This great overhead shot at Norfolk Naval Base’s piers, on 20 August 1944, gives a good comparison of two of the Navy’s newest surface combatants at the time. The newly commissioned Iowa-class battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) is the largest ship in the center, and she is flanked by the large (not battle) cruiser USS Alaska (CB-1). Meanwhile, the jeep carrier USS Croatan (CVE-25), her deck crowded with Wildcats and Avengers, brings up the rear while assorted tin cans of the Fletcher, Four-Pipe, and Flush-Deck classes dot the far pier.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-190547
A closer inset of just the heavyweights, fresh off their East Coast shakedown cruises, shows off the 45,000-ton/887-foot Missouri and her main battery of nine 16″/50 guns in three triple turrets and 20 5″/38 DP guns in 10 twin mounts. This compared to the 30,000-ton/808-foot Alaska’s nine 12″/50 guns in three triple turrets and 12 5″/38 DP guns in six twin mounts.
With very similar layouts, one almost seems like a slimmed-down version of the other.
Both ships were fast– capable of 33 knots– and had long legs– over 12,000 nm unrefueled– while armor on Alaska (9-inch belt, 12.8-inch around the conning tower) was only incrementally less than Missouri who sported a 12-inch belt and up to 17 inches in the CT.
However, Alaska, while she would have no doubt proved her worth in the Java Sea in 1942, just two years later was too little too late and was never properly utilized. Hence, this faux battlewagon, used to provide AAA screens to aircraft carriers and deliver the occasional naval gunfire support, only saw six months of active service and was decommissioned for good in 1947. After 13 years in mothballs, she was scrapped.
Meanwhile, we all know Missouri’s history.