MBT Battleship USS "Alaska" CB-1 (1944) - Construction plan Scale 1 : 96 (10.11.097)

USS Alaska (CB-1)

The USS Alaska (CB-1) was the first ship of the Alaska-class heavy cruisers (sometimes referred to as “battlecruisers” or “heavy cruisers”) built by the US Navy during the Second World War.

General information

Name: USS Alaska

Hull number: CB-1
(CB = Cruiser/Battle — the US designation for “heavy cruiser”)

Class: Alaska-class heavy cruiser
(consisted of Alaska CB-1, Guam CB-2; Hawaii CB-3 was never completed)

Keel laid: 17 December 1941

Launched: 15 August 1943

Commissioned: 17 June 1944

Decommissioned: 17 February 1947

Design & Characteristics

The Alaska-class ships were designed in response to alleged Japanese ‘super-cruisers’ and were larger and more heavily armed than heavy cruisers, but less heavily armoured than true battleships.

Key specifications:

Standard displacement: ~27,500 tonnes

Full load: ~34,253 tonnes

Length: 808 ft (246 m)

Beam: 91 ft (27.7 m)

Draught: 31 ft (9.4 m)

Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h)

Crew: ~1,700

Armament

Main armament: 9 × 12-inch (305 mm) guns (3 × triple turrets)

Secondary: 12 × 5-inch/38 dual-purpose guns

Anti-aircraft: 40 mm Bofors and 20 mm Oerlikons (multiple mounts)

Armour

Belt armour: up to 9 inches

Deck: up to 4 inches

Torpedo tubes: up to 12.8 inches

Service history

USS Alaska served mainly in the Pacific during the Second World War.

Major operations:

Escorted fast aircraft carrier task forces during operations at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Japanese home islands.

Provided anti-aircraft protection for aircraft carriers.

Carried out coastal bombardments.

Shot down several Japanese aircraft in the final months of the war.

She spent less than three years in active service in total due to post-war downsizing.

End of her career

After the war:

Placed in reserve (mothballed) in 1947

Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1960

Sold for scrap in 1960–1961

No ships of the Alaska class remain today.

Specifications: