CRUISERS

With the devastation of the American battleship fleet at Pearl
Harbor, cruisers became the primary surface defense force in the
Pacific.  Although lacking the presence of battleships, the
excitement of destroyers or the glory of aircraft carriers,
cruisers proved themselves to be one of the most versatile ship
types of World War II.  They fought in nearly all the major
surface and air-sea battles, as well as in support of amphibious
landings.

The Navy intended cruisers to serve as scout ships for fleets, to
act as commerce raiders, to engage in surface battles with
comparable enemy ships and to lead destroyer flotillas.  The key
element for these missions is speed.  To achieve speed, cruisers
traded armor protection and armament.

During World War II, the cruiser lost many of these missions as
airplanes became scouts, and battle fleet organization was
dramatically altered.  Instead, from the start of the war,
cruisers escorted convoys, supported amphibious landings with
naval gunfire and screened aircraft carriers from enemy planes
and submarines.  Adaptability to new missions created from the
new tactics and technology of World War II became the hallmark of
the versatile cruiser.

The Navy deployed over 15 classes of cruiser totalling over a
hundred ships.  For the most part, these were of two types.heavy
cruisers and light cruisers.  Naval arms treaties signed during
the 1920s and 1930s limited cruisers to 10,000 tons and armament
of up to 8-inch guns on a heavy cruiser and up to 6-inch guns on
a light cruiser.

Heavy Cruisers

The Navy used six classes of heavy cruiser during the war.  Armed
with 8-inch guns in the main battery and a varying complement of
5-inch and anti-aircraft guns, cruisers from the Pensacola,
Northampton, Portland, New Orleans, Wichita and Baltimore classes
all saw action.  Of these heavy cruisers, only the Baltimore
class was built without the restrictions of the prewar treaties.
Thus, the Navy fought the bulk of the early surface action in
1942-43 with under-armored 'treaty' cruisers built between
1929 and 1939.  Improvements to these ships, such as refitting
with more anti-aircraft guns, often created other difficulties,
including stability problems caused by added weight above the
waterline.  As newer classes were commissioned, the older heavy
cruisers were mostly assigned to rear-action duties.

Typical of the early actions in which cruisers engaged is the
action off Java.  In February 1942, several American ships,
including the heavy cruiser Houston and light cruiser Marblehead,
joined ABDA (American-British-Dutch-Australian) forces in an
attempt to slow the Japanese advance in the area.  The Japanese
controlled the air and continually harassed the Allied ships.
During one raid, Houston took a bomb hit that killed over 50
sailors and knocked out her aft 8-inch gun turret.  Marblehead
was so badly damaged she had to travel to South Africa to find
repair facilities capable of doing the necessary work.

Houston, however, remained on station with the other ABDA forces,
and on Feb. 27, 1942, in company with 14 other Allied ships,
attempted to stop a Java-bound enemy naval force.  In what would
become known as the Battle of the Java Sea, the ABDA ships
engaged 17 Japanese warships in a confusing and costly seven-hour
battle.  Hindered by a lack of time to allow for coordinated
training, communications problems arising from the Anglo-Dutch
language barrier and a lack of spotter planes, the Allies lost
three cruisers and three destroyers.  The following day, Houston
and the Australian light cruiser Perth attempted to escape
through the Sunda Strait to Australia.  Near midnight, the two
cruisers steamed into the Japanese landing force and its
protecting warships.  The ensuing battle claimed both Perth and
Houston as they were quickly surrounded by 15 Japanese ships.
For her crew.s valor in action, Houston received a Presidential
Unit Citation.

Light Cruisers

The Omaha, Brooklyn/St. Louis, Atlanta/Oakland and Cleveland
classes comprised the majority of the U.S. light cruiser force.
These ships were generally 600 feet long with a displacement of
7,000 to 10,000 tons.  American light cruisers possessed minimal
armor protection; only 2 to 3 inches of armor covered the most
vulnerable sections of the ship.  Armament typically featured 12
6-inch guns, 10 5-inch guns and a number of anti-aircraft guns.
The 10 Omaha-class light cruisers were authorized in 1916 and
built during the 1920s.  Obsolete by the outbreak of the war,
they saw limited action.  The Brooklyn/St. Louis class was the
first .modern. light cruiser class, built in response to the
increasing threat of Japanese cruisers in the mid-1930s.  The
later Cleveland-class cruisers had more armor and possessed
rapid-fire 6-inch guns, which made them almost equal to Japanese
heavy cruisers.  More Cleveland-class cruisers were produced by
American shipyards than any other light cruiser class.  A total
of 26 were built.

Of the light cruisers of the Cleveland class, Columbia had a
particularly impressive career, for which she earned 10 battle
stars.  On Jan. 6, 1945, Columbia was steaming in the Lingayen
Gulf near the Philippines on pre-invasion bombardment duty when a
kamikaze struck her port quarter.  The ship caught fire, lost the
use of two 6-inch turrets and suffered casualties of 13 killed
and 44 wounded.  Nevertheless, she continued bombarding Japanese
positions while damage control parties worked on repairs.  Only
three days later, Columbia was hit by another kamikaze and
suffered another 24 killed and 97 wounded.  Again, the ship.s
crew repaired the damage and the ship continued her bombardment
and fire support mission.  For completing her mission in Lingayen
Gulf despite damage and casualties, Columbia received a Navy Unit
Commendation.

The Atlanta/Oakland-class cruisers were built with a specific
mission.  Averaging 541 feet in length with a displacement of
8,200 tons, they possessed 2 to 3-1/2 inches of armor for the
hull and deck, and only 1-1/4 inches for the gun turrets.  Built
to offset fast Japanese destroyers and to be the lead ship of a
destroyer flotilla, these cruisers had to be extremely fast.
Thus, their armor was less substantial than other light cruisers.
Originally designed to steam at 38 knots, Atlanta/Oakland-class
cruisers were too overloaded to achieve that speed.  With 16 5-
inch guns in eight mounts and 12 1.1-inch anti-aircraft guns,
these ships carried an excellent anti-aircraft capability.  After
replacing the 1.1-inch guns with more effective 20 mm and 40 mm
mounts, subsequent ships in the class became good anti-aircraft
support ships.

One of the most tragic stories involving a light cruiser was that
of Juneau, an Atlanta-class ship.  Assigned to protect the
landing area on Guadalcanal, Juneau and 12 other American ships
challenged a Japanese force consisting of battleships, cruisers
and destroyers steaming into the area to bombard American
positions on the island.  Early in the fighting of Nov. 13, 1942,
Juneau took a torpedo on the port side and withdrew.  While
retreating to a safe area to make repairs in company with the
damaged San Francisco, Helena and two destroyers, Juneau was
struck by a torpedo fired from a Japanese submarine.  The torpedo
hit on the port side under the bridge, in almost the same
location where she had been hit 10 hours earlier.  The detonation
apparently ignited the forward magazines, and the cruiser
disintegrated in a powerful explosion.  Only 10 men lived to tell
the story of Juneau.s last moments.  Lost among the 700-member
crew were the five Sullivan brothers, all the sons of a Waterloo,
Iowa, family.  Their deaths led the Navy to discourage the
assigning of brothers to the same ship.

The Navy experimented with one other type of cruiser, the large
cruiser or 'battle cruiser.'  Over 791 feet long and displacing
27,500 tons, this ship averaged 5 to 9 inches of armor protection
and carried nine 12-inch guns, 12 5-inch guns and numerous 40 mm
and 20 mm guns.

Large cruisers were designed in response to the rumor that the
Japanese were building large cruisers carrying 11-inch guns, much
like the fast German 'pocket' battleships.  Only one class of six
large cruisers was designed, and just two ships, Alaska and Guam,
saw action during the war.  When they entered the fleet in mid-
1944, the character of the Pacific war had changed.  The large
cruisers provided air defense for carriers and shore bombardment
missions, in which they performed well.  These little-known, but
beautiful ships represent America.s only experiment in large
cruisers.

During World War II, 74 cruisers received battle stars, seven
received Navy Unit Commendations and three received Presidential
Unit Citations.  Cruisers played a key role in World War II naval
operations.  They provided surface combat capability during the
early actions of the war, screened carriers and provided naval
gunfire support ashore.  Adapting to the new missions required in
modern naval warfare, the cruisers of World War II built a legacy
that lives on in the multi-purpose cruisers of today.s fleet.
Researched and written by Matthew D. Hofstedt and Gregory Nicollian,
interns, The Navy Museum, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.

Further Reading

Ewing, Steve.  American Cruisers of World War II: A Pictorial Encyclopedia.
Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1984.
Friedman, Norman.  U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History.
Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1984.
Naval History Division, Navy Department.  Dictionary of American
Naval Fighting Ships.  8 vols.  Washington, D.C.: U.S Government
Printing Office, 1977.
Terzibaschitsch, Stefan.  Cruisers of the U.S. Navy, 1922-1962.
Translated by Harold Erenberg.  Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute
Press, 1984.
Winslow, Walter, G.  USS Houston: Ghost of the Java Coast.
Bethesda, Maryland: Winslow Books, 1971.


 











