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USS ''Omaha'' (CL-4) was the lead ship of light cruiser, originally classified as a scout cruiser, of the United States Navy. She was the second US Navy ship named for the city of Omaha, Nebraska. She spent most of her career in the Atlantic. At this time her primary mission was training, and she proved to be very capable by consistently winning fleet awards in gunnery and communications. She made many ports-of-call throughout the Mediterranean and Caribbean during her peacetime cruises, displaying the Stars and Stripes. Later she was assigned to Neutrality Patrol, during which she captured the German blockade runners ''Odenwald''. She also supported Operation Dragoon, the invasion of the south of France. ==Construction and design== ''Omaha'' was laid down on 6 December 1918 by the Todd SB & DD Co. of Tacoma, Washington. The ship was launched on 14 December 1920 and was sponsored by Louise Bushnell White. She was commissioned on 24 February 1923, with Captain David C. Hanrahan in command. ''Omaha'' was long at the waterline with an overall length of , her beam was and a mean draft of . Her standard displacement was and at full load. Her crew, during peace time, consisted of 29 officers and 429 enlisted men.〔〔Friedman, p. 469〕 ''Omaha'' was powered by four Westinghouse geared steam turbines, each driving one screw, using steam generated by 12 Yarrow boilers. The engines were designed to produce and reach a top speed of .〔 She was designed to provided a range of at a speed of , but was only capable of at a speed of 〔 ''Omaha''s main armament went through many changes while she was being designed. Originally she was to mount ten caliber guns; two on either side at the waist, with the remaining eight mounted in tiered casemates on either side of the fore and aft superstructures. After America's entry into World War I the US Navy worked alongside the Royal Navy and it was deceided to mount four six-inch/53 caliber guns in two twin gun turrets fore and aft and keep the eight guns in the tiered casemates so that she would have an eight gun broadside and, due to limited arcs of fire from the casemate guns, four to six guns firing fore or aft. Her secondary armament consisted of two caliber anti-aircraft guns in single mounts. ''Omaha'' was initially built with the capacity to carry 224 mines, but these were removed early in her career to make way for more crew accommodations.〔Friedman, pp. 80, 84〕 She also carried two triple and two twin, above-water, torpedo tube mounts for torpedoes. The triple mounts were fitted on either side of the upper deck, aft of the aircraft catapults, and the twin mounts were one deck lower on either side, covered by hatches in the side of the hull.〔 The ship lacked a full-length waterline armor belt. The sides of her boiler and engine rooms and steering gear were protected by of armor. The transverse bulkheads at the end of her machinery rooms were thick forward and three inches thick aft. The deck over the machinery spaces and steering gear had a thickness of 1.5 inches. The gun turrets were not armored and only provided protection against muzzle blast and the conning tower had 1.5 inches of armor.〔 ''Omaha'' carried two floatplanes aboard that were stored on the two catapults. Initially these were probably Vought VE-9s, but the ship operated Curtiss SOC Seagulls from 1935 and Vought OS2U Kingfishers after 1940.〔Whitley, p. 229〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Omaha (CL-4)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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