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The six Alaska class "large cruisers" were ordered in September 1940 under the massive 70% Expansion ("Two Ocean Navy") building program. The Navy had been considering since 1938 building ships of this entirely new type, intermediate in size between battleships and heavy cruisers. The new ships were to carry out what were then the two primary missions of heavy cruisers: protecting carrier strike groups against enemy cruisers and aircraft and operating independenly against enemy surface forces. Their extra size and larger guns would enhance their value in both these missions and would also provide insurance against reports that Japan was building "super cruisers" more powerful than U.S. heavy cruisers. In fact, Japan developed plans for two such ships in 1941--partly as a response to the Alaskas--but never placed orders for their construction.
As built, the Alaskas were much closer to cruisers in design than to battleships or battlecruisers. They lacked the multiple layers of compartmentation and special armor along the sides below the waterline that protected battleships against torpedos and underwater hits by gunfire. Other typical cruiser features in their design were the provision of aircraft hangars and the single large rudder. Unlike other U.S. cruisers of the day, the hangars and catapults were located amidships, and the single rudder made them difficult to maneuver. On the other hand, the Alaskas' side armor covered more of the hull than was standard in contemporary U.S. cruisers.
Wartime conditions ultimately reduced the Alaska class to two ships. Construction of CB-3 through CB-6--along with the five Montana (BB-67) class battleships--was suspended in May 1942 to free up steel and other resources for more urgently needed escorts and landing craft. A year later, CB-4 through CB-6 were definitively cancelled. Hawaii (CB-3), however, was restored to the building program. Launched and partially fitted out, her construction was suspended and she was considered for conversion to a missile ship or command ship, but she was scrapped, still incomplete, in 1959.
After more normal construction periods, Alaska (CB-1) and Guam (CB-2) both arrived in the Pacific theater ready for action in early 1945. There they carried out both of their designed missions--carrier protection and surface strike--although their chances of encountering their primary intended opponents, Japanese heavy cruisers, had long since disappeared. Both returned to the U.S. soon after the war's end and, not finding a place in the postwar active fleet, remained in reserve until scrapped in 1960-61.
The Alaska class consisted of six ships, of which three were never begun:
Alaska class design characteristics:
This page features a small selection of photographs of Alaska class large cruisers and provides links to more extensive pictorial coverage of the individual ships.
For more images related to the Alaska class design, see: Alaska Class Large Cruisers -- Drawings.
For coverage of classes of U.S. Navy battleships, see: Battleships -- Overview and Special Image Selection.
| If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
| Photo #: NH 97268 USS Alaska (CB-1) Photographed in the summer or fall of 1944, probably in the Hampton Roads area, Virginia. Copied from an original print included in the Fifth Naval District's "War Diary of Open Intelligence Branch of District Intelligence Office". U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 530 pixels |
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| Photo #: 80-G-K-5580 (Color) USS Alaska (CB-1) Photographed from USS Missouri (BB-63) off the U.S. east coast during their shakedown cruise together in August 1944. Note her Measure 32 camouflage. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 126KB; 740 x 580 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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| Photo #: NH 97132 USS Guam (CB-2) Underway during shakedown on 13 November 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 151KB; 740 x 615 pixels |
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| Photo #: 80-G-354097 USS Hawaii (CB-3) Leaving the launching ways at the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N. J. on 3 November 1945. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 181KB; 595 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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For more views of Alaska class large cruisers, see:
For more images related to the Alaska class design, see: Alaska Class Large Cruisers -- Drawings.
| If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
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Page made 6 June 2000
Coding updated 26 March 2001