AMERICA’S UNSUNG

BY RICHARD H. WAGNER (Originally published in The Log, Navy League of the , New York Council, Summer 2005)

retired prematurely based upon erroneous assumptions about the future needs of the Navy and thus were not available when needed.

USS ALASKA (CB 1) The Perceived Threat

DISPLACEMENT 34,253 tons full n order to place the decision to build load the ALASKAs in perspective, it is LENGTH: 808 feet Inecessary to go back all the way to : 91 feet the beginning of the 20th Century. SPEED: 33 knots Although both Italy and Japan were POWER PLANT: experimenting with fast, big gun ships, the , under the leadership of ARMAMENT: 9 12-inch 45 cal., Sir John "Jackie" Fisher, took 12 5 inch 38 cal. the lead in developing modern ships with 56 40mm the armament of a and the 34 20mm speed and protection of a . 3 aircraft Fisher's theory was that "speed is the CREW: 1,517 best protection" and, thus, armor could LAUNCHED: 15 August 1943 be sacrificed to achieve speed. These ships could be used in independent actions against and as an adjunct hey have been called "the least to the line of battle in a fleet action. useful of all the capital ships built Accordingly, Britain, Germany, Japan, T for the during and other countries raced to build the World War II era". "White battlecruisers. elephants" that historians have relegated The British battlecruisers to obscurity. However, as seen below, performed as hoped against German the battlecruisers of the ALASKA-class cruisers in the Battle of the Falklands in do not deserve such a reputation. They World War I. However, two British were built as a response to a real threat. battlecruisers exploded and sank with Although that threat had disappeared by massive casualties during the fleet action the time they were completed, they at Jutland. As a result, enthusiasm for fulfilled an important role during their the concept cooled and short service lives. Moreover, they were HMS HOOD, under construction at the 1 Copyright 2005: Richard H. Wagner All rights reserved. time of Jutland, was widely-predicted to eventually to the panzerschiff or pocket be the last of the line. Indeed, after the battleship. The concept behind these war, Britain and America converted ships was that they would be able to out- battlecruiser hulls into aircraft carriers gun any ship they could not escape and and Japan rebuilt the KONGO-class as would be able to outrun any heavier . gunned adversary. In other words, they Yet, there was to be a rebirth of would be able to sink any existing the battlecruiser. In the Treaty of French cruiser and would be faster than Versailles, which formally ended the any existing French battleship. This war, the victors placed severe limitations concept came to fruition in the on the German navy to ensure that DEUTSCHLAND class, which included Germany would pose no threat to them the GRAF SPEE, the ADMIRAL in the future. However, in order to act as SCHEER, as well as the a bulwark against expansion by the DEUTSCHLAND (later renamed the , the treaty left the Germans ADMIRAL LUTZOW). These ships with nine obsolete battleships, all of carried a primary battery of six 11 inch which had been completed between guns in two turrets and had a speed of 26 1902 and 1908. The Treaty dictated that knots which was considerably faster than no German navy ship could be replaced any existing French battleship. until twenty years after its launch date Concern about the German and that no battleship could exceed pocket battleships and Italian heavy 10,000 tons. cruisers led the French government in The victors planning backfired. April 1932 to approve the construction Because the battleships that the Germans of two 30 knot ships each with a main had been allowed to keep were so old, battery of 13 inch guns. These became the Germans could begin to think about the battlecruisers DUNKERQUE and replacing them shortly after the ink on STRASSBORG. the Treaty was dry. In addition, the At first, political considerations Treaty forced the Germans to think in prevented the Germans from doing innovative ways of how to construct a anything more than discussing a modern within its severe response to the new French design limitations. Given the limitations of the because such a ship would have to Treaty, the Germans envisioned the role exceed the Treaty limitations. However, of the Reichsmarine as defending in 1933 the German government Germany in a Baltic conflict. The other changed hands and Hitler gave Baltic powers did not have significant permission the next year to proceed with navies in the 1920s but since France had the next generation of panzerschiff in political ties with Poland, it seemed order to counter the French. Two years likely that France might send a cruiser later, Hitler unilaterally renounced the squadron into the Baltic in the event of a Versailles Treaty, and, in 1936, the conflict between Germany and Poland. Germans launched the GNEISENAU Accordingly, German planning focused and the SCHARNHORST. While it can upon developing a ship that could be debated whether the operate against French cruisers. DEUTSCHLANDs were big cruisers or This thinking led the Germans battlecruisers, these new 35,000 ton away from the battle line concept and ships were undoubtedly battlecruisers. 2 Copyright 2005: Richard H. Wagner All rights reserved. They were equipped with a main battery her escort . Thus, looking of nine new Krupp 11 inch guns, which toward Europe in the late 1930s and were superior to all existing guns of that early 1940s, American planners could , and a secondary battery of see that a hostile nation had an effective twelve 5.9 inch guns. They could also weapon that could disrupt American do over 31 knots. commerce. As war with Great Britain Looking toward the Pacific, the became more likely, the Germans again planners also thought they saw a threat. rethought their plans for their capital Tensions with Japan were rising over ships. Britain had long been the world's Japan's expansionist moves in the premier naval power and it was unlikely western Pacific. A war in the Pacific that Germany would ever achieve naval would be fought over vast distances and parity. Thus, there was no point in the planners were concerned that in such planning for a traditional naval battle a war, Japanese heavy cruisers might be between opposing lines of battleships. used as raiders to attack the long lines of However, as an island-nation, Britain communication between the Pacific was dependent on overseas trade. Fleet and its bases. Also, the Japanese Accordingly, the Germans decided that heavy cruisers posed the primary surface they would use their capital ships against threat to the fast American aircraft Britain's merchant marine. Not only carriers because no Japanese battleship would these raids disrupt commerce but was capable of the speeds of the carriers. they would force the British to use In addition, intelligence reported that the capital ships to escort convoys. The Japanese might be building a "super- high-speed GNEISENAU-class ships cruiser" capable of sinking any lent themselves to hit and run attacks. American . Moreover, while the DEUTSCHLAND- It might well be asked why class ships could be overtaken by the American battleships could not be used French DUNKERQUE battlecruisers, to counter the German and Japanese their all-diesel propulsion systems gave threats? The answer lies in the fact that them enormous range, which was ideal America had observed the naval for commerce raiding. disarmament treaties that were When war broke out in 1939, the negotiated between the major powers in DEUTSCHLAND and the GRAF SPEE the 1920s and 1930s. These treaties had were on station in the Atlantic and placed limits on the number and size of commenced commerce raiding activities the signatories' battleships. As a result, that caused panic and disruption no new American battleship was disproportionate to the amount of completed between 1923 and 1941. The tonnage actually sunk. A subsequent old battleships did not have the speed to five-month foray by the ADMIRAL counter the new battlecruisers. SCHEER produced more actual damage Furthermore, the planners of the day still than had been inflicted by her sisters envisioned that naval battles would be combined. The GNEISENAU and the fought as at Jutland between opposing SCHARNHORST sank 33 merchant battle lines. Only twelve of the fifteen ships in one raid. And, in the Norwegian existing American battleships were campaign, the two battlecruisers sank the suitable for a main fleet engagement and British GLORIOUS and it was believed that even taking into 3 Copyright 2005: Richard H. Wagner All rights reserved. account the eight new fast battleships under construction and the two on order, Service to the Nation the United States would not have superiority over the Japanese battle line SS ALASKA (CB 1) was laid until 1945. Moreover, with the German down at the Philadelphia Navy victories in Europe in 1940 and 1941, it UYard in December 1941 but was began to look like the Germans would not commissioned until 17 June 1944. soon have effective control over the Due to post-commissioning fitting out, French, Italian, and even the Royal an intensive shakedown cruise, a return Navy. The common sense conclusion visit to Philadelphia for new directors for drawn by President Franklin Roosevelt her five-inch secondary battery, and by Admiral Ernst King was that standardization trials, and training, the America needed its own battlecruisers. ship did not join the combat fleet in the Even though the first studies of a western Pacific until 29 January 1945. possible "cruiser-killer" that could be On 13 March 1945, she was joined at used to escort fast carriers, hunt down , the fleet anchorage in the German and Japanese raiders, and to , by the second ship in engage in commerce raiding, were the class USS (CB 2). undertaken in 1938, the concept was By the time the ALASKAs were often debated and numerous designs ready for action, the ships that they had considered. The final design called for a been built to combat were no longer a 27,000-ton standard with threat. SCHARNHORST had been sunk an overall length of 808 feet - - longer in a duel with HMS DUKE OF YORK than any U.S. battleship then in in December 1943. GNEISENAU had commission. They would have a main been scuttled in port and LUTZOW, and battery of nine 12 inch guns and a main SHEER were trapped in their Baltic armor belt of 9 inches tapering to 5 ports. Similarly, the remaining Japanese inches - - considerably less than on cruisers lacked the fuel to sortie and, in American battleships. However, the any event, had never been used as long- reduced armor allowed the ships to have range commerce raiders. Nor had the a maximum speed of 33 knots. Japanese built a super-cruiser. As for Although the Navy deemed these ships American commerce raiding, the "large cruisers," they squarely met the Japanese merchant marine already had definition of a battlecruiser and were, in been devastated by American fact, always treated as capital ships. In . Indeed, when ALASKA July 1940, Congress appropriated money and GUAM made a commerce raiding for the construction of six of these ships foray into the East Sea in July as part of the pre-war attempt to rapidly 1945, all they encountered were Chinese expand the fleet. junks. It thus appears that the decision Although circumstances had to build the ALASKAs was appropriate changed so that the battlecruisers were given what was known at the time. no longer needed to address the threats Hostile nations had similar weapons or they had been built to counter, they were were believed to be building them and far from useless as it was found that they there appeared to be no existing means were readily suited to fill other roles. of responding. First, with their ability to do 33 knots 4 Copyright 2005: Richard H. Wagner All rights reserved. and their extensive antiaircraft batteries, task group, ALASKA and GUAM the ALASKAs were well-suited to bombarded an airfield on Minami Daito providing an antiaircraft umbrella for the Shima and sites on Okino Daito fast American carriers that had become Shima. Without the battlecruisers, the centerpiece of the fleet. This was no aircraft carriers would have had to have little assignment. The primary threat to Historical Center)been deployed and the fleet was from the air. To illustrate, airmen put at risk. during the Okinawa campaign, 30 ships ALASKA received three battle were lost and many more damaged by stars and GUAM two for their service air attacks including . during the war. Hardly, "white Without the antiaircraft umbrella elephants". provided by the ALASKAs and the fast battleships, the losses during the closing Early Retirement battles of the war would have been greater. Indeed, ALASKA is credited ollowing the Japanese surrender, with driving off two groups of attackers the ALASKAs took part in a in one night during the Okinawa F"show of force" in the Yellow Sea campaign and with destroying a suicide parading American power before the bomber that was less than a half-mile major ports. They then embarked Army from the stern of USS INTREPID (CV troops that had been acting as an 11) during an action off the Japanese occupation force at Jinsen, , and home islands. In addition to gunfire brought them home to as support, the battlecruisers were able to part of . By act as fighter directors as when February 1946, both ALASKA and ALASKA controlled three divisions of GUAM were berthed in Bayonne, New fighters from USS HANCOCK ,(CV 19) Jersey where they sat in reserve until while escorting USS FRANKLIN (CV they were sold for scrap in June 1960. 13) which had been badly damaged by a Historians tend to focus on the . logic behind retiring a ship or weapons system. However, politics should not be forgotten. At the end of the war, the Navy had 20 fleet carriers, 23 battleships, 2 battlecruisers, 22 heavy cruisers, 40 light cruisers, and many smaller ships. It knew that the fleet would have to be reduced but the country was looking for a "peace dividend," blind to the bear that only a few realized was in the woods.

Accordingly, the fleet was cut beyond USS ALASKA (Photo: Naval Historical Center) what the Navy had proposed and many

useful ships were scrapped or mothballed. Second, the battlecruisers were Turning to the logic of retiring able to use their main batteries for shore the ALASKAs, despite the Navy's bombardment. Acting as an independent insistence that these ships were cruisers, 5 Copyright 2005: Richard H. Wagner All rights reserved. they were grouped with the battleships in South. Many targets could have been the planners' thinking. The war had hit from the sea by big gun ships so the demonstrated that naval battles would no Navy scrambled to reactivate one of the longer be decided by lines of big gun four IOWA-class battleships. However, ships blazing away at each other and, USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) proved so thus, the battleships were obsolete. The effective that she was sent back into same too must hold true for retirement in order to meet North battlecruisers. Vietnamese negotiating demands. As a In response to the argument that the fast result, gunfire support had to be battleships and the battlecruisers had provided by cruisers and destroyers that demonstrated their ability to fill other did not have the range to reach many vital roles, the proponents of retiring the targets. big gun ships downplayed the Subsequently, as demonstrated significance of those roles in the future. during the 1980s and in the First Gulf First, the planners envisioned the next War, the big gun ships were still capable war as being fought against the Soviet of satisfying the need for naval gunfire Union on the plains of Europe where support. Because the ALASKAs had naval gunfire would play no role. been scrapped in 1960, they were not Second, with the advent of jets and available. guided missiles, the antiaircraft batteries An argument can be made that of the battleships and battlecruisers since the Navy underutilized the four would no longer be able to provide an IOWAs during the post-war period, it umbrella for the carriers. did not need the smaller gunned When North Korea invaded ALASKAs. However, because the in June 1950, the Navy was ALASKAs were somewhat smaller than caught flat-footed. Numerous targets the IOWAs, carried less armor, and were within range of big naval guns but needed a much smaller crew, they would the only big gun ship left in active have been less expensive to operate. service was USS (BB 63), Furthermore, if the ALASKAs had been which had been kept in service only available in the 1980s when the United because of President Harry Truman's States was scrambling to meet the fondness for that ship. The Navy then growth of the Soviet navy, there would struggled to reactivate MISSOURI's have been three more capital ships with sisters. Although all four of the which to build surface action groups. battleships did an excellent job of The argument that the ALASKAs providing naval gunfire support, all four would not have been able to provide an were mothballed in the years following effective antiaircraft umbrella in the jet that war. age is also fallacious. The Navy did not The Viet Nam War again proved give up trying to defend the fleet from the planners had been wrong when they air attacks in 1945. Instead, as aircraft discounted the need for naval gunfire and missiles evolved, antiaircraft support. Aircraft losses grew as the war technology evolved. Indeed, a study intensified as did the need for more undertaken in 1946 concluded that the firepower to support the ground troops ships’ antiaircraft batteries could be and the need to interdict supplies improved with only alittle weight flowing from North Viet Nam into the added to the ships. Thus, it was only 6 Copyright 2005: Richard H. Wagner All rights reserved. because the ALASKAs weaponry was plan. Ironically, these “improvements” not upgraded that the ships became would have rendered the ships less obsolete antiaircraft defenses. useful in the conflicts to come. The story of the B-52 bomber The battlecruiser concept did not provides an interesting contrast. die with the ALASKAs. In 1971, the Designed in the 1940s and built during Soviet Navy received authorization to the 1950s and 1960s, Strategic build a series of large, fast, heavily- Command envisions flying these planes armed surface ships to be used as the until the middle of the 21st Century. flagships of anti-carrier surface action The Air Force recognized that these groups. It was envisioned that these planes were an excellent platform and ships' armament and sensors would the technology onboard has been change as tactical thinking and continuously upgraded. As a result, technology evolved. Armed with these "old" planes continue to be viable. vertically-launched missiles, torpedoes, At various points, the Navy did , and two 130mm guns, four consider mounting new technology on KIROV-class battlecruisers were the battlecruisers. When the war ended, completed during the period 1980 to work on the third ship of the class, USS 1998. With the decline of the Russian (CB 3), was halted when the navy, only one, PYOTR VELIKHIY ship was 84% complete. In the 1940s, (Peter the Great), remains in service. plans were drawn to convert the However, from time-to-time, stories unfinished ship into the Navy's first surface that China is planning to build guided missile ship. Nothing came of (or buy) a battlecruiser. the idea. A subsequent plan to convert In sum, the American her into a large command ship was battlecruisers were not useless white approved but no contracts were issued. elephants. Although they were not She was sold for scrap in 1958. involved in any dramatic ship-to-ship In that same year, a study was duels, they carried out important undertaken looking toward converting functions during the Second World War. the mothballed ALASKA and GUAM Rather than indicating their lack of into missile ships. The first proposal continuing viability, their early would have replaced the main battery retirement merely highlights that the on each ship with Terrier missiles. This planners were wrong in their predictions appeared to be prohibitively expensive of what future conflicts would involve and a proposal was made to remove the and what would be needed in those rear turrets and replace them with conflicts. missiles. However, nothing came of this

7 Copyright 2005: Richard H. Wagner All rights reserved.