What is the most interesting US Warship class in WW2?

Well, I found the Atlanta class cruiser interesting because of it unique arrangement of the 5 in guns. I'm not saying its the best class in the war, but fairly cool. Others like the South Dakota, Casablanca and Fletchers are known but not as well know.
Any opinions out there?

 

I like the Alaska Class large cruisers (CBs). They were not well known either, and only two in their class ever got commissioned (out of 6). The two that did get underway was the Alaska and the Guam. The other four were as follows; The Philippines, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Samoa.

Alaska class cruiser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I completely agree, those ships were questioned as large crusiers or battlecrusiers, which i believe them as battlescrusiers because of the size of their guns (9- 12 in) and the displacement is almost 30,000 tons, give or take 800 ft long also. It's a shame they didn't complete the order for all of them

 

They were intended to counter the German pocket battleships and to be commerce raiders weren't they? By the time they got commissioned and underway, the pocket battleships were on the bottom or bottled up in port, and Japanese merchant ships were erased by the US submarine force. So they ended up being used as carrier escorts.

I still think that they were cool....

 

I agree. That "battle cruiser" thing never worked for me. Looks like some good reading material is available now.

 

I'm going to saddle a dead horse and say the Iowa Class Battlewagons.

 

Now that's as original as the Essex class carriers and Fletcher class destroyers....

I change my choice to PT boats now.

 

The Atlanta's are hardly unique. The British Dido class is similar as is the smaller but originally rated light cruiser Akitsuki class DD's of the Japanese.

Personally, I like reading about all the floatsom and jetsom, the odd auxiliary or small ship that just was in the right place at the wrong time or just had to do what it had to do. Nothing like reading about the crew of a small harbor tug having to cross the Atlantic on their own with nothing but a .50 machinegun for defense....

 

I always had a thing for the Lexington and Washington.

 

Actually they were designed to counter a never built class of Japanese cruisers.

As far as interesting: Well I find the wind class Coast Guard ships interesting but that's to a large extent due to my dad being a plank owner on the Eastwind.

If it wasn't limited to WWII I'd nominate the Vesuvias (the Spanish American war one).

 

The submarines.
If the atom bomb had not been invented, American subs could have ended the war with japan single handed. It would have take a lot of time - years - but it was possible.
Japan possesses practically no natural resources at all (that's why they went to war in the first place). Japan was and is totally dependant on its shipping for supplies of, well, EVERYTHING: fuel, food, metals, even wood and paper. By 1945 American subs had become so proficient and destroying japanese shipping of all types they had japan on the verge of starvation and had succesfully cut off almost all shipments of fuel and raw materials. Another year of submarine warfare and the japanese might have been asking for surrender, without dropping the a-bomb.

 

Not to move this thread off topic but one has to wonder how the Pacific war would have gone if the USN would have had a decent torpedo at the start of the war.

 

We might have had Congress not been so worried about waist. Had the Navy been permitted to use live ordnance for training, the torpedo issue may have been resolved before the war.

Back on topic, if I can't be un-original and choose the Fletcher's than I will go with the John C. Butler Class DE's

 

Probably not much different. Subs might have done a bit better from the start. The early sea battles off Guadalcanal might have been a slight bit more even but not likely given US tactics would still be the same. The Japanese bet heavily that their torpedo would be decisive in naval operations. But, it proved only marginally more effective than other nation's. Much of the reason the Long Lance was as effective as it was off Guadalcanal had to do with volume rather than its technical qualities.
Typically, the Japanese fired large salvos and had as many as 50 or 60 torpedoes in the water at once. Getting a half dozen hits on a US battleline could have been expected with virtually any decent torpedo in the circumstances given.

 

I agree with your statments about the volume of fish in the water, but the longer ranges of the "long lance" led several US commanders to believe they were being hunted by subs while engaged in surface combat. While minor in the grand scheme of things it must have had adverse effects on how those commanders conducted themselve in battle.

 

Although it was finished in 1948, the Des Moines class heavy cruiser was very interesting vessel for me.
Des Moines class cruiser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It had 3x3 Mk16 8" guns, which had auto loader, giving them sustainable speed of 7 shots per minute, and maximum of 10 shots per minute. Combined with projectile weight of 118-152kilos, it gave bigger fire power (tons/minute) than most of ww2 battleships.
USA 8"/55 (20.3 cm) RF Mark 16

If USN chose to reactivate those ships, rather than Iowas, I guess they could be very useful today for shore bombardement.

 

I should have given a little more information in my comment. I was thinking of the reports from the PT Boats in the P.I. & from subs operating against Japanese shipping early war of hitting their targets but failure of the torpedos to explode or a large number of wild running torpedos.