Cruisers of the Second World War are large multipurpose high-speed artillery ships that performed a variety of tasks in attack and defense. They carried out these goals independently and as part of naval formations. A wide variety of tasks performed by cruisers led to the emergence of a whole subclass of specialized ships.
For example, during the Second World War, light, heavy battlecruisers, armored and armored, training and aircraft carriers were distinguished. Less than a third of them were built during the war itself, another part - in the 20-30 years of the twentieth century, and the remaining units of the Navy participated in the First World War
number
Cruisers in World War II played an important role in the confrontation. Currently, researchers and military historians have calculated that a total of 346 cruisers were used by the warring parties, 138 of which died.
The absolute leader in this indicator was the United Kingdom, which was armed with 108 cruisers. 37 of them were destroyed. Most of the British had the so-called light cruisers.
The United States (84 ships) and Japan (51 cruisers) are also among the three countries in terms of the number of cruisers in World War II. At the same time, the Japanese fleet suffered in percentage and absolute terms the most significant losses. By the end of the war, only four cruisers were in service.
Statistics for other countries are as follows:
- Italy - 25 cruisers.
- France - 19 cruisers.
- Germany - 12 cruisers.
- The Soviet Union - 10 cruisers.
- Argentina - 7 cruisers.
- Spain - 6 cruisers.
- Netherlands - 5 cruisers.
- Sweden - 4 cruisers.
- Turkey - 3 cruisers.
- Brazil, Greece, Peru, Poland - 2 cruisers.
- Yugoslavia - 1 cruiser.
Linear
Consider in this article the main types of cruisers of the Second World War, which took part in battles and battles.
Line cruisers occupied an important place - this is a class of artillery ships, the armament of which was as close as possible to the battleships, but they had a higher speed due to easy booking.
This type of cruiser of World War II appeared during the development of armadillos. It was assumed that they would become the vanguard of the naval forces, and in battles they would begin to fulfill the function of a high-speed ship. In fact, battlecruisers were in transition between heavy cruisers and battleships.
They were entrusted with the following tasks:
- assistance and support to small cruisers m-scouts;
- intelligence service;
- expeditions to the rear of enemy forces;
- the pursuit of an enemy who decided to retreat in battle;
- encirclement of the enemy during hostilities.
Those ships that were built before the war were considered unbalanced in terms of tactical and technical characteristics, and therefore became virtually unnecessary for the fleet. The battlecruisers were an endangered class of ships that did not have any effect on the outcome of the war.
Heavy
The heavy cruisers in World War II were much more important. They were intended for warfare at considerable distances, participated in the installation of minefields, provided for the landing of naval assault forces. These ships had developed armored defense, which could effectively withstand enemy artillery.
Having become an important force for all the large fleets participating in the war, they were intensively used by the army of Great Britain, Japan, the USA, France, Italy and Germany. But at the same time, the results of their activities were considered very mixed. For example, the British cruisers proved to be effective in the defense of communications, due to their autonomy they could for a long time remain in the ocean, causing significant damage to the enemy fleet.
These ships turned out to be useful when escorting polar convoys. But there were significant disadvantages. When confronted with a serious enemy, a primitive fire control system and weak defense significantly limited their combat capabilities. For example, they were extremely vulnerable to air attacks due to a poorly developed air defense system.
The American heavy cruisers were effective as fire support in the implementation of landing operations, while suffering significant losses, colliding with Japanese destroyers. The Italian heavy cruisers were not able to succeed at long distances, and intentionally did not intentionally come closer due to weak booking. Moreover, they generally rarely went to sea due to a lack of fuel, so they did not achieve any success in principle.
Hitler’s heavy cruisers didn’t feel the best way during the war. Only in the beginning they had some success, and then were almost completely destroyed by British aircraft.
Japanese ships performed excellently at the first stage of the war. But when submarines and aircraft entered the business, they could not resist them.
Light and armored
On such cruisers, the armored deck protected the guns and mechanisms of the ship itself. They were equipped with an armored belt along the waterline. However, such vessels were outdated at the outbreak of World War II. As a rule, they were used only as auxiliary ships.
Another thing is the light cruisers of World War II. They had developed armor protection, significant artillery weapons. In different periods of the confrontation, they took part in almost all significant operations, however, their effectiveness was contradictory. German light cruisers in World War II showed low seaworthiness, so they were transferred to the Baltic. There they acted until the very end of the war without much success.
Italian ships had high speed, but could not take advantage of this because of the low armor protection. In addition, their artillery was imperfect. After the first significant defeats, they began to act with extreme caution. But even then they suffered losses, including from the English destroyers.
Japanese light cruisers were considered obsolete, which did not allow them to claim success directly in battle. Therefore, they were used to escort landing ships. The main losses, like the Germans, they suffered from aircraft and submarines.
The light cruisers of the British fleet managed to successfully confront even the enemy, who greatly exceeded them in strength. Under certain circumstances, they carried a significant threat even to ships of a higher class. In terms of price-quality ratio, Fiji-type ships were considered ideal ships by many. The main losses were caused to them by aviation.
American light cruisers were very modern and even fought night battles with the heavy cruisers of the Imperial Navy of Japan. In some cases, they even came out victorious due to their high fire performance.
The Soviet Union also used this type of ship. However, not in the sense that was laid during their construction. In the Baltic Fleet throughout the Great Patriotic War, these ships served as floating batteries that supported the defenders of Leningrad. In the Black Sea, they were used to solve a variety of problems, for example, for landing. The main danger for them were fascist bombers. Since the middle of the war, they have not participated in major operations, fearing significant losses.
Mine Loaders and Specialized Cruisers
Mine traps are most common in France and the UK. For example, British ships of this type were armed with universal artillery, and lightly armored French ships were capable of lifting up to two hundred mines.
The naval forces of the other participants in the war did not build special cruisers who became mine-layers. However, they often provided for the likelihood of transporting a large number of mines on the ship if necessary.
Since the 1930s, specialized countries began to use specialized cruisers, which as a result became known as air defense cruisers. They were built on the basis of small armored ships that were able to withstand bombers, acted as the leader of the destroyers. For example, in the United Kingdom such ships were Dido-type cruisers, and on the American continent, such as Atlanta.
Experts note that this fundamentally new class still did not justify itself. He was weak for a naval battle with a serious enemy, while he did not show himself as an effective stronghold of naval air defense. British ships of this type lacked fire speed and firepower, while American ships experienced constant difficulties with the reliability of control systems.
Fleet of the Soviet Union
The cruisers of the USSR in World War II were involved in the Black and Baltic Seas. Already on the first day of Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union, the cruiser Kirov opened fire on fascist aircraft heading for Riga.
From September 4, when fascist troops reached Leningrad, and until January 1944 they regularly fired upon cruisers stationed in the Baltic Sea.
In the Black Sea, German troops expected to seize ports from land over the course of Tuapse to Odessa. What Soviet vessels were used in the Second World War in this area? Cruisers of the USSR were called "Red Caucasus" and "Chervona Ukraine". In the spring of 1942, together with a powerful vessel called Voroshilov, they made a successful breakthrough to Sevastopol, delivering to the city under siege such artillery, troops and ammunition that were necessary at that time.
The Black Sea cruiser Slava, which was the only one equipped with an experimental radar station, successfully successfully broke into Sevastopol. The bulky structure of metal rods with a rotating antenna was still far from perfect, but regularly reported on approaching enemy aircraft.
In mid-1942, during the battle off the coast of Crimea, the stern cruiser “Glory” tore off the stern. The workers of the marine plant, evacuated from Sevastopol on time, borrowed this part of the vessel from the unfinished cruiser Frunze, attaching it to the damaged vessel. So it returned to duty.
In November 1944, Sevastopol was finally liberated. Today, a memorial plaque in memory of the USSR cruisers of the Second World War was installed on Grafskaya Marina.
Japanese ships
Japan became famous for the successful use of light cruisers. "Noshiro", "Agano", "Sakawa" and "Yahagi" actively participated in the battles almost from the very beginning of the war. They became the basis for the next series, from which only the Oedo managed to be commissioned.
At the very beginning of World War II, Japanese cruisers (there were 39) were in service with the imperial fleet. Of these, 21 are light and 18 are heavy. After the start of the war, four more Japanese light cruisers were put into operation. World War II could end with the victory of the Nazis.
However, if at first the situation for the Japanese fleet was going well, then by the end of the war significant losses began. In 1944, ten ships went down to the bottom within literally four days.
What happened a year before the end of World War II? The Japanese heavy cruiser "Naki" in November, while in the Philippine Sea under the command of Vice Admiral Shima, tried to break out of Manila Bay. A fierce battle began with American aviation, during which he demonstrated outstanding qualities, after which he even became considered unsinkable. The Americans still managed to sink it, but for this they needed 16 missiles, 6100-kilogram and 13 half-ton bombs, 9 torpedoes.
Already flooded "Naki" examined the American divers, who discovered on it many secret documents and two million yen. The uniqueness of the situation was that it was the only case in history when so many secret information of great importance was discovered at one time. Within a month after that, American aviation swept two more Japanese heavy cruisers - Kiso and Kumano.
In total, by the end of the war, opponents sank 38 ships of this type, three more were completely disabled. Of all the armada, only Kashima - the Japanese light cruiser - survived. In World War II, it was used to transport the Japanese military after the final surrender. And also "Sakawa", which sank at the Bikini Atoll during the atomic bomb tests by the Americans.
US Navy
The construction of American cruisers began only in 1918. Over the course of several years, several light Omaha vessels were created, followed by a lengthy six-year hiatus.
U.S. light cruisers were in short supply by 1939, prompting urgent engineering to begin designing the missing combat units. To fight the Japanese destroyers, ships of the Dido type were intended. The next stage was immediately seven air defense cruisers.
When designing American cruisers for World War II, they paid attention to their ability to make long crossings, to fight at a considerable distance from their naval bases. At the same time, large ships in the USA have always been more successful than small ones. So the US heavy cruisers in World War II posed a significant threat to the opponents.
For example, the Baltimore cruiser was in service with the US Navy. Many called him the strongest heavy cruiser of World War II.
German forces
German cruisers for World War II began to form in the German fleet only in 1925. It was then, under the Treaty of Versailles, the country that lost the First World War, it was allowed to get 6 light cruisers. One of them was the ship Emden.
Since 1935, Germany refused to recognize any limitations of the Versailles Peace Treaty; it proceeds to build powerful heavy cruisers. The Germans carefully concealed everything related to these projects, underestimating figures for displacement and other indicators.
The fate of the Nazi heavy cruisers at first was very successful, especially if you do not take into account the death of Blucher. The famous ship "Prince Eugen", which since 1940 has been on a raid in the North Atlantic, accompanied the battleship "Bismarck", which was sunk by the British, he himself managed to break away and call at the French port of Brest.
From here, he had already performed with the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, heading into the waters of Norway. Here he was hit by an English torpedo, after which he got up for repairs in the Baltic.
His fate was sad. Together with the Nuremberg, he was forced to surrender in Copenhagen. He was captured by the Americans who sunk him near the Bikini Atoll.
British Navy
The British began the construction of the so-called "Washington cruisers" back in 1922. At the same time, the British ocean liner Hawkins served as the prototype for these ships.
These were high-speed and very powerful vessels, which, with the standard displacement for that time, could carry eight powerful guns, and at the same time develop speeds of more than thirty knots. The British began to move away from the Washington formula only at the very end of the 1920s, then heavy cruisers began to appear in them. In addition, the British since the First World War have sought to create a universal cruiser that combines the properties of an ocean cruiser and a squadron reconnaissance. The ongoing experiments allowed them to get some successful samples by 1929 - Neptune, Linder, Akiles, Orion and Agex.
For the sake of saving weight, which at that time was of great importance, it was decided to use linear placement of boiler plants on them. Four boilers were concentrated in offices located next door. These technical innovations significantly reduced the survivability of the ship, since now only one torpedo became deadly dangerous for it. Once in the compartment between the boiler rooms, she instantly disabled all boilers without exception.
In the future, English designers began to use a different arrangement of installations, spreading boiler rooms as much as possible across the vessel.
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At the same time, the British cruisers of the Second World War, who served as minefields, stand apart. Structurally, these were enlarged destroyers with a power plant and without armor, which allowed them to develop an impressive speed of forty knots, having 160 mines and six 120-mm guns on board.
From the very beginning of World War II, the Royal Navy cruisers were heavily loaded. This, for example, is evidenced by the fact that one third of the 73 ships that were built after the end of the First World War were lost. The maximum losses of the British fleet occurred in 1942, when the Royal Navy lost ten cruisers. A year earlier, nine more ships of the same type were killed.
The British cruisers finally disappeared in the late 1960s, when the last three ships of this type were converted for other purposes.