USS Wichita CA-45
by Steve Wiper of Classic
Warships
Reviewed by Timothy
dike |
| The USS Wichita was a one of a kind Cruiser that was
essentially a Heavy Cruiser based on the Brooklyn Class Light
Cruiser design. Lessons learned by this class were applied to the later
Baltimore Class Heavy Cruiser. The massive 8 inch main guns were the prototypes
for the later cruisers and look a little out of place on the 10,000 ton
hull, as you can see by the colorized image on the cover. |
| Her hull and superstructure were similar in size and shape to that
of the Brooklyn's, with the same high freeboard and the sea plane hanger
enclosed in the stern. The Wichita also had a unique secondary armament
with a mix of open and closed single 5" 38 cal gun mounts. She had 1.1
inch and 50 cal guns for the light anti aircraft, later trading these for
20 mm and 40 mm guns. |
Click images
below to
enlarge. |
| The Wichita's history is covered in pretty good detail in several pages
of text. Of course it's the photo's that really tell the story, from her
beginning to her last voyage to the scrapper. There are many excellent
photo's of her at various stages of construction, such as the ones on the
right that show the construction as it progressed. There are also many
photo's of her during in drydock after her shake down and some great ones
of the ship in her prewar appearance. |
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| The number of detail photo's in this book is extraordinary, they show
all parts of the ship in great detail. This book is almost a walk around
of the ship that documents virtually every part with great photo's. There
are details of everything from the original 50 cal gun mounts to the 8"
main guns. |
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| There are plenty of war time photo's that show the Wichita in company
of USS Wasp, USS Washington, and members of the British home fleet. She
is shown in her MS-12 modified Camouflage (both sides) during her career
in the Atlantic. Her stay in the yard after her grounding is covered as
well. Wichita was transferred to the Pacific later and of course you can
follow here deployments in the photo's. |
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| There are a number of great photo's of the ship while she was at Puget
Sound during her late 43 refit that shows in detail the changes to her
radar and anti aircraft suite. Her bridge was reduced at this time also
giving her an appearance similar to the later "square bridge" Cleveland
Class cruisers. |
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A number of drawings are included in this book including:
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Plan and Elevation with deck levels 1939 as built.
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Main turret cutaway section view.
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5 inch 38 cal Mk. 30 Mod 0 Enclosed mount cutaway section view.
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5 inch 38 cal Mk. 30 Mod 0 open mount plan and elevation.
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20 mm single perspective view.
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1.1 inch Quad Mount plan and Elevation.
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40 mm Quad Mount perspective view.
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Plan and Elevation with deck levels August 1945 final configuration.
General Statistics with an armament summary throughout her career are also
included. |
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| Conclusions:
 This
book is 56 pages packed with 90 photos. Many of the photos in this book
have never been in print before. The retail price is $11.95, making it
an excellent value for the Historian and Modeler alike.
Links:
More Classic Warships books |
