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!”
Naval Legends
In this episode:
USS Salem, the giant that was late for the war.
With the outbreak of World War II,
the number of roles fulfilled by cruisers significantly increased,
and by the middle of the war the U.S. Navy
decided they needed a new generation of cruisers.
These were to be the most advanced heavy cruisers of their time.
U.S. cruisers had proven their versatility in sea battles in the Pacific Theater.
Indeed, they fulfilled multiple missions:
first, their primary duties, i.e., patrol
and cruising in distant areas along enemy shipping routes;
second, providing fire support during landing operations;
third, providing fire support during sea battles;
and, finally, they showed their superb combat abilities
in fighting against their airborne enemies-Japanese planes.
American engineers took all these factors into account
in designing the new class of cruisers…
A new heavy cruiser was designed as far back as in July 1943.
In October, construction began on the lead ship, USS Oregon City.
However, the four ships of the Oregon City class
were almost immediately superseded by an even larger and more advanced design.
The greater dimensions allowed sufficient room to mount new,
larger turrets and larger main guns that were truly high-tech for their time.
The turrets were much heavier than the primary armament guns mounted on Oregon City,
which had to be taken into consideration in construction of new class cruisers.
The new heavy cruiser project was named
after the lead ship of the class - Des Moines.
Initially, it was planned to construct twelve ships,
but plans changed, and only three cruisers were built.
The second one was USS Salem.
Total displacement: 21,286 t
Length: about 715 ft / about 218 m (218.4 m).
Beam: about 76 ft (76.4 ft) / about 23 m (23.3 m)
Draft: almost 26 ft (25.98 ft) / almost 8 m (7.92 m)
Armament:
Primary armament: 9 x Mk.16 guns installed in three turrets.
Dual-purpose artillery:
6 x turrets each with two Mk.32 guns. Anti-aircraft artillery: 12 х twin Mark 22 guns
Caliber: 3 in (76 mm)
Belt: from 4 in to 6 in (from 102 mm to 203 mm)
Barbettes: 6.3 in (160 mm)
Primary armament turrets:
from 2 in to 8 in (from 51 mm to 203 mm)
Conning tower: from 5.5 in (from 140 mm to 165 mm)
Power: 120,000 hp
Speed: more than 32 and a half knots (32.6 knots)
Range: 10,500 nautical miles at 15 knots
Des Moines-class cruisers were 39 ft (12 m) longer
and 6.5 ft (2 m) wider than Oregon City.
Additionally, Salem's hull was divided
into five areas by 5-in (125 mm) bulkheads.
Each area was equipped with independent fire suppression
and damage control systems.
The cruiser was heavily protected.
The belt armor was up to 6-in (150 mm) thick where it covered magazine
and engine room areas, and its height was up to 10 ft (3 m).
Moreover, the ship was equipped with an additional bomb deck
positioned above the main armor deck.
It was intended to arm the fuses of aerial bombs,
preventing them from penetrating deeper into the hull.
This was a real armored fortress…
Despite the increased dimensions and displacement of the new cruiser,
the characteristics of the power plant remained similar to those of Oregon City -
the same four General Electric turbines, four Babcock & Wilcox boilers,
and the same power capacity.
However, the positioning of the machinery on Salem was different…
Thanks to the increased size of the ship,
the designers were able to ensure better protection for the power plant.
Each of the boiler-turbine units was located in a different compartment
and was used to drive a separate shaft,
allowing the ship to stay running
when any of the machines components was damaged.
The ship was additionally equipped with two 850-kW diesel generators
and an automatic air cleaning system.
Thus, Salem was the first U.S. Navy ship
equipped with an independent air conditioning system…
But, of course, the main improvement of Des Moines-class cruisers
was the primary armament.
The ships were equipped with the innovative and unique
8-in (203 mm) Mark 16 main guns with automatic loading,
a maximum range of 17 miles (27.5 km),
and fire rate of 10 shots per minute from each barrel.
With three guns on each of three turrets,
Salem could fire up to 90 shots per minute.
In a battle, the enemy would be on the receiving end of 13.
5 tons of armor-piercing shells with each salvo -
hardly any adversary could stand such a barrage.
With their increased rate of fire,
the new cruisers needed larger ammunition reserves and,
accordingly, bigger magazines.
But it was worth it: the artillery systems installed
on Des Moines-class cruisers-the Mark 16 system -
had a rate of fire almost double that of the Mark 14
and Mark 15 systems installed on Oregon City-class cruisers.
The guns could be loaded at any angle
and were equipped with radio range finders
and common control systems.
Therefore, the Mark 16 systems installed on Des Moines
became the pinnacle of primary artillery guns of World War II cruisers….
The dual-purpose armament on Salem consisted
of six twin turrets with Mark 32 guns.
Their fire rate could be as high as 12 rounds per minute per barrel.
They also had radar guidance that was the state of the art at the time…
These guns were deadly to any aircraft of any country if used correctly.
However, at the end of the war the main objective was to fight kamikaze pilots;
to this end new 5-in (76-mm) twin gun mounts were installed on the ship.
Initially, the engineers planned to deploy twelve guns,
but they mounted only eleven.
There are two reasons for this.
One of them was official:
the gun mount on the bow was constantly washed over by waves when the ship was moving,
which made shooting uncomfortable to say the least, and it was eventually dismantled.
The other-unofficial-version
says that the gun mount was torn out by a storm
and washed overboard.
Whatever the circumstances, the forward gun nest remained empty…
Salem was supposed to have reconnaissance floatplanes on her stern.
Two deck catapults were planned for installation on the cruiser to launch them.
However, Salem never had any aircraft…
Starting in 1948, the U.S. Navy began systematically replacing the reconnaissance floatplanes
that had been standard on their ships with new helicopters.
Salem was designed to have four floatplanes,
but never received any of them.
The crane on the cruiser's stern, intended to lift planes out of the water,
is the only trace of the original plan.
Armament capable of disabling
any enemy ship and experienced crews that knew how
to defeat the enemy in both day and night battles.
Des Moines-class cruisers-powerful
and well-equipped, should have become a real nightmare
for the Imperial Japanese Navy.
But they never did…
American engineers finished developing
the new Mark16 guns right at the end of 1945.
The construction of the cruisers themselves took a lot of time too:
the first of the class, USS Des Moines, was laid down on May 28th, 1945.
Salem was laid down on July 4th of that year.
She was launched two years later and commissioned only in 1949.
Salem did not make it in time for the war that she had been built for.
However, as of 1949, she and her sister ships USS Des Moines
and USS Newport News were the most advanced heavy cruisers in the world
and constituted a powerful naval force.
During the next ten years Salem served in the 2nd Fleet in the Atlantic
and the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Fleet of the USA…
In the Atlantic, the ship made three cruises to Cuba
and participated in military maneuvers.
In 1950 she was assigned to the Mediterranean to relieve
Newport News as flagship of the 6th Fleet.
She participated there in emergency relief work after an earthquake struck the Ionian Islands,
and she served as a deterrent during the Suez Crisis of 1956-1957.
At the same time, Salem starred in a movie
where she played the role of the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee.
She was a Deutschland-class heavy cruiser,
a class that the British press nicknamed “pocket battleships”:
sort of small battleships squeezed into the limits
of the Versailles Treaty signed after World War I.
Apart from that, as the Fleet flagship,
Salem was no stranger to official ceremonies.
She was visited by the Shah of Iran,
the President of Lebanon, and the royal couple of Greece.
In October 1958, Salem returned to the United States to be deactivated.
One year later she was decommissioned and sent to the reserve.
Thirty-five years later the ship returned to the place
where she was constructed, Quincy, Massachusetts,
and became part of the United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum.
Therefore, it is not an overstatement to say
that the story of the most powerful post-war cruiser is far from over.
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