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Shortround6
Major General
We have the advantage of hindsight including after action battle reports.
What different classes of ships were designed to do is something else.
And a lot of this stuff took place over 10-12 years and since it takes around 3 years to build a cruiser there was a lot overlap.
You also were dealing the aftermath of the treaties and with radar coming it to disrupt the preconceived notions of night (poor weather) combat.
The US had maxed out their allotment of heavy cruisers with 8in guns. Due to the treaty language anything with an 8" gun (aside from carriers) was a heavy cruiser, didn't matter how many guns or the tonnage as long as it was under 10,000ton.
Also by treaty the next break was 6"in guns for light cruisers, mostly. However the "light cruiser" was also capped at 10,000tons and at times (depends on the treaty) the tonnage was not which lead to the Mogami class and the Brooklyn class
Fifteen 6" guns. The US built 9 of these things which were basically 10,000 ton cruisers were different turrets/guns.
The US guns could range to just over 25,000yrds but a lot these max ranges were somewhat of an illusion.
However in a closer range night battle the high rate of fire (up to 10rpm per barrel) was considered to be quite an advantage over the 2-3 rpm of the 8' guns.
However at 10,000tons they were bit expensive to use as destroyer leaders in a night torpedo attack, they were also, shall we say, HUGE in size for night torpedo attack (1936-38 here, forget radar). The old Omaha class, which was similar in age to the Japanese light cruisers, had a number of problems. While low and fast they took water over bow/sides, the hull was weak and the fuel tanks leaked contaminating the fuel oil.
This was part of the reasoning for the Atlanta class. A 6,000 ton ship that was fast enough to keep up with/lead destroyers, better protected than a destroyer and with enough firepower to overwhelm one or more destroyers or a small light cruiser (5-6000 tons). Also kept ammo supply easy.
Now please note that the Cleveland class kept almost the same hull and swapped one triple 6" turret for two twin 5" turrets.
The US called all the 6" gun cruisers CLs but they often made up a fair amount of the cruiser forces in many of the early Pacific battles.
Battle of Empress Augusta Bay (Nov 1-2 1943) was all Cleveland class light cruisers and destroyers and while not a very decisive battle it was a win for the US navy and was the last battle of the Solomons/first battle for Bougainville. Radar had also come quite far since the late summer of 1942.
Only one Baltimore class cruiser showed up in combat in 1943 (Nov) with the 2nd one showing in Jan 1944.
The Wichita showed up in the Spring of 1939 and is the only US 8" cruiser to be completed between Vincennes (Spring 1937) and the Baltimore.
Flashless powder may have not worked in battle quite as intended but it did form part of the planning during 1941-42.
A lack of actual night battle practice in the USN during the peace time years may have hidden a number of things. It did reduce peacetime collisions though.
What different classes of ships were designed to do is something else.
And a lot of this stuff took place over 10-12 years and since it takes around 3 years to build a cruiser there was a lot overlap.
You also were dealing the aftermath of the treaties and with radar coming it to disrupt the preconceived notions of night (poor weather) combat.
The US had maxed out their allotment of heavy cruisers with 8in guns. Due to the treaty language anything with an 8" gun (aside from carriers) was a heavy cruiser, didn't matter how many guns or the tonnage as long as it was under 10,000ton.
Also by treaty the next break was 6"in guns for light cruisers, mostly. However the "light cruiser" was also capped at 10,000tons and at times (depends on the treaty) the tonnage was not which lead to the Mogami class and the Brooklyn class
Fifteen 6" guns. The US built 9 of these things which were basically 10,000 ton cruisers were different turrets/guns.
The US guns could range to just over 25,000yrds but a lot these max ranges were somewhat of an illusion.
However in a closer range night battle the high rate of fire (up to 10rpm per barrel) was considered to be quite an advantage over the 2-3 rpm of the 8' guns.
However at 10,000tons they were bit expensive to use as destroyer leaders in a night torpedo attack, they were also, shall we say, HUGE in size for night torpedo attack (1936-38 here, forget radar). The old Omaha class, which was similar in age to the Japanese light cruisers, had a number of problems. While low and fast they took water over bow/sides, the hull was weak and the fuel tanks leaked contaminating the fuel oil.
This was part of the reasoning for the Atlanta class. A 6,000 ton ship that was fast enough to keep up with/lead destroyers, better protected than a destroyer and with enough firepower to overwhelm one or more destroyers or a small light cruiser (5-6000 tons). Also kept ammo supply easy.
Now please note that the Cleveland class kept almost the same hull and swapped one triple 6" turret for two twin 5" turrets.
The US called all the 6" gun cruisers CLs but they often made up a fair amount of the cruiser forces in many of the early Pacific battles.
Battle of Empress Augusta Bay (Nov 1-2 1943) was all Cleveland class light cruisers and destroyers and while not a very decisive battle it was a win for the US navy and was the last battle of the Solomons/first battle for Bougainville. Radar had also come quite far since the late summer of 1942.
Only one Baltimore class cruiser showed up in combat in 1943 (Nov) with the 2nd one showing in Jan 1944.
The Wichita showed up in the Spring of 1939 and is the only US 8" cruiser to be completed between Vincennes (Spring 1937) and the Baltimore.
Flashless powder may have not worked in battle quite as intended but it did form part of the planning during 1941-42.
A lack of actual night battle practice in the USN during the peace time years may have hidden a number of things. It did reduce peacetime collisions though.