USS Cleveland at sea in 1942
Class overview
Name:	Cleveland class
Builders:	New York Shipbuilding Corporation Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Fore River Shipyard William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company
Operators:	United States Navy
Preceded by:	St. Louis class Atlanta class
Succeeded by:	Fargo class
In commission:	1942–79
Planned:	52
Completed:	27
Cancelled:	3 (9 converted to aircraft carriers, 13 reordered as Fargo class)
Retired:	27
Preserved:	1 (converted to a Galveston-class guided missile cruiser)
General characteristics
Type:	Light cruiser
Displacement:	11,744 long tons (11,932 t) (standard) 14,131 long tons (14,358 t) (max)
Length:	600 ft (180 m) wl 608 ft 4 in (185.42 m) oa
Beam:	66 ft 4 in (20.22 m)
Height:	113 ft (34 m)
Draft:	25 ft 6 in (7.77 m) (mean) 25 ft (7.6 m) (max)
Installed power:	4 × Babcock & Wilcox, 634 psi boilers 100,000 shp (74,570 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × General Electric geared steam turbines 4 × screws
Speed:	32.5 kn (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h)
Range:	8,640 nmi (16,000 km; 9,940 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)[1]
Complement:	1,255 Total 70 officers 1,115 enlisted men
Armament:	Cleveland 1942: 4 × triple 6 in (150 mm)/47 6 × dual 5 in (130 mm)/38 caliber 12 × 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors guns (2 × 4, 2 × 2) 20 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannons Vicksburg 1944/1945: 4 × triple 6 in (150 mm)/47 6 × dual 5 in (130 mm)/38 caliber 28 × 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors guns (4 × 4, 6 × 2) 10 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannons
Armor:	Belt: 3.25–5 in (83–127 mm) Deck: 2 in (51 mm) Bulkheads: 5 in (130 mm) Turrets Face: 6.50 in (165 mm) Turrets Roof: 3 in (76 mm) Turrets Sides: 3 in (76 mm) Turrets Rear: 1.5 in (38 mm) Barbettes: 6 in (150 mm) Conning tower: 2.25–5 in (57–127 mm)
Aircraft carried:	4 × floatplanes
Aviation facilities:	2 × stern catapults
Notes:	Dimensions in feet from Jane's American Fighting ships of the 20th Century, 1991

The Cleveland class was a group of light cruisers built for the U.S. Navy during World War II, and were the most numerous class of light cruisers ever built.

Development[edit]

The Cleveland-class was a development of the preceding Brooklyn-class. The ships were designed with the goal of increased cruising range, anti-aircraft armament, torpedo protection, etc., compared with earlier U.S. cruisers.^[2]

Technical drawing of a Cleveland-class cruiser.

The preferred cruiser of the US Navy, the 6" guns could hurl 10 rounds per minute as opposed to 3 rounds per minute on US heavy cruisers using 8" guns and bagged charges. 27 of the Cleveland Class would be built as opposed to 17 Baltimore Class cruisers. The fleet was complaining bitterly about the slow rate of fire.^[3] The US Navy in the 1930s began to deploy drones to use as targets for anti-aircraft targets. These drones could dive to simulate dive bombers and could be used simulate torpedo bombers as well. The results were dismaying to the fleet when the results came in. Without fire control directors and computers, the ships of the fleet would be almost helpless against the density of aircraft attack they envisioned the future war bringing. The mechanical computers alone could weigh up to 10 tons and had to be housed below decks for both weight and protection measures.^[4] As World War II was to prove, the dismal assumptions made pre-war were optimistic. Eventually, every anti-aircraft gun platform above 20mm would end up moving to remote power and aiming with associated fire control and radar.^[5] As designed the Cleveland Class was already a tight design but requests to widen the ship were turned down because it would affect production rates.^[6] To achieve this, the fifth 6-inch gun turret was omitted. This also gave room for the enlargement of the bridge spaces to accommodate the new combat information center and the necessary radars. However, the increase of light anti-aircraft artillery made the class top-heavy towards the end of World War II. To compensate for the weight increase, some ships had one catapult removed, also the rangefinders were removed from turret A.^[7] The top weight issues would plague the class with every addition of equipment having to be carefully weighed against what would have to be removed. Fighter control radar installation required the removal of 20mm clipping rooms for instance.^[8]

Subclasses[edit]

Fifty-two ships of this class were originally planned, but nine of them were completed as the light aircraft carriers of the Independence class, and two of them were completed to a somewhat different design, with more compact superstructures and just a single stack. These two were called the Fargo class. Of the 27 Cleveland-class cruisers that were commissioned, one (Galveston) was completed as a guided missile cruiser and five were later modified as Galveston and Providence-class guided missile cruisers. Two of each of the guided missile cruiser-classes had enlarged superstructures to serve as flagships. Following the naming convention at the time, all the ships completed as cruisers were named for US cities and towns.^[9]

Service[edit]

The Cleveland-class cruisers served mainly in the Pacific Fleet during World War II, especially in the Fast Carrier Task Force, but some of them served off the coasts of Europe and Africa in the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. All of these warships, though worked heavily and damaged in some cases, survived the war. All of this class were initially decommissioned by 1950, except for Manchester, which remained in service until 1956, but six were later finished or converted to guided missile cruisers, and these served into the 1970s. The Clevelands suffered from increasing stability problems as anti-aircraft armament and additional radar was added during the war. None were recommissioned for the Korean War, as they required a crew almost as large as the Baltimore-class ships, and those ships were reactivated instead. All non-converted ships were sold off from the reserve fleet for scrapping beginning in 1959. The six that were completed as or converted into guided missile cruisers were reactivated during the 1950s and then served into the 1970s. All, particularly the Talos-armed ships, suffered from greater stability problems than the original design due to the extra radar equipment and top weight. This problem was particularly severe in Galveston, leading to its premature decommissioning in 1970. Oklahoma City and Little Rock had to have a large amount of ballast and internal rearrangement to allow continued service into the 1970s.^[10] The last of these missile ships in service, Oklahoma City, was decommissioned in December 1979.

Preserved ships[edit]

Only one Cleveland-class ship remains. She is the guided missile cruiser Little Rock, now a museum ship along the Niagara River at Buffalo, New York, along with the Fletcher-class destroyer The Sullivans, and the Gato-class submarine, Croaker.^[11]

Ships in class[edit]

See also[edit]

• List of ships of the Second World War


• List of ship classes of the Second World War

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleveland class cruiser.

• Statistics


• Global Security.org - Cleveland class cruiser


• Hazegray - US Cruisers List: US Light/Heavy/AntiAircraft Cruisers, Part 2


• Cleveland Class Light Cruisers