles: the lead Atlanta was killed by torpedoes and enemy artillery fire in a skirmish near Guadalcanal (November 1942). Another - "Juno" was killed on the same day: the damaged ship was finished off by a Japanese submarine.
Cleveland-class light cruisers
The number of units in the series - 27. Another 3 were completed according to the improved project "Fargo", 9 - as light
aircraft carriers "Independence". The remaining dozen unfinished hulls were scrapped in 1945 - many of the cruisers had been launched by that time and were being completed afloat (the planned number of ships in the project is 52 units)
The years of construction are 1940-1945.
Full displacement 14 130 tons (draft)
Crew 1255 people
Main power plant: 4 boilers, 4 steam turbines, 100,000 HP
Maximum stroke 32.5 knots
Cruising range 11,000 miles at 15 knots
The main armor belt is 127 mm. Maximum armor thickness - 152 mm (frontal part of the main battery turrets)
Armament:
- 12 x 152 mm main caliber guns;
- 12 x 127 mm universal guns;
- up to 28 Bofors anti-aircraft guns;
- up to 20 Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns;
- 2 catapults, 4 seaplanes.
The first truly full-fledged cruiser of the US Navy. Powerful, balanced. With excellent defenses and offensive capabilities. Ignore the lightweight prefix. Cleveland is as light as a cast iron steam locomotive. In the countries of the Old World, such ships are literally classified as "heavy cruisers". Behind the dry numbers "caliber of guns / thickness of armor" are no less interesting things: the good location of the anti-aircraft artillery, the relative spaciousness of the interior, the triple bottom in the area of the engine rooms …
But Cleveland had its own "Achilles heel" - overload and, as a result, stability problems. The situation was so serious that on the last ships of the series, the conning tower, catapult and rangefinders were removed from towers No. 1 and No. 4. Obviously, it was the problem with low stability that caused the short life of the Clevelands - almost all of them left the US Navy before the start of the Korean War. Only three cruisers - Galveston, Oklahoma City and Little Rock (in the title illustration to the article) underwent extensive modernization and continued their service as cruisers carrying guided missile weapons (SAM "Talos"). They managed to take part in the Vietnam War.
The Cleveland project went down in history as the most numerous series of cruisers. However, despite their high combat qualities and a large number of ships built, the Clevelands arrived too late to see the real "smoke of naval battles"; among the trophies of these cruisers are only Japanese destroyers (it is worth noting that the Yankees never suffered from a lack of equipment - in the first phase of the war, pre-war-built cruisers actively fought, of which the Americans had as many as 40 pieces)
Most of the time, the Clevelands were engaged in shelling coastal targets - the Mariana Islands, Saipan, Mindanao, Tinian, Guam, Mindoro, Lingaen, Palawan, Formosa, Kwajalein, Palau, Bonin, Iwo Jima … It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of these cruisers to the defeat of the Japanese defensive perimeter …
Anti-aircraft missile launch from the cruiser Little Rock
During the hostilities, none of the ships went to the bottom, however, serious losses could not be avoided: the cruiser "Houston" was badly damaged - having received two torpedoes on board, it received 6,000 tons of water and barely made it to the forward base on Uliti Atoll. But it was especially hard for Birmingham - the cruiser helped put out fires aboard the damaged aircraft carrier Princeton, when the ammunition detonation occurred on the aircraft carrier. "Birmingham" was nearly overturned by a blast wave, 229 people died on the cruiser, more than 400 sailors were injured.
Baltimore-class heavy cruisers
Number of units in a series - 14
The years of construction are 1940-1945.
Full displacement 17,000 tons
Crew 1,700 people
Power plant - four-shaft: 4 boilers, 4 steam turbines, 120,000 hp
Maximum stroke 33 knots
Cruising range 10,000 miles at 15 knots
The main armor belt is 150 mm. Maximum armor thickness - 203 mm (main battery turret)
Armament:
- 9 x 203 mm main caliber guns;
- 12 x 127 mm universal guns;
- up to 48 anti-aircraft guns "Bofors";
- up to 24 Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns;
- 2 catapults, 4 seaplanes.
Baltimore is not ketchup with slices of ripe vegetables, it is much more dangerous. The apotheosis of American shipbuilding in the cruiser class. All prohibitions and restrictions have been cleared. The design incorporates the latest achievements of the American military-industrial complex of the war years. Radars, monstrous cannons, heavy armor. A super hero with maximum strengths and minimum weaknesses.
Like the lighter Cleveland-class cruisers, the Baltimore arrived only for a “nodding debriefing” in the Pacific Ocean - the first four cruisers entered service in 1943, another in 1944, and the remaining nine in 1945. As a result, most of the damage to the Baltimors was due to storms, typhoons and crew navigation errors. Nevertheless, they made a certain contribution to the victory - the heavy cruisers literally "hollowed out" the atolls of Markus and Wake, supported the landing troops on countless islets and atolls of the Pacific Ocean, participated in raids to the Chinese coast and strikes against Japan.
Missile and artillery cruiser "Boston". Launch of the Terrier anti-aircraft missile, 1956
The war ended, and the Baltimore did not think to retire - heavy naval artillery soon came in handy in Korea and Vietnam. A number of cruisers of this became the world's first carriers of anti-aircraft missiles - by 1955, "Boston" and "Canberra" were armed with the "Terrier" air defense system. Three more ships underwent global modernization under the Albany project with the complete dismantling of superstructures and artillery and subsequent conversion into missile cruisers.
Just 4 days after Indianapolis delivered the atomic bombs to about. Tinian, the cruiser was sunk by the Japanese submarine I-58. Of the 1,200 crew members, only 316 were saved. The ocean disaster became the largest casualty in the history of the US Navy.
