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Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a warship[?] that is not so large and powerful as a regular (or heavy) cruiser, but still larger than ships like destroyers.

For instance, in the World War II era, heavy cruisers usually had a battery of 8-inch (203 mm) guns, while light cruisers had 6-inch (152 mm) guns. This was a significant difference in destructive power, since 8-inch shells were over twice the weight of 6-inch shells, but light cruisers were nevertheless useful for fire support and as fleet escorts, and heavily used.

In the United States Navy, light cruisers have the hull classification symbol of CL¹.

United States Navy
Hull Number1	Class	Years in service
CL-1 to CL-3	Chester[?]	1908 - 1930
Cl-4 to CL-13	Omaha[?]	1923 - 1947
CL-14	Not Assigned, intended for USS Chicago
CL-15	USS Olympia[?]	1895 - 1957
CL-16 to CL-21	Denver[?]	1903 - 1933
CL-22	USS New Orleans	1898 - 1930
CL-23	USS Albany	1900 - 1930
CL-40 to CL-43, CL-46 to CL-48	Brooklyn[?]	1937 - 1959
CL-49 and CL-50	St. Louis[?]	1930 - 1951
CL-55 to CL-67, CL-76 to CL-94, CL-99 to CL-105	Cleveland[?]2	1942 - 1962
CL-95 to CL-98	Oakland[?]	1943 - 1971
CL-106 to CL-118	Fargo[?]	1945 - 1971
CL-119 to CL-121	Juneau[?]	1946 - 1973
CL-144 to CL-147, CL-154 to CL-159	Worchester[?]	1948 - 1972
1 Heavy cruisers and Light cruisers were classified under CL after 1931, hence there are some missing hull numbers
2Many Cleveland-class cruisers were converted to Independence-class aircraft carriers

(mention light cruisers of other countries)

Elsewhere

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