US Navy Atlanta-class Light Cruisers 1940–49

A comprehensively illustrated account of the Atlanta-class cruisers, warships that found a surprising key role in the Pacific War as the US Navy's superb anti-aircraft warships. In the late 1930s, the US Navy created a class of small, light cruisers intended as a versatile destroyer leader. The Atlantas could provide anti-aircraft support, lead and launch torpedo attacks, serve as anti-submarine vessels, and outgun other light warships in a surface engagement. The wartime reality was different. In every surface action they fought, they found themselves pitted against bigger cruisers (or even battleships) instead of the destroyers they were designed to defeat. In this book, naval historian Mark Lardas explains that despite their flaws, they proved one of the most useful warships in the US Navy: with a main battery of sixteen 5in guns, they proved to be superb anti-aircraft cruisers. From the battle of Midway onwards, they protected the Navy’s most valuable ships – its aircraft carriers – so effectively that later Atlantas were built to a modified design as specialist anti-aircraft ships. The Navy even ordered a follow-on class postwar and considered building a “super-Atlanta,” armed only with heavy anti-aircraft guns. Packed with illustrations, this book examines the history, development, and modifications of these unusual warships, and their impact on the Pacific War.