Worcester class Light cruisers, USS Worcester (CL-144) & USS Roanoke (CL-145) - The Last all gun American Light Cruisers

de_Radio_Demon · July 20, 2023, 1:55am

Would you like to see the Worcester class come to the Game?

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What refit would you like to see the class added in?

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1952 Refit (Worcester) / As built (Roanoke)
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Worcester class Light cruisers, USS Worcester (CL-144) & USS Roanoke (CL-145) - The Last all gun American Light Cruisers

Background

The Worcester class was a class of light cruisers which were designed to be both AA cruisers like their predecessors, the Juneau class cruisers which themselves were improvements on the Atlanta class cruisers hence the layout of 6 twin turrets with 3 at the bow and 3 at the stern, though interestingly if not almost a little reminiscent a bit of the Japanese Mogami class cruisers, even though these ships were armed with 12 6 inch guns in 6 turrets the ships hulls are notably the largest and heaviest of any American light cruiser, so much so that the ships were longer and displaced more than the Baltimore class heavy cruisers from the Second World War. As mentioned previously they were armed with 12 6-inch guns in 6 turrets, this stepped away from the triple 6-inch gun turrets which were found on the Brooklyn class, Cleveland class, as well as there sub classes which brought them more in line with the Atlanta class and Juneau class, these turrets like the Des Moines class Heavy cruisers had gained the feature of having the main guns using autoloaders, as a result with the turrets having high elevation and the auto loaders this would allow the ships capable of serving the roles of a AA cruisers and Conventional cruiser, unusually unlike any American cruiser which either served or was started during or around WW2 this class would not include the 5 inch dual purpose guns which were found on literally any other American cruiser, as with the Des Moines class the ships would use 3-inch (76mm) dual purpose guns rather than 40mm Bofors as the 3-inch gun was deemed to have superior range and could be as effective as 2 40mm Bofors quad mounts however 20mm guns would still be included. Like the Des Moines class which were the Heavy cruiser equivalent of the class, the Worcester class was the last all gun American light cruiser as the Des Moines was the last all gun American heavy cruiser, and just like the Des Moines class most of the ships of the class were never completed however compared to the Heavy cruisers, only 10 light cruisers of this class were planned compared to the 12 planned Des Moines ships of which only 3 Des Moines class cruisers were finished.

History

Development

The Worcester was a class of Light cruiser laid down in 1945, originally 10 ships were planned in the class of which only 4 were actually ordered, this is due to in part that during the design phase the General Board would end up suggesting reordering the ships as Large Heavy cruiser (who knows why) with the ships using instead 8 inch guns, of which it was contemplated that ships CL-143 to CL-149 would use this.

(The following part separated by the lines is not talking about the history of the ships themselves but rather the designation and explanation of why ships CL-143 to CL-149 were considered for those who may notice something odd. The following section is me speaking my best to explain this and does not use much information from sources what so ever, if you wish to just read the actual history feel free to skip it.)

Spoiler

In the end however this never happened due to delay in the production of these 8-inch guns plus the need for ships with dual purpose 6 inch guns, finally in the end only 4 ships were ordered, they were USS Worcester (CL-144), USS Roanoke (CL-145), USS Vallejo (CL-146), and USS Gary (CL-147) were ordered, however as mentioned previously like Des Moines class most of the ships were canceled with only the Worcester and Roanoke being completed, while Vallejo was laid down but canceled during construction, and Gary being canceled before being laid down. They would be armed with 12 6-inch dual purpose guns in 6 twin turrets, 24 3-inch (76mm) guns in mostly dual mounts with 2 single mounts, as well as 12 20mm guns, the ships displaced 14,700 tons standard and nearly 18,000 tons fully loaded, they were capable of reaching speeds of 33 knots, the ships had armor from around 3 to 5 inches in most places with the the turret faces being 6.5 inches and the thinnest armor being 2 inches which were also on the turrets.

USS Worcester

Spoiler

USS Worcester (CL-144) was laid down on January 29th, 1945 in New Jersey, she would be launched on February 4th, 1947, and she would enter commission on June 26th, 1948. She would first be assigned to Cruiser Division 10 and she would spend her first year of service completing her fitting out as well as undergoing her shakedown cruise which took part off the US East coast. In summer of 1949 she would take part in her first major training exercise which saw her visit Guantanamo Bay as well as Kingston in Jamaica, following that she would depart for the Mediterranean on September 6th after leaving Rhode Island. During her time there she would visit a number of places such as Malta, Italy, France, Turkey, Greece as well as some other places as apart of the 6th fleet, during this time she would also took part in exercises and maneuvers with fast carrier task forces which included the Essex class carrier Leyte as well as her heavy cruiser counter part Des Moines, she would then return in the US in Norfolk, Virginia and December 10th. Worcester would then be based once again off the US East coast during which she would visit Puerto Rico, then on May 3rd she left for her second deployment with the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean and she would continue to take part in exercises as well as visits to foreign ports including Phaleron Bay on July 20th which would only last for a week as she was then ordered to move to the Far East as a response to the start of the Korean War, she along with the 4 destroyers of Destroyer division 21 would reach Port Said 2 days later and then pass through the Suez Canal later that day. Worcester and the destroyers would make a few stops on the way with the ships reaching Okinawa on August 19th, however the ships would be diverted while on their way to Okinawa through the Bashi Channel in order for her to be available for a counterattack for if the PLA attempted to invade Formosa (Taiwan). Worcester would in fact however then be assigned to Formosa Patrol the next day and she would be in Formosa from August 22nd to the 26th, following which she would then join up with the carriers Philippine Sea and Valley Forge which were operating in the Yellow Sea at the time off Korea. While there she would escort the carriers as the conducted a number of raids against North Korean forces, during this time on September 4th she would pick up a unknown contact which resulted in 4 f4u corsairs being sent to investigate which would turn out to be a twin engine bomber with a pointed nose, a single tail fin, and high inverted gull wings, it also bore red star marking, and later that day they would shoot down the bomber, the next day Worcester ended up detecting another unidentified contact and the crew were order to general quarters and she would end up firing 3 6-inch rounds at the unidentified as warning shots, 3 minutes after making contact, this plane would turn out to be a British Sunderland, and on September 6th she would transfer over her helicopter to the Philippine Sea in order for Anti aircraft gunnery practice, following this and the return of her helicopter she would depart for Sasebo, Japan, in order to replenish fuel, ammunition, stores, and provisions and she would be there from the 7th to the 10th. Then on the 11th she would return to the Yellow Sea in order to cover UN landings in Inchon and Seoul and would screen the carriers while the aircraft attacked enemy forces along with the Baltimore class cruiser Helena and during which time she would relive the Helena once she needed to return to Sasebo.

On the 26th the Worcester would relive her fire support to the Destroyer USS Samuel N. Moor in order to rescue the Destroyer USS Brush which reportedly hit a mine, they would fine the Destroyer at a 3 degree list with 5 dead and 15 others wounded, the Worcester along with the destroyers Bolster, and De Haven and the crippled Brush would then headed for Sasebo and reached port on September 29th, the next day she would then depart in order to continue fire support where she would then join a blockading force of the East of Korea at the beginning of October to support UN forces against North Korean troops, she would return once more to Sasebo on October 8th and as her time as flagship of TG 95.2 she would then become flagship of TF 95 as Rear Admiral Allan E. Smith boarded the ship and on October 10th she would return off the East coast of Korea where she would be minesweeping off the port of Wonsan, the next day they would be joined by the British destroyer HMS Cockade, the Australian destroyer HMAS Warramunga, and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Athabaskan joined Worcester’s group which already included the British light cruiser HMS Ceylon and the heavy cruiser Helena besides the American warships Rochester, Herbert J. Thomas, and Maddox, and finally the next day would be joined by USS Missouri, the ships would then go on to bombard a number of land targets for the next few days a during which the Worcester and Helena detected unidentified contacts which were said to probably be 2 flocks of Geese, on October 21st Rear Admiral Smith disembarked and shifted his flag to the destroyer tender Dixie upon reaching Sasebo. Worcester completed the transfer of helicopter personnel, spares, and equipment to Fleet Activities, Sasebo, and on October 23rd, headed for Yokosuka. She reached that port two days later and after the replenishment, liberty for her crew, and the cleaning of two boilers, the light cruiser left the Far East on October 27th, bound for Pearl Harbor, she would then depart for the Panama Canal and finally return to Philadelphia on November 21st and would spend 6 days in Norfolk from November 23rd to the 29th before undergoing overhaul at Boston Naval yards from the December 1st and lasting until March 20th, 1951, followed by another stay at Norfolk from the 22nd till the 30th, following which she would spend almost a month at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba training and refreshing her crew before returning to Norfolk. On May 15th she would then depart for her 3rd deployment to the Mediterranean, she would go on to conduct 4 more of these deployments in the Mid 1950’s and on 2 occasions would visit northern European ports and would take part in fleet maulers and exercises as well as good will visits to other countries. She would transfer from the Atlantic fleet to the pacific fleet in 1956 and take part in 2 additional deployments with the 7th fleet, she would also visit a number of ports with a number of familiar ports and other ports she had not visited.

On September 2nd, 1958 Worcester departed Long Beach to Mare Island Naval Shipyard for deactivation and was Decommissioned and put into reserve on December 19th, 1958, she would be struck from the naval register at the beginning of December in 1970 and was sold for scrap on July 5th, 1972. One last note of her history is that approximately 200 tons of her armor plate was sent to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, west of Chicago, and the armor is being used for absorption shielding in the particle accelerator and experiment lines.

USS Roanoke

Spoiler

USS Roanoke was laid down on May 15th, 1945, she would be launched on June 16th, 1947, and commissioned into the fleet on April 4th, 1949. Compared to her sister, Roanoke had a much less eventful service life, she would have her shake down cruise in the Caribbean and following this she undertook maneuvers in the Atlantic as a unit of the Battleship Cruiser Force and on January 6th, 1950 and got underway to join the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean for her first extended deployment, she would not return to the United States until May, she would alter between deployments with the 6th fleet with operations in the western Atlantic, she would complete 6 deployments to the Mediterranean by May of 1955 before being transferred to the pacific fleet where she was based off Long Beach, California where she conducted nine Naval Reserve cruises and completed 3 WestPac cruises, the first being from May to December 1956, the second taking place from September 1957 to March 1958, and the final WestPac cruise taking place from September to October 1958, before decommissioning at the end of October in 1958, she was berthed at Mare Island in 1963 until sold for scrap on February 22nd 1972.