CSA Miami (CA-1934)

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The four ships of the Miami class were a step forward from the previous pair of Los Angeles class ships. The Los Angeles proved to lightly armoured even for the Confederate States Navy. The Miami class introduced the triple 8" turret which allowed a shortening of the hull which was also aided by a lower powered propulsion system with a set of new engines and boilers of an improved type to bring the size down which overall gave the ships a much better amount of tonnage to be devoted to armour.

These ships made a great impression when they appeared as part of the CSA fleet that went to the Royal Coronation of 1937. With their good looks and power they overshadowed their counterparts in other navies.

Anti-aircraft armament became more and more important as the aircraft improved during the 1930's and the aircraft proved what it could do at the little wars that were errupting around the world. These little wars (Spanish Civil, Sino-Japanese, Italo-Abbysinia etc) proved that warships were vulnerable to aircraft attack. Deck armour on capital ships and cruisers started getting thicker and thicker while more and more anti-aircraft guns were fitted to ships. By the outbreak of war it was known that the only defence to the airceaft was really aircraft of your own and the aircraft carrier became the coddled Queen of the seas.

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