USS Alaska - Revision history

U44629479: /* See also */ Edits

2024-09-19T19:20:39Z

‎See also: Edits

U42858531: /* See also */ added Scharnhost and Kronshtadt on see also. because they are very similar ships.

2024-09-17T18:35:52Z

‎See also: added Scharnhost and Kronshtadt on see also. because they are very similar ships.

U22067555: /* Description */

2023-12-12T02:09:05Z

‎Description

U60837295: update

2023-12-11T09:11:33Z

update

Show changes

U38088265: /* Description */

2023-10-28T11:25:10Z

‎Description

U2126463: /* Description */

2023-10-26T19:40:49Z

‎Description

U44629479: Edits

2023-07-24T07:28:06Z

Edits

U74035878: I described how the maneuverability of USS Alaska is.

2023-07-23T01:28:11Z

I described how the maneuverability of USS Alaska is.

U79203180: Edit to AP shell section

2023-07-14T13:57:52Z

Edit to AP shell section

U38088265: /* Description */ Removed paragraphs not relevant to the ship

2023-07-14T12:01:22Z

‎Description: Removed paragraphs not relevant to the ship

@@ Line 126: / Line 126: @@
 * ''reference to the series of the ship;''
 * ''links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.'' -->
 * [[Scharnhorst]]
 * [[Kronshtadt]]

@@ Line 130: / Line 130: @@
 * ''reference to the series of the ship;''
 * ''links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.''
 == External links ==

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 == Description ==
 <!-- ''In the first part of the description, cover the history of the ship's creation and military application. In the second part, tell the reader about using this ship in the game. Add a screenshot: if a beginner player has a hard time remembering vehicles by name, a picture will help them identify the ship in question.'' -->
-The Alaska class was the first and only class of ships commissioned under the classification of Large Cruiser. '''USS Alaska''' was the lead ship of her class, and had two sisters Guam and Hawaii. She was laid down on 17th December 1941 and commissioned on 17th June 1944. The main armament consisted of nine 12 inch/50 Mark 8 guns in triple mounts with two turrets located on the bow and one aft. Her long-range anti-aircraft protection suite was made up of twelve 5 inch/38 Mark 12 dual-purpose guns in twin mounts with three turrets fore and aft placed much like contemporary US cruiser arrangementl. Medium and short range anti-aircraft duties were performed by fourteen 40 mm Bofors L/60 Mark 2 guns mounted in quadruple mounts and thirty-four 20 mm Oerlikon Mk. II autocannons located on various places along the ship. During WWII, she participated in the Battle of Okinawa, which was her only major action. On 17th February 1947, Alaska was decommissioned. There was some thought given to converting the Alaska class to missile ships, but these plans never materialised and Alaska was scrapped in 1960.
+The Alaska class was the first and only class of ships commissioned under the classification of Large Cruiser. USS Alaska was the lead ship of her class, and had two sisters Guam and Hawaii. She was laid down on 17th December 1941 and commissioned on 17th June 1944. The main armament consisted of nine 12 inch/50 Mark 8 guns in triple mounts with two turrets located on the bow and one aft. Her long-range anti-aircraft protection suite was made up of twelve 5 inch/38 Mark 12 dual-purpose guns in twin mounts with three turrets fore and aft placed much like contemporary US cruiser arrangementl. Medium and short range anti-aircraft duties were performed by fourteen 40 mm Bofors L/60 Mark 2 guns mounted in quadruple mounts and thirty-four 20 mm Oerlikon Mk. II autocannons located on various places along the ship. During WWII, she participated in the Battle of Okinawa, which was her only major action. On 17th February 1947, Alaska was decommissioned. There was some thought given to converting the Alaska class to missile ships, but these plans never materialised and Alaska was scrapped in 1960.
-Alaska was introduced in [[Update "Drone Age"]]. She is fast and quite manoeuvrable ship, although due to her light armour when compared to for example Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers, and is no match against a direct battleship encounter. Her magazines located on the waterline are prone to fatal explosion due to only 228.6mm thick of belt armour protecting these vital areas. Other than that, her guns offer great penetration values and fast reload only offset by quite small explosive charge of only 7.73 kg TNT eq in her Mark 18 APCBC shells.
+'''{{Specs|name}}''' was introduced in [[Update "Drone Age"]]. She is fast and quite manoeuvrable ship, although due to her light armour when compared to for example Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers, and is no match against a direct battleship encounter. Her magazines located on the waterline are prone to fatal explosion due to only 228.6mm thick of belt armour protecting these vital areas. Other than that, her guns offer great penetration values and fast reload only offset by quite small explosive charge of only 7.73 kg TNT eq in her Mark 18 APCBC shells.
 == General info ==

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 == Description ==
 <!-- ''In the first part of the description, cover the history of the ship's creation and military application. In the second part, tell the reader about using this ship in the game. Add a screenshot: if a beginner player has a hard time remembering vehicles by name, a picture will help them identify the ship in question.'' -->
-The '''{{Specs|name}}''' was the first and last US Navy ship class comissioned as battlecruiser. Alaska was the lead ship of her class, and had two sisters Guam and Hawaii. She was laid down on 17th December 1941 and comissioned on 17th June 1944. The main armament consisted of nine 12 inch/50 Mark 8 guns in triple mounts with two turrets located on bow and one aft. Long range anti-aircraft protection suite was made of twelve 5 inch/38 Mark 12 dual purpouse guns in twin mounts with three turrets on each side of hull. Medium and short range anti-aircraft duties were performed by fourteen 40 mm Bofors L/60 Mark 2 guns mounted in quadruple mounts and thirty-four 20 mm Oerlikon Mk. II autocannons located on various places along the ship. During WWII she participated in Battle of Okinawa which was the only major action she took part in. On 17th February 1947 Alaska was decomissioned. There was some thought given to converting them to missile ships but these plans never happened and Alaska was scrapped in 1960.
+The Alaska class was the first and last US Navy ship class commissioned as a battlecruiser. '''USS Alaska''' was the lead ship of her class, and had two sisters Guam and Hawaii. She was laid down on 17th December 1941 and commissioned on 17th June 1944. The main armament consisted of nine 12 inch/50 Mark 8 guns in triple mounts with two turrets located on the bow and one aft. Her long-range anti-aircraft protection suite was made up of twelve 5 inch/38 Mark 12 dual-purpose guns in twin mounts with three turrets on each side of the hull. Medium and short range anti-aircraft duties were performed by fourteen 40 mm Bofors L/60 Mark 2 guns mounted in quadruple mounts and thirty-four 20 mm Oerlikon Mk. II autocannons located on various places along the ship. During WWII, she participated in the Battle of Okinawa, which was her only major action. On 17th February 1947, Alaska was decommissioned. There was some thought given to converting the Alaska class to missile ships, but these plans never materialised and Alaska was scrapped in 1960.
-Alaska was introduced in [[Update "Drone Age"]]. She is fast and quite manoeuverable ship, although due to her light armour when compared to for example Scharnhorst-class battlecruiser is no match for battleships in direct encounter. Her magazines located on waterline are prone to fatal explosion due to only 178 mm thick armour protecting these vital areas. Other than that, her guns offer great penetration values and fast reload only offset by quite small explosive charge of only 7.73 kg TNT eq in her Mark 18 APCBC shells.
+Alaska was introduced in [[Update "Drone Age"]]. She is fast and quite manoeuvrable ship, although due to her light armour when compared to for example Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers is no match for battleships in direct encounter. Her magazines located on the waterline are prone to fatal explosion due to only 178 mm thick armour protecting these vital areas. Other than that, her guns offer great penetration values and fast reload only offset by quite small explosive charge of only 7.73 kg TNT eq in her Mark 18 APCBC shells.
 == General info ==
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 The armour-piercing shell is the main one you'll use for opposing capital ships and occasionally on cruisers that may have a lot of armour or are angled. The AP shell of the Alaska was designed as a so called 'super-heavy' shell, which means that it has a lot bit more mass than a normal AP shell. This means the shell has less muzzle velocity, intended to give the shells a sharper descent angle when coming down on an opposing vessel, a little like a mortar, with the hopes of going through deck armour, which tends to be relatively thin.
 The problem with this is that the US didn't realise that the range needed to have the shells drop at a flat enough angle on the deck to effectively penetrate most deck armour was quite a bit further than you could physically aim with any real accuracy. Even ignoring that, warships in naval battles tend to always want to close the range anyway in order to be able to aim accurately and/or use torpedoes, which would rapidly diminish the possibility of penetrating deck armour. What this means is that you simply cannot use the shells for their intended purpose of hitting deck armour, meanwhile the lower muzzle velocity makes aiming your AP shells more difficult and shells hitting the side of an enemy vessel are at a sharper angle than they would otherwise have been, which makes it unnecessarily harder to penetrate enemy side armour. Not only that but, as is typical for US warships, the AP shell has a relatively poor bursting charge of less than 8kg. However, the shells retain relatively high penetration statistics and so that still remain a threat to other capital ships, if aimed at the right places.
 The HE shell of the Alaska is a more normal naval shell and the 35kg of explosive power is fairly decent for its calibre. Although it's not too competitive compared to the real hard hitting HE shells at top tier naval, this shell will still enable you effectively dispatch lightly armoured vessels such as destroyers and small cruisers without difficulty, as well as being able to harass anything on the deck of opposing capital ships.

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 == Description ==
 <!-- ''In the first part of the description, cover the history of the ship's creation and military application. In the second part, tell the reader about using this ship in the game. Add a screenshot: if a beginner player has a hard time remembering vehicles by name, a picture will help them identify the ship in question.'' -->
-The '''{{Specs|name}}''' is a rank {{Specs|rank}} American battlecruiser {{Battle-rating}}. It was introduced in [[Update "Drone Age"]].
+The '''{{Specs|name}}''' was the first and last US Navy ship class comissioned as battlecruiser. Alaska was the lead ship of her class, and had two sisters Guam and Hawaii. She was laid down on 17th December 1941 and comissioned on 17th June 1944. The main armament consisted of nine 12 inch/50 Mark 8 guns in triple mounts with two turrets located on bow and one aft. Long range anti-aircraft protection suite was made of twelve 5 inch/38 Mark 12 dual purpouse guns in twin mounts with three turrets on each side of hull. Medium and short range anti-aircraft duties were performed by fourteen 40 mm Bofors L/60 Mark 2 guns mounted in quadruple mounts and thirty-four 20 mm Oerlikon Mk. II autocannons located on various places along the ship. During WWII she participated in Battle of Okinawa which was the only major action she took part in. On 17th February 1947 Alaska was decomissioned. There was some thought given to converting them to missile ships but these plans never happened and Alaska was scrapped in 1960.
-The Alaska-class were major warships envisioned as a counter to the rumours of super-/battlecruisers under construction by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and so the Alaska-class was designed to be able to eliminate any possible cruiser and the rumoured small battlecruisers in a gunfight whilst having the speed to evade all but the fastest of battleships. As it turned out, the speculated Japanese warships were never even built and the Alaska-class never saw surface action against other warships, only taking part in escort and shore bombardment missions. Post-war, they, like the battlecruiser concept in general, were viewed as obsolete due to being too combat ineffective compared to and against modern battleships while being seen as too resource and cost inefficient compared to cruisers. There was some thought given to converting them to missile ships but these plans fell through and, by the early 1960s, they were broken up for scrap.
+Alaska was introduced in [[Update "Drone Age"]]. She is fast and quite manoeuverable ship, although due to her light armour when compared to for example Scharnhorst-class battlecruiser is no match for battleships in direct encounter. Her magazines located on waterline are prone to fatal explosion due to only 178 mm thick armour protecting these vital areas. Other than that, her guns offer great penetration values and fast reload only offset by quite small explosive charge of only 7.73 kg TNT eq in her Mark 18 APCBC shells.
 == General info ==

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 {{Specs-Fleet-Mobility}}
 <!-- ''Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.'' -->
-USS Alaska has an average mobility for a WW2 battlecruiser. Being a heavy ship captains of Alaska should not expect to stop from flank speed fastly, a process that can take about half a minute. Being a large ship changing the direction will also take some time and captains of Alaska should expect a high turning radius.
+USS Alaska has an average mobility for a WW2 battlecruiser. Being a heavy ship, captains of Alaska should not expect to stop from flank speed fastly, a process that can take about half a minute. Being a long ship, changing direction will also take some time and captains of Alaska should expect a large turn radius.
 {{NavalMobility}}

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 | Citadel || {{Annotation|0.62 inches|15.87 mm}} (upper) <br> {{Annotation|10.25 inches|260.35 mm}} (middle) <br> {{Annotation|2 inches|50.8 mm}} (lower) || {{Annotation|1.125 inches|28.56 mm}} (upper) <br> {{Annotation|9 inches|228.6 mm}} (middle) <br> {{Annotation|5-7 inches|127-177.8 mm}} (lower) <br> {{Annotation|0.75 inches|19.05 mm}} (inner) || {{Annotation|0.62 inches|15.87 mm}} (upper) <br> {{Annotation|10.25 inches|260.35 mm}} (middle) <br> {{Annotation|2 inches|50.8 mm}} (lower) || {{Annotation|1.425 inches|36.195 mm}} (upper) <br> {{Annotation|4.25 inches|107.95 mm}} (middle, magazine) <br> {{Annotation|3.8 inches|96.52 mm}} (middle, machinery) <br> {{Annotation|0.75 inches|19.05 mm}} (lower, magazines only)
 |-
-| Bridge || style="text-align:center" colspan="3" | {{Annotation|10.63 inches|269.99 mm}} || {{Annotation|5 inches|127 mm}}
+| Bridge || colspan="3" style="text-align:center" | {{Annotation|10.63 inches|269.99 mm}} || {{Annotation|5 inches|127 mm}}
 |-
 |}
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 The armour-piercing shell is the main one you'll use for opposing capital ships and occasionally on cruisers that may have a lot of armour or are angled. The AP shell of the Alaska was designed as a so called 'super-heavy' shell, which means that it has a lot bit more mass than a normal AP shell. This means the shell has less muzzle velocity, intended to give the shells a sharper descent angle when coming down on an opposing vessel, a little like a mortar, with the hopes of going through deck armour, which tends to be relatively thin.
-The problem with this is that the US didn't realise that the range needed to have the shells drop at a flat enough angle on the deck to effectively penetrate most deck armour was quite a bit further than you could physically aim with any real accuracy. Even ignoring that, warships in naval battles tend to always want to close the range anyway in order to be able to aim accurately and/or use torpedoes, which would rapidly diminish the possibility of penetrating deck armour. What this means is that you simply cannot use the shells for their intended purpose of hitting deck armour, meanwhile the lower muzzle velocity makes aiming your AP shells more difficult and shells hitting the side of an enemy vessel are at a sharper angle than they would otherwise have been, which makes it unnecessarily harder to penetrate enemy side armour. Not only that but, as is typical for US warships, the AP shell has a relatively poor bursting charge of less than 8kg. The only thing that saves the shell from being completely useless is the relatively high penetration statistics with it retaining a more than moderate level of penetration at range due to the heavy shells momentum.
+The problem with this is that the US didn't realise that the range needed to have the shells drop at a flat enough angle on the deck to effectively penetrate most deck armour was quite a bit further than you could physically aim with any real accuracy. Even ignoring that, warships in naval battles tend to always want to close the range anyway in order to be able to aim accurately and/or use torpedoes, which would rapidly diminish the possibility of penetrating deck armour. What this means is that you simply cannot use the shells for their intended purpose of hitting deck armour, meanwhile the lower muzzle velocity makes aiming your AP shells more difficult and shells hitting the side of an enemy vessel are at a sharper angle than they would otherwise have been, which makes it unnecessarily harder to penetrate enemy side armour. Not only that but, as is typical for US warships, the AP shell has a relatively poor bursting charge of less than 8kg. However, the shells retain relatively high penetration statistics and so that still remain a threat to other capital ships, if aimed at the right places.
 The HE shell of the Alaska is a more normal naval shell and the 35kg of explosive power is fairly decent for its calibre. Although it's not too competitive compared to the real hard hitting HE shells at top tier naval, this shell will still enable you effectively dispatch lightly armoured vessels such as destroyers and small cruisers without difficulty, as well as being able to harass anything on the deck of opposing capital ships.
@@ Line 115: / Line 115: @@
 ;Skins
 * [https://live.warthunder.com/feed/camouflages/?vehicle=us_battlecruiser_alaska_class Skins and camouflages for the {{PAGENAME}} from live.warthunder.com.]