"THE cruiser" Topic

Okay, since someone started a thread on battleships I figured that I would kick off one on the hard working "frigates" of the modern navy: the cruiser!

What class or ship is your favorite?

Mine is the Astoria/New Orleans class cruiser the USS San Francisco! She was one of the last treaty cruisers and she saw a lot of action in WWII.

Her most famous engagements were the Battle of Cape Esperance where she lead a small squadron of cruisers and destroyers against a similar fleet of Japanese warships and sent them packing. This is a big deal because this action was against some Japanese warships who sunk her sister ships the Astoria, Quincy, and Vincennes. This action was the first clear-cut surface victory that the US Navy scored over the Japanese in WWII and it opened the way for the US Navy to resupply the US Marines at Guadalcanal.

Her other important action was another night action off Guadalcanal. In this action she lead another cruiser/destroyer squadron against a FULL DIVISION of Japanese fast battleships: the 14" armed Hiei and her sister-ship the Kirishima and their squadron of escorting cruisers and destroyers. The San Francisco suffered badly in the engagement but she survived and she helped to inflict heavy damage to the enemy. Because of her actions, and those of her fellow cruisers and escorting destroyers, the Japanese were not able to inflict what could have been a crippling bombardment of Henderson Field. If the Japanese had been able to bombard Henderson Field then there was a good chance that the transports loaded with a full division of Japanese troops and necessary supplies could have made it to Guadalcanal. That could have been it for the US force on Guadalcanal.

These actions make her one the most important ships in her "class" and make her, IMO, the top cruiser!

So what's yours?

My favorite is the USS Olympia. A beautiful ship from an excellent design, that did outstanding service and, for now at least, still afloat.

I'd probably go with Boise by a hair over the San Francisco (great choice as well) only because in that same period she was probably the most effective US night fighter in the battles around Guadalcanal because her captain grasped the full value of radar fire control and got the best use out of the devastating combination of merging 15 x 6" relatively rapid fire guns with RFC.

For the war overall I might give a shout to Suffolk for pure tenacity. It seems as if she fought everywhere in the ETO for the duration.

I like the Indianapolis class cruiser. Clean lines good looking ship. Then the U.S.S Wichita good record and it's
were I live and grew up:)

USS Newport News (CA-148). The Boise's 6" guns were impressive, but discovering that you could do the same thing with 8" guns is utterly obscene.

"The Gray Ghost from the East Coast" traded fire with North Vietnamese shore batteries all the time. At one time, she was simultaneously engaged by at least 20 batteries. Not one shell actually hit her, and she silenced all of the batteries in return.

Don't bring a 130mm gun to a naval engagement, folks, at least not when there are still real gun-cruisers afloat!

HMS Belfast best Royal Navy cruiser ever built.

Im going with Jack The Olympia is a shining star as are any of the ships of that era …

Re San Francisco, I rememebr a drawing of her in the olf Coggins' book on Guadalcanal that showed an after action depictring all the various hits on her by shell type, including several 14" hits. IIRC, she survived because the battle ships were armed to bombard Henderson Field, and not with armor piercing rounds.

Mike

The Flying Cloud was a Yankee ship, five hundred tons or more,
She could outsail any clipper ship hailing out of Baltimore,
With her canvas white as the driven snow and on it there's no specks,
And forty men and fourteen guns she carried below her decks.

I know, not the sort of cruiser the OP had in mind.

All the really great ships are proud beauties who inspire song. Even when they're fictional, like the Flying Cloud.

More tricky, but I nominate the Russian cruiser Aurora.

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Launched in 1900, she fought at Tsu Shima as part of the 2nd Pacific squadron. Served again 1914-1916 against the Germans before joining the bolshevik revolution in 1917. Her refusal to put to sea sparked the October revolution, and her foecastle gun signalled the attack on the winter palace in which her crew took part.

She was bombed and sunk by the Germans in 1941 but her guns were dismounted to assist the defence of Leningrad.

Refloated and repaired 1945 – 1947, she was permanently anchored on the Neva in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) as a monument to the October Revolution and in 1957 became a museum-ship.

She remains the oldest ship of the Russian Navy, still flying the naval ensign under which she was commissioned. She is still manned by an active service crew commanded by a Captain of the 1st Rank.

Since 1956 28 million people have visited her – including myself.

I found standing on her deck to be a very moving experience.

Going with the Olympia myself. Beautiful ship; I had the opportunity to tour her not long ago. It amazed me how much effort was put into decorating the interior of a fighting vessel; parts of it looked like a luxury yacht.

Kitikami Torpedo Light Cruiser-the first Romulan Warbird.

40 Frikkin' torpedo tubes!!!! Of course, if it's hit…..

40 frikkin' secondary explosions!!!!!…the colors alone…

USS Belknap (CG-26)

In a prior job as a naval engineer, hers was the first ship's combat system design I worked on, during her late-1970s rebuild.

Rick

Nelson and Rodney

USS Salem (CA-139). Nine semi-automatic 8" rifles pack on the
hurt. Plus, she's still here in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Michael

Asama, Tokiwa, Idzumo, Iwate, Yakumo, Adzuma, Nisshin, Kasuga.
Best cruisers at the turn of the century.
Kako, Furutaka, Aoba, Kinugasa, Myoko, Ashigara, Haguro, Nacchi, Atago, Takao, Chokai, Maya, Mogami, Mikuma, Kumano, Suzuya, Tone, Chikuma. What all the great cruisers of the 1940s feared most. (Chokai is my favorite)
The Olympia. Coolest U.S. Cruiser ever, small powerful balanced design.

The Brooklyn class for its hard-nosed functionality, and for raising the bar in cruiser design at the time.

Hard to choose between Ajax, Achilles and Exeter.

All the best,

John.

Torn between Olympia for beauty, balance and her place in history ("You may fire when you are ready, Gridley"), and Helena, for her brief-but-eventful career *and* the fact that fifteen 6-inch guns firing 6 rpm (conservatively) at halitosis range brings pain.

For the age of armoured cruisers, the Olympia springs to mind as she's Dewey's flagship and still afloat:

For WW2 cruisers, well, I *am* a Bay Area native, so I can be forgiven my bias for the USS San Francisco, especially given her battle record:

For eccentricity of design it's a toss-up for me, but the designs are all French (!!!), starting with the three French-built Japanese armoured cruisers all packing a single 14-inch Canet gun as their main armament:

While two sister ships had their big gun pointing forward, the Matsushima had hers pointing to the stern of the vessel:

And of course, there's France's Dupuy de Lome:

This ship's just WRONG:

A ram bow? Seriously?

Leland R. Erickson

U.S.S. Houston.

But as far as the ultimate gun-cruiser design, U.S.S. Salem.

I think the most attractive design is the Hipper class, particularly the Prinz Eugen. Unfortunately they weren't as useful as they were pretty.

For a war record AND surviving it's hard to beat HMS Belfast. Lots of action and brought her boys home.

For being the best ship in a class at the time you can't beat the Baltimore class of US heavy cruisers.

Belfast? A successfull combination of armament and armour but I've always thought the gap between bridge structure and fore funnel spoils the look. The first 8 ships of the "Southampton" class were far better looking, though not without their faults, especially structurally.

For a small cruiser the Auroras get my vote, but for the best overall large ship I can't decide between the US Brooklyns or Baltimores.

Heavy or Light? H'mmm. I like the Dido's and Black Prince AA cruisers!

The Averoff.
Pretty much single-handily defeated the Ottoman fleet in two engagements. Survived WWII, is a beauty of a ship and still exists today!

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My fav is the USS Montpelier, the "mighty Monty", because my Dad was on it in the Pacific campaign!

As someone already said, HMS Belfast was the best cruiser in the world when she was commissioned, and was never bettered in the Royal Navy.

I like HMS Sheffield. She was in the hunt for Bismark (where she was almost attacked by Victorious' Swordfish), at Barents Sea and the sinking of Scharnhorst. A real workhorse, and also attractive and an effective design.

Admiral Graf Spee.

I'd summarize but I wouldn't do it justice.

-Tim

The Town class, Belfast and Sheffield mentioned above, in all three of its groups. Graceful, beautiful and deadly.

Fatman

Of course this is before they stripped x turret to add more AAA

French cruiser Lamotte-Picquet

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She was the leading French ship at the battle of Koh Chang in 1941, where the Marine Nationale crushed a more modern Siamese fleet that also could use greater firepower.