New Orleans Class Heavy Cruiser Summary

The New Orleans-class consisted of seven heavy cruisers built in the 1930s. These cruisers participated in the heaviest surface battles of the Pacific War and only four remained after the first year of war.

The Astoria, Quincy, and Vincennes were all sunk in the Battle of Savo Island, and three others were heavily damaged in subsequent battles in the Guadalcanal campaign. Only Tuscaloosa, which spent most of the war in the Atlantic, was not damaged. Collectively, ships of the class earned 64 battle stars. 

The New Orleans-class design was a test bed for innovations in cruiser design, and there were three distinct designs within this class.

Design #1: New Orleans, Astoria, and Minneapolis.
Design #2: Tuscaloosa and San Francisco.
Design #3: Quincy and Vincennes.

This class became the foundation for all subsequent heavy cruisers - the Brooklyn, Wichita, Cleveland, and the Baltimore classes. While the Washington Naval Treaty was still being observed, new technology was implemented in the New Orleans class because the USN knew that if and when war came, they would need this knowledge to build ships (which were already in the planning stage) beyond the treaty limits. The USN came to the conclusion that no 10,000-ton cruiser could adequately perform the roles given. Future cruiser designs would exceed this limit when the treaty was abandoned.

Originally Tuscaloosa was the lead ship of this class, but Astoria, New Orleans and Minneapolis, laid down as Portland-class ships, were reordered to the Tuscaloosa design in 1930; Portland and Indianapolis were being built in civilian yards and were completed as originally designed.

When the Astoria, Quincy, and Vincennes were lost in the Battle of Savo Island in 1942, the remaining ships of the class went through major overhauls in order to lessen top heaviness due to new electrical and radar systems. and added more anti-aircraft weaponry. 

Although three of their number were lost, the ships proved to be well designed but could not be considered equal to some foreign contemporaries, which were often considerably larger.

The four survivors were decommissioned shortly after the war ended, and scrapped in 1959–1961.

Ships of Class:

• CA-32 New Orleans - Survived the war
• CA-34 Astoria - Sunk during the Battle of Savo Island, August 1942
• CA-36 Minneapolis - Survived the war
• CA-37 Tuscaloosa - Survived the war
• CA-38 San Francisco - Survived the war
• CA-39 Quincy - Sunk in the Battle of Savo Island, August 1942
• CA-44 Vincennes - Sunk in the Battle of Savo Island, August 1942

Insignia can be added to each deck decal. Select from your choice of roundel images.

Early War	Mid War	ETO

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