The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1944-08-18
. BEHIND THE SCENES
IN WASHINGTON .

Begin with battleships: News
of the six Iowa-class $4,000 tom
ners has already been an
nounced. showing them to be the
most formidable ships afloat.
Their 88-foot length should DE
compared to the 750-foot length
of the four South Dakota class
ships now in service. On the
tremendous gun decks of the
Iowa class ships are more than
l25 anti-aircraft guns, topped by
20 five-inch guns and nine 16-
inch guns in triple turrets. For
observation, these ships carry
three catapult-launch planes and
every known device for fire cou-
troll and communication. Their
crews-more than $500 officers
and men; their cost-more than
Sl00,000,000 for the hull alone,
exclusive of equipment.
CRUISER NOW
A "BATTLESHIP"
More dramatic, perhaps, than
these big battlewagons is a new
class of cruiser, the first of
which have been named for the
u. S. territories Alaska, Guam,
and Hawaii. They are 27,OOO-
ton ships, $50 feet in length,
mount nine 12-inch guns as main
armament, capable of about 35
knots-faster than most speed
boats.
These super-cruisers have
been designed to knock the spots
off any pocket battleship of the
Tirpitz class built by Germany.
The first was built by the New
York Shipbuilding Yards, Cam
den, N. j.
Aircraft carrier developments
are no less sensational. Under
construction at the New York
Navy Yard is the first of a new
type 45,000-ton carrier-largest
ship in naval history-intended
to carry the Nays new twin
engined planes, larger and of
longer range than any other
carrierbo aircraft now in
service. -
There is new 22OO-ton super
destroyer that is almost a dream
ship. better than many World
War l cruisers in firepower and
speed.
What destroyers we're in the
last war, what the old four
Stackers traded to the British
for Atlantic island bases are IN
this warts now surpassed by
the most modern destroyer es-
cort vessels. These lowly DE's
now carry three-inch guns, tor
pedo tubes and anti-aircratt
guns as we'll as depth charges.
They are built now at 1900 tons,
as compared to the l200-ton des-
tlOytI VI Tie last war.
ALL GROW UP A NOTCH
All up and down the ship
yards this tendency of adding
armament, armor, firepower and
range is noteworthy. Every class
of weapon has assumed the
characteristics of the class that
used to be above it.
Advances in landing craft
show this in marked degree. New
Ism, or Landing Ship, Medium
seen at the Federal Yards at
Kearney is no longer an auxll-
larry vessel, but a 200-foot ocean,
going ship, capable of carrying
light and medium tanks and gun
mounts, armed with 20-mm.
anti-aircraft guns to fight its
way right up to the beach.
Bigger than these and for
later waves of an invasion are
the new AKA ships-AttaCk
Cargo Auxiliaries - that can
bring in heavy tanks and a com.
plete little expeditionary force
Of their own. And for trans
port of troops by the thousand
there are the new AP ships,
Auxiliary Personnel vessels like
the General NJ. c. Meigs at
Kearny "a luxury transport
with an X-ray-equipped operat-
ing room and a mechanical cow
to provide fresh mill: to drink
and for ice cream for the troops
sailing to war in style.
From every angle, 1t looks
like a whale of a new Navy.