Posted on Jul 12, 2021

These cruisers were really a pair of mini-battleships - We Are The Mighty

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The Alaska-class cruisers are often seen as a waste of resources. At first glance, it is easy to see why. The United States only completed two out of the six planned vessels. One more was launched, but never finished. All three that managed to reach the water were quickly in reserve and then scrapped. But these ships were quite an achievement – a mini-battleship that gave good service during their brief careers...

These cruisers were really a pair of mini-battleships - We Are The Mighty

Posted from wearethemighty.com

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We Are The Mighty

Posted >1 y ago

Responses: 4

PO1 Mike Bart

Posted 3 y ago

The pic is of a Burke Class DDG not an Alaska Class ship.

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LTC Gene Moser

Posted 3 y ago

IIRC, the Alaska Class were battle cruisers - like HMS Hood.

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LT Mike McLeish Sr

3 y

Not really. Battle Cruisers like the HMS Hood had battleship-caliber main battery (15"), but sacrificed some of the armor of a battleship to give it the speed of a cruiser. The Alaska Class did not have a battleship-caliber main battery, but a unique 12" intermediate size half-way between a heavy cruiser's 8" and a battleship's 16". The Alaska class would be more closely compared to the German Admiral Graf Spee, armed with 11" main battery that the British coined a "pocket battleship", as compared to the Bismarck's 15" main battery.

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LTC Gene Moser

3 y

IIRC the Arizona had a main battery of 12 inch. I think the North Carolina had 14 inch.

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MSgt Arthur Sevigny

3 y

LTC Gene Moser - North Carolinas: BB-26 (1910) had 12 Inch main armament, BB-47 was to have 16 inch but was scrapped in 1923 before completion and BB-55 (1941) had 16 inch main armament. Although, BB-55 I beleive was originally designed to have twelve 14 inch but the 1926 naval treaty allowed it to be changed to nine 16 inch.

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Jeff Morfit

3 y

Odd that 12" guns were chosen for this class of warship when by this time the only US Dreadnought that still had 12-inchers was USS Arkansas. Would 14" have been better since there were still a number of battleships already in service with this caliber?

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