This means the Cleveland is much more vulnerable to fire damage than other ship that does have one, thus she is somewhat prone to fire detonations, so putting them out quickly is a must. Unlike other post-treaty US cruisers, she doesn't have any anti-fragmentation hull armour at all, primarily to ease the production. However, the Cleveland's protection did have one big caveat. In contrast the rear magazine has both good armour and fuel tanks, making it extremely difficult to detonate. Although its frontal magazine only has 50 mm of armour protection and no fuel tanks, this is compensated for by the very deep placement of it.
In addition, its secondary armament of 5"/38 (127 mm) cannons are housed in turrets, which although will not stand up to a direct hit will protect them from HE shrapnel, thus making the warship significantly more resilient to destroyer superstructure fire spam than most other cruisers. As a result, it can be very difficult to disable its primary armament.
The Cleveland is exceptionally well armoured, with 127 mm protecting the citadel, 165 mm on the turret faces and very strong barbette protection. Captains of the USS Cleveland can expect to be incredibly effective against destroyers and light cruisers, but have a more difficult time at long range against more heavily armoured targets. Additionally, the main battery also has faster vertical and horizontal slew, allowing for more easily engaging multiple targets at once, or even targeting aircraft with the main battery. In exchange this allows for a bolstered secondary and anti-aircraft battery in this case twelve 5-inch/38 dual-purpose guns and a large number of 40 mm Bofors and 20 mm Oerlikon autocannons.
Introduced in Update "Starfighters", USS Cleveland serves as a sidegrade to the earlier Brooklyn class, with one less 6-inch triple gun mount. She would remain in the reserves until her scrapping in 1960. Her final act of the war would be to cover the evacuation of Allied POWs from occupied Japan, before being deactivated in 1947. Launched in 1941, Cleveland would go on to serve throughout the Second World War, notably taking part in such famous battles as Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Philippine sea. Laid down in July of 1940, the Cleveland-class, USS Cleveland (CL-55), 1942 was a later development of the earlier Brooklyn-class light cruisers, with a slight reduction in the main battery firepower in exchange for a stronger secondary battery.
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