Another one I've always wanted to do, especially after reading about the early battles so much recently.
This is HELENA (CL-50) as lost at the Battle of Kula Gulf on 6 July 1943. HELENA is camouflaged in the overall Navy Blue (5-N) of Measure 21.
CL-50 shows a typical mid-war electronics fit for a USN cruiser, with Mark 4 "FD" radars on the ship's Mark 33 directors, and Mark 3 Mod.1 "FC" antennas on the Mark 34 directors. HELENA's foremast mounts an SC air search antenna and an SG surface search radar below it. Waveguide losses with the early SG installations meant that they had to be placed close to the radar plot room, hence the SG's less than advantageous position. Once these issues were solved, the radar antenna could be relocated to the top mast as on almost all later combatants.
Two Curtiss SOC-3 Seagull floatplanes of Cruiser Scouting Squadron NINE (VCS-9) are spotted on the stern catapults. These aircraft are camouflaged in the early wartime two-tone scheme of NS Blue Gray on the wings and upper fuselage with NS Light Gray on the undersides.
HELENA was lost in this configuration after the ship was hit by three Japanese torpedoes during the Battle of Kula Gulf, with 186 men killed in action.
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This is ST. LOUIS (CL-49) in October 1944, after a refit period in California. She is camouflaged in Measure 32/2C.
ST. LOUIS was refitted in late 1943 along the same lines as the BROOKLYN class cruisers, with a cut-down bridge and heavy masts to support radar. Overhaul in 1944 added the SK-2 air search radar with its distinctive circular reflector on the foremast, with SG sets at the top masts. No radar has been fitted to the mainmast, though it has been readied to receive a second air search set (likely the new SP or SM height finder). The highly successful Mark 8 "FH" radar has been mounted on the Mark 34 directors for the 6" guns, with Mark 24 radar on the Mark 33 dual-purpose directors. An SOC Seagull of Cruiser Scouting Squadron NINE (VCS-9) Detachment B is spotted on the aft catapult.
ST. LOUIS would end the war in this configuration, going on to serve in the Brazilian Navy as ALMIRANTE TAMANDARE (C-12), where the ship served as the fleet flagship until 1976.
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All ST LOUIS class cruiser drawings available here: http://shipbucket.com/drawings/search?c ... =&drawing=
My usual sources are blank on this. I'll dig around and figure out a detailed answer - the plans I used showed it, and I confirmed it from that photo, but didn't dig very far into it.
![[ img ]](http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/049/0404925.jpg)
. As can be seen at the bottom right the armor belt just reaches below the gun barrels of #1 turret![[ img ]](https://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/446613wasa.jpg)
