Shipbucket

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Jericho class light cruiser



The Jericho class light cruisers borrowed many aspects from the previous Jacinta class, such as the main and secondary battery arrangement, but the improvements and developments give the class are a very different silhouette. The most apparent differences are in the superstructure, which is significantly larger and more spacious, mostly to house new equipment such as that for radar. Jericho features only a single smoke stack, however this was a new addition as preliminaries show her with twin stacks. Four of her secondary mounts (two on each side) have been lowered to assist in keeping the ship's perceived top-heaviness to a minimum. While they were the same 33 knot speed of most Antaran cruisers, the Jerichos had a much longer cruising range and at a greater speed, at 10 000nm at 16 knots. All of these changes amounted to an extra 3300 tonnes of displacement.

The first members of the class entered service in 1344 and functioned primarily as carrier escorts until the island hopping campaigns of early 1345 where they saw frequent surface combat with Osoran ships from 1345 to 1346, albeit with no confirmed sinkings. 1347 saw Chiyo and Zuri struck by Kamikaze attacks in mainland Osora. Later members joined the Freyatic fleet in mid-1345.

The Jerichos would go on to serve in the navy for decades after the war and most would be converted to guided missile cruisers until as late as the early 80s. The lead ship herself, Jericho, ended her career with 12 battle stars earned mostly during her engagements in 1345.

The second, fourth, seventh and eighth vessel of the class, which hadn't been named at the time, were selected to by converted to light carriers due to the shortage of carriers in the early months of the WW. These carriers were named Saskia Bay, Dendara Sea, Tanomagne Sea and Viella Coast, respectively. If these vessels were included as part of the Jericho class, Viella Coast would've been the only loss - scuttled after being struck by a Kamikaze in 1347.







No camoflage versions - https://imgur.com/a/yTAeyj5

Displacement - 13 300 tonnes standard
Main battery - 4x3 155/60mm
Secondary battery - 6x2 127mm/45
Speed - 33 knots
Range - 10 000nm at 16 knots
Armor
Main belt - 155mm
Deck - 50mm
Main turret face - 178mm
Barbettes - 178mm
Main turret sides and top - 100mm
Secondary turret face - 50mm
Secondary sides and top - 25mm
Conning tower - 127mm and 100mm

Ships in class

Jericho - scrapped, 1385
CL25-2 - converted to light carrier, 1342
Chiyo - sunk as target ship, 1360
Luna - scrapped, 1985
CL25-4 - converted to light carrier, 1342
Zuri - sunk as reef ship, 1355
Lucetta - sold to foreign navy, 1351
Isabella - sold to foreign navy, 1351
CL25-7 - converted to light carrier, 1343
CL25-8 - converted to light carrier, 1343
San Sadara - scrapped, 1385
Annora - scrapped, 1985
Delport - sunk in nuclear testing, 1352
Ryland - scrapped, 1362
Alexandria - scrapped, 1372
Shawville - sold to foreign navy, 1351
Kimberly - scrapped, 1985
Westford - sunk as target ship, 1358

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Another impressive series. Don't stop!

Very nice ship! a balanced profile and neat lines, very handsome design and very well drawn!

Another great addition, lovely lines and drawing.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

In addition to being very competently executed from a pixel-bashing standpoint, it feels "real", which is about as high a complement as I think one can pay an AU.

One nitpick: while I like the idea of showing armor over the steering gear, with a single rudder it seems unlikely that you'd need beam-to-beam protection. I'd rather armor only the steering gear itself, so that I could have somewhat greater overhead, forward, and aft protection. Even if forward and aft protection were not fitted, bringing the armor inboard would protect a wider angular range with the same armor tonnage.

Edit: that said, I don't know the extent to which protecting the steering gear was a matter of watertightness versus protection from direct damage. I assume those are just some big beefy hydraulic engines -- they might not care about operating underwater for short periods. Anybody have more info on this?

Thx for the compliments all
The small belt protecting the rudder is meant primarily as anti-fragmentation protection from near misses, but it can take direct hits from small caliber guns too.

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I've never seen a small belt protecting just the steering machinery - is that something common in non-US practice?

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

I knew that comment would get your attention.

I'm away from the bulk of my technical library right now (dang day job), but it was basically universal to provide some armor protection to the steering gear on later battleships.

Dunkerque from Wikipedia (sorry)
Visible (although thickness not indicated) on the Midway general plans
Specifically called out on the BB-49 plans
(both from HNSA, of course)

I'm less sure about smaller units. It looks like the Clevelands, for example, at least enclosed their steering gear within a watertight compartment inboard of the shell of the ship. Was it armor, though? I'm not sure. Friedman would surely know.

Good stuff. Armor is the one area I've never cared to research in much detail - perhaps because it doesn't stand out much on drawings.

It would be interesting to see if light units incorporated the same protection, vs. just the very large ships like Midway and the BBs.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)