they were designed to be the best they
met enemies face to face endured
tragedies and enjoyed victories they
went down in history due to the bravery
of their crews they are the ships that
deserve to be called naval legends in
this episode the unsinkable cleveland's
one of the sites in Buffalo New York
state is USS Little Rock stationed at
the local naval museum it is the last
remaining cleveland class light cruiser
built in great numbers
these ships posted good survivability
and were considered the heaviest light
cruisers in the history of the US Navy
in the 17th 18th and first half of the
19th century a cruiser was not a ship
type it was just a light ship could be a
frigate a break a Brigantine their
mission was to disrupt enemy
communication lines what is a naval
battle about somebody wins and somebody
loses then you should make use of the
victory accordingly which means
disrupting enemy communications and
these lines are all over the ocean as
enemy ships are criss-crossing here and
there so your cruisers should be
criss-crossing here and there too she
would go to the north go to the south go
to the west
go to the east this is where the word
cruise comes from she makes crossings
chasing enemy ships
however if there are ships to disrupt
supply routes but you need ships to
perform counter operations has led to
the emergence of different Cruiser types
protected light first rank second rank
all kinds of cruisers
as you see behind us is the USS in
Little Rock she's light cruiser the
reason why they call it a light cruiser
with because her tonnage she
weighed 12,000 tons and also she had
smaller size naval guns
she had 6-inch guns vice-like a heavy
cruiser had 8-inch guns she is the last
Cleveland class cruiser that's in
existence today the first ship whose
name was given to the whole series was
laid down in summer 1940 a displacement
was much higher than the standard for
light cruisers at the time for this
reason the cleveland class ships are
sometimes called heavy light cruisers
the Americans realized that their key
opponents were across seas and oceans
consequently the disrupt enemy
communications you had to cross either
the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean so
they needed a big ship with a large
displacement high self sustainability
and powerful armament
key specifications of the Cleveland
class cruisers total displacement up to
fourteen thousand three hundred tons
length 610 feet 3 inches speed 65 feet 7
inches draft 24 feet 7 inches armament
primary armament 12 mark 16 guns in four
turrets caliber six inch dual purpose
artillery 12 mark 12 guns caliber 5-inch
anti-aircraft artillery different ships
of the series were equipped with up to
28 befores and up to 20 Oerlikon
autocannons armor armor belt and conning
tower up to 5 inches Dec 2 inches
turrets up to 6.5 inches
err grow for floatplanes
maximum speed 32.5 knots cruising range
eleven thousand nautical miles
building the Cleveland class cruisers
was a challenge for us industry 30 ships
were ordered before the United States
joined World War two and after the
attack on Pearl Harbor the dockyards
received orders for 20 more cruisers
the cruiser was used to protect the
battleship then of course after Pearl
Harbor battleships they realized that
battleships are not what we needed we
needed to move forward and so the
aircraft carrier became the center of
the battle group like dropping a stone
into a pond or a pool of water and you
see the ripples as it move out so you
would have the center would be the
aircraft carrier the next thing out
would be the cruises the next thing out
would be the destroyers
since the Cleveland class cruisers were
constructed during World War two the US
Navy wanted to have them armed as
heavily as possible this guideline was
set by President Roosevelt himself
besides the primary armament which
consisted of powerful 6-inch guns the
Cleveland's also featured formidable
anti-aircraft artillery 12 5-inch
dual-purpose guns and up to 50 befores
and Oerlikon barrels could surround the
ship with a wall of steel and not a
single enemy aircraft was able to breach
it
when cleveland was being designed there
were debates about whether it was
reasonable to install guns of such close
calibers six and five inches some people
are saying the cruiser should have only
six inches
why do we need the five inches others
insisted on having only 5-inch guns on
paper five and six inches look virtually
the same but the point is that a six
inch shell weighs twice as much as a
five-inch one so it has a much greater
impact on enemy ships a much greater
destructive force
the president's instructions were
fulfilled with the utmost diligence
virtually the whole deck was dotted with
gun barrels
but the design has got so enthusiastic
that the cruiser turned out to be over
equipped with armament as a result one
of the key drawbacks of the Cleveland
class is that he cannot be upgraded you
had to buy the disarm the ship
completely believe her the way she is
for example when missile systems were
installed on these ships after World War
two part of their guns specifically the
primary armament were simply removed
currently in her configuration now she
only has one triple 6-inch turret and
one 5-inch gun all the rest were removed
but she did keep her six-inch gun she
actually has the only six-inch gun left
in the world
however Cleveland's above water hull
became heavier and this affected her
stability an important parameter for
ocean vessels the ship's angle of list
was limited to 23 degrees which was a
minor drawback for the project it was
compensated by the other seagoing
qualities of the shell
this month gender that is spider lack of
stability the cruisers demonstrated
superb survivability during the war the
key factor here was not the ship's
design but the excellent work of their
damage control parties the cruiser
receives damage even when it's critical
and in just a few seconds everyone is
running taking measures doing their job
and after some time a ship that was
going to sink in 15 minutes is back on
an even keel our engines are running and
she is sailing again sometimes even
continuing to fight a good example is
Cruiser Houston which was severely
damaged by an air-dropped torpedo in
October 1944 all her engine rooms were
out of order the ship took on 6,000 tons
of water almost half of her displacement
but remain sailing a team had saved her
the most interesting thing is that the
first torpedo damaged the hull the whole
engine room was filled with water when
the ship was being transported to the
Hawaiian Islands she got hit by another
torpedo as a result having a
displacement of 13,500 tonnes Houston
took in so much water that her
displacement became almost 21,000 tons
in other words she was completely filled
with water but she made it to the port
the Cleveland class was the most
numerous series of light cruisers in US
history
a total of 27 ships were built
every three or four months new cruisers
were commissioned and sent straight to
the wall by 1943 the American sees the
initiative in the Pacific Theater
the Japanese assumed the Strategic
Defense by that time they had captured
almost all islands in the western
Pacific up to the coast of Australia
the United States launched an offensive
on multiple islands with Japanese
Garrison's on them ready to defend to
the last breath but the Americans were
not going to capture them all they
applied the so called island hopping
strategy capturing only the islands that
were of strategic value for further
offensives the US did not seek to
destroy all Japanese Garrison's on the
islands it was more important to secure
the right bridgehead no matter whether
an enemy force was there or not the
Battle of Bougainville went down in
history is the first u.s. offensive
operation against Japan upon screen
period
the Bougainville campaign was part of
this offensive part of the
island-hopping strategy it was actually
a bit grotesque because US forces were
deployed on Bougainville in a place
where there were no enemies the Japanese
were stationed on this island but in a
different part of it so the Americans
were deployed there but didn't try to
capture the whole island only the part
they needed but the Japanese from their
standpoint this was an unthinkable
impedance to continue deploying next to
our base where we have plenty of troops
plenty of ships and your aircraft right
here within the stone's throw and what
are they going to do okay they've
deployed their forces here they will
probably attempt to capture the whole
island but they are not trying to
capture the whole island how can that be
Bougainville was immensely important for
the United States as Japan's major Air
Force and naval base Raval was just 400
kilometers northwest of it powerful
forces on Rabaul were preparing to
advance to the south and southeast by
that time Tokyo was controlling almost
the whole of Southeast Asia half of
China and hundreds of islands in the
Pacific Ocean from Sakhalin and the
Kuril in the north to the Solomon
Islands in the South but you concede
Japanese suddenly saw that the Americans
were at their door next to their most
powerful naval base because something
had to be done everything they had had
had all cruisers and destroyers
stationed at Rabaul at that moment was
sent to Bougainville and then we can
meet in the evening of November the 1st
1943 an imposing Japanese squadron left
for Bougainville
it consisted of heavy cruisers Miyoko
and kaguro light cruisers Agha knowit's
and I six destroyers and five transport
ships carrying a thousand troops the
Japanese force was to land on the island
and defeat the US Marines who had just
been deployed to the coast of the
Empress August obey
as soon as the Japanese ships left for
about the counter the u.s. landing the
Americans were aware of this and yet
believe they took all their landing
assets away from the coast well the
Japanese ships were expected to attack
them instead the Americans put forward
their escort ships for Cleveland class
light cruisers and six destroyers this
means the whole thing happened at night
it was night when the naval battle took
place a classic naval battle of World
War two were windy
late into the small hours a column of
Cleveland's was moving along the coast
of Bougainville
the u.s. cruisers were in front of the
Empress August obey when at 2:30 their
radars detected a Japanese squadron
comprising six destroyers and four
cruisers the US force led by Admiral
Merrill deployed into combat formation
and its destroyers attacked the enemy at
2:46 the us destroyers made their first
torpedo salvo
but the Japanese ships changed their
course and the torpedoes launched by the
Fletcher's missed the targets
however the maneuver proved the Japanese
formation and sent it into disarray this
is when the cleveland's opened fire at
Cruiser Center primary armament shells
severely damaged the Japanese ship in
this turmoil heavy cruiser Miyoko ran
into a friendly destroyer cutting off
part of her power
I've been fired from their primary gums
the Japanese cruisers revealed
themselves to the Cleveland's were
immediately returned fire
the Japanese heavy cruisers suffered a
defeat and retreated under the cover of
darkness
the Cleveland's came out of this night
battle as decidedly victorious
but the Japanese did not give up
in the morning they send their
ground-based aircraft to attack the
Cleveland's
and here Cleveland class cruises
demonstrated that they not only had
excellent artillery to defeat similar
surface ships but also boasted superb
anti-aircraft armament
they virtually engulfed the sky with
fire and the Japanese aircraft were
unable to do anything not even break
through to the ships
having repelled the Japanese aircraft
the US forces approached Rabaul and
delivered an airstrike basically the
Americans fulfilled their mission at the
same time the Japanese garrison on
Bougainville proved to be as firm as
samurai they stood till the end till
August 1945
I need unless it they started breeding
cows and growing vegetables there
because no more suppliers were coming
from their home country they were
surrounded the Philippines had been
liberated from Japan and so forth for
the Japanese garrison stood it stead
till the end dearest you convinced
katratzi the Bougainville campaign
wouldn't have been considered daring but
reckless and silly lubricity important
if the cleveland's hadn't won that
battle the Americans kiss hug in fact
these ships led America to victory in
this war
Katarina was a fun bougainvillea the
clincher capturing part of Bougainville
was a key step on the way to
neutralizing Japan's major base rebound
in turn is earther and neutralizing
rebel was an important step towards
other islands towards Japan itself
towards victory in the war queen
the Cleveland class light cruisers went
through the Pacific War with flying
colors some of them was seriously
damaged in battle but none were sunk
battered and burnt Cleveland
successfully repelled air raids sankt
Japanese ships and shelled enemy
positions on countless islands apart
from the 27 cruisers the hulls of the
Cleveland class ships were used to build
9 light aircraft carriers of the
independence class which had a
significant impact on the outcome of
World War two in the post-war period
some Cleveland's were equipped with
cruise missiles and stayed in service in
the US Navy in a new capacity consider
you read about the history of the
Cleveland class cruises it may seem like
they didn't do anything special during
World War two some battles some
operations some damage there's no glory
but the real war is about hard labor
hard everyday labor and the Cleveland's
were the ones who took it upon
themselves it's the best light cruiser
project to the United States they were
everywhere look at any more or less
significant battle of the war
Cleveland's were there they were the
real workhorses of the US Navy
USS Little Rock is the last remaining
ship of her class she served as a
missile cruiser until the summer of 1977
when she was decommissioned today the
former squadron flagship is a museum in
Buffalo and her menacing appearance
embodies the pride and glory of all
Cleveland's
you