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Pages in category "World War II cruisers of the United States" The following 103 pages are in this category, out of 103 total. This list may not reflect recent changes .
When the United States entered World War II it had three major classes of cruisers under construction: the Atlanta and Cleveland light cruiser classes (with 5-inch and 6-inch main batteries, respectively), and the Baltimore-class of heavy cruisers.
The heavy cruiser's immediate precursors were the light cruiser designs of the 1910s and 1920s; the US 8-inch 'treaty cruisers' of the 1920s were originally classed as light cruisers until the London Treaty forced their redesignation. Heavy cruisers continued in use until after World War II.
The US Navy's main impetus for the Alaska class was the threat posed by Japanese cruisers raiding its lines of communication in the event of war. Heavy cruisers were also the most likely surface threat to aircraft carriers making independent raids, so a cruiser-killer was also an ideal carrier escort. [3]
The Cleveland-class was a group of light cruisers built for the United States Navy during World War II. They were the most numerous class of light cruisers ever built. Fifty-two were ordered, and 36 were completed, 27 as cruisers and nine as the Independence-class of light aircraft carriers. They were deactivated within a few years after the ...
The New Orleans-class cruisers were the last US cruisers built to the specifications and standards of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Such ships, with a limit of 10,000 tons standard displacement and 8-inch caliber main guns, may be referred to as "treaty cruisers."
The vast majority of cruisers built by the United States during World War II derive from the Brooklyn design. [1] Modifications of the Brooklyn-class hull were the predecessors to the two main lines of wartime cruisers, respectively the Cleveland-class light cruiser armed with 6-inch guns and Baltimore-class heavy cruiser armed with 8-inch guns.
The list includes armed vessels that served during the war and in the immediate aftermath, inclusive of localized ongoing combat operations, garrison surrenders, post-surrender occupation, colony re-occupation, troop and prisoner repatriation, to the end of 1945. For smaller vessels, see also List of World War II ships of less than 1000 tons.