THE BEST KEPT SECRET OF WWII
America’s ALASKA Class Battle Cruisers
By Paul H. Silverstone
 

In America’s rumor laden ports the word was two brand new pocket battleships similar to Germany’s highly touted SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU were about to be launched by the U.S. Navy. In actuality these highly secret new battle-cruisers of the ALASKA class more than outgunned their Nazi foes, but they went into combat too late to prove the validity of their most provocative design.

    Perhaps most hidden from view of all the ships built during World War Two were the cruisers of the Alaska class. Cryptically labeled “Large Cruisers” no hint of their characteristics or appearance was released until the end of the war.
    Handsome, elegant ships, they were of battleship size with cruiser lines. In 1940 it was widely believed Japan was building a class of ships similar to Germany’s successful “pocket battleships.” These ships were given names such as Chichibu and Takamatsu, which also happened to be the titles of the Emperor’s brothers. Presumably of about 15,000 tons and armed with 12-inch guns, these ships were in fact non-existent. In response to this supposed threat, the U.S. Navy ordered six “large cruisers of the size and power superior not only to Japan’s ships but also to all those of Germany except the Bismarck class battleships.
    The war edition (1942) of Fahey’s authoritative “Ships and Aircraft of the Fleet” compared them with the German Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and France’s Strasbourg and Dunkerque. Actually all these ships would have been out-gunned by the Alaska. They were never called battle cruisers by the U.S. Navy and in fact dissimilar from earlier ships of that type as their main armament was lighter than the contemporary battleships.
    Aside from the Midway and Essex class aircraft carriers and the Iowa class battleships, the Alaska class were the largest warships built in the United States during the war. Six of these vessels were ordered on September 9, 1940, all to be built at Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Company. A new designation (CB) was initiated and they were given names of American overseas territories, Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Philippines, Puerto Rico and Samoa.
    The keel of the Alaska (CB-1) was laid down on December 17, 1941, just 10 days after the Japanese attacked on Pearl Harbor. She was launched on August 15, 1943 by Mrs. Ernest Gruening, wife of the governor of Alaska, and on June 17, 1944 the ship was commissioned.
    She had an overall length of 808 feet 6-inches and beam of 91 feet. Her standard displacement was 27,000 tons with full load displacement given at 34,253 tons. The main armament consisted of nine 12-inch guns in three turrets in a classic arrangement with two forward and one aft. Six twin mounts housed twelve 5-inch dual-purpose guns as secondary armament, backed up by 24 40mm AA guns in quadruple mounts. By late 1944 Alaska had 56 40mm AA guns. She had cruiser-type armor protection, belt 5 to 9 inches, barbettes 11 to 13 inches, gun turrets 5 to 12.75 inches, conning tower 10.6 inches. The ship was powered by four General Electric double reduction geared turbines with a designed shaft horsepower of 150,000, similar to the power plant in the Essex class carriers. Speed was designed at 33 knots but in service the class was rated at just over 31 knots.
    The long flush-decked hull had a graceful sheer forward with a curving bow to the waterline. The superstructure was grouped amidships with a tall tower forward and a single tall funnel. The design was reminiscent of the German Scaharnhorst. Unusual for American ships, the aircraft catapults were also amidships, reverting to the practice in the first heavy cruisers.
    Following commissioning, Alaska carried out a short shakedown cruise and a brief period of training, arriving in Hawaii in January 1945. Shortly afterwards she joined Task Force 58 for a carrier strike on the Tokyo area and later supported the covering forces for the assault on Iwo Jima.
    In March 1945 the second ship of the class Guam (CB-2) arrived at Ulithi to join the fleet, The Guam had been launched on November 12, 1943 and commissioned ten months later on September 17, 1944. Her first commander was Captain Leland P. Lovette, author of a well-known book on naval customs.
    Alaska and Guam were among the strong force escorting the carrier groups for the attack on Kyushu and Southern Japan on March 18, 1945. Both ships fired their guns at the enemy for the first time, and with success, shooting down enemy aircraft. They escorted the stricken carrier Franklin out of danger after that ship was almost sunk during the enemy counterattack. Later in the month they bombarded the islands of Minami Daito Jima preparatory to the invasion of Okinawa. During the next two months they continued as part of the covering force for Admiral Halsey’s fast carrier groups. On June 9th they conducted a bombardment of Okino Daito.



    In July, Guam became flagship of the Cruiser Task Force 95 which also included the Alaska, four light cruisers and nine destroyers. The force made two sweeps through the East China sea off the coast of China, the first Allied surface forces in this area. The operations were carried out without incident although several enemy small craft were sunk.
    When the war ended they joined the Seventh Fleet which was ordered to land occupation forces in China. After cruising in the Yellow Sea the Alaska arrived at Jinsen, Korea, to support the Army occupation forces at Tsingtao until November when she was ordered back to the United States for inactivation. Together with the Guam, she carried some 1,000 Army personnel on the voyage home
    Both ships were finally decommissioned on February 17, 1947 at Bayonne, New Jersey, where they had arrived a year earlier. They were never used again and both were stricken from the Navy List in 1960 and sold for scrapping.
    The third ship of the class, the Hawaii (CB-3) was not laid down until December 20, 1943. Her launching was delayed after V-J Day occurring finally on November 3, 1945. Shortly thereafter all work was suspended on the vessel when she was 82 percent complete. With her superstructure basically complete but without gun turrets, the ship presented a gaunt appearance when she was towed away to be scrapped in 1959. Plans had been made to convert the incomplete hull to a Large Tactical Command Ship similar to the work carried out on the heavy cruiser Northampton but nothing was done. Suggestions that she become the Navy’s first missile ship came to naught. The other three vessels were canceled in July 1943 before construction began.
    The Alaska class were beautiful ships without purpose. Neither battleships nor cruisers, they had the faults of the original battle cruisers being heavily armed and fast but inadequately armored. They were completed just when any need for them was seemingly disappearing for good and their function was limited to protection for carriers against air attack and to shore bombardment.
    In 1981 the Russians completed the Kirov, a guided missile cruiser of similar size. Later the U.S. Navy decided to reactivate the last battleships, the Iowa class, because their size, instead of being a drawback, was now a plus factor. Their large caliber guns and the relative invulnerability of their hulls made them useful once again. But perhaps the Iowas are not the best size for today’s requirements. The U.S. Navy has no other large-caliber gun surface ships remaining other than the two laid-up cruisers of the 17,000-ton Des Moines class with 8-inch guns. Is it possible that the ships of the Alaska class were scrapped too soon?

Taken from an earlier edition of Sea Classics and submitted by Charles St. George, Chairman USS ALASKA Association