The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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|  ONI 222 |
| Tonnage | 9100 tons standard displacement |
| Dimensions | 585'6" by 65'3" by 18'4" 178.46m by 19.89m by 5.59 |
| Maximum speed | 32.7 knots |
| Complement | 631 |
| Aircraft | 2
catapults 4 seaplanes |
| Armament | 2x3, 2x2 8"/55
guns 8x1 5"/25 AA guns 2x4 1.1" AA guns 8 machine guns |
| Protection | 540 tons: 3" (76mm) machinery belt 4" (102mm) magazine belt (forward magazines only) 1.75" (44mm) magazine roofs 3.5" (89mm) longitudinal bulkhead aft 1" (25mm) deck 2.5" (64mm) turret 1.25" (32mm) conning tower |
| Machinery |
4-shaft Parsons geared turbines
(107,000 shp) 8 White-Forster boilers |
| Bunkerage | 2116 tons fuel oil |
| Range | 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) at 15 knots |
| Sensors | CXAM1 air
search
radar (Pensacola) |
| Modifications |
Radar was regularly upgraded.
1942: Light antiaircraft upgraded to 4x2 1.1" guns and 8x1 20mm Oerlikon AA guns. 1943: 1.1"guns replaced with 4x4 40mm Bofors AA guns. 1944: Light antiaircraft upgraded to 6x4 40mm, 20 20mm guns and aircraft reduced to two seaplanes and a single catapult. |
Following the end of the First World War, the U.S. Navy saw a need for
a new class of cruisers that
could outfight the British Hawkins
class and had the radius of action needed for a Pacific conflict.
Although design studies began as early as 1919, the mood of the country
was opposed to new armaments and no design was accepted before the naval
disarmament treaties created the new category of heavy cruisers,
which were limited to 10,000 tons displacement and 8" (203mm) guns. The
Navy eventually looked at no less than seven designs ranging in
displacement from 5000 to 10,000 tons and armed with 5" (127mm) to 8"
(203mm) guns. A design began to emerge in November 1923 and was
finalized in March 1925 that would become the Pensacola class.
The Pensacolas were
completed in 1929-1930. Like most American
cruisers built between the wars, they were built with the utmost
economy
(costing $11 million apiece), were rather lightly armored, and were
somewhat
unstable. Their armament was fairly substantial, but the barrels
were so close
together that the muzzle blast from adjacent barrels perturbed the
shells and
resulted in a rather high dispersion pattern. The guns were
mounted on a
single sleeve, so that they had to be elevated together.
These ships used
mostly welded construction rather than riveting, a departure from
previous
practice. On the other hand, machinery dispersal was good.
Extensive weight-saving measures brought the displacement well
below the 10,000 tons permitted by treaty, and some of the weight allowance was
reincorporated in the form of increased protection for the forward
magazines. The rear magazines had no side protection, on the assumption
that any action would take place forward of the beam.
Like most American cruisers, they landed their original torpedo armament prior to the outbreak of war.
Both ships survived the war.
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Pensacola Convoy, near Phoenix Islands en route Philippines |
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Task Force 8 (Halsey, Enterprise) returning from Wake |
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2012 by Kent G. Budge. Index
