USS Buffalo (CL-99)
The USS Buffalo (CL-99) was to have been a Cleveland class light cruiser, but the ship was actually completed as the light carrier USS Bataan (CVL-29). Her production demonstrates the long term nature of the American ship building programme adopted after Pearl Harbor – the name was allocated to a planned cruiser on 28 December 1940, but the hull of the resulting carrier wasn't laid down until 31 August 1942, a year and a half later. By that point she had been renamed, while the CV-29 designation was allocated on 29 June 1942. The name Buffalo was reallocated to the later Cleveland class cruiser CL-110, but that ship was cancelled at the end of the war, before any work had been carried out.
US Navy Light Cruisers 1941-45, Mark Stille.
Covers the five classes of US Navy light cruisers that saw service during the Second World War, with sections on their design, weaponry, radar, combat experience. Nicely organised, with the wartime service records separated out from the main text, so that the design history of the light cruisers flows nicely. Interesting to see how new roles had to be found for them, after other technology replaced them as reconnaissance aircraft [
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How to cite this article:
Rickard, J (16 July 2009), USS Buffalo (CL-99) , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_USS_Buffalo_CL99.html
