RE: Page three and the USS Guam. Here is a link to a Freeper Foxhole thread on the USS Alaska CB-1 from way back in the day.
The USS Alaska and USS Guam were kind if odd ships, about the closest ship type to them would have been the German “Pocket Battleships” Obviously bigger than the current heavy cruiser classes but not quite big enough to rate as a battle cruiser regardless what our intrepid reporter thinks.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1698603/posts
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
The Alaska class was officially designated “Large Cruisers,” and carried the classification CB, as opposed to CA for Heavy Cruisers and BC for Battlecruisers. Personally, I think they were a lot closer to Battlecruisers than Heavy Cruisers. There were still Battleships like Arkansas and Texas in the Navy that sported 12” guns. The armor protection was much like that of a cruiser, but the 28,000 ton displacement was closer to the 35,000 ton treaty limit than it was to the Baltimore class heavy cruiser.
In any event, it’s hard to say what the Alaskas were.
Beautiful
Obsolete
Superfluous
They all apply.
That takes me back . . .