USS Guam (CB-2) (Guam) - American battle cruiser [approx. 1] type "Alaska" , who served in the US Navy at the end of World War II and some time after it. The second American ship with this name, assigned in honor of the American Pacific Territory - the island of Guam .
| Guam | |
|---|---|
| USS Guam (CB-2) | |
 Guam in 1944 | |
| Service | |
 USA | |
| Class and type of vessel | Battle cruiser |
| Manufacturer | New York Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Ordered to build | September 9, 1940 |
| Construction started | February 2, 1942 |
| Launched | November 12, 1943 |
| Commissioned | September 17, 1944 |
| Withdrawn from the fleet | June 1, 1960 |
| Status | Dismantled in May 1961 |
| Main characteristics | |
| Displacement | Standard - 30 257 t , full - 34 803 t |
| Length | 241.2 / 246.4 m |
| Width | 27.7 m |
| Draft | 9.7 m |
| Reservation | belt - 127 ... 229 mm; traverses - 260 mm; decks - 36 + 96-102 + 16 mm; towers GK - 325 mm; barbets - 280 ... 330 mm; conning tower - 269 mm |
| Engines | 4 TZ General Electric , 8 steam boilers Babcock & Wilcox |
| Power | 150 000 l. from. (110.3 MW ) |
| Mover | 4 propellers |
| Speed | 31.4 knots (58.2 km / h ) |
| Sailing range | 12,000 miles at 15 knots |
| Crew | 1517 people |
| Armament | |
| Artillery | 3 × 3 - 305 mm / 50 , 6 × 2 - 127 mm / 38 |
| Flak | 14 × 4 - 40 mm / 56 , 34 × 1 - 20 mm |
| Aviation group | 2 catapults, 2 hangars, 4 seaplanes |
Guam began service at the very end of World War II, and therefore its participation in hostilities was relatively short. From March to July 1945, the cruiser operated near Okinawa , providing air defense for aircraft carrier formations , and from time to time participated in the bombing of the Japanese coast. From July to August, he acted against Japanese shipping in the East China and Yellow Seas. After the surrender of the Japanese Empire, it was involved in the occupation of Korea, later used to return American troops to the United States. In February 1947 he was withdrawn to the reserve, where he remained until the exclusion from the lists of the fleet in 1960. In the same year it was sold for scrap.
Content
- 1 Construction and construction
- 2 Service
- 2.1 Post-war service
- 3 notes
- 4 Literature
Construction and construction
The Guam battlecruiser had the following main measurements : total length - 246.43 m, draft - 9.7 m. The cruiser's design displacement was 30,257 tons, total - 34,803 tons. The main power plant consisted of four General Electric turbo-gear units ”, Each of which worked on one propeller shaft , and eight Babcock-Wilcox steam boilers. The capacity of the power plant was 150,000 liters. from. (110 MW ), allowing to develop a maximum speed of 33 knots (61 km / h ). Guam’s cruising range was 12,000 nautical miles (22,200 km) at a speed of 15 knots (28 km / h) [1] .
The project involved the deployment of four seaplanes and two hangars for them on the ship. The launch of seaplanes had to carry out two catapults.
The cruiser’s artillery armament consisted of nine 305-mm main-caliber guns located in three three-gun turrets (two in the bow and one in the stern).
The universal artillery of the cruiser consisted of twelve 127-mm guns in six two-gun towers. Light anti-aircraft artillery: 56 40-mm “Bofors” in four installations and 34 single-barrel 20-mm “Erlikon” [1] .
Reservation of the ship consisted of the main armor belt with a thickness of 229 mm (9 inches), armor reservations of the main caliber, equal to 325 mm (12.8 inches). The main armored deck had a thickness of 102 mm (4 inches) [1] .
Guam was laid down on February 2, 1942 at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard in Camden, New Jersey. On November 12, 1943, the battlecruiser was launched, and on September 17, 1944, it entered the United States Navy. The construction of Guam cost the American treasury $ 67,053,828 [2] .
On October 22, the ship received the first Curtiss SC Seahawk seaplanes built [3] .
Service
On January 17, 1945, the Guam left Philadelphia and headed for the Panama Canal , shortly before completing a trial voyage to Trinidad . After passing through the canal, the cruiser headed to Pearl Harbor to join the US Pacific Fleet , arriving on February 8th. U.S. Navy Secretary James Forrestal was on a cruiser in Pearl Harbor. On March 3, the cruiser left Hawaii and headed for Uliti Atoll , where on March 13 he joined the Alaska cruiser of the same type. Soon, Guam, along with the rest of the ships of the Fleet aircraft carrier strike force (commander Admiral Radford) went to sea to strike at the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku . The compound arrived on the coast of Japan on March 18 and was immediately attacked by kamikaze and bombers . Guam was designated as the military guard of the heavily damaged aircraft carrier Franklin returning to port. The operation ended on March 22 [2] , after which the Guam returned to the aircraft carrier, where it was attached to the 16th battalion of cruisers.
On the night of March 27-28, Guam and other battalion cruisers bombed the airfield on Minamidaito Island. After the bombing, Guam returned to the cover forces of the aircraft carrier formations operating in the Ryukyu Islands , where it remained until May 11, after which it went to Uliti Atoll to replenish supplies and repair. Then the cruiser headed for Okinawa, where he became part of Task Group 38.4 of the 3rd US Navy. The task of “Guam” again was to ensure the air defense of aircraft carriers, whose aircraft attacked Kyushu [2] . On June 9, Guam and Alaska fired on Okidaito Island ( English Oki Daitō ) for an hour and a half, after which they left for San Pedro Bay in Leyte Bay, arriving there on June 13 [4] .
In July, Guam returned to Okinawa, where it was designated the flagship of the [2] Cruising Task Force 95 ( Eng. Cruiser Task Force 95 ) . On July 16, Guam and Alaska embarked on a raid on the East China and Yellow Seas, with the goal of acting against Japanese shipping. Having achieved only modest success, the cruisers returned to the location of the fleet on July 23. Here they joined a large raid at the Yangtze estuary, carried out by the forces of three battleships and three escort aircraft carriers . This operation also brought only minor success, and on August 7, the ships returned to Okinawa [2] .
Soon after returning to Okinawa, Guam became the flagship of the North China Force , whose mission was to “show the flag” in the region, including Qingdao , Port Arthur and Dalian .
Post-War Service
On September 8, 1945, Guam entered the Korean port of Incheon , taking part in the occupation of Korea. On November 14, the cruiser left Incheon and headed for San Francisco with American soldiers on board returning to the United States. On December 3, the cruiser arrived at the destination port, and two days later departed for Beyonne , New Jersey, arriving there on December 17. The cruiser was in Beyonne until the withdrawal to the reserve on February 17, 1947.
Subsequently, the cruiser was enrolled in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, which included up to the exclusion from the lists of the fleet on June 1, 1960. On May 24, Guam was sold for scrap for $ 423,076 to the Boston Metals Baltimore company. July 10, 1961 the ship was towed to the company's shipyard for cutting [5] . Active service of the cruiser was only 29 months [6] .
Notes
- Comments
- ↑ Due to poor booking and specific purpose, ships of the Alaska type were classified by the US Navy not as “ battlecruisers ”, but as a class of ships not previously used - “big cruisers” ( CB ). The unusualness of the new ships was emphasized by their names - if the US battleships were named after the states, the cruisers - after the cities, then the "big cruisers" were named after the overseas possessions of the USA. The classification used is typical for Russian-language sources.
- Used literature and sources
- ↑ 1 2 3 Conway, 1980 , p. 122.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Egan , p. 32.
- ↑ Green, 1962 , p. 167.
- ↑ Egan , pp. 30–32.
- ↑ Egan , p. 33.
- ↑ Garzke & Dulin, 1976 , p. 179.
Literature
- Balakin S. A., Dashyan A. V. et al. Battleships of the Second World War. Fleet shock force. - M .: Collection, Yauza, EKSMO, 2006 .-- 256 p .: ill. - (Arsenal Collection). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-699-18891-6 , LBC 68.54 L59.
- Taras A.E. Encyclopedia of armadillos and battleships. - Moscow: Harvest, AST, 2002. - ISBN 985-13-1009-3 .
- Kofman V.L. Supercruiser 1939-1945 / Large cruisers such as "Alaska" (Russian) // Marine collection. - M .: Model-Designer, 1995. - No. 06 .
- Breyer, Siegfried. Battleships and Battle Cruisers, 1905–1970. - Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1973. - ISBN 0-385-07247-3 .
- Dulin, Robert O., Jr .; Garzke, William H., Jr. Battleships: United States Battleships in World War II. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1976. - ISBN 1-55750-174-2 .
- Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946. - London: Conway Maritime Press, 1980 .-- ISBN 0-85177-146-7 .
- Egan, Robert S. The US Navy's Battlecruisers (Eng.) // Warship International : magazine. - International Naval Research Organization, 1971. - March ( vol. VIII , no. 1 ). - P. 28-51 .
- Green, William. Floatplanes // War Planes of the Second World War. - London: Macdonald, 1962. - Vol. VI.
- Scarpaci, Wayne. Iowa Class Battleships and Alaska Class Large Cruisers Conversion Projects 1942–1964: An Illustrated Technical Reference . - Nimble Books LLC, 2008. - ISBN 1-934840-38-6 .
- Osborne EW Cruisers and Battle cruisers. An illustrated history of their impact. - Denver, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2004 .-- ISBN 1-85109-369-9 .
- Whitley, MJ Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1995. - ISBN 1-55750-141-6 .