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ONI 222 |
Tonnage | 10,136 tons standard displacement |
Dimensions | 588' by 61'9" by 21'9" 179.22m by 18.82m by 6.63m |
Maximum
speed |
32.4 knots |
Complement | 868 |
Aircraft | 2
catapults 4 seaplanes |
Armament | 3x3 8"/55
guns 8x1 5"/25 AA guns 4x4 1"/75 AA guns 8x1 0.50 machine guns |
Protection | 1520 tons: 5" (127mm) belt tapering to 3" (76mm) on 0.75" (19mm) STS plating 3" (76mm) machinery bulkheads tapering to 2" (51mm) 4.7" (119mm) magazine sides tapering to 3" (76mm) 1.5" (38mm) magazine bulkheads 2.25" (57mm) armor deck 8"/1.5"/2.25" (203mm/38mm/57mm)) turret faces/sides and rear/roof 5" (127mm) barbette 2.5" (64mm) conning tower |
Immune zone |
12,000 to 24,000 yards (11,000 to 22,000 m)
against 8" (205mm) gunfire |
Machinery |
4-shaft Westinghouse geared
turbine (107,000 shp) 8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers |
Bunkerage | 1861 tons fuel oil |
Range | 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) at 15 knots |
Modifications |
1942-4: Splinter shields
added to 5" gun
positions. 0.50 machine guns replaced with 6x1 20mm Oerlikon AA
guns. Equipped with SC and Mark 3
radar. 1942-10: Light antiaircraft increased by up to 10x1 20mm guns. Late 1943: 1.1" guns replaced with 6x4
40mm Bofors
AA
guns. SC radar replaced by SG (two
sets), SK,
and Mark 4
radar. Conning tower removed to reduce top weight. |
The New Orleans
were completed in 1934-1937. By the time they were being
designed, in 1929, the Navy had recognized that its earlier heavy
cruisers were underweight, and the new ships were given heavier
protection to bring them up to the treaty
limit. They
were somewhat shorter and less beamy than the Portlands,
at the cost of being less well subdivided, but this allowed a
shorter
armor belt of greater thickness. Because their machinery was not
particularly
well-dispersed, they were theoretically vulnerable to a loss of
power if a torpedo struck
the bulkhead between the two engine
rooms.
Unlike earlier designs, their 8” (203mm) guns were mounted in
proper
turrets and could be
elevated individually.
Except
for the single Wichita,
they were the most modern heavy cruisers with
which the Navy began the war. They were quite heavily
armed and armored, to the extent that they often found themselves
employed in a
“pocket battleship”
role.
Three ships of this class were sunk in a single disastrous night in the Battle of Savo Island.
Task Force 1 south of Oahu |
||
Task
Force 12 en
route to Midway
from Oahu |
Sunk by gunfire 9 August 1942 off Guadalcanal | |
Arrived 1942-3-11 |
Sunk by gunfire 9 August 1942 off Guadalcanal | |
Arrived 1942-6-10 |
Sunk by gunfire 9 August 1942 off Guadalcanal | |
Tuscaloosa | Arrived 1942-12 |
References
Gogin
(2010; accessed 2013-2-7)
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