1.
New York Shipbuilding Corporation
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At its peak during World War II, NYSB was the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. It was founded in 1899 by Henry G. Morse, a noted in connection with bridge design and construction. The original plan was to build a shipyard on Staten Island, site selection specifically considered the needs of the planned application of bridge building practices of prefabrication and assembly line production of ships in covered ways. Construction of the plant began in July 1899 and was so rapid that the keel of the first ship was laid November 1900. That ship, contract number 1, was M. S. Dollar, later to be modified as an oil tanker and renamed J. M. Guffey. Two of the first contracts were for ships that were among the largest then being built in the United States, #5 for Mongolia. Morse died after securing contracts for 20 ships and he was followed as president by De Coursey May. R. Grace & Company and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, New York Ships unusual covered ways produced everything from aircraft carriers, battleships, and luxury liners to barges and car floats. During World War I, New York Ship expanded rapidly to fill orders from the U. S. Navy and the Emergency Fleet Corporation. A critical shortage of housing led to the construction of Yorkship Village. Yorkship Village is now the Fairview section of the City of Camden, after World War II, a much-diminished New York Ship subsisted on a trickle of contracts from the United States Maritime Administration and the U. S. Navy. The yard launched its last civilian vessel in 1960, and its last naval vessel, the companys final completed submarine was USS Guardfish, which had been ordered in the early 1960s, but construction was halted from 1963 to 1965 because of the loss of the USS Thresher. Guardfish was commissioned in December 1967, in 1968, lacking new naval orders, NYS went bankrupt. USS Pogy, then under construction, was towed to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the yards site is now part of the Port of Camden, and handles breakbulk cargo. Ships built by New York Ship include, Oil tankers Gulflight launched 1914, center of a diplomatic incident when torpedoed in World War I
2.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
3.
Independence-class aircraft carrier
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The Independence-class aircraft carriers were a class of light carriers built for the United States Navy that served during World War II. Adapted from the design for Cleveland-class light cruisers, this class of ship resulted from the interest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in naval air power. With war looming, the former Assistant Secretary of the Navy noted no new aircraft carriers were expected to be completed before 1944. He proposed to some of the many cruisers then under construction to carriers. Undeterred, President Roosevelt ordered another study, on 25 October 1941, the Navys Bureau of Ships reported that aircraft carriers converted from cruiser hulls would be of lesser capability, but available much sooner. After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the need for more carriers became urgent, the Navy accelerated construction of the 34,000 ton Essex-class aircraft carriers, but these large ships could not be finished quickly. So in January 1942, the Navy also ordered that a Cleveland-class light cruiser then under construction be completed instead as an aircraft carrier. It became the USS Belleau Wood, the first ship of the Independence-class, plans developed for this conversion showed much more promise than expected. Two more light cruisers were reordered as carriers in February, three more in March, and a three in June 1942. The Independence-class design had a short and narrow flight deck and hangar. The hangar, flight deck, and island represented a significant increase in the topside weight. To compensate for this, blisters were added to the original cruiser hull, Ships of this class carried a small air group - only about 30 aircraft. This was originally set to consist of nine fighters, nine bombers, and nine torpedo bombers. These were limited-capability ships, whose principal virtue was near-term availability and their limited size made for seakeeping difficulties in the many typhoons of the Pacific, and their small flight decks led to a relatively high aircraft accident rate. However, being based on a cruiser, they were fast ships. The cruiser hull and engineering allowed them the necessary to operate with the main fleet carrier task groups. Their names followed the US Navys policy of naming aircraft carriers after historic navy ships or historic battles, eight of these carriers participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, which effectively ended Japans carrier air power. The light carriers provided 40 percent of the Fast Carrier Task Forces fighters and 36 percent of the torpedo bombers
4.
Light aircraft carrier
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A light aircraft carrier, or light fleet carrier, is an aircraft carrier that is smaller than the standard carriers of a navy. The precise definition of the type varies by country, light carriers typically have a complement of aircraft only one-half to two-thirds the size of a fleet carrier. In World War II, the United States Navy produced a number of light carriers by converting cruiser hulls. The Independence-class ships, however, had the virtue of being available at a time when available carrier decks had been reduced to Enterprise and Saratoga in the Pacific, in addition, unlike escort carriers, they had enough speed to take part in fleet actions with the larger carriers. Late in the war, a follow on design to the Independence-class, two vessels in this class—Saipan and Wright—were completed after the wars end. After very brief lives as carriers, the Saipans were converted to command, the British 1942 design light fleet carrier was a scaled-down version of their Illustrious-class fleet carrier. The design could be built in a yard with little or no experience of warship construction, although built to merchant standards, the design incorporated better watertight subdivision. Expected to have a lifetime of three years, the last of the design was taken out of service in 2001. The first eight were built as the Colossus but revisions upgrading the design to larger and heavier aircraft led to the remainder being the Majestic class. In the post-war period, the Royal Navy operated a force of ten Colossus class carriers including the two maintenance carriers, by 1939 HMS Hermes was being considered as equivalent to a light aircraft carrier, due to her small size and lack of armour. Currently five light carriers are in service. The newest light carriers are the Italian Cavour and the Spanish Juan Carlos I, aircraft Carriers of the World,1914 to the Present. Watts, Anthony J. Japanese Warships of World War II
5.
Horsepower
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Horsepower is a unit of measurement of power. There are many different standards and types of horsepower, two common definitions being used today are the mechanical horsepower, which is approximately 746 watts, and the metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts. The term was adopted in the late 18th century by Scottish engineer James Watt to compare the output of engines with the power of draft horses. It was later expanded to include the power of other types of piston engines, as well as turbines, electric motors. The definition of the unit varied among geographical regions, most countries now use the SI unit watt for measurement of power. With the implementation of the EU Directive 80/181/EEC on January 1,2010, units called horsepower have differing definitions, The mechanical horsepower, also known as imperial horsepower equals approximately 745.7 watts. It was defined originally as exactly 550 foot-pounds per second [745.7 N. m/s), the metric horsepower equals approximately 735.5 watts. It was defined originally as 75 kgf-m per second is approximately equivalent to 735.5 watts, the Pferdestärke PS is a name for a group of similar power measurements used in Germany around the end of the 19th century, all of about one metric horsepower in size. The boiler horsepower equals 9809.5 watts and it was used for rating steam boilers and is equivalent to 34.5 pounds of water evaporated per hour at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. One horsepower for rating electric motors is equal to 746 watts, one horsepower for rating Continental European electric motors is equal to 735 watts. Continental European electric motors used to have dual ratings, one British Royal Automobile Club horsepower can equal a range of values based on estimates of several engine dimensions. It is one of the tax horsepower systems adopted around Europe, the development of the steam engine provided a reason to compare the output of horses with that of the engines that could replace them. He had previously agreed to take royalties of one third of the savings in coal from the older Newcomen steam engines and this royalty scheme did not work with customers who did not have existing steam engines but used horses instead. Watt determined that a horse could turn a mill wheel 144 times in an hour, the wheel was 12 feet in radius, therefore, the horse travelled 2.4 × 2π ×12 feet in one minute. Watt judged that the horse could pull with a force of 180 pounds-force. So, P = W t = F d t =180 l b f ×2.4 ×2 π ×12 f t 1 m i n =32,572 f t ⋅ l b f m i n. Watt defined and calculated the horsepower as 32,572 ft·lbf/min, Watt determined that a pony could lift an average 220 lbf 100 ft per minute over a four-hour working shift. Watt then judged a horse was 50% more powerful than a pony, engineering in History recounts that John Smeaton initially estimated that a horse could produce 22,916 foot-pounds per minute
6.
Bofors 40 mm gun
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The Bofors 40 mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun, is an anti-aircraft/multi-purpose autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, a small number of these weapons remain in service to this day, and saw action as late as the Gulf War. In the post-war era the original design was not suitable for action against jet powered aircraft, so Bofors introduced a new model of more power. In spite of sharing almost nothing with the design other than the calibre and the distinctive conical flash hider. Although not as popular as the original L/60 model, the L/70 remains in service to this day, especially as a weapon for light armored vehicles. Bofors itself has been part of BAE Systems AB since March 2005, the Swedish Navy purchased a number of 2 pounder Pom-Poms from Vickers as anti-aircraft guns in 1922. The Navy approached Bofors about the development of a capable replacement. Bofors signed a contract in late 1928, Bofors produced a gun that was a smaller version of a 57 mm semi-automatic gun developed as an anti-torpedo boat weapon in the late 19th century by Finspong. Their first test gun was a re-barreled Nordenfelt version of the Finspong gun, testing of this gun in 1929 demonstrated that a problem existed feeding the weapon in order to maintain a reasonable rate of fire. A mechanism that was enough to handle the stresses of moving the large round was too heavy to move quickly enough to fire rapidly. One attempt to solve this problem used zinc shell cases that burned up when fired and this proved to leave heavy zinc deposits in the barrel, and had to be abandoned. This seemed to be the solution they needed, improving firing rates to a level. During this period Krupp purchased a share of Bofors. Krupp engineers started the process of updating the Bofors factories to use equipment and metallurgy. The prototype was completed and fired in November 1931, and by the middle of the month it was firing strings of two and three rounds. Changes to the mechanism were all that remained, and by the end of the year it was operating at 130 rounds per minute. Continued development was needed to turn it into a suitable for production. Since acceptance trials had been passed the year before, this known as the 40 mm akan M/32
7.
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
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The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German 20 mm Becker design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II, and many still in use today. During World War I, the German Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon and this used a 20x70 RB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a scale as an aircraft gun on Luftstreitkräfte warplanes. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of weapons in Germany. SEMAG continued development of the weapon, and in 1924 had produced the SEMAG L, the Oerlikon firm, named after the Zürich suburb where it was based, then acquired all rights to the weapon, plus the manufacturing equipment and the employees of SEMAG. In 1927 the Oerlikon S was added to the product line. This fired a larger cartridge to achieve a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s, at the cost of increased weight. The purpose of development was to improve the performance of the gun as an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon. An improved version known as the 1S followed in 1930, three sizes of gun with their different ammunition and barrel length, but very similar mechanisms, continued to be developed in parallel. In 1930 Oerlikon reconsidered the application of its gun in aircraft and introduced the AF and AL, designed to be used in flexible mounts, the 15-round box magazine used by earlier versions of the gun was replaced by drum magazine holding 15 or 30 rounds. In 1935 it made an important step by introducing a series of guns designed to be mounted in or on the wings of fighter aircraft, designated with FF for Flügelfest meaning wing-mounted, these weapons were again available in the three sizes, with designations FF, FFL and FFS. The FF fired a larger cartridge than the AF, 20x72RB. The FF weighed 24 kg and achieved a velocity of 550 to 600 m/s with a rate of fire of 520 rpm. The FFL of 30 kg fired a projectile at a velocity of 675 m/s with a rate of fire of 500 rpm. And the FFS, which weighed 39 kg, delivered a high velocity of 830 m/s at a rate of fire of 470 rpm. Apart from changes to the design of the guns for wing-mounting and remote control, for the FF series drum sizes of 45,60,75 and 100 rounds were available, but most users chose the 60-round drum. The 1930s were a period of global re-armament, and a number of foreign firms took licenses for the Oerlikon family of aircraft cannon
8.
Grumman F6F Hellcat
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The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the Hellcat competed with the faster Vought F4U Corsair for that role and prevailed, as the Corsair had significant issues with carrier landings. The Corsair instead was primarily deployed to great effect in land-based use by the U. S. Marine Corps, some military observers tagged the Hellcat as the Wildcats big brother. 12,275 were built in just over two years, Hellcats were credited with destroying a total of 5,223 enemy aircraft while in service with the U. S. Navy, U. S. Marine Corps and the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. This was more than any other Allied naval aircraft, postwar, the Hellcat was phased out of front line service but remained in service as late as 1954 as a night fighter. Grumman had been working on a successor to the F4F Wildcat since 1938, the aircraft was originally designed to use the Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone two-row, 14-cylinder radial engine of 1,700 hp driving a three-bladed Curtiss Electric propeller. In addition, the forward fuselage sloped down slightly to the cowling, affording the Hellcats pilot good visibility. Grumman complied by redesigning and strengthening the F6F airframe to incorporate the 2,000 hp R-2800-10, with this combination Grumman estimated the XF6F-3s performance would increase by 25% over that of the XF6F-1. The Cyclone-powered XF6F-1 first flew on 26 June 1942, followed by the first Double Wasp-equipped aircraft, the XF6F-3, the first production F6F-3, powered by an R-2800-10, flew on 3 October 1942, with the type reaching operational readiness with VF-9 on USS Essex in February 1943. The F6F series were designed to damage and get the pilot safely back to base. A bullet-resistant windshield and a total of 212 lb of armor was fitted, along with armor around the oil tank. A250 gal self-sealing fuel tank was fitted in the fuselage, Standard armament on the F6F-3 consisted of six.50 in M2/AN Browning air-cooled machine guns with 400 rounds per gun. Six 5 in HVARs could be carried, three under each wing on zero-length launchers, Hellcat night fighters claimed their first victories in November 1943. A total of 4,402 F6F-3s were built through until April 1944, in addition, the rear fuselage and tail units were strengthened, and, apart from some early production aircraft, the majority of the F6F-5s built were painted in an overall gloss sea blue finish. After the first few F6F-5s were built, the windows behind the main canopy were deleted. The F6F-5N night fighter variant was fitted with an AN/APS-6 radar in a fairing on the outer-starboard wing, a small number of standard F6F-5s were also fitted with camera equipment for reconnaissance duties as the F6F-5P. The F6F-5 was the most common F6F variant, with 7,870 being built, other prototypes in the F6F series included the XF6F-4 which first flew on 3 October 1942 as the prototype for the projected F6F-4. This version never entered production and 02981 was converted to an F6F-3 production aircraft, the turbochargers proved to be unreliable on both engines, while performance improvements were marginal
9.
Fighter aircraft
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A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dual-purpose fighter-bombers, often aircraft that do not fulfill the standard definition are called fighters. This may be for political or national security reasons, for advertising purposes, a fighters main purpose is to establish air superiority over a battlefield. Since World War I, achieving and maintaining air superiority has been considered essential for victory in conventional warfare, the word fighter did not become the official English-language term for such aircraft until after World War I. In the British Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force these aircraft were referred to as scouts into the early 1920s, the U. S. Army called their fighters pursuit aircraft from 1916 until the late 1940s. In most languages a fighter aircraft is known as a hunter, exceptions include Russian, where a fighter is an истребитель, meaning exterminator, and Hebrew where it is matose krav. As a part of nomenclature, a letter is often assigned to various types of aircraft to indicate their use. In Russia I was used, while the French continue to use C and this has always been the case, for instance the Sopwith Camel and other fighting scouts of World War I performed a great deal of ground-attack work. Several aircraft, such as the F-111 and F-117, have received fighter designations but had no fighter capability due to political or other reasons, the F-111B variant was originally intended for a fighter role with the U. S. Navy, but it was cancelled. This blurring follows the use of fighters from their earliest days for attack or strike operations against ground targets by means of strafing or dropping small bombs, versatile multirole fighter-bombers such as the F/A-18 Hornet are a less expensive option than having a range of specialized aircraft types. An interceptor is generally an aircraft intended to target bombers and so often trades maneuverability for climb rate, fighters were developed in World War I to deny enemy aircraft and dirigibles the ability to gather information by reconnaissance. Early fighters were very small and lightly armed by later standards, and most were built with a wooden frame, covered with fabric. As control of the airspace over armies became increasingly important all of the major powers developed fighters to support their military operations, between the wars, wood was largely replaced by steel tubing, then aluminium tubing, and finally aluminium stressed skin structures began to predominate. By World War II, most fighters were all-metal monoplanes armed with batteries of guns or cannons. By the end of the war, turbojet engines were replacing piston engines as the means of propulsion, further increasing aircraft speed. Since the weight of the engine was so less than on piston engined fighters. This in turn required the development of ejection seats so the pilot could escape, in the 1950s, radar was fitted to day fighters, since pilots could no longer see far enough ahead to prepare for any opposition. Since then, radar capabilities have grown enormously and are now the method of target acquisition
10.
Curtiss SB2C Helldiver
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The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver was a carrier-based dive bomber aircraft produced for the United States Navy during World War II. It replaced the Douglas SBD Dauntless in US Navy service, the SB2C was much faster than the SBD it replaced. Crew nicknames for the aircraft included the Big-Tailed Beast, Two-Cee, neither pilots nor aircraft carrier captains seemed to like it. Delays marred its production—by the time the A-25 Shrike variant for the USAAF was deployed in late 1943, poor handling of the aircraft was another factor that hampered its service introductions, both the British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force cancelled substantial orders. The Truman Committee investigated Helldiver production and turned in a scathing report, problems with the Helldiver were eventually ironed out, and in spite of its early problems, the aircraft was flown through the last two years of the Pacific War with a fine combat record. The Helldiver was developed to replace the Douglas SBD Dauntless and it was a much larger aircraft, able to operate from the latest aircraft carriers and carry a considerable array of armament. It featured a bomb bay that reduced drag when carrying heavy ordnance. Saddled with demanding requirements set forth by both the U. S, Marines and United States Army Air Forces, the manufacturer incorporated features of a multi-role aircraft into the design. In 1939, a student brought a model of the new Curtiss XSB2C-1 to the MIT wind tunnel, professor Emeritus of Aeronautical Engineering Otto C. Koppen was quoted as saying, if they build more than one of these and he was referring to controllability issues with the small vertical tail. The first prototype made its flight on 18 December 1940. It crashed on 8 February 1941 when its engine failed on approach, the fuselage was lengthened and a larger tail was fitted, while an autopilot was fitted to help the poor stability. The revised prototype flew again on 20 October 1941, but was destroyed when its wing failed during diving tests on 21 December 1941, large-scale production had already been ordered on 29 November 1940, but a large number of modifications were specified for the production model. The SB2C-2 was built with fuel tanks, improving its range considerably. The program suffered so many delays that the Grumman TBF Avenger entered service before the Helldiver, a total of 7,140 SB2Cs were produced in World War II. The first version of the SB2C-1 was kept stateside for training, the first deployment model was the SB2C-1C. The SB2C-1 could deploy slats mechanically linked with landing gear actuators, the early prognosis of the Beast was unfavourable, it was strongly disliked by aircrews due to its size, weight, and reduced range compared to the SBD it replaced. In the Battle of the Philippine Sea,45 Helldivers were lost because they ran out of returning to their carriers
11.
Dive bomber
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A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bombs trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughout the bomb run and this allows attacks on point targets and ships, which were difficult to attack with conventional level bombers, even en-masse. A dive bomber dives at an angle, normally between 45 and 90 degrees, and thus requires an abrupt pull-up after dropping its bombs. This puts great strains on both pilot and aircraft and it demands an aircraft of strong construction, with some means to slow its dive. This limited the class to light bomber designs with ordnance loads in the range of 1,000 lb although there were larger examples. The SBD Dauntless helped win the Battle of Midway, was instrumental in the victory at the Battle of the Coral Sea, a second and simpler technique is to bomb from a shallow dive angle, sometimes referred to as glide bombing. This reduces the accuracy, but still allows line of sight to the target during the bomb run, the Junkers Ju 88 and Petlyakov Pe-2 were widely used in this role. The Heinkel He 177 is often mentioned as having its development upset by the demand that it be able to dive bomb, the phrase glide bombing should not be confused with the term glide bomb, where the bomb glides towards its target while the aircraft remains in level flight. Attachments for this type of bombing were fitted to the Norden bombsight, Dive bombing was most widely used before and during World War II, its use declined during the war, when its vulnerability to enemy fighters became apparent. Most tactical aircraft today allow bombing in shallow dives to keep the target visible, when released from an aircraft, a bomb carries with it the aircrafts velocity. In the case of a bomber flying horizontally, the bomb will only be travelling forward. This forward motion is opposed by the drag of the air, additionally, gravity accelerates the bomb downward. The combination of two forces, drag and gravity, results in a complex pseudo-parabolic trajectory. The distance that the bomb moves forward while it falls is known as its range, if the range for a given set of conditions is calculated, simple trigonometry can be used to find the angle between the aircraft and the target. By setting the bombsight to this angle, the aircraft can time the drop of its bombs at the instant when the target is lined up in the sight. This was only effective for area bombing, however, since the path of the bomb is only roughly estimated. Large formations could drop bombs on an area hoping to hit a target, but there was no guarantee of success. The advantage to this approach, however, was that it is easy to build such an aircraft and fly it at high altitude, the horizontal bomber was thus ill-suited for tactical bombing, particularly in close support
12.
Grumman TBM Avenger
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The Grumman TBF Avenger is an American torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air and naval aviation services around the world. The Avenger entered U. S. service in 1942, despite the loss of five of the six Avengers on its combat debut, it survived in service to become one of the outstanding torpedo bombers of World War II. Greatly modified after the war, it remained in use until the 1960s, the Douglas TBD Devastator, the U. S. Navys main torpedo bomber introduced in 1935, was obsolete by 1939. Bids were accepted from several companies, but Grummans TBF design was selected as the replacement for the TBD, designed by Leroy Grumman, the first prototype was called the XTBF-1. It was first flown on 7 August 1941, although one of the first two prototypes crashed near Brentwood, New York, rapid production continued. The engine used was the Wright R-2600-20 Cyclone 14 twin-row radial engine, the aircraft took 25 gallons of oil and used one gallon per minute at start-up. There were three members, pilot, turret gunner and radioman/bombardier/ventral gunner. Later models of the TBF/TBM dispensed with the gun for one.50 caliber gun in each wing per pilots requests for better forward firepower. There was only one set of controls on the aircraft, the radio equipment was massive, especially by todays standards, and filled the length of the well-framed greenhouse canopy to the rear of the pilot. The radios were accessible for repair through a tunnel along the right hand side, any Avengers that are still flying today usually have an additional rear-mounted seat in place of the radios, allowing for a fourth passenger. The Avenger had a bomb bay, allowing for one Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 torpedo. The aircraft had overall ruggedness and stability, and pilots say it flew like a truck, with its good radio facilities, docile handling, and long range, the Grumman Avenger also made an ideal command aircraft for Commanders, Air Group. With a 30,000 ft ceiling and a fully loaded range of 1,000 mi, it was better than any previous American torpedo bomber, and better than its Japanese counterpart, later Avenger models carried radar equipment for the ASW and AEW roles. Escort carrier sailors referred to the TBF as the turkey because of its size, on the afternoon of 7 December 1941, Grumman held a ceremony to open a new manufacturing plant and display the new TBF to the public. Coincidentally, on that day, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, after the ceremony was over, the plant was quickly sealed off to guard against possible sabotage. Six TBF-1s were present on Midway Island — as part of VT-8 — while the rest of the squadron flew Devastators from the Hornet, both types of torpedo bombers suffered heavy casualties. Out of the six Avengers, five were shot down and the other returned heavily damaged one of its gunners killed, and the other gunner. Nonetheless, the US torpedo bombers were credited with drawing away the Japanese combat air patrols so the American dive bombers could successfully hit the Japanese carriers, author Gordon Prange posited in Miracle at Midway that the outdated Devastators contributed somewhat to the lack of a complete victory at Midway
13.
Torpedo bomber
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A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. They were an important element in many famous Second World War battles, notably the British attack at Taranto, Torpedo bombers first appeared immediately prior to the First World War. Generally, they carried torpedoes specifically designed for air launch, which were smaller and lighter than those used by submarines and surface warships. Many early torpedo bombers were floatplanes, such as the Short 184, some postwar jet aircraft were adapted as torpedo bombers in the late 1940s and 1950s. The last known torpedo bomber attack was made by US Navy Skyraiders against the Hwacheon Dam during the Korean War, the North Korean Air Force finally retired the worlds last operational torpedo bombers in the 1980s. Many naval staffs began to appreciate the possibility of using aircraft to launch torpedoes against moored ships in the period before the First World War, captain Alessandro Guidoni, an Italian naval captain, experimented with dropping weights from Farman MF.7 in 1912. Fiske of the United States Navy took out a patent in 1912 for a torpedo carrying aircraft entitled Method of and he suggested that aircraft would attack at night. Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty from October 1911 to May 1915, was a proponent of naval air power. He established the Royal Naval Air Service in April 1912 and took flying lessons to foster aviation development, Churchill ordered the RNAS to design reconnaissance spotters and torpedo bombers for the Fleet. The British Admiralty ordered the Short Admiralty Type 81 biplane floatplane as a reconnaissance aircraft and it first flew in July 1913 and was loaded aboard the cruiser HMS Hermes, which had been converted to become the Royal Navys first seaplane tender. On 28 July 1914, Arthur Longmore dropped the first aerial torpedo, the support wires of the floats were moved to allow the torpedo to be carried above the water and a specially designed quick-release mechanism was used. The first plane designed from the outset as a bomber was the five-seat floatplane biplane AD Seaplane Type 1000 or AD1. However, it proved to be a failure, when the prototype built by J. Samuel White from the Isle of Wight first flew in June 1916, it was found to be too heavy and its float struts too weak for operations. On 12 August 1915, a Royal Naval Air Service Short 184 floatplane torpedo bomber sank a Turkish merchantman in the Sea of Marmara and it was operating from HMS Ben-my-Chree, a seaplane carrier converted from a ferry. Fitted with a hangar, Ben-my-Chree was used to carry up to six biplanes with their wings folded back to reduce carrying space. This was the first ship sunk by air-launched torpedo, five days later, another ship supplying Turkish forces in the Gallipoli campaign against British, Australian and New Zealand troops was also sunk. Production of the Short 184 continued until after the Armistice of 11 November 1918 and it served in eight navies, including the Imperial Japanese Navy, which built them under licence. The first torpedo bomber designed for operation from aircraft carriers was the Sopwith Cuckoo, the Admiralty planned to use five carriers and 100-120 Cuckoos to attack the German High Seas Fleet, which had been sheltering in Kiel since the Battle of Jutland in 1916
14.
USS Saipan (CVL-48)
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The first USS Saipan was a light aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class of carrier. She was later selected for conversion into a ship in 1963–1964. Saipan was laid down on 10 July 1944 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, launched on 8 July 1945, sponsored by Mrs. John W. McCormack, and commissioned on 14 July 1946, Capt. In November, she returned to Pensacola, but, in late December, after training midshipmen, in February 1948, however, her work in jet operational techniques, carrier support tactics, and electronic instrument evaluation was interrupted briefly. From the 7th to the 24th, she was engaged in transporting the United States delegation to the Venezuelan Presidential inauguration and back. On her return, she conducted operations off the Virginia Capes. On 18 April, she also relieved Mindoro as flagship of Carrier Division 17, on 19 April, she departed Norfolk for Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where, on 3 May, she embarked Fighter Squadron 17A. Three days later, all pilots had qualified in FH-1 Phantom jets. The squadron had become the first carrier-based jet squadron, back at Norfolk by the end of the month, Saipan was relieved of flagship duties. In June, she returned to New England waters, and, in July, in December, she resumed local operations. Departing Norfolk on Christmas Day, the CVL arrived off Cape Farewell on 28 December, on 29 December however, a C-47, equipped with jet assist takeoff and skis, landed on the ice, took on the marooned airmen and made it out again. Saipan then returned to Norfolk, arrived on 31 December, steaming south, she conducted exercises out of Guantanamo Bay into March and returned to Hampton Roads on 10 March. From 11–19 March, she conducted operations for the development force, at the end of May, she again commenced work for the Operational Development Force. Three months later, she conducted her second reservist cruise of the year, from November 1949 to March 1951, Saipan remained on the east coast, operating from the Virginia Capes south. On 6 March 1951, she got underway as flagship, CarDiv 14, deployed for three months, she plied the waters of the western Mediterranean until the end of May, then headed for home. On 8 June, she was back at Norfolk, whence she resumed operations in the western Atlantic from Greenland to the Caribbean, for over two years, Saipan continued Second Fleet operations, interrupting them for midshipman cruises during the summers of 1952 and 1953 and for an overhaul. In October 1953, she departed the east coast and steamed for the Panama Canal, on 30 October, she arrived at San Diego, whence she continued on to Pearl Harbor, Yokosuka, and duty off the coast of Korea in support of the uneasy truce agreement. Assigned to TF95, Saipan was primarily engaged in surveillance and reconnaissance missions along the coast, in January 1954, she interrupted her patrols to provide air support for Japanese manned LSTs ferrying former Chinese POWs from Inchon to new homes on Taiwan
15.
USS Wright (CVL-49)
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USS Wright was a Saipan-class light aircraft carrier of the U. S. Navy, later converted to the command ship CC-2. It is the ship named Wright. The first Wright was named for Orville Wright, the second honored both Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, Wright departed Philadelphia on 18 March 1947 and stopped briefly at Norfolk, Virginia, en route to the Naval Air Training Base at Pensacola, Florida. In addition, the carrier embarked a total of 1,081 naval reservists, the exercises included the catapulting of Grumman F6F Hellcats for rocket-firing operations. That exercise was her last prior to her departure from Pensacola on 24 October to return north, Wright spent the year 1948 engaged in those pilot carrier qualification operations, before she put into the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 26 January 1949 to commence a four-month overhaul. She also visited New York City before taking up a schedule of carrier qualifications, air defense tactics, and exercises out of Quonset Point, Rhode Island, Key West. Wright sailed from Norfolk on 11 January 1952 with a fast carrier task group, wrights first Mediterranean deployment took her from Gibraltar to Oran, Algeria. Departing Golfe Juan on 19 March, Wright made port at Newport on the 31st. En route, Wright, escorted by Forrest Royal, was detached to ferry men and gear of Marine Night Fighter Squadron 114 to Port Lyautey, Morocco, an operation she completed on 4 September. Two days later, Wright and her escort rejoined the task force, three days later, Wright put to sea with two British destroyers acting as her plane guard for NATO Operation Mainbrace. She conducted air defense maneuvers and tactics evolutions with the British carriers HMS Illustrious and HMS Eagle en route to Rotterdam, Netherlands, on 29 September, Wright departed Rotterdam, bound for the United States, and arrived at Newport on 9 October. That day, she embarked Rear Admiral W. L and she reached Golfe Juan on 21 February 1953 and operated with the 6th Fleet until 31 March, when she sailed for home, via the Azores. Wright returned to Newport, and after a schedule of training in Narragansett Bay. During that training cruise, she visited Houston, Texas, where she hosted some 14,000 visitors on 16 and 17 May. Returning to Quonset Point on 28 May, Wright operated locally for another month before shifting south for a stint of operations out of Mayport, Florida. Wright was overhauled at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard from 31 July to 21 November 1953, next, after departing Davisville, Rhode Island, on 5 April, Wright sailed for Norfolk VA where she took on necessary stores and supplies in preparation for her transfer to the Pacific Fleet. On 20 April, Wright set sail for the Western Pacific via the Panama Canal, San Diego, California, and Pearl Harbor—and reached United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan, on 28 May. The carrier, with Marine Attack Squadron 211 embarked, operated with the 7th Fleet off both coasts of Korea and also off Okinawa before she visited Hong Kong from 24 to 30 September
16.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
17.
Cruiser
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A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundred years, and has had different meanings throughout this period. In the middle of the 19th century, cruiser came to be a classification for the intended for cruising distant waters, commerce raiding. Cruisers came in a variety of sizes, from the medium-sized protected cruiser to large armored cruisers that were nearly as big as a pre-dreadnought battleship. With the advent of the battleship before World War I. The very large battlecruisers of the World War I era that succeeded armored cruisers were now classified, along with dreadnought battleships, in the later 20th century, the obsolescence of the battleship left the cruiser as the largest and most powerful surface combatant after the aircraft carrier. The role of the cruiser varied according to ship and navy, often including air defense, during the Cold War, the Soviet Navys cruisers had heavy anti-ship missile armament designed to sink NATO carrier task forces via saturation attack. The U. S. Adams guided-missile destroyers tasked with the air defense role. Indeed, the newest U. S. Navy destroyers are more heavily-armed than some of the cruisers that they succeeded, currently only three nations operate cruisers, the United States, Russia, and Peru. The term cruiser or cruizer was first commonly used in the 17th century to refer to an independent warship, Cruiser meant the purpose or mission of a ship, rather than a category of vessel. However, the term was used to mean a smaller, faster warship suitable for such a role. The Dutch navy was noted for its cruisers in the 17th century, while the Royal Navy—and later French and Spanish navies—subsequently caught up in terms of their numbers, during the 18th century the frigate became the preeminent type of cruiser. A frigate was a small, fast, long range, lightly armed ship used for scouting, carrying dispatches, the other principal type of cruiser was the sloop, but many other miscellaneous types of ship were used as well. During the 19th century, navies began to use steam power for their fleets, the 1840s saw the construction of experimental steam-powered frigates and sloops. By the middle of the 1850s, the British and U. S. Navies were both building steam frigates with very long hulls and a gun armament, for instance USS Merrimack or Mersey. The 1860s saw the introduction of the ironclad, the first ironclads were frigates, in the sense of having one gun deck, however, they were also clearly the most powerful ships in the navy, and were principally to serve in the line of battle. In spite of their speed, they would have been wasted in a cruising role. The French constructed a number of smaller ironclads for overseas cruising duties, starting with the Belliqueuse and these station ironclads were the beginning of the development of the armored cruisers, a type of ironclad specifically for the traditional cruiser missions of fast, independent raiding and patrol
18.
Command ship
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Command ships serve as the flagships of the commander of a fleet. They provide communications, office space, and accommodations for a commander and his staff. An auxiliary command ship features the command and control components prevalent on landing ships and also feature the capability to land troops, currently, the United States Navy operates two command ships, USS Blue Ridge and USS Mount Whitney, both of the purpose-built Blue Ridge class. The USS La Salle was decommissioned in March 2005 and sunk as a target in support of a training exercise on 11 April 2007. The USS Coronado was decommissioned and sunk as part of live-fire exercise Valiant Shield 2012. S. S, Coronado U. S. Navy Factfile Entry on Coronado
19.
Baltimore-class cruiser
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The Baltimore-class cruiser was a large class of heavy cruisers in the United States Navy commissioned during or shortly after World War II. Fourteen Baltimores were completed, more than any class of heavy cruiser. Fast and heavily armed, the Baltimore cruisers were used in World War II to protect the fast aircraft carriers in battle groups from air attack. Additionally, their 8-inch main guns and secondary 5-inch guns were used to bombard land targets in support of amphibious landings. After the war, only six Baltimores and two Oregon City-class ships remained in service, while the rest were moved to the reserve fleet, however, all ships except Boston, Canberra, Chicago and Fall River were reactivated for the Korean War. Except for St Paul, all the ships retaining all-gun configurations had very short lives, and by 1971 were decommissioned. However, four Baltimore-class cruisers were refitted and converted some of the first guided missile cruisers in the world. The last of these was decommissioned in 1980, with the Chicago lasting until 1991 in reserve, no example of the Baltimore class still exists. With the start of the war, the limitations instituted by the Second London Naval Treaty, the Baltimore class was based partly on USS Wichita, a heavy cruiser from 1937, which represented the transition from inter-war to World War II designs. It was also based partly on the Cleveland class, a cruiser that was then being built. The construction of the first four ships of the Baltimore class began on July 1,1940, a second order, which consisted of 16 more ships, was approved on August 7,1942. With the construction of the first eight Baltimore-class ships moving slowly, the new, modified design was itself delayed, so that construction had begun on a further six ships—for a total of 14—using the original design before the revisions were completed. The final three ships ordered were converted to the design, known as the Oregon City class. Between 1943 and 1947,17 ships of the Baltimore and Oregon City classes entered service, construction of the eighteenth ship was suspended, to eventually be completed as a flagship/command ship in 1950. Five more were laid down, but cancelled and scrapped before launch, the largest contractor for the construction of the Baltimore-class ships was Bethlehem Steel, which produced eight ships at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey, built four, the ships were named after cities in the United States, the only exception being USS Canberra, which was named in honor of HMAS Canberra, which had been named after Canberra, the Australian capital. The classification CA originally stood for armored cruiser but was used for heavy cruisers. By 1947, nine of the Baltimores had been decommissioned and placed in the reserve fleet, however, at the start of the 1950s, six were reactivated, making thirteen available for deployment in the Korean War
20.
Heavy cruiser
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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 203mm calibre and displacing approximately 10,000 tons. The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, the heavy cruisers immediate precursors were the light cruiser designs of the 1900s and 1910s, rather than the armoured cruisers of before 1905. With their intended targets being other cruisers and smaller vessels, the role of the heavy cruiser differed fundamentally from that of the armored cruiser, also, the heavy cruiser was designed to take advantage of advances in naval technology and design. They often had a number of main guns than did armoured cruisers. This arrangement saved tonnage and enabled the ship to all guns on one broadside. They also benefited from the introduction of control in the 1920s and 1930s. These developments meant that the cruiser was an overall more powerful ship type than the armoured cruiser had been. At the end of the 19th century, cruisers were classified as first and their essential role had not changed since the age of sail—to serve on long-range missions, patrol for enemy warships and raid and defend commerce. Armoured cruisers had proved less versatile than needed to do this adequately, in a race to outsize and outgun one another, they had grown to around 15,000 tons and up to 9. While Japanese armored cruisers had distinguished themselves at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, tactics and technology were gearing towards naval encounters held over increasingly longer ranges, which demanded an armament of primarily large caliber guns. The demand for speed with which to outflank a potential enemy, thirty percent was the ratio by which frigates had been faster than ships of the line in the days of sail. If a battleship sailed at 20 knots, this would mean that an armored cruiser would have to steam at least 26 or 27 knots, armoured cruisers could not fulfill these criteria without being built much larger and taking on a different form than they had in the past. HMS Invincible and her two sister ships were designed specifically to fulfill these requirements, however, they were much larger, faster and better-armed than armored cruisers, able to outpace them, stay out of range of their weapons and destroy them with relative impunity. All these factors made battlecruisers attractive fighting units, although Britain, Germany and they also meant that the armored cruiser as it had been known was now outmoded. No more were built after 1910 and by the end of World War I, although Lord Fisher, the man behind the building of Invincible, had hoped to replace practically all forms of cruisers with battlecruisers, they proved to be too costly to build in large numbers. At the same time, the third class cruiser started to carry thin steel armour on the outside of its hull, the first such design was the British Atlantic cruiser proposal of 1912, which proposed a long-range cruiser of about 8,000 tons displacement with 190 mm guns. This was a response to a rumour that Germany was building cruisers to attack merchant shipping in the Atlantic with 170mm guns, the German raiders proved to be fictional and the Atlantic cruisers were never built. However, in 1915 the requirement for long-range trade-protection cruisers resurfaced and resulted in the Hawkins class, essentially enlarged light cruisers, the Hawkins-class each carried seven 190 mm guns, and had a displacement just under 10,000 tons
21.
Cleveland-class cruiser
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The Cleveland class was a group of light cruisers built for the U. S. Navy during World War II, and were the most numerous class of light cruisers ever built. The Clevland-class was a development of the preceding Brooklyn-class, the ships were designed with the goal of increased cruising range, anti-aircraft armament, torpedo protection, etc. compared with earlier U. S. cruisers. To achieve this, the fifth 6 inch gun turret was omitted and this also gave room for the enlargement of the bridge spaces to accommodate the new combat information center and the necessary radars. However, the increase of light anti-aircraft artillery made the class top-heavy towards the end of World War II, to compensate for the weight increase, some ships had one catapult removed, also the range finders were removed from turret A. These two were called the Fargo class, of the 27 Cleveland-class cruisers that were commissioned, one was completed as a guided missile cruiser and five were later modified as Galveston and Providence-class guided missile cruisers. Two of each of the guided missile cruiser-classes had enlarged superstructures to serve as flagships, following the naming convention at the time, all the ships completed as cruisers were named for US cities and towns. The Cleveland-class cruisers served mainly in the Pacific Fleet during World War II, especially in the Fast Carrier Task Force, all of these warships, though worked heavily and damaged in some cases, survived the war. The Clevelands suffered from increasing stability problems as anti-aircraft armament and additional radar was added during the war, none were recommissioned for the Korean War, as they required a crew almost as large as the Baltimore-class ships, and those ships were reactivated instead. All non-converted ships were sold off from the fleet for scrapping beginning in 1959. The six that were completed as or converted into guided missile cruisers were reactivated during the 1950s, all, particularly the Talos-armed ships, suffered from greater stability problems than the original design due to the extra radar equipment and top weight. This problem was severe in Galveston, leading to its premature decommissioning in 1970. Oklahoma City and Little Rock had to have an amount of ballast. The last of these ships in service, Oklahoma City, was decommissioned in December 1979
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Light cruiser
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A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the light armored cruiser, describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser. Prior to this smaller cruisers had been of the protected cruiser model, the first small steam-powered cruisers were built for the British Royal Navy with HMS Mercury launched in 1878. Such second and third class protected cruisers evolved, gradually becoming faster, better armed, germany took a lead in small cruiser design in the 1890s, building a class of fast cruisers—the Gazelle class—copied by other nations. Such vessels were powered by coal-fired boilers and reciprocating steam engines, the adoption of oil-fired water-tube boilers and steam turbine engines meant that older small cruisers rapidly became obsolete. Furthermore, new construction could not rely on the protection of coal bunkers, the British Bristol group of Town-class cruisers were a departure from previous designs, with turbine propulsion, mixed coal and oil firing and a 2-inch protective armoured belt as well as deck. Thus, by definition, they were armoured cruisers, despite displacing only 4,800 tons, the first true modern light cruisers were the Arethusa class which had all oil-firing and used lightweight destroyer-type machinery to make 29 knots. 1-inch to 5. 9-inch guns. Cruiser construction in Britain continued uninterrupted until Admiral Jacky Fishers appointment as First Sea Lord in 1904, the group of 21 Town-class cruisers begun in 1910 proved excellent in scouting in all types of weather and could carry enough fuel and ammunition to guard the shipping lanes. The Arethusa class, launched three years later, was also successful, British designers continued enlarging and refining subsequent cruiser designs throughout the war. The Germans built a number of cruisers in the belief that they were good multi-purpose vessels. However, the Germans were very late in adapting 5. 9-inch guns, with the Pillau and Wiesbaden-class cruisers the Germans followed the British example of heavier guns. Earlier German light cruisers were in competition with a series of British scout cruisers which had a speed of 25 knots. The Germans completed the last two of their Bremen-class cruisers in 1906 and 1907 and followed them up with four Königsberg-class and these last two classes, larger and faster than the Bremens, were armed the same and carried less deck armor. Other major powers concentrated on construction and built few cruisers. The United States, Italy, and Austria-Hungary each built only a handful of scout cruisers while Japan and Spain added a few based on British designs. The United States resumed building light cruisers in 1918, largely because the ships it then had in service had become obsolete, the first of these, the ten Omaha-class ships, displaced 7,050 tons and were armed with twelve 6-inch guns. Eight of these guns were mounted in casemates at the bow and stern. Fast and maneuverable, they were well-liked as seaboats despite being very wet in rough weather, the term light cruiser was given a definition by the London Naval Treaty of 1930
23.
Essex-class aircraft carrier
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The Essex class was a class of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy that constituted the 20th centurys most numerous class of capital ships. The class consisted of 24 vessels, which came in both short-hull and long-hull versions, thirty-two ships were originally ordered, however as World War II wound down, six were canceled before construction, and two were canceled after construction had begun. No Essex-class ships were lost to enemy action, despite several vessels sustaining very heavy damage, at the time of the repudiations, both Italy and Japan had colonial ambitions, intending on or already conducting military conquests. A longer, wider deck and a deck-edge elevator facilitated more efficient aviation operations. Machinery arrangement and armor protection was improved from previous designs. These features, plus the provision of more guns, gave the ships much enhanced survivability. Some ships in the class would serve until well after the end of the Vietnam War, debates raged, and continue to this day, regarding the effect of strength deck location. British designers comments tended to disparage the use of deck armor. After the abrogation of disarmament treaties by Japan in 1936, the U. S. took a look at its naval strength. With the Naval Expansion Act of Congress passed on 17 May 1938 and this permitted the building of Hornet, which was the third Yorktown-class CV, and Essex, which was the lead ship of a new class. CV-9 was to be the prototype of the 27, 000-ton aircraft carrier, considerably larger than Enterprise, the Navy ordered the first three of the new design, CV-9, CV-10 and CV-11, from Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock on 3 July 1940. These were to become known as Essex-class carriers, under the terms of the Two-Ocean Navy Act, ten more of these carriers were programmed. After the US declaration of war, Congress appropriated funds for nineteen more Essexes, ten were ordered in August 1942 and three more in June 1943. Only two of these were completed in time to see active World War II service, six ships ordered in 1944 were canceled before construction was begun. The first eight hulls were originally assigned names from historic Navy ships, Lexington was originally laid down as Cabot, but was renamed during construction after the original USS Lexington was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Yorktown, originally to be named Bon Homme Richard, was renamed after the original USS Yorktown was lost at the Battle of Midway on 7 June 1942, Lexington and Yorktown share the unique distinction of being named after both historic ships and historic battles. The erstwhile Valley Forge was renamed Princeton after USS Princeton was sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, at the conclusion of the war, the six ships ordered but never laid down were canceled. Of the nine still unfinished six were completed, two were scrapped, and Oriskany was taken in hand for modification to an improved design, in drawing up the preliminary design for Essex, particular attention was directed at the size of both the flight and hangar decks
24.
Midway-class aircraft carrier
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The Midway-class aircraft carrier was one of the longest-serving aircraft carrier designs in history. First commissioned in late 1945, the ship of the class, USS Midway, was not decommissioned until 1992. The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was decommissioned in 1977, the USS Coral Sea was decommissioned in 1990. The CVB-41 class vessels were conceived in 1940 as a design study to determine the effect of including an armored flight deck on a carrier the size of the Essex class. The resulting calculations showed that the effect would be a reduction of air group size—the resulting ship would have an air group of 64, Navy carrier design were incorporated in the CVB Class, then still under development. HMS ILLUSTRIOUS in an action off Malta on 1 January 1941 was hit by several bombs, the concept went to finding a larger carrier that could support both deck armor and a sufficiently large air group. They would be the last USN carriers to be so designed, the resulting carriers were very large, with the ability to accommodate more planes than any other carrier in the U. S. fleet. In their original configuration, the Midway-class ships had an airwing of almost 130 aircraft and it was soon realized that the coordination of so many planes was beyond the effective command and control ability of one ship. However, their size did allow these ships to easily accommodate the rapid growth in aircraft size. While the resulting ships featured excellent protection and unprecedented airwing size, internally, the ships were very cramped and crowded. Freeboard was unusually low for such large carriers, in seas, they shipped large amounts of water. In addition, in contrast with the earlier Lexington, Yorktown and Essex-classes, although they were intended to augment the US Pacific fleet during World War II, the lead ship of the class, Midway, was not commissioned until 10 September 1945. None of the went on war cruises during the Korean War. They were mainly deployed to the Atlantic and Mediterranean, all three of the Midway class made combat deployments in the Vietnam War. Coral Sea deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin six times, Midway deployed on three occasions, and Franklin D. Roosevelt made one combat deployment before returning to the Mediterranean. In the late 1960s, Midway underwent a modernization and reconstruction program. By the 1970s, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Coral Sea were showing their age, all three retained the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in their air wings, being too small to operate the new Grumman F-14 Tomcat fleet defense fighter or the S-3 Viking anti-submarine jet. In 1977, Franklin D. Roosevelt was decommissioned, on her final deployment, Roosevelt embarked AV-8 Harrier jump jets to test the concept of including VSTOL aircraft in a carrier air wing
25.
USS United States (CVA-58)
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USS United States was to be the lead ship of a new design of aircraft carrier. On 29 July 1948, President Harry Truman approved construction of five supercarriers, the keel of the first of the five planned postwar carriers was laid down on 18 April 1949 at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. The program was canceled, United States was not completed, nevertheless, USS United States is the ancestor of all U. S. supercarriers. The chief proponent for the new carrier was Admiral Marc Mitscher. He wanted a carrier that would be able to handle the most effective weapons of the day, early design discussions centered around developing a carrier that would be able to support combat missions using the new jet aircraft. These were faster, larger and significantly heavier than the aircraft the Essex and it was thought that the aircraft carried would have to have longer range to allow the carrier to operate farther away from the target. The deck would have to be able to handle the weight of the jet aircraft landing on the deck. Furthermore, the experience gained against the Kamikazes at the end of the war drove home the need for the ship to have a flight deck. Too many pilots had been lost from kamikaze attack while they were sitting below the flight deck in the pilot ready room. The implication then is that the strength deck would have to be the flight deck rather than the hangar deck. That would mean the ship would have a tendency to roll in rough weather. Based on the size of the aircraft that the new ship was to carry and this was done to create more space for large winged aircraft. The flush-deck design carried with it two major areas of concern, the first was concern over how smoke from the power plants would be diverted away from the flight deck. This had been an issue with the US Navys first aircraft carrier, USS Langley. The second was the placement of warning radar equipment to allow the ship to detect incoming attacks. One solution was for a ship to be close by which would carry the commander of the task force. The command ship would radio information and orders from its command center over to the carrier. A second was for the ship to aircraft that could fly the early warning radar
26.
Aircraft carrier
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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 ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Aircraft carriers are expensive to build and are critical assets, there is no single definition of an aircraft carrier, and modern navies use several variants of the type. These variants are sometimes categorized as sub-types of aircraft carriers, Aircraft carriers may be classified according to the type of aircraft they carry and their operational assignments. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, former head of the Royal Navy, has said, To put it simply, as of April 2017, there are 37 active aircraft carriers in the world within twelve navies. The United States Navy has 10 large nuclear-powered fleet carriers, the largest carriers in the world, the Royal Navy of Great Britain is building two 280-m / 920-ft carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, and the Prince of Wales scheduled to go into service in 2020-2023. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds, by comparison, escort carriers were developed to provide defense for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried, most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were fast enough to operate with the main fleet, three nations currently operate carriers of this type, ten by the United States, and one each by France and Brazil for a total of twelve in service. Short take-off but arrested-recovery, these carriers are generally limited to carrying lighter fixed-wing aircraft with more limited payloads, currently, Russia, China, and India possess commissioned carriers of this type. Short take-off vertical-landing, limited to carrying STOVL aircraft and this type of aircraft carrier is currently in service with Italy. Some also count the nine US amphibious assault ships in their secondary light carrier role boosting the total to thirteen. Helicopter carrier, Helicopter carriers have an appearance to other aircraft carriers. Some are designed for addition of, or may include, a ski jump ramp allowing for STOVL operations or may have a ski jump installed before retirement of STOVL aircraft. In the past, some conventional carriers were converted and called commando carriers by the Royal Navy, some helicopter carriers with a resistant flight surface can operate STOVL jets. Currently the majority of carriers, but not all, are classified as amphibious assault ships. The US has nine of this type, France and Japan three, Australia two, the UK one, the Republic of Korea one and Spain one, the US and Spains amphibious assault ships operate STOVL jets in normal deployment. Supercarrier Fleet carrier Light aircraft carrier Escort carrier Several systems of identification symbol for aircraft carriers, two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay
27.
Lexington-class aircraft carrier
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The Lexington-class aircraft carriers were a pair of aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. The ships were built on hulls originally laid down as battlecruisers after World War I, the Treaty, however, allowed two of the unfinished ships to be converted to carriers. They were the first operational aircraft carriers in the USN and were used to carrier aviation tactics. They proved extremely successful as carriers and experience with the Lexington class convinced the Navy of the value of large carriers and they were the largest aircraft carriers in the USN until the Midway-class aircraft carriers were completed beginning in 1945. The ships served in World War II, seeing action in many battles and she supported Allied operations in the Indian Ocean and South West Pacific Areas until she became a training ship at the end of 1943. Saratoga returned to combat to protect American forces during the Battle of Iwo Jima in early 1945, the continued growth in the size and weight of carrier aircraft made her obsolete by the end of the war. In mid-1946, the ship was sunk during nuclear tests in Operation Crossroads. The Lexington-class was originally designed as battlecruisers, with guns, high speed. The Navy laid down six ships of the class in 1919–20, when the battlecruisers were cancelled under the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, two of the unfinished ships were designated for completion as carriers. Lexington and Saratoga were selected since they were the most advanced of the six ships in construction, conversion became a series of compromises and mixed blessings which would not have arisen had they been specifically designed carriers from the outset. On the plus side, the ships would have better protection, larger magazines for aircraft bombs and, with the after elevator 28 feet higher than otherwise. A brand-new aircraft carrier was estimated at $27.1 million, conversion of a Lexington class was $22.4 million, not counting the $6.7 million already sunk into them. Added together, the rose to $28.1 million. The bottom line, with the signing of the treaty, was that any capital ships under construction by the five signatories had to be canceled and scrapped, for battlecruisers, this encompassed the United States Lexington class, Japans Amagi class, and Great Britains G3 battlecruisers. For the U. S. Navy, the choice seemed clear, if it scrapped all six Lexingtons in accordance with the treaty, it would throw away $13.4 million that could otherwise go toward aircraft carriers. The Navy opted for the latter course, the next challenge the Navys Bureau of Construction and Repair faced was the tonnage cap set by the treaty. Carriers were to be no more than 27,000 tons, an exception, spearheaded by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and added to the treaty, allowed capital ships under conversion to go up to 33,000 tons, an increase of 6000 tons. This would almost not be enough for a conversion without removing half the power plant, creative interpreting of a clause in the treaty allowed a potential way out of this situation
28.
USS Ranger (CV-4)
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USS Ranger was the first ship of the United States Navy to be designed and built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. Ranger was a small ship, closer in size and displacement to the first US carrier—Langley—than later ships. An island superstructure was not included in the design, but was added after completion. Deemed too slow for use with the Pacific Fleets carrier task forces against Japan, Ranger saw combat in that theatre and provided air support for Operation Torch. In October 1943, she fought in Operation Leader, air attacks on German shipping off Norway, the ship was sold for scrap in 1947. The Washington Naval Treaty limited both the size of ships that could be built and the total tonnage of aircraft carriers that could be built. What became Ranger was to be the first purpose-built aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, the carrier cost 15.2 million dollars. Ranger had a narrow hull due to its size and one inch of armor on the hangar deck, due to space limits, the carrier was equipped with geared turbines. The design was modified to include an island, increasing the displacement to 14,500 tons. The smoke from the six boilers was vented up six small stacks. The stacks were hinged and were rotated to a parallel with the hangar deck during flight operations. Ranger also incorporated a gallery deck between the deck and hangar deck. The hangar deck was semi-open and had large roll-up metal curtain doors which could be closed in bad weather, one was located on the centerline and two offset to the starboard centerline. It was originally planned to install two catapults on the deck to allow the launching of observation aircraft but this plan was dropped. The carrier was able to carry 76 aircraft at the time, Ranger was armed with six 40 mm quadruple mounts and forty-six 20 mm mounts. She also was armed with eight 5-inch /25 caliber guns, which were removed in June 1944. The carrier was one of the first U. S. Navy ships mounted with light weapons to defend against dive-bombing attacks. The U. S. Navy opened bids for the construction of the carrier on 3 September 1930
29.
Yorktown-class aircraft carrier
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The Yorktown class was a class of three aircraft carriers built by for the United States Navy and completed shortly before World War II. They immediately followed Ranger, the first U. S. These ships bore the brunt of early action in the Pacific War, Enterprise, the sole survivor of the class, was the most decorated ship of the U. S. Navy in the Second World War. After efforts to save her as a ship failed, she was scrapped in 1960. A forerunner to modern development, the Yorktown class was a result of standardized war gaming exercises using Langley. The Naval War College became the repository of American Naval expertise. The results were that islands on the carriers were highlighted and speed itself was considered very important, the 27,000 ton plan for the Yorktown class was a fall back plan from a 23,000 ton carrier that could not achieve that desired speed. The realization that larger carriers would be more survivable was a happy coincidence, nevertheless, the war games and the Naval War College highlighted the greater flexibility presented by large air groups and fast speed. These became along with protection, the guiding principles in the Yorktown class designs. In particular, the 23,000 ton design had to sacrifice protection features, all studies showed that the 27,000 ton designs were to be preferred however all treaty limitations made this impossible. Later it would be noted that the carriers provided close to an all weather ability to launch aircraft. The British Royal Navy had constructed several carriers during this time, admiral Marc Mitscher had in particular pushed for such a carrier. The American Naval Attache J. C. Hunsacker reported that HMS Furious had problems deposing of the fumes without proper smoke stacks, the aviation community continued to demand flush decked carriers. Given additional problems with controlling air groups all American carriers would be constructed with islands, in any case BuAer retracted all demands for flush decked carriers. The 1931 design show an island and the design for USS Ranger the contractor stated that gun control was impossible without a raised island, both USS Ranger and USS Wasp further showed the limitations of sub-20,000 ton designs. USS Ranger proved to be unable to withstand rougher weather in the Pacific while lack of any protective features soon relegated her to a training ship. USS Wasps lack of torpedo protection contributed to her loss in the Pacific theater, as the result of this experience, the U. S. Navy built Yorktown and Enterprise, commissioned in 1937 and 1938 respectively. These were fast and versatile carriers able to carry and operate over 80 warplanes which was almost as many as the much larger Lexington class
30.
USS Wasp (CV-7)
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USS Wasp was a United States Navy aircraft carrier commissioned in 1940 and lost in action in 1942. She was the ship named USS Wasp, and the sole ship of a class built to use up the remaining tonnage allowed to the U. S. for aircraft carriers under the treaties of the time. As a reduced-size version of the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier hull, Wasp was more vulnerable than other United States aircraft carriers available at the opening of hostilities, Wasp was initially employed in the Atlantic campaign, where Axis naval forces were perceived as less capable of inflicting decisive damage. After supporting the occupation of Iceland in 1941, Wasp joined the British Home Fleet in April 1942, Wasp was then transferred to the Pacific in June 1942 to replace losses at the battles of Coral Sea and Midway. After supporting the invasion of Guadalcanal, Wasp was sunk by the Japanese submarine I-19 on 15 September 1942, Wasp was a product of the Washington Naval Treaty. After the construction of the carriers Yorktown and Enterprise, the U. S. was still permitted 15,000 long tons to build a carrier, the Navy sought to squeeze a large air group onto a ship with nearly 25% less displacement than the Yorktown-class. In order to weight and space, Wasp was constructed with low-power machinery. Additionally, Wasp was launched with almost no armor, modest speed and, more significantly, absence of side protection of the boilers and internal aviation fuel stores doomed her to a blazing demise. These were inherent design flaws that were recognized when constructed but could not be remedied within the allowed tonnage and these flaws, combined with a relative lack of damage control experience in the early days of the war, were to prove fatal. Wasp was the first carrier fitted with a deck edge elevator, the elevator consisted of a platform for the front wheels and an outrigger for the tail wheel. The two arms on the sides moved the platform in a half-circle up and down between the deck and the hangar deck. Wasp remained at Boston through May, fitting out, before she got underway on 5 June 1940 for calibration tests on her radio direction finder gear. After further fitting out while anchored in Boston harbor, the new aircraft carrier steamed independently to Hampton Roads, Virginia, four days later, she sailed for the Caribbean in company with the destroyer Morris. En route, she conducted the first of many carrier qualification tests, among the earliest of the qualifiers was Lieutenant, junior grade David McCampbell, who later became the Navys top-scoring ace in World War II. Wasp arrived at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in time to ship in honor of Independence Day. A fatal incident marred the carriers shakedown, on 9 July, one of her Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator dive bombers crashed 2 nautical miles from the ship. Wasp bent on speed to close, as did the plane-guarding destroyer Morris. The latters boats recovered items from the baggage compartment
31.
Escort carrier
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They were typically half the length and a third the displacement of larger fleet carriers. While they were slower, carried fewer planes and were well armed and armored, escort carriers were cheaper and could be built quickly. Escort carriers could be completed in greater numbers as a stop-gap when fleet carriers were scarce, however, the lack of protection made escort carriers particularly vulnerable and several were sunk with great loss of life. The light carrier was a concept to escort carriers in most respects. Most often built on a ship hull, escort carriers were too slow to keep up with the main forces consisting of fleet carriers, battleships. Instead, they were used to escort convoys, defending them from threats such as submarines and planes. In the invasions of mainland Europe and Pacific islands, escort carriers provided air support to forces during amphibious operations. Escort carriers also served as aircraft transports for fleet carriers. In the Battle of the Atlantic, escort carriers were used to protect convoys against U-boats, initially escort carriers accompanied the merchant ships and helped to fend off attacks from aircraft and submarines. As numbers increased later in the war, escort carriers formed part of hunter-killer groups that sought out submarines instead of being attached to a particular convoy. In the Pacific theater, CVEs provided air support of troops in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. They lacked the speed and weapons to enemy fleets, relying on the protection of a Fast Carrier Task Force. However, at the Battle off Samar, one U. S. task force of escort carriers managed to defend itself against a much larger Japanese force of battleships. The Japanese met a furious defense of carrier aircraft, screening destroyers, of the 151 aircraft carriers built in the U. S. during World War II,122 were escort carriers. Though no examples survive to this day, the Casablanca class was the most numerous class of aircraft carrier, second was the Bogue class, with 45 launched. In the early 1920s, the Washington Naval Treaty imposed limits on the maximum size, later treaties largely kept these provisions. As a result, construction between the World Wars had been insufficient to meet needs for aircraft carriers as World War II expanded from Europe. The foregoing mission requirements limited use of fleet carriers′ unique offensive strike capability demonstrated at the Battle of Taranto, conversion of existing ships provided additional aircraft carriers until new construction became available
32.
Long Island-class escort carrier
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The Long Island-class escort carrier was a two-ship class, originally listed as AVG. They were converted merchant ships. The first ship of the class—USS Long Island, originally AVG-1, later ACV-1 then CVE-1—was launched on 11 January 1940, the second and last ship of the class—HMS Archer —was launched on 14 December 1939, and served in the Royal Navy through World War II. It is also listed in U. S. Navy records as BAVG-1, List of ships of the Second World War List of ship classes of the Second World War The Ships and Aircraft of the U. S. Fleet, James C. Fahey, Associate, United States Naval Institute, Victory Edition, copyright 1945, published by Ships and Aircraft,1265 Broadway, NY1, ford, Roger, Gibbons, Tony, Hewson, Rob, Jackson, Bob, Ross, David. London, Amber Books, Ltd. p.392
33.
Avenger-class escort carrier
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All three were originally American merchant ships in the process of being built at the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Chester, Pennsylvania. The ships laid down in 1939 and 1940 were launched and delivered to the Royal Navy by 1942. The ships had a complement of 555 men and a length of 492.25 feet, a beam of 66.25 feet. Their displacement was 8,200 long tons at load and 9,000 long tons at deep load. Propulsion was provided by four diesel engines connected to one shaft giving 8,500 brake horsepower, aircraft could be housed in the 190 by 47 feet half hangar below the flight deck. Armament comprised three single mounted 4-inch dual purpose guns and fifteen 20 mm cannons on single or twin mounts. The three ships in the class were HMS Avenger, HMS Biter and HMS Dasher, a fourth ship, USS Charger was built at the same time to the same design but was commissioned in the U. S. Navy. List of ships of the Second World War List of ship classes of the Second World War
34.
Bogue-class escort carrier
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The Bogue class were a class of escort carriers built in the United States for service with the U. S. Navy and the Royal Navy during World War II. Following the war, ten Bogue-class ships were kept in service by the U. S. Navy and were used for helicopter, the ships operated by the Royal Navy were renamed and grouped as the Attacker class and the Ruler class, the latter all having names of Rulers. Following the war, those ships that served with the Royal Navy were returned to the United States and were scrapped or converted for mercantile use. The Bogue-class escort carriers were based on the Maritime Commissions Type C3 cargo ship hull and they all were named for sounds, and were equipped with derricks for retrieving seaplanes and loading and unloading aircraft. These vessels were equipped with a variety of weapons, including one or two guns of 4-inch/50 caliber, 5-inch /38 caliber, or 5-inch /51 caliber plus 40 mm Bofors and 20 mm Oerlikons. The type of gun and number of smaller guns changed over the course of the war. They could carry as many as 28 aircraft operationally, or more if operating as a transport with additional aircraft secured to the flight deck. The first group to be transferred were known by the RN as the Attacker class, in their place replacements were constructed with the same names for the American fleet. A second group of ships were built and sent almost in its entirety to the Royal Navy, known as the Ameer or Ruler class in British service, and sometimes as the Prince William class in the U. S. Navy. As delivered, these carriers required modifications to conform to Royal Naval standards and, for some ships, the consequential delays in getting these ships into active service caused critical comments from some in the U. S. Navy. General characteristics as the Attacker class, except for displacement and armament
35.
Sangamon-class escort carrier
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The Sangamon class were a group of four escort aircraft carriers of the United States Navy that served during World War II. These ships were originally Cimarron class oilers, launched in 1939 for civilian use and they were acquired and commissioned by the U. S. Navy in 1940-41. Due to the shortage of MARAD type C3 ships for conversion to desperately needed escort carriers, the conversion took around six months. These ships were the largest escort carrier built for the U. S. Navy. The late-war Commencement Bay class escort carriers were about as large, being built as T3 Tanker oilers, the machinery space was located aft, resulting in the placing of the smokestacks on both sides aft of the flight deck. They were excellent examples of the type, roomy and tough with a flight deck. The Sangamons could operate about 30 aircraft, and were the only escort carriers to operate dive bombers, the Sagamon-class were all renamed for rivers following the contemporary US Navy practice for oilers when taken into Navy service and retained those names following their conversions to carriers. From late 1942 until the end of the war the ships saw duty in the Mediterranean. Three of the class were damaged by Japanese kamikaze attacks at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in the Pacific, the carriers often operated together as Carrier Division 22. The ships were withdrawn from service shortly after the end of the war. Some of them were kept in reserve and reclassified as helicopter escort carriers, all had been sold or scrapped by the early 1960s. List of ships of the Second World War List of ship classes of the Second World War List of aircraft carriers Friedman, Norman
36.
Casablanca-class escort carrier
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The Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years –3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944 and these were nearly one third of the 151 carriers built in the United States during the war. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. The first class to be designed from keel up as an escort carrier and it also had a larger flight deck than the Bogue class. Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating and their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, but fighters were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE-55 Casablanca to CVE-104 Munda, Casablanca-class carriers were built by Kaiser Company, Inc. s Shipbuilding Division, Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The yard had twelve building ways and an enormous 3,000 foot outfitting dock along with an additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass-production origins led their crews to refer to them as jeep carriers or Kaiser Jeeps with varying degrees of affection and those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Unlike the larger Essex and Independence-class carriers, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels, Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser-built ships until Kaiser went directly to the Presidents advisors, the Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes, Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halseys Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a Myōkō-class cruiser with two hits. Recent evidence suggests that six 5-inch shells fired from USS White Plains struck the cruiser Chōkai, one of theses rounds was reported to have impacted amidships on the starboard side, causing a large secondary explosion that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5-inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of 11,700 yards, however, this claim is not supported by Japanese sources, which report this damage as resulting from an air attack. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I-175 SW off Butaritari, cVE-73 Gambier Bay Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar, cVE-63 St. Lo Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf, cVE-79 Ommaney Bay Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf, cVE-95 Bismarck Sea Sunk 21 February 1945
37.
Battleship
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A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship, the word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail. The term came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship. In 1906, the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design, subsequent battleship designs, influenced by HMS Dreadnought, were referred to as dreadnoughts. Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, the launch of Dreadnought in 1906 commenced a new naval arms race. Jutland was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war, the Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships, though technical innovation in battleship design continued. The value of the battleship has been questioned, even during their heyday, there were few of the decisive fleet battles that battleship proponents expected, and used to justify the vast resources spent on building battlefleets. Battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War for fire support purposes before being stricken from the U. S. Naval Vessel Register in the 2000s. A ship of the line was a large, unarmored wooden sailing ship which mounted a battery of up to 120 smoothbore guns, from 1794, the alternative term line of battle ship was contracted to battle ship or battleship. The sheer number of guns fired broadside meant a sail battleship could wreck any wooden enemy, holing her hull, knocking down masts, wrecking her rigging, and killing her crew. However, the range of the guns was as little as a few hundred yards. The first major change to the ship of the concept was the introduction of steam power as an auxiliary propulsion system. Steam power was introduced to the navy in the first half of the 19th century, initially for small craft. The French Navy introduced steam to the line of battle with the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850—the first true steam battleship, Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots, regardless of the wind condition. This was a decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of steam accelerated the growth in size of battleships, the adoption of steam power was only one of a number of technological advances which revolutionized warship design in the 19th century. The ship of the line was overtaken by the ironclad, powered by steam, protected by metal armor, and armed with guns firing high-explosive shells. In the Crimean War, six ships and two frigates of the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed seven Turkish frigates and three corvettes with explosive shells at the Battle of Sinop in 1853
38.
Wyoming-class battleship
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The Wyoming class was a pair of dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy. The two ships, Wyoming and Arkansas, were authorized in early 1909, and they were built between 1910 and 1912 and they were the fourth dreadnought design of the US Navy, and they marked an incremental improvement over the preceding Florida class. The two ships frequently served together, first in the Atlantic Fleet in the 1910s, both vessels were deployed to British waters after the United States entered World War I in April 1917 to reinforce the Royal Navys Grand Fleet. They served in the Pacific Fleet in 1919–21, before returned to the Atlantic Fleet. Much of their time in the Atlantic Fleet was spent conducting training exercises. Arkansas was permitted to continue in service with the fleet, however, after the United States entered World War II, Arkansas was used to escort convoys to North Africa. Wyoming meanwhile continued as a ship, being modified further in 1944 to include the various types of anti-aircraft guns that trainees would operate in the fleet. Both ships were decommissioned shortly after the war, with Arkansas being expended as a ship during the 1946 nuclear tests at Operation Crossroads. This conference examined a series of issues relating to existing battleships and new designs, the Bureau of Ordnance estimated that design work on the new gun, production, and testing would take two years. On 26 August, the Secretary of the Navy, Victor Metcalf, issued a request for eight- and ten-gun battleships armed with the 14-inch weapons to the Bureau of Construction, speed was to be at least 20 kn, with as much armor as could be accommodated. BuOrd argued that at likely battle ranges,8,000 to 8,500 yd, the 12-inch gun was powerful enough to penetrate existing armor, and so the 14-inch gun was unnecessary. C&R produced three designs to meet Metcalfs request, all based on the preceding Florida design, the first, the second, design 502, had an additional twin turret for a total of ten 14-inch guns. The third, design 601, would be fitted with twelve 12-inch guns, the General Board chose 601, since the design work for the 14-inch gun had not begun, and adopting it would have caused the class to be delayed. The placement of the battery also proved to be problematic. The cruise of the Great White Fleet in 1907–09 had demonstrated the problems with casemates on the main deck and they were too easily washed out in even moderate seas, making them unusable. Some officers at the Newport Conference had advocated placing them in the superstructure, another alternative was to place them in the forecastle, but the additional weight forward would have strained the ship where the forecastle stepped down to the main deck. The designers ultimately settled on a full-length forecastle, which allowed the casemates to be moved about 4 ft higher in the hull, the ships armor protection was improved over earlier designs. The belt and barbette armor was increased by an inch compared to a version of the twelve-gun battleship
39.
New York-class battleship
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The New York class of battleship was a class of ships designed and constructed by the United States Navy between 1908 and 1914. The two ships of the class, New York and Texas, each saw extensive service beginning in the occupation of Veracruz, World War I, and World War II. The class also suffered several deficiencies such as a lack of weaponry and armor layout. Because of these deficiencies, both ships saw several extensive overhauls over the course of their careers which greatly changed their profiles, both ships undertook numerous training exercises and overhauls during the interwar era, and joined the Neutrality Patrol at the beginning of World War II. Outmoded by more advanced battleships in service, both served primarily as convoy escorts and naval artillery during the war. New York supported Operation Torch in North Africa, undertook convoy patrols and training in the Atlantic, and supported the Battle of Iwo Jima, Texas supported Operation Torch, Operation Overlord, the bombardment of Cherbourg, Operation Dragoon and the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The New York class was the fifth of 11 separate classes planned by the United States Navy between 1906 and 1919, a total of 29 battleships and 6 battlecruisers, virtually the entire American battle line was being designed from pre-dreadnought experience and observation of foreign designs. There was debate at the time as to whether the Florida-class battleships, laid down in 1909 and these would become the Wyoming class. The class is referred to as the New York class. As designed, the ships had a displacement of 27,000 long tons. They were 573 ft in length overall,565 ft at the waterline, and had a beam of 95 ft 6 in, the ships underwent significant changes and increases in armor and armament over their operational lives. Following her fourth and final refit in 1943, New York increased her displacement to 29,340 long tons standard and 34,000 long tons full-load. The final refit for Texas came in 1945, after which she displaced 29,500 long tons standard and 32,000 long tons at full load, as designed, the ships had a crew complement consisting of 1,042 officers and enlisted men. By 1945, Texas was carrying 1,723 officers and enlisted men with the addition of crews for additional weapons as well as a new complement of Marines. The main battery of the class consisted of ten 14-inch/45 caliber guns, arrayed in five 2-gun turrets designated 1,2,3,4, and 5, the class was the last to feature a turret mounted amidships. In 1910 the US Navys Bureau of Ordnance had successfully designed and tested its 14-inch naval gun, the gun proved to have remarkable accuracy and uniformity of pattern. The New York class was the class of US dreadnought battleship design created, and work had already started on the sixth design. By 1910 no US dreadnought class battleship had yet hit the water, virtually the entire US Navy battle line was being designed by drawing on experience from pre-dreadnought designs or from observation of foreign battleship designs
40.
Nevada-class battleship
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The two Nevada-class battleships were the first Standard-type battleships produced by the U. S. Navy, and also the first to use triple main turrets. Nevada and Oklahoma were both ordered in March 1911 and they would be followed by the Pennsylvania-class battleships. The standard type design was maintained until after WWI including the ship classes Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Tennessee, All of these ships shared the following design features, four main turrets, all or nothing armor scheme including significant deck armor and completely oil-fired propulsion. This combination of features made the Nevadas the prototype of the modern battleship, for example, the protection of the standard class battleships was not significantly revised after the Battle of Jutland, while other Navies tended to have different pre- and post-Jutland designs. Active in the Atlantic Ocean before and during World War I and their service continued after the Great War, though by the early 1920s they were the oldest of the main Battle Fleet units. Both were extensively modernized between 1927 and 1929, Oklahoma was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and was a total loss. Nevada beached herself during this raid to prevent blocking the entrance after receiving damage. She provided gunfire support for operations in the European and Pacific theaters. With these ships the U. S. Navy developed a template known as the Standard-type battleship that it would use until the Washington Naval Treaty brought an end to construction in 1922. The decision to mount triple gun turrets proved controversial, shipbuilders warned that triple turrets could affect a ships stability adversely because of their greater weight, especially when raised in a superfiring mounting. It also eliminated the challenges of steam lines running through main gun magazines and ineffective placement of heavy guns, the Navy would use triple turrets in almost all of its subsequent battleship designs. The Nevadas were also the first U. S. battleships to use the all or nothing principle of armor protection, previous battleships had armor of varying thickness depending on the importance of the area it was protecting. The ships overall design, especially the triple turrets, was to reduce the length of the portion of the ship. Heavy deck armor was emphasized to guard against plunging fire, in short, the Nevadas were designed specifically to fight at the extreme ranges expected by gunnery experts. In that sense, they were ahead of their time. While other navies distinguished between their pre- and post-Jutland capital ship designs, the U. S. Navy did not feel so compelled, Nevada and Oklahoma were 583 feet long overall, with a beam at the waterline of 95.23 feet. They displaced 27,500 long tons at load and 28,400 long tons at deep load and had a draft of 27.65 feet at normal load and 29.5 feet at full load. Like preceding classes of American and foreign dreadnoughts, they were designed with a ram bow, from the Battle of Lissa in 1866 until shortly before World War I, ramming was thought to be an important tactic and most large warships were designed with this in mind
41.
Pennsylvania-class battleship
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The Pennsylvania-class consisted of two super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy just before the First World War. The ships were named Pennsylvania and Arizona, after the American states of the same names, the class was the second standard type battleship class to join the US Navy, along with the preceding Nevada and the succeeding New Mexico, Tennessee and Colorado classes. For the remainder of the period, the ships were used in exercises. Both Pennsylvania and Arizona were present during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Arizona was sunk by a massive magazine explosion and was turned into a memorial after the war, while Pennsylvania, in dry dock at the time, received only minor damage. After a refit from October 1942 to February 1943, Pennsylvania went on to serve as a shore bombardment ship for most of the remainder of the war, Pennsylvania was present at the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last battle ever between battleships, but did not engage. Pennsylvania was severely damaged by a torpedo on 12 August 1945, with minimal repairs, it was used in Operation Crossroads, part of the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, before being expended as a target ship in 1948. The preceding Nevada-class battleships represented a leap forward from previous American battleship technology and they were the first in the world to employ the all or nothing armor scheme that characterized every succeeding American battleship. The new system envisioned that, at long ranges, ships would be attacked with only armor-piercing projectiles, medium or light armor would only serve to detonate the shells. In issuing desired specifications for the design that would become the Nevada-class, moreover, there was a major benefit in weight thanks to the accompanying loss of an armored barbette and turret. These weight savings were applied to the protection, making the all or nothing concept a reality. The Nevadas were also the first American battleships to use oil fuel. The cumulative effect of the change was measured by the navy as a fifty-five percent increase in production per pound of fuel. Within a few years oil tanks below the waterline were considered indispensable parts of the armor scheme employed in American dreadnoughts. The General Boards call for a new 1913 fiscal year battleship design was sent in June 1911 with the recent Nevada innovations in mind. They desired a ship with a battery of twelve 14-inch guns in triple turrets, a secondary battery of twenty-two 5-inch guns, a speed of 21 knots. C&Rs first sketch was unsatisfactory, their design of 625 feet and 30,000 long tons actually had less armor than the Nevadas. The design process was marked by efforts to meet the General Boards specifications with only a moderate increase in tonnage over the Nevada-class. Between January and March 1912, thirteen sketches were prepared for consideration by C&R with reciprocating or turbine engines that traded either speed or metacentric height for armor
42.
New Mexico-class battleship
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The New Mexico-class battleships of the United States Navy, all three of whose construction began in 1915, were improvements on the design introduced three years earlier with the Nevada class. The twelve-gun main battery of the preceding Pennsylvania class was retained, hull design was also upgraded with a clipper bow for better seakeeping and a sleeker look. One ship, New Mexico, was fitted with turbo-electric propulsion. S, completed during and soon after World War I, the New Mexicos were active members of the Battle Fleet during the decades between the World Wars. All were rebuilt between 1931 and 1934, receiving entirely new superstructures, modern controls for their guns, new engines and improved protection against air, anti-torpedo bulges increased their width to 106 feet 3 inches and displacement went up by a thousand tons or more. The New Mexico class was part of the standard-type battleship concept of the U. S. Navy, the standard-type battleship concept included long-range gunnery, moderate speed of 21 knots, a tight tactical radius of 700 yards and improved damage control. The other standard-type battleships were the Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, in order to counter the German threat, these ships—operating together as Battleship Division 3—were transferred from the Pacific to the Atlantic in 1941, leaving the U. S. Pacific Fleet inferior in battleship strength to the Japanese Navy, sent back to the Pacific after the Pearl Harbor raid devastated the Pacific Fleets powerful battle line, they were active in the war with Japan until final victory was achieved in August 1945. New Mexico and Idaho were disposed of soon after the war ended, the U. S. Navys first generation of ship-launched guided missiles went to sea aboard this old former battleship. Designated as Battleship 1916, the history is marked by the incipient test firing of the 16-inch /45 caliber U. S. naval gun. The gun promised to deliver twice the energy of a 12-inch /50 caliber Mark 7 gun and 1.5 times the energy of a 14-inch /45 caliber gun, the problem was that the 16-inch gun was not tested. If the gun failed then the design would have to wait for new 14-inch turrets to be fabricated, the first design offered to C&R was no less than 10 16-inch guns and 8 torpedoes. The design also included upgrading the armor as well as extending it, a secondary battery of 6-inch guns was incorporated into the design. The General Board arguing that the range of torpedoes required the increase of caliber. In August 1914 the 16-inch gun was successfully test fired silencing that question, the rise in displacement and the rise in the cost of the new design presented issues. The General board pushed for the advancement with C&R wanting to repeat the Pennsylvania class, both the Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and the House of Representatives rose up against the cost. The General Board was convinced that the sea powers would jump to 15-inch or 16-inch naval guns as a main armament. A series of designs was laid out with the last being a design with 8 16-inch guns on the 31,000 long tons design of the earlier Pennsylvania design, no one reviewing the design was at all happy with it. Strangely enough, this would except in details, become the blueprint of the Colorado-class battleships
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Tennessee-class battleship
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The Tennessee class was a class of battleships of the United States Navy. The class comprised two ships, Tennessee and California, both ships were extensively rebuilt after being damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and survived World War II to be scrapped shortly after. Tennessee and her sister ship California, already incorporating many of the innovations in the New Mexico class, were the first American battleships built to a hull design. Since Tennessees 14-inch turret guns could be elevated to 30 degrees—rather than to the 15 degrees of earlier battleships—her heavy guns could reach out an additional 10,000 yards. Because battleships were beginning to carry airplanes to spot long-range gunfire. These features distinguished the Big Five from the rest of the battleship force, in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Tennessee was damaged by two bombs and California was sunk by two torpedoes and two bombs. Both ships were reconstructed into essentially new vessels. The twin funnels were replaced by a single funnel faired into the superstructure tower, the Tennessees had a 624-foot overall length and a beam at the waterline of 97 feet. They displaced 32,600 long tons at load and 33,590 long tons at deep load and had a draft of 30.5 feet. They were designed with a bow to make them dryer in rough weather. However, also as in classes, the secondary battery was located in the upper hull. This would be remedied in the Colorado class which followed, the Tennessee class was part of the standard-type battleship concept of the U. S. Navy, a design concept which gave the Navy a homogeneous line of battle. The standard-type battleship concept included long-range gunnery, moderate speed of 21 knots, the other standard-type battleships were the Nevada, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Colorado classes. By the naval planning theory of the U. S. The theory, thus, was advancing on a target would force the enemys naval forces to come out, give battle. Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships, 1906–1921, dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History & Heritage Command
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Colorado-class battleship
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The Colorado-class battleships were a group of four battleships built by the United States Navy after World War I. However, only three of the ships were completed, Colorado, Maryland, and West Virginia, the fourth, Washington, was over 75% completed when she was canceled under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922. As such, the Colorado-class ships were the last and most powerful battleships built by the US Navy until the North Carolina class entered service on the eve of World War II. The Colorados were the group of Standard-type battleships, designed to have similar speed. Apart from an upgrade in striking power to eight 16-inch guns, the Colorados were also the last American capital ships built with four turrets and twin-mounted guns. The change to larger guns was prompted by the Japanese Nagato-class battleships, all three ships had extensive careers during World War II. Maryland and West Virginia were both present during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Maryland escaped relatively unscathed, West Virginia was sunk in the shallow waters of the harbor but subsequently raised and repaired. All three ships served as support ships during amphibious operations. Maryland and West Virginia were present at the last surface action between battleships, the Battle of Surigao Strait during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, the three ships, put into the reserve fleet after the end of the war, were scrapped by the late 1950s. This weapon dominated the design of battleships between 1913 and 1916, just as the 14-inch gun had dictated designs from 1908 to 1910, for this reason, he restricted the Bureau of Ordnance to proceed no further than blueprints for the new gun as a hedge against foreign developments. He finally approved construction of gun in October 1912 and the weapon was test fired successfully in August 1914. Such a move meant an increase of 8,000 tons per ship, debate continued for the next three years. Each year, President Woodrow Wilsons secretary of the navy, Josephus Daniels, balked at the increase in cost. Daniels finally compromised with the 1917 design battleships by allowing their armament to be upgraded and this, however, was to be the only substantial change to be allowed. This similarity would carry over into the Lexington and South Dakota classes as the United States Navy increasingly standardized its capital ship designs. This was partly the result of experience, when over 250 destroyers. The U. S. Navy had done this by a process almost akin to the assembly line, since the Naval Act of 1916 meant the imminent construction of 16 battleships and six battlecruisers, it was necessary to streamline production to save time and labor. Nevertheless, while US battleships were standardized as much as possible, most of the changes in the Tennessees were incorporated prior to any of their keels being laid
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North Carolina-class battleship
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The North Carolina class was a class of two fast battleships, North Carolina and Washington, built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. However, the acting Secretary of the Navy authorized a modified version of a different design and this called for a 27-knot ship with twelve 14-inch guns in quadruple turrets and protection against guns of the same caliber. In a major departure from traditional American design practices, this design accepted lower speed, North Carolina shot down between seven and fourteen Japanese aircraft in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and later sustained a torpedo hit from a Japanese submarine. In February 1944, Washington crushed its bow in a collision with battleship Indiana, following repairs, Washington rejoined her sister for the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After the end of the war, both took part in Operation Magic Carpet, the withdrawal of American military personnel from overseas deployments. The vessels were laid up in the fleet until the early 1960s, when North Carolina was sold to her home state as a museum ship. After the end of the First World War, several navies continued and expanded naval construction programs that they had started during the conflict, the United Kingdom was in the final stages of ordering eight capital ships. Imperial Japan was, by 1920, attempting to build up to an 8-8 standard with the Nagato, Tosa, Amagi, Kii and Number 13 classes. Two ships from these designs would be laid down per year until 1928. C. to discuss, and hopefully end, the subsequent Washington Naval Conference resulted in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. Along with many provisions, it limited all future battleships to a standard displacement of 35,000 long tons. It also decreed that the five countries could not construct another capital ship for ten years, the 1936 Second London Naval Treaty, while superseding the 1922 agreement, nonetheless kept many of the same requirements, though it restricted gun size on new warships to 14–inch. The General Board began preparations for a new class of battleships in May–July 1935, a was the only one to remain within the 35, 000–tons displacement limit set in the Washington Naval Treaty and reaffirmed in the Second London Naval Treaty. Although these original three studies were all fast battleships, the General Board was not definitively committed to the maximum speeds. Designs D and E were attempts at fast battleships with 16-inch guns and protections against the same, Design F was a radical attempt at a hybrid battleship-carrier, with three catapults mounted fore and eight 14-inch guns aft. However, the General Board finally decided to use faster ships and these studies demonstrated the difficulty the designers faced. Preliminary Design drew up five more studies in October, based upon either A with additional armor or a scaled-down B, all utilized 14-inch guns, Two called for four turrets, but this would be too heavy and mount less armor. Another, K, 15-inch belt and 5. 25-inch deck, while K was liked by the naval constructors, its designed standard displacement of 35,000 tons left little room for error or any modifications and improvements to the design. A final two, L and M, would use quadruple turrets to save weight while still mounting 12 guns, many officers in the United States Navy supported the construction of three or four battlecruiser-type ships for carrier escorts and to counter Japans Kongō class
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South Dakota-class battleship (1939)
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The South Dakota class was a group of four fast battleships built by the United States Navy. They were the class of battleships to be named after the 40th state. The class comprised four ships, South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts and they were more compact and better protected than the preceding North Carolina class, but had the same main battery, nine 16/45 caliber Mark 6 guns in three-gun turrets. The ships can be distinguished from the earlier vessels by their single funnel. According to authors William Garzke and Robert Dulin, the South Dakota design was the best treaty battleship ever built, construction began shortly before World War II, with Fiscal Year 1939 appropriations. All four ships were retired post-war, South Dakota and Indiana were scrapped, Massachusetts, the preceding two North Carolina-class battleships had been assigned to the FY1937 building program, and in 1936, the General Board met to discuss the two battleships to be allocated to FY1938. The General Board argued for two more North Carolinas, but Admiral William H. Standley, the Chief of Naval Operations and that meant construction could not begin by 1938, so the ships were assigned to FY1939. Design work started in March 1937 and the draft for two battleships was formally approved by the Secretary of the Navy on 23 June, more specific characteristics for the two ships were ironed out, and those were approved on 4 January 1938. The ships were ordered on 4 April 1938. There was a deal of debate on the requirements for the new battleships. The belt armor was a much more problem, the 16-inch gun could penetrate 13.5 inches of plate. To mitigate this problem, sloped armor was proposed, it was infeasible to use inclined armor in an external belt, to minimize the drawbacks of the inclined belt, it sloped outward from the keel, then back in towards the armored deck. This meant that shells fired at close range would hit the upper portion of the belt at an angle. It did reduce the area that needed to be covered by the armored deck and this enabled the upper belt to be thicker, which to an extent ameliorated the vulnerability to plunging fire. Because the belt was internal, it provided the opportunity to extend it to the portion of the double bottom. Ultimately, the complex double incline belt armor was abandoned when it became apparent that a single slanted belt could provide similar protection, and save several hundred tons of weight. The size of the hull was also a problem, a longer hull generally equates to a top speed. In order to keep a top speed on a shorter hull
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Iowa-class battleship
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Four were completed, USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, USS Missouri, and USS Wisconsin. Two more were laid down, USS Illinois and USS Kentucky, based on wartime experience, they were to serve as fast escorts for Essex-class aircraft carriers. Between the mid-1940s and the early 1990s, the Iowa-class battleships fought in four major US wars, in World War II, they defended aircraft carriers and shelled Japanese positions. All four were reactivated and modernized at the direction of Congress in 1981, the first reactivated battleship, New Jersey, was commissioned for the third time on 28 December 1982. Then Iowa was recommissioned 28 April 1984, Missouri was recommissioned 10 May 1986, during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Missouri and Wisconsin fired missiles and 16-inch guns at Iraqi targets. The Navy had spent about $1.7 billion, from 1981 through 1988, to modernize, costly to maintain, the battleships were decommissioned during the post-Cold War draw down in the early 1990s. This resulted in a naval gunfire debate over whether battleships should have a role in the modern navy. Ultimately, all four ships were stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, with the transfer of Iowa in 2012, all four are part of various non-profit maritime museums across the US. Work on what would become the Iowa-class battleship began on the first study in early 1938. Hart, head of the General Board and these studies had no further impact on the design of the Iowa class, but development of this design continued and eventually evolved into the design for the Montana class. Another design, pursued by the Design Division section of the Bureau of Construction, beginning on 17 January 1938, under Captain A. J. Three improved plans—A, B, and C—were designed at the end of January, an increase in draft, vast additions to the armor, and the substitution of twelve 6-inch guns in the secondary battery was common between the three designs. A was the largest, at 59,060 long tons and it required 277,000 shp to make 32.5 knots. B was the smallest at 52,707 long tons, like A it had a top speed of 32.5 knots and it also carried only nine 16-inch guns, in three triple turrets. C was similar but it added 75,000 shp, to make the original requirement of 35 knots, the weight required for this and a longer belt—512 feet, compared with 496 feet for B—meant that the ship was 55,771 long tons. Powell, and the long-retired Admiral and former Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance Joseph Strauss, the board requested an entirely new design study, focusing on increasing the size of the 35,000 long tons South Dakota class. The first plans made for this indicated that 30 knots was possible on a displacement of about 37,600 long tons. 33 knots could be bought with 220,000 shp and a displacement of around 39,230 long tons and these designs were able to convince the General Board that a reasonably well-designed and balanced 33 knot battleship was possible within the terms of the escalator clause
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Montana-class battleship
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The Montana-class battleships of the United States Navy were planned as successors to the Iowa class, being slower but larger, better armored, and having superior firepower. Intended armament would have been 12 16-inch Mark 7 guns in four 3-gun turrets, preliminary design work for the Montana class began before the US entry into World War II. The first two vessels were approved by Congress in 1939 following the passage of the Second Vinson Act, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor delayed construction of the Montana class. The success of carrier combat at the Battle of the Coral Sea and, to a greater extent, consequently, the US Navy chose to cancel the Montana class in favor of more urgently needed aircraft carriers, amphibious and anti-submarine vessels. Because the Iowas were fast enough to escort the new Essex-class aircraft carriers, their orders were retained, four additional battleships were approved for construction in 1940, with the last two intended to be the first ships of the Montana class. The Navy, mindful of the construction of Japans Yamato-class battleships, had been working on a 58. Preliminary planning for the Montana-class battleships took place in 1939, when the carrier was still considered strategically less important than the battleship. The Navy began designing a 65, 000-ton battleship to counter the threat posed by the Yamato-class battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, although the Navy knew little about the Yamato class, the new Japanese battleships were rumored to have a main gun battery of 18 inches. Initially, plans were drawn for a 45, 000-ton US battleship, but after evaluation, the Battleship Design Advisory Board increased the displacement of the planned ship to 58,000 tons. After debate at the board about whether the Montana class should be fast, achieving the high 33 kn speed of the Iowa class, or up-gunned and up-armored. The entire Montana class was suspended in May 1942, before any of their keels had been laid, five ships of the Montana class were authorized on 19 July 1940, but they were suspended indefinitely until being canceled on 21 July 1943. The ships were to be built at the New York Navy Yard, Philadelphia Navy Yard, Montana was planned to be the lead ship of the class. She was the ship to be named in honor of the 41st state. Both the earlier battleship, BB-51, and BB-67 were canceled, Ohio was to be the second Montana-class battleship. She was to be named in honor of the 17th state, Ohio would have been the fourth ship to bear that name had she been commissioned. Maine was to be the third Montana-class battleship and she was to be named in honor of the 23rd state, and was assigned to the New York Navy Yard. Maine would have been the ship to bear that name had she been commissioned. New Hampshire was to be the fourth Montana-class battleship, and was to be named in honor of the ninth state and she was assigned to the New York Navy Yard, and would have been the third ship to bear that name had she been commissioned
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Battlecruiser
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The battlecruiser, or battle cruiser, was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. They were similar in size, cost, and armament to battleships, however, as more and more battlecruisers were built, they were increasingly used alongside the better-protected battleships. British battlecruisers in particular suffered heavy losses at Jutland, where their armour made them very vulnerable to large-caliber shells. Battlecruisers were put into action again during World War II, in the post–Cold War era, the Soviet Kirov class of large guided missile cruisers have also been termed battlecruisers. The battlecruiser was developed by the Royal Navy in the first years of the 20th century as an evolution of the armoured cruiser. The first armoured cruisers had been built in the 1870s, as an attempt to give protection to ships fulfilling the typical cruiser roles of patrol, trade protection. However, the results were satisfactory, as the weight of armour required for any meaningful protection usually meant that the ship became almost as slow as a battleship. As a result, navies preferred to build protected cruisers with an armoured deck protecting their engines, in the 1890s, technology began to change this balance. New Krupp steel armour meant that it was now possible to give a side armour which would protect it against the quick-firing guns of enemy battleships. In 1896–97 France and Russia, who were regarded as allies in the event of war, started to build large. In the event of a war between Britain and France or Russia, or both, these cruisers threatened to cause difficulties for the British Empires worldwide trade. Between 1899 and 1905, it completed or laid down seven classes of this type and this building program, in turn, prompted the French and Russians to increase their own construction. The Imperial German Navy began to build large armoured cruisers for use on their overseas stations, the cost of this cruiser arms race was significant. In the period 1889–96, the Royal Navy spent £7.3 million on new large cruisers, from 1897–1904, it spent £26.9 million. Many armoured cruisers of the new kind were just as large, the increasing size and power of the armoured cruiser led to suggestions in British naval circles that cruisers should displace battleships entirely. The battleships main advantage was its 12-inch heavy guns, and heavier armour designed to protect from shells of similar size, however, for a few years after 1900 it seemed that those advantages were of little practical value. The torpedo now had a range of 2,000 yards, however, at ranges of more than 2,000 yards it became increasingly unlikely that the heavy guns of a battleship would score any hits, as the heavy guns relied on primitive aiming techniques. The secondary batteries of 6-inch quick-firing guns, firing more plentiful shells, were likely to hit the enemy
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United States Navy