Ringold-class cruiser

The ***USS*** ***Ringgold*** was a unique prototype ship for the large cruiser class of the US Navy (of the main *#history* AU), officially known as a "tusslecruiser". The unique vessel served the US Navy in WW2 until she was lost in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

## Background

The initial impetus for the US Navy to require a large cruiser came from the deployments of Germany's so-called pocket battleships in the early 1930s. The need for such a vessel in the late 1930s became far more pressing when intelligence reports indicated Japan was planning or building "super cruisers" that would be much more powerful than the current US heavy cruisers. It was thus decided that a suitable design for a "battlecruiser" would be requested from from the then-new *#history* Central Admiralty and Design Bureau, probably when the American fleet admirals were drunk.

Out of 5 unique designs provided, it was decided that a prototype for the ship type would be ordered and laid down in the late 1930s. This prototype was named *Ringgold*. It would have a heavy armament capable of taking down any enemy cruiser, with armor to match, good stability and seakeeping and a large operational radius. As the name "battlecruiser" did not resonate well with Congress, *Ringgold* was instead referred to in all official documents as a "Tusslecruiser"- This stemmed from her theoretical ability to fight multiple enemies at once with her massive artillery battery featuring weapons for all roles.

## Design

*Ringgold* displaced 21960 tons at standard displacement. She was 205m long at the waterline, and had a beam of 26m and a maximum draft of 8.5m. Her powerplant consisted of 8 Babcock and Wilcox oil-fired boilers connected to 4 shaft General Electric steam turbines. This allowed *Ringgold* to make 33 knots. Cruising range was 10000 nautical miles at 12 knots.

*Ringgold* was protected by an all-or-nothing armor scheme. The declined main belt was of 8" thickness, and the main armor deck was only 2.25" thick. This was adequate against cruiser gunfire, but not much else. 6.1" of armor protected the conning tower. Underwater protection was achieved via a 15mm thick additional bulkhead that existed solely to trigger those obsessed with ~~inferior~~ imperial units. Behind this bulkhead and void was a 2" thick main citadel bulkhead. Ringgold's main battery turret was well protected, with 12" thick faces, 6" thick sides and roofs and an 8" barbette, Her secondary battery had 3" thick faces and barbettes and 2" sides and roofs.

*Ringgold* was defined by her armament, above anything else. Her main battery consisted of a single quintuple turret mounting the 12"/50 Mk. 8 gun. This highly complex mount took over 2 years to construct and was, by some miracle, functional. Her secondary battery consisted of 8 triple turrets with 6"/47 Mk. 16 guns and 12 twin dual-purpose 5"/38 Mk. 12 guns. This meant *Ringgold'*s secondary broadsides would equal that of a *Santa Monica*-class cruiser. In the Tusslecruiser role, she definitely would live up to her name.

Considering how absolutely smothered in guns *Ringgold* was, the Admiralty was indeed impressed that space was found for her AA armament at all. A lack of space in the shell rooms for enough ordnance to feed all of *Ringgold'*s weapons meant that at maximum load, rounds were also stored in her gunhouses and ammunition hoists. This would prove detrimental in her final battle.

## Service History

*Ringgold'*s construction began in early 1938. While the ship was still yet to be laid down, American design teams had been left to work out exactly how to assemble her quintuple main battery gun turret that had been delivered to them, as one historian said, "like a thousand Ikea kits, missing parts unaccounted for, and without instructions. The hull itself was completed in June 1941. Realizing that a vessel previously seen as a harmless drunken joke had indeed been constructed, the US Navy reluctantly pushed Ringgold into service.

On December 7, 1941, as *Ringgold* was on trials off Hawaii, Pearl Harbor was attacked, marking the entry of the US Navy into the Pacific war.

## WW2

### Loss at the Battle of Guadalcanal

Detached from *Enterprise's* battlegroup, *Ringgold* reinforced *South Dakota* and *Washington* alongside their destroyer flotilla led by cruiser USS *Aurora* as they moved into Guadalcanal during the night of November 14, 1942. The Japanese force consisting of a light cruiser and multiple destroyers spotted Lee's force around 23:00, but misidentified the three capital ships as cruisers. Before the Japanese scouting force could effectively engage the American column, they were quickly driven off by radar directed gunfire from *Washington* and *Ringgold* before disappearing from radar plotters.

As the two forces clashed, *Ringgold's* sheer amount of fire proved to have its downsides. Earlier, she accidentally fired on the *Aurora*, causing moderate damage, and now began to draw attention and fire from Japanese warships in the area. The sheer amount of gunfire pouring from the ship prompted Admiral Lee aboard *Washington* to send the query, "Are you afire?". Soon after, *Ringgold* reported experiencing issues with her main battery turret, taking a period of time to clear the jam. Bringing her main turret back to bear, *Ringgold* managed to straddle *Tsushima* on her third salvo before a massive explosion rocked the ship.

It is still disputed if this explosion was caused by enemy fire or due to reported improper storage of munitions outside of the magazines, wartime reports believe due to where the ship broke, there was an explosion in the 12 inch turret. The already blinded *USS South Dakota* following close behind was showered in shrapnel, damaging her upper works and lodging many items from *Ringgold* in her superstructure.

With no survivors found, *USS Ringgold* is the largest US warship ever lost with all hands in combat. In 1992, Dr Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of *Ringgold* and with an investigation by the US Navy being launched, the committee agreed that the most likely cause of her loss was due to an explosion within the ships extremely complicated 5 gun turret.

After her bell was recovered from the superstructure of *South Dakota*, a memorial was erected with the restored bell as the centerpiece in her namesake city of Ringgold, Oklahoma in 1945.