USS ALASKA CB-1

[matmat417]

Hey all I was just seeing if anyone knew anything about the USS Alaska CB-1. My grandfather was in the navy and that was the ship he was on..Besides the info floating around the interweb does anyone know any history on it.

Thanks
Matt

 

[jlrhiner]

Well there were two of the CBs, Alaska and Guam. Both were built for speed and heavy hitting. Each carried 9 new style (auto loading) 12" guns and several hundred 5" and smaller. I believe the Alaska accompanied the New Jersey on her sea trials in the Atlantic and engaged and destroyed a Nazi cruiser. A lot of the footage of big guns being fired in the Pacific was shot from the CBs. Neither of them made it into the mid sixties, but I'll have to get out the Janes to be more specific.

Anything specific your looking for?

 

[MMA10mm]

They were a response to the Pocket Battleships of Germany and a supposed class of similar ships being built by the Japanese (which were never built or never finished - can't remember which).

They participated in some of the late campaigns in the western pacific (Okinawa for sure), but that's all I recall off the top of my head.

Interesting design, but probably not as useful long-run as the Des Moines class and the Worcester class of cruisers.

 

[matmat417]

thanks for the responses... as far as what im looking for, anything and everything.. my grandfather always told me they never did anything. and i always knew he just didnt want to talk about it. so if anyone else has anything that i should know please reply.

 

[bobsdad]

Can you tell us what year(s) your grandfather served aboard the Alaska?

 

[therevjay]

According to my "Dorset press, Ship recognition/warships" printed in the UK in 1953.

The Alaska class, consisting of Alaska and Guam battlecruiers (or large cruisers/ CB) were both launched in 1945.
Displacement 27,500 tons
Dimensions 808x91 ft.
Main armament 9 12 in. 12 5 in.
Speed 33 knots
Screws 4

Thats all the info in my book. No history, but they must have still been in service in '53.

 

[David LaPell]

The Alaska and Guam were basically throwback designs as they were more or less what was known as a battlecruiser, the guns of a battleship with the armor and speed of a cruiser. The Germans probably had the most successful design of the war with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which some call battleships, but even the Germans listed them as battle cruisers. The idea with those however were to replace the nine eleven inch guns with six fifteen inch guns at a later date. The Iowa class BB's were copied from the Scharnhorst class. The problem with the Alaska and Guam was by the time they entered service, like the Iowa's the era of the battleship was over and the aircraft carrier was now the dominant warship in the fleet and the BB's were relegated to escort duties and shore bombardment. The last big gun duel between battleships was at Leyte when the Japanese lost their Southern Task force at Surigao Strait from a bunch of American battleships, most Pearl Harbor survivors, and they took out a bunch of Japanese heavy cruisers and battleships. If you want a nice website to look up some photos of the Alaska, try www.navsource.org

 

[Faulkner]

According to Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century, the Alaskas were 'large cruisers' but possessed capabilities that put them far beyond the later 17,000-ton heavy cruisers of the Des Moines class. Their 12-inch armament and their length (only the Iowas were longer) naturally put them in the battle-cruiser bracket, even though calling them battle-cruisers was officially discouraged.

In some ways the Alaskas can be seen as the ultimate US heavy cruiser, taking existing trends in heavy cruiser design to their logical extreme. They were superior to any known cruiser but deficient in respect to any known battleship. Although capable of their 33 knots, this gave no margin over the Iowas which were already entering service at the same time. Primarily, they were designed to be cruiser killers, and later, Fleet Admiral Ernest King championed them as potential close escorts for the fast carriers.

 

[GatorFarmer]

The Alaska shot down a handful of Japanese planes and bombarded a small island. Some felt it was a good luck ship in a way since it didn't see much action and took only a handful of minor casualties - no one being killed or seriously hurt.

After the war it was used during the Marine landings in China and to take returning militarly personnel home. Then it was mothballed, eventually being sold for scrap.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Wikipedia (yes, I know) has what seem to me fairly good articles on the Alaska and the Guam. The battle cruiser-originally named "large armored cruiser"-was the brainchild of the British Admiral John Fisher (1841-1920) who also built the first all "big gun" battleship-HMS Dreadnought.
They were designed to hunt down and destroy cruisers which they did admirably in the Battle of the Falkland Islands. The US's first battle cruisers were the Lexington and Saratoga which were converted to aircraft carriers while under construction.

 

[semperfi71]

I had read somewhere that the Alaska and Guam were originally a "request" from FDR because he was enamored with the "fame" of the German battlecruisers/pocket battleships.

And the Navy brass was against the idea because they felt the current battleships (Iowa class) and cruisers filled all the needs they had.

But FDR won out on at least two of them.