The Alaska-class of large cruisers

In the 1930s, the concept of a super-cruiser—not a battleship or battlecruiser, but more powerful than a traditional heavy cruiser—was not new. The so-called German “pocket battleships,” completed outside the interwar naval arms treaty regime, were for example prototypical super-cruisers. When the interwar naval limitation treaties finally unraveled, at London in 1936, and the US Navy confronted the prospect of needing to rearm rapidly, its planners “blue-skied” the size and shape of its cruiser building program, weighed strategy, the costs of new construction, as well as imperfect intelligence suggesting the Imperial Japanese Navy was building a super-cruiser (later identified as Project B-64) for detached raider operations, and made an operational case for a class of large cruisers armed with 12-inch guns.

Working rapidly across 1938-1939 and especially into 1940, after the war in Europe had begun, policymakers and designers debated the details. In keeping with an American emphasis on the simplicity of design, the ships largely represented scaled-up versions of the forthcoming Baltimore-class heavy cruisers. The ships would also use the same engines going into the forthcoming Essex-class carriers. They possessed comparatively weak protection. In the windfall of emergency funding that followed the fall of France in June 1940, the Navy ordered six units. Neither battleships, which were named for states, nor heavy cruisers, which were named for major cities, the Navy cleverly named this intermediate type of heavy combatant after US territories; hence, the Alaska-class, which were designated CB (cruiser, large). The US Navy never described the ships as battlecruisers (CC).

Finally, when Japanese planners learned the specifications of the Alaska-class, they countered by upgrading the armament of the B-64 to 14-inch guns, which became Project B-65. Both classes were overtaken by events and changing priorities during 1941-1942. No B-65s were built, while the US Navy cancelled all but two (Alaska and Guam) of the six large cruisers ordered, including Hawaii, which was more than 80% completed.