Historical Significance of the USS Salem CA 139

By Doctor John Scholes

Introduction

Ships of all types, and particularly warships can have a significant relationship to history in many ways. Ships that fight in important battles have an obvious historical importance, but only a few warships of all those built ever fight in any way, in any battle and even fewer warships play a major role in a major (or even not so major) battle (or battles). The USS Constitution is one of the rare exceptions. Yet many ships that never fight in a major battle (or any) battle can be important to history (in fact they can have a major impact on history), even without ever firing a shot at an enemy. An example in the Royal Navy would be the HMS Dreadnought, a ship that never fired it’s guns in anger (it did ram a German submarine- not why the ship is remembered), yet which profoundly influenced history. The all big gun battleship (and other warships, i.e. cruiser) revolution and era, the pre WWI Anglo-German naval race, post WWI Japanese naval expansion (followed by other expansion and attempts at expansion), the Washington Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Armaments (the first “strategic arms limitation treaty”), ect were all profoundly influenced by HMS Dreadnought. The USS Salem is another ship that never fired her guns in anger, but had an important role in naval, United States, and world history. While the impact of the USS Salem on history is clearly not as great as that of HMS Dreadnought, the USS Salem unlike HMS Dreadnought has been preserved for future generations. The USS Salem provides a tangible physical link to many of the areas of history that relate to the ship (and it’s crew) , other cruisers, other warships and events of its era. If well preserved, the ship can survive to provide a link to history well beyond the time that its crew (or other individuals) can provide such link.

The Historical Relationship of the USS Salem to WWII

Although the USS Salem was not completed or commissioned until 3 years after the end of World War II, there are numerous historical links between the USS Salem and WWII. The design and construction of the USS Salem (and her sisters) was a direct result of, and in response to, The WWII series of cruiser-destroyer battles that occurred around Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands (such as the Battle of Savo Island, the first Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, ect). The US Navy was particularly interested in (and somewhat disappointed in) the performance of its cruisers (especially its heavy (8” gun cruisers) in these battles. Even before WWII, naval experts in many navies (including the US Navy) had been debating the advantages of cruisers armed with 6” guns (light cruisers – CLs in US Navy terminology) versus cruisers armed with 8” guns (heavy cruisers – CAs in US Navy terminology). Advocates of the 6’ gun argued that the 8” gun fired too slowly (about 2-3 rounds per minute because of its bagged powder) to hit rapidly moving ships, especially at the greater range that the 8” gun could reach, or to achieve enough hits on target. Advocates of the 8” gun argued that the 6” gun lacked enough range, fired significantly faster than the 8” gun only at short range (because the gun had to return to a loading angle of 22 degrees or less to load thus slowing its fire at long range), and had inadequate armor penetration failing to inflict sufficient damage due to its smaller (lighter – 105 to 130 lb shell versus the 260 – 335 lbs for the 8” shell. The experiences in the naval battles around Guadalcanal seemed to indicate that the drawbacks cited by both the 6” and the 8” advocates were correct as applied to the US Naval cruisers that fought in those battles. The USS Salem (and her sisters) and their 8” 55 Rapid Fire guns and turrets were designed specifically to overcome all the limitations of previous 6” and 8” gun cruisers, as had been brought out in these WWII battles. The design of the USS Salem also addressed multiple other shortcomings of older cruisers that had been noted in those WWII battles. The US Navy had the advantage of radar and superior radio equipment over the Japanese Navy, but was frequently surprised at night in these battles due to an inability to effectively utilize the advantage of radar and an inability to properly co-ordinate and control its ships in a timely manner. The USS Salem (and her sisters) were also designed to help resolve these issues. The problem of utilizing radar (and other electronic and non- electronic data) to control individual ships, and especially groups of ships, had led to the development of combat information centers (CICs). The previous generations of ships, even the latest to fight in WWII, had not however had CICs included in their original designs and therefore the CIC installations were “make do” adaptations of other spaces (such as admirals cabins, powder and aircraft bomb magazines, ect) were cramped and not entirely satisfactory. The USS Salem (and her sisters) were the first cruisers (and among the first ships of any kind) to have fully adequate CICs incorporated in their initial designs. The limited number of radio frequencies available and limited numbers of radios (and radio rooms) in earlier ships led to overloading of radio circuits, blocking critical communications at crucial times. Also battle damage led to a complete loss of communications in many ships. The USS Salem along with her sister ships were designed to overcome these problems with ability to transmit and receive on multiple radio frequencies. She was built with multiple independent radio rooms, making “blockage” of critical radio information and the complete loss of communications highly unlikely. The USS Salem (and her sisters) also incorporated in their design a number of other features addressing other WWII experiences and warship limitations, such as unit machinery spaces and heavy unpierced bulkheads to increase resistance to torpedo damage and insure mobility after torpedo hits (in part because of experiences with the Japanese “Long Lance torpedoes” , more robust deck armor to increase resistance to bombs, long range gunfire and Kamakazes, more powerful anti-aircraft guns (3”50 RF – post war gun, developed during WWII as a result of the Kamakaze experience), and improved gunfire direction (4 rather than 2 Mk37 and Mk56 and Mk54 directors) WWII developments that came too late to see service during the war. The USS Salem and her sister ship the USS Newport News were air conditioned in response to WWII experience with the hot and humid conditions of the South Pacific. The design of these ships was begun during WWII in July 1943 as a response to all these issues brought to light during the war with earlier (older) cruisers in surface battles. The design was completed during WWII (one of the few big ship designs begun and continued during the war). The design was updated and finalized post war.

The majority of US Navy personnel believed that the design of the USS Salem and sister ships answered these issues concerning earlier cruisers posed by WWII experience better than any other cruiser design available. As the best cruiser design available, the USS Salem and her sisters were highly desired by the US Navy during and after WWII. Twelve ships of the USS Salem design were planned at one time during the war and many naval authorities argued for replacement of all other cruiser construction with USS Salem class ships as soon as feasible. One ship of earlier design (Oregon City class) design, The USS Des Moines (CA 134) was switched to the later USS Salem (CA 139) design and built at the Bethlehem Steel ship yard in Quincy Mass rather than the New York Shipbuilding yard so as to get more of the USS Salem design cruisers built sooner. Although the Construction of USS Salem and her sisters was begun very late in WWII, these ships continued to be constructed after the war ended, when many of the earlier (inferior) design were stopped and scrapped, even though the earlier designed ships were more advanced in construction (closer to being completed). In fact, Admiral King (CNO) wanted eight USS Salem class cruisers built even after WWII ended. President Truman and Congress however limited him to four and ultimately only to three that would be completed. Thus the USS Salem and her sisters represent the final (ultimate) product of the massive WWII cruiser construction program and one of the last (and more technically advanced) achievements of the entire WWII naval construction and shipbuilding program. The USS Salem class cruisers also illustrate how the US Navy was able to analyze the experience with and the performance of its ships during WWII, and responded with new designs and construction to produce superior ships.

As the sole surviving US Navy all big gun cruiser of the WWII era (even though she was completed after WWII), USS Salem is the only ship in existence with an appearance closely resembling the US Navy’s cruisers of WWII. Had the war continued as expected for 1 to 2 years longer the USS Salem would have been a true WWII cruiser. While USS Little Rock ( a museum ship in Buffalo, NY) is a WWII era Cleveland class light cruiser, her design and appearance were so radically altered by her guided missile cruiser and flagship conversion (she lost most of her guns) that she no longer has much of the appearance of a WWII big gun cruiser and she is also radically changed in much of her external and internal layout. Therefore the USS Salem is the closest ship in existence to the appearance, layout, and “feel” of a WWII US Navy big gun cruiser. It is the only such ship in existence. This feature alone , hopefully will (and should) ensure her preservation. If she is not saved our best physical link to the history of US Navy cruisers in WWII (and eventually to their sailors) will be lost forever.