USS Bridgeport, USN 10" gun cruiser

[Joe C-P]

USN 10" gunned cruiser

In parallel with the Alaska class the USN considered up-arming existing heavy cruiser designs with 10" guns. Studies were done on the practicality and potential of the increased gun size in comparison to the Large Cruiser type.
Two such rifles were ordered for testing, made by Watervliet Arsenal, and were those as the template it was determined that twin turrets could be used in place of the triples forward on the most modern 8" gunned cruisers, and those could, with some reduction in total top weight, could be upgraded to a triple turret aft.
The Navy decided for improved 8" automated turrets instead on the Salem class, but after the end of WW2, with reports and rumors of heavily armed cruisers being built in the Soviet Union, the Navy asked for one partially-completed Baltimore class, the Bridgeport, to be completed with a 10" armament. Watervliet completed 6 more barrels, giving 8 total so there would be a spare.
USS Bridgeport was competed in 1951 with seven 10"/45 rifles, two twin forward and a triple aft. Although nominally of the same caliber as the last 10" guns used by the USN pre-WW1, these were great improvements, firing a heavier shell much farther and more accurately.
To save top weight the catapults were left off, along with nearly half the usual AA armament. 3" twins would have been preferred, but those mounts were in short supply so spare quad 40mm were used, and only a small fraction of the 20mm her semi-sisters had carried during the war. Finally, two of the twin 5" were replaced by lighter single 5".
Bridgeport never left US waters, testing her armament against 8" gunned cruisers and patrolling the Caribbean, where she was popular due to her new air conditioning systems.
It was soon determined the larger shell did not offer a great advantage, given the fewer barrels, and also the Navy learned the Soviets old cruisers were not in fighting shape, and their new class would be armed with reputedly leftover German 5.9" guns. Finally the logistics of having only one ship with 10" guns made Bridgeport an obvious choice for quick retirement as the USN cut back force counts, so she was mothballed quietly as the Korean War armistice was signed, another experimental ship forgotten over time.








This will be my last whiff for a while.
I bought the kit originally for a project to build the USS New Jersey, BB62, in each war she served, with an escort. The heavy cruiser was to be the Korean War. However I abandoned that project in favor of an older, bigger project, which I'm going to bring up as a theme in the main section.

JoeP

[Thorvic]

Interesting project Joe, makes perfect sense with the Svedlov scare and its subsequent anticlimax. Nice build 

[NARSES2]

Nice build Joe 

[sandiego89]

Very nice! Like this. Did you build a helo?

[Joe C-P]

Very nice! Like this. Did you build a helo?

I have to find a period one. I think I have an HO3S somewhere.