Supercruisers in the Solomons

[Djoser]

There have been many and varied discussions concerning the Washington Treaty and battleship design (or in the case of this forum, the limitations on bigger and better designs). But how about the cruisers? What kind of supercruisers might have evolved had the signatories not limited themselves (even if many of them were cheating, they still had to limit the cheating to some extent). CAs with 9 or 10" main batteries, thicker armor, etc.?

Assuming perhaps that Washington Treaty limited BBs, but not CAs; the Pacific war could have gone in a similar direction. The big slow US BBs at the bottom of Pearl, the Japanese BBs staying at home for the most part as they did in the event, due to fuel constraints and conservatism.

Leaving it mostly to cruisers and destroyers to slug it out in the numerous Solomons battles. Which might therefore have been all that much more spectacular, had some big, badass cruisers gone at it. What if San Fransisco had had a 6" belt and 10" guns when going up against the Hiei? Of course the Japanese automatically had supercruisers, if you factor in the Long Lance torpedoes. So imagine a 20,000 ton Chokai! It would have been one hell of a tough ship...

Anyone know much about CA designs up to the treaty putting a damper on them?

[lwd]

The British were looking at cruisers with 9.2" guns in the 20s and as I stated in another thread the Germans did have 11" armed cruisers. My guess is that the US designs by WWII would resemble the Alaskas with 12" guns. The Japanese might be similar. It should be noted though that at least according to some sources the US came to the conclusion that "light" cruisers were more suited to the Solomons. If the Japanese have cruisers with 10-12" guns I would expect them not to use the Hiei or Kirishima in these battles or at least not as soon. I think there is some info on the Japanese "supercruiser" desings in the 40's anyway. After all it was the rumor of one such design that led to the Alaskas. I'll poke around and see what I can find. There may also be info on some of the German designs.

[Karl Heidenreich]

Well, the Deutschland Class "pocket battleships" are just heavy cruisers. We can expect tougher ships like the Alaska Class with bigger guns.