On this memorial day, I thought it might be appropriate to share this image and story. The USS Iowa made its final voyage from Richmond, CA to San Pedro CA on Saturday, May 26th, sliding under the Golden Gate Bridge for the last time.
A bow view of the battleship USS IOWA (BB-61) firing its Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber guns off the starboard side during a fire power demonstration. Date 15 August 1984 Image: WikipediaIronically, the Golden Gate Bridge had its 75th anniversary a day later.
USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside of her nine 16″/50 and six 5″/38 guns during a target exercise near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico (21°N 65°W). Note concussion effects on the water surface, and 16-inch gun barrels in varying degrees of recoil., July 1, 1984 Image: WikipediaFull story and more great photos here: USS Iowa final voyage from Richmond, CA
As always, my thanks and respect to our men and women in the military, who have served our country in times of war and peace.
It’s sad to see this ship retired. I don’t believe any US shipyard has the capability to build this hull any more. The main guns are obsolete, but I believe the turrets could be reworked into missle launcher housings, or replaced altogether. What I would do is rip out the oil-fired boilers and reduction turbines and replace them with a LFTR powerplant. A 33 knot hull with 11-17″ of armor plate and unlimited range at full speed that can transit the Panama Canal could be put to a lot of uses.
kadaka (KD Knoebel)
May 28, 2012 7:05 am
Graphite said on May 28, 2012 at 3:36 am:
Talk softly and carry a big stick.
And man, that is some stick.
EternalOptimist says:
May 28, 2012 at 1:35 am
Your dad said something like:
‘I saw the battleship HMS Barham strike a mine. The first one hundred feet of twelve inch armoured steel just disappeared. Gone.
Your dad was wrong about the cause. The Barham took three torpedoes and, because she had a lot of improperly stored ammunition, her magazines exploded. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Barham_(04)
The Iowa-class battleships were dinosaurs the day they were launched. WWII naval battles turned on air power, not surface guns. The carrier Enterprise arguably made a greater contribution to US victory in the Pacific than all four Iowa-class battleships put together. Talk about disrespect — she was scrapped in 1958. The Japanese had two even larger battleships the Yamato and the Musashi and I doubt their contribution to the Japanese war effort was even equal to their fuel bill. Both were sunk without inflicting any significant damage to US forces.
Still, that armoured hull is something we can’t build today at any price. I’d really like to see it back in our active fleet, with a modern powerplant and modern armaments.
eyesonu
May 28, 2012 7:22 am
Thank you for honoring our armed services. I salute you as well as the services so deserving the honors.
That photo is impressive to say the least.. Nine 16″ projectiles at over 1 ton each simultainiously approaching a target 24 miles away with no possibility of electronic jamming. Think about it for a moment.
Would you scrap that old ’57 Chevy or consider a restoration utilizing some of the ‘new’?
Gayle
May 28, 2012 7:29 am
I had the opportunity to board and tour the USS Iowa in 1987, thanks to my father-in-law’s command position at Norfolk. She has remained close to my heart ever since. I hope the people of San Francisco appreciate her as they should. Too bad she can’t sail up the Mississippi and the Missouri and berth at Council Bluffs, where I know she would be loved and appreciated. (And yes, I know that’s not possible!)
Dave Worley
May 28, 2012 7:30 am
That photo gives the appearance that the ship is recoiling a long way. That does not seem possible. Most likely it’s a turn as someone has commented.
It’s posts like this that make me glad to be a minority viewpoint. We’re a couple of weeks off the 6th of June. 10,000 casualties in one day. Let’s not forget them.
Pointman
George E. Smith;
May 28, 2012 7:51 am
Well I am old enogh to remember when the only thing standing between my arse, and the empire of the rising sun, was the United States Navy; and the men who sailed those ships. I don’t recall any of the Big Battle Wagons ever making it to Auckland, for R&R; A long way to burn fuel; and we could only really supply them foodwise; being dependent on open shipping lanes, ourselves for almost anything manufactured. But I did get to watch many GIs baseballing on the footy field of the Manurewa Elementary School; and went to the Homai camp many times, to watch Errol Flynn movies, sitting on a GI’s lap in a big tent. So to N. Jim; if you’re still out there somewhere; I won’t ever forget you. And you too; Fatty, and Skinny; my little sister remembers you too. Hope you made it home, from that hell on earth out in the Pacific.
And finally to former Mayor of San Francisco, and now California “senator” dianne feinstein; a nice Bronx cheer, for giving the USS Iowa, the bum’s rush, and ending it packing to LaLa land. Well SF didn’t deserve it anyway.
To all you veterans out there; my eternal Thank You; we can’t ever repay our debt to You.
Gail Combs
May 28, 2012 7:52 am
I am happy to hear she will not be sold for scrap. And a big thank you to all those who have served in the military and are now serving. No matter what the politicians do, right or wrong YOU guys are the ones putting your lives on the line.
“”””” Dave Worley says:
May 28, 2012 at 7:30 am
That photo gives the appearance that the ship is recoiling a long way. That does not seem possible. Most likely it’s a turn as someone has commented. “””””
Not so fast Dave, that is not just the ship that moved sideways, It took a lot of water that flowed from a long way away, with it.. There are numerous other pictures of battleship broadsides, that clearly show the whole recoil surface wave radiating from the ship. That is all under the gun fire in this photo.
Also, ship’s bows are made pointy like that for a reason, and they don’t sweep water sideways like that in a turn; they slice through the water, not scoop it aside. Try pulling a toilet plunger out rapidly, and see how far away frm it, the water moves.
RACookPE1978 says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:45 am
But the British “consensus” scientific development followed the own “favorite sons” and “consensus” experts in the Brit Navy and the Brit establishment (Royal Society – among others) …. So, at Jutland – and moany other naval battle sin WWI, they LOST their battlecruisers and their ships because their computers – their equations and their corrections and their calculators were dead wrong.
============================================================
First, there are many who read this blog who have lost loved ones in the service of preserving freedom, not just for us in the US but also for their own coutries. This is small consolation but I am grateful for what they did.
Second, Jutland. That was one of the few turning points in history that may have literally been a turn. The British had more ships but ship for ship the German ships were better, except for the Queen Elizabeths. Better aiming, better ammo (British armor piercing rounds tended to break up on impact.), better quality armour, a fatal flaw in British ship design allowed a direct hit on a gun turret to explode the magazine, etc. Remember there was no radar at the time. The British admiral ordered his fleet to make a turn without knowing where the Germans were. That turn happened to put them in the position to “cross the T” of the German fleet, a great tactical advantage at the time. If they hadn’t made that turn the fleets would have sailed by each other with neither fleet having a positional tactical advantage. Perhaps the German fleet would have won not just the tactical battle (They did sink more British ships than they lost.) but the strategic battle as well. The U-boat almost forced Britain to surrender. Throw in the German High Seas Fleet ….. ? If Germany had won, there would have been no rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. One of history’s “might have beens”.
Third, as I understand it, the 16′ guns were only fired simultaniously for photo shoots. All that recoil was tough on the ships.
eyesonu
May 28, 2012 8:10 am
Pointman, you make a valid point. Many of us have not forgotten, but there is a new generation and of course the ‘ivory towers’. The old school remembers the hard lessons, the ‘new school’ not as there has never been a hard lesson.
Darrin
May 28, 2012 8:12 am
Alan Watt, from where she will be sitting they’ll be able to call her back to active duty if needed. The reason behind retiring her is she is just to damn expensive to operate, takes a lot of fuel oil to keep her going. When I was in the Navy(late 80’s- early 90’s) it was bandied about that it cost around 1 milliion a day to keep her underway. Second reason is a retrofit to a more modern propulsion system and armament would also be cost prohibitive. To truly make her worthwhile to run with her size and weight she would need to go nuclear, gas would work but she would likely only be able to outrun supply ships.
DonS
May 28, 2012 8:24 am
Caption on the first photo says something like “16 inch 50 caliber guns”. Is that right swabbies?
To Jonathan Smith,
There is hardly any movement of the ship, but the guns recoil a couple of meters. I have first hand knowledge. One of my tasks as a midshipman on summer cruise on the Missouri in 1951, was to load the firing cartridge into the breach of one of those big guns. I was located in a recessed area just to the side and watched the recoil. The projectile and powder bags had been loaded the floor above me and I inserted the cartridge after the guns were elevated.
Capt. Fred H. Haynie (Ret)
Alan Watt says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:46 am
It’s sad to see this ship retired. I don’t believe any US shipyard has the capability to build this hull any more.
We don’t have the capability of making homogenous chromium-nickel steel battleplate anymore, either. When Iowa and New Jersey were being upgraded, the shipyards used ordinary shot-peened steel. Dave Worley says:
May 28, 2012 at 7:30 am
That photo gives the appearance that the ship is recoiling a long way. That does not seem possible. Most likely it’s a turn as someone has commented.
She’s cruising straight ahead, slowly. The recoil illusion is whitecapping of her wake caused by blast overpressure from the guns.
George E. Smith;
May 28, 2012 8:40 am
“”””” Alan Watt says:
May 28, 2012 at 7:08 am
The Iowa-class battleships were dinosaurs the day they were launched. WWII naval battles turned on air power, not surface guns. The carrier Enterprise arguably made a greater contribution to US victory in the Pacific than all four Iowa-class battleships put together. Talk about disrespect — she was scrapped in 1958. The Japanese had two even larger battleships the Yamato and the Musashi and I doubt their contribution to the Japanese war effort was even equal to their fuel bill. Both were sunk without inflicting any significant damage to US forces. “””””
A Navy pilot veteran, I became acquainted with; Ensign Jack Cowan Cochrane of Dinuba California, went to flight school with George HW Bush, and was assigned to the carrier Wasp
in the Pacific. Bush was assigned to the carrier San Jacinto.
Jack was awarded The Navy Cross for his role in the first battle of the Phillipine sea. He also got a DFC (one of two) for helping torpedo a Japanese heavy cruiser, in the second battle of the Phillipine sea; AKA Leyte Gulf. He was one of three planes making a simultaneous run at the cruiser, at 140 ft and 140 knots; sitting ducks, because any move would send the fish off sideways. So all three dropped successfully and all hit (and sank) the ship.
But Jack caught a 40 mm AA shell, which blew a 3 x 4 ft hole in his wing, but never broke anything vital.
His flight of about 15 Grumman Avengers climbed and regrouped at 1500 feet to return to their carriers. The Battleship Musashi; sister of Yamato, fired a 18 inch (think so) round at them from the port aft quarter, and Jack said the shell went by right in front of them, exactly on their altitude, and exploded a short distance to the right of the flight. The shock wave flipped some of the planes sideways; but all survived. If the shell had had proximity fuzes; the whole 15 plane flight would have been scrap metal; but the timed fuze was a fraction of asecond too late.
Musashi could have hit them if they had been at 15,000 feet.
As Allan says, Musashi never hit anything much. I think it survived Leyte Gulf, and was lost later, as was Yamato.
The story of Jack’s Navy Cross, is even more remarkable.
Sadly he died at about age 85, in perfect health; fainted getting out of bed too quickly, and broke his neck on the bed footboard.
He was about the nicest unassuming guy, I have ever met; and I had to drag his stories out of him, so that the heroes of The Greatest Generation will never be forgotten.
DonS says:
May 28, 2012 at 8:24 am
Caption on the first photo says something like “16 inch 50 caliber guns”. Is that right swabbies?
============================================================
I’m not a “swabby” but I think your question is mixing up “small arms” and “large arms”. (If I get this wrong I’m sure I’ll be corrected. I welcome that.) In large guns “caliber” doesn’t refer to the diameter of the barrel as it does in small arms but rather the ratio of the barrels diameter to the length of the barrel.
Hoser
May 28, 2012 8:57 am
No, the people of San Francisco don’t appreciate these ships. They had the chance to have one, and passed on it. I have set foot on the Missouri and New Jersey. It was amazing to see the plaque commemorating the signing of the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII. http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=13
I was in the Smithsonian viewing the Enola Gay forward section and some people walked by complaining about the bombing of Hiroshima. I said without the atomic bomb drops, my wife would not have been born, and my kids wouldn’t either. My father-in-law was a US Marine who fought on Iwo Jima. Almost certainly, he would not have survived a battle on the main islands of Japan. Part of me celebrates Aug 6 and 9 not only for the US, but also for Japan. The Japanese people were freed from a tyrranical government. Keep in mind that hundreds of thousands of people died in the firebombings of Japanese cities; more died in one attack on Tokyo than each the atomic attacks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo
It is the soldier who gives us freedom, and it should not be squandered.
DonS says:
May 28, 2012 at 8:24 am
Caption on the first photo says something like “16 inch 50 caliber guns”. Is that right swabbies?
I’m not a swabbie, but any former or current Redleg can answer that. The bore diameter is 16 inches and the tube is fifty calibers in length, from muzzle to breech. Caliber refers to the bore diameter, which in this case, is 16 inches, so the tube is 800 inches long.
Jakehig
May 28, 2012 9:12 am
RACookPE1978 says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:45 am
This post is stridently critical of the RN’s gunnery systems etc. but posts no references. This is the first I have read of such deficiencies. What are the sources for these comments?
Gunga Din has already noted the problems with ship design and shell construction but there was also an issue with fuses. After Jutland the Germans removed unexploded large-calibre shells from several ships.
Back on topic, I have nothing but respect and gratitude for the bravery and sacrifice of the services.
It’s sad to see this ship retired. I don’t believe any US shipyard has the capability to build this hull any more. The main guns are obsolete, but I believe the turrets could be reworked into missle launcher housings, or replaced altogether. What I would do is rip out the oil-fired boilers and reduction turbines and replace them with a LFTR powerplant. A 33 knot hull with 11-17″ of armor plate and unlimited range at full speed that can transit the Panama Canal could be put to a lot of uses.
Graphite said on May 28, 2012 at 3:36 am:
And Obama is the current Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces, and VP Biden promises us that Obama has a big stick.
Your dad was wrong about the cause. The Barham took three torpedoes and, because she had a lot of improperly stored ammunition, her magazines exploded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Barham_(04)
The Iowa-class battleships were dinosaurs the day they were launched. WWII naval battles turned on air power, not surface guns. The carrier Enterprise arguably made a greater contribution to US victory in the Pacific than all four Iowa-class battleships put together. Talk about disrespect — she was scrapped in 1958. The Japanese had two even larger battleships the Yamato and the Musashi and I doubt their contribution to the Japanese war effort was even equal to their fuel bill. Both were sunk without inflicting any significant damage to US forces.
Still, that armoured hull is something we can’t build today at any price. I’d really like to see it back in our active fleet, with a modern powerplant and modern armaments.
Thank you for honoring our armed services. I salute you as well as the services so deserving the honors.
That photo is impressive to say the least.. Nine 16″ projectiles at over 1 ton each simultainiously approaching a target 24 miles away with no possibility of electronic jamming. Think about it for a moment.
Would you scrap that old ’57 Chevy or consider a restoration utilizing some of the ‘new’?
I had the opportunity to board and tour the USS Iowa in 1987, thanks to my father-in-law’s command position at Norfolk. She has remained close to my heart ever since. I hope the people of San Francisco appreciate her as they should. Too bad she can’t sail up the Mississippi and the Missouri and berth at Council Bluffs, where I know she would be loved and appreciated. (And yes, I know that’s not possible!)
That photo gives the appearance that the ship is recoiling a long way. That does not seem possible. Most likely it’s a turn as someone has commented.
It’s posts like this that make me glad to be a minority viewpoint. We’re a couple of weeks off the 6th of June. 10,000 casualties in one day. Let’s not forget them.
Pointman
Well I am old enogh to remember when the only thing standing between my arse, and the empire of the rising sun, was the United States Navy; and the men who sailed those ships. I don’t recall any of the Big Battle Wagons ever making it to Auckland, for R&R; A long way to burn fuel; and we could only really supply them foodwise; being dependent on open shipping lanes, ourselves for almost anything manufactured. But I did get to watch many GIs baseballing on the footy field of the Manurewa Elementary School; and went to the Homai camp many times, to watch Errol Flynn movies, sitting on a GI’s lap in a big tent. So to N. Jim; if you’re still out there somewhere; I won’t ever forget you. And you too; Fatty, and Skinny; my little sister remembers you too. Hope you made it home, from that hell on earth out in the Pacific.
And finally to former Mayor of San Francisco, and now California “senator” dianne feinstein; a nice Bronx cheer, for giving the USS Iowa, the bum’s rush, and ending it packing to LaLa land. Well SF didn’t deserve it anyway.
To all you veterans out there; my eternal Thank You; we can’t ever repay our debt to You.
I am happy to hear she will not be sold for scrap. And a big thank you to all those who have served in the military and are now serving. No matter what the politicians do, right or wrong YOU guys are the ones putting your lives on the line.
Related to ballistics and Newton
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120527/jsp/nation/story_15537378.jsp
“”””” Dave Worley says:
May 28, 2012 at 7:30 am
That photo gives the appearance that the ship is recoiling a long way. That does not seem possible. Most likely it’s a turn as someone has commented. “””””
Not so fast Dave, that is not just the ship that moved sideways, It took a lot of water that flowed from a long way away, with it.. There are numerous other pictures of battleship broadsides, that clearly show the whole recoil surface wave radiating from the ship. That is all under the gun fire in this photo.
Also, ship’s bows are made pointy like that for a reason, and they don’t sweep water sideways like that in a turn; they slice through the water, not scoop it aside. Try pulling a toilet plunger out rapidly, and see how far away frm it, the water moves.
RACookPE1978 says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:45 am
But the British “consensus” scientific development followed the own “favorite sons” and “consensus” experts in the Brit Navy and the Brit establishment (Royal Society – among others) …. So, at Jutland – and moany other naval battle sin WWI, they LOST their battlecruisers and their ships because their computers – their equations and their corrections and their calculators were dead wrong.
============================================================
First, there are many who read this blog who have lost loved ones in the service of preserving freedom, not just for us in the US but also for their own coutries. This is small consolation but I am grateful for what they did.
Second, Jutland. That was one of the few turning points in history that may have literally been a turn. The British had more ships but ship for ship the German ships were better, except for the Queen Elizabeths. Better aiming, better ammo (British armor piercing rounds tended to break up on impact.), better quality armour, a fatal flaw in British ship design allowed a direct hit on a gun turret to explode the magazine, etc. Remember there was no radar at the time. The British admiral ordered his fleet to make a turn without knowing where the Germans were. That turn happened to put them in the position to “cross the T” of the German fleet, a great tactical advantage at the time. If they hadn’t made that turn the fleets would have sailed by each other with neither fleet having a positional tactical advantage. Perhaps the German fleet would have won not just the tactical battle (They did sink more British ships than they lost.) but the strategic battle as well. The U-boat almost forced Britain to surrender. Throw in the German High Seas Fleet ….. ? If Germany had won, there would have been no rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. One of history’s “might have beens”.
Third, as I understand it, the 16′ guns were only fired simultaniously for photo shoots. All that recoil was tough on the ships.
Pointman, you make a valid point. Many of us have not forgotten, but there is a new generation and of course the ‘ivory towers’. The old school remembers the hard lessons, the ‘new school’ not as there has never been a hard lesson.
Alan Watt, from where she will be sitting they’ll be able to call her back to active duty if needed. The reason behind retiring her is she is just to damn expensive to operate, takes a lot of fuel oil to keep her going. When I was in the Navy(late 80’s- early 90’s) it was bandied about that it cost around 1 milliion a day to keep her underway. Second reason is a retrofit to a more modern propulsion system and armament would also be cost prohibitive. To truly make her worthwhile to run with her size and weight she would need to go nuclear, gas would work but she would likely only be able to outrun supply ships.
Caption on the first photo says something like “16 inch 50 caliber guns”. Is that right swabbies?
To Jonathan Smith,
There is hardly any movement of the ship, but the guns recoil a couple of meters. I have first hand knowledge. One of my tasks as a midshipman on summer cruise on the Missouri in 1951, was to load the firing cartridge into the breach of one of those big guns. I was located in a recessed area just to the side and watched the recoil. The projectile and powder bags had been loaded the floor above me and I inserted the cartridge after the guns were elevated.
Capt. Fred H. Haynie (Ret)
Alan Watt says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:46 am
It’s sad to see this ship retired. I don’t believe any US shipyard has the capability to build this hull any more.
We don’t have the capability of making homogenous chromium-nickel steel battleplate anymore, either. When Iowa and New Jersey were being upgraded, the shipyards used ordinary shot-peened steel.
Dave Worley says:
May 28, 2012 at 7:30 am
That photo gives the appearance that the ship is recoiling a long way. That does not seem possible. Most likely it’s a turn as someone has commented.
She’s cruising straight ahead, slowly. The recoil illusion is whitecapping of her wake caused by blast overpressure from the guns.
“”””” Alan Watt says:
May 28, 2012 at 7:08 am
The Iowa-class battleships were dinosaurs the day they were launched. WWII naval battles turned on air power, not surface guns. The carrier Enterprise arguably made a greater contribution to US victory in the Pacific than all four Iowa-class battleships put together. Talk about disrespect — she was scrapped in 1958. The Japanese had two even larger battleships the Yamato and the Musashi and I doubt their contribution to the Japanese war effort was even equal to their fuel bill. Both were sunk without inflicting any significant damage to US forces. “””””
A Navy pilot veteran, I became acquainted with; Ensign Jack Cowan Cochrane of Dinuba California, went to flight school with George HW Bush, and was assigned to the carrier Wasp
in the Pacific. Bush was assigned to the carrier San Jacinto.
Jack was awarded The Navy Cross for his role in the first battle of the Phillipine sea. He also got a DFC (one of two) for helping torpedo a Japanese heavy cruiser, in the second battle of the Phillipine sea; AKA Leyte Gulf. He was one of three planes making a simultaneous run at the cruiser, at 140 ft and 140 knots; sitting ducks, because any move would send the fish off sideways. So all three dropped successfully and all hit (and sank) the ship.
But Jack caught a 40 mm AA shell, which blew a 3 x 4 ft hole in his wing, but never broke anything vital.
His flight of about 15 Grumman Avengers climbed and regrouped at 1500 feet to return to their carriers. The Battleship Musashi; sister of Yamato, fired a 18 inch (think so) round at them from the port aft quarter, and Jack said the shell went by right in front of them, exactly on their altitude, and exploded a short distance to the right of the flight. The shock wave flipped some of the planes sideways; but all survived. If the shell had had proximity fuzes; the whole 15 plane flight would have been scrap metal; but the timed fuze was a fraction of asecond too late.
Musashi could have hit them if they had been at 15,000 feet.
As Allan says, Musashi never hit anything much. I think it survived Leyte Gulf, and was lost later, as was Yamato.
The story of Jack’s Navy Cross, is even more remarkable.
Sadly he died at about age 85, in perfect health; fainted getting out of bed too quickly, and broke his neck on the bed footboard.
He was about the nicest unassuming guy, I have ever met; and I had to drag his stories out of him, so that the heroes of The Greatest Generation will never be forgotten.
DonS says:
May 28, 2012 at 8:24 am
Caption on the first photo says something like “16 inch 50 caliber guns”. Is that right swabbies?
============================================================
I’m not a “swabby” but I think your question is mixing up “small arms” and “large arms”. (If I get this wrong I’m sure I’ll be corrected. I welcome that.) In large guns “caliber” doesn’t refer to the diameter of the barrel as it does in small arms but rather the ratio of the barrels diameter to the length of the barrel.
No, the people of San Francisco don’t appreciate these ships. They had the chance to have one, and passed on it. I have set foot on the Missouri and New Jersey. It was amazing to see the plaque commemorating the signing of the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII.
http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=13
I was in the Smithsonian viewing the Enola Gay forward section and some people walked by complaining about the bombing of Hiroshima. I said without the atomic bomb drops, my wife would not have been born, and my kids wouldn’t either. My father-in-law was a US Marine who fought on Iwo Jima. Almost certainly, he would not have survived a battle on the main islands of Japan. Part of me celebrates Aug 6 and 9 not only for the US, but also for Japan. The Japanese people were freed from a tyrranical government. Keep in mind that hundreds of thousands of people died in the firebombings of Japanese cities; more died in one attack on Tokyo than each the atomic attacks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo
It is the soldier who gives us freedom, and it should not be squandered.
@eyesonu. Yes, I’ll do something to honour them this Friday.
Pointman
Correction. Musashi WAS lost at Leyte Gulf (Battle of); and it did have 9 18 inch guns.
DonS says:
May 28, 2012 at 8:24 am
Caption on the first photo says something like “16 inch 50 caliber guns”. Is that right swabbies?
I’m not a swabbie, but any former or current Redleg can answer that. The bore diameter is 16 inches and the tube is fifty calibers in length, from muzzle to breech. Caliber refers to the bore diameter, which in this case, is 16 inches, so the tube is 800 inches long.
RACookPE1978 says:
May 28, 2012 at 6:45 am
This post is stridently critical of the RN’s gunnery systems etc. but posts no references. This is the first I have read of such deficiencies. What are the sources for these comments?
Gunga Din has already noted the problems with ship design and shell construction but there was also an issue with fuses. After Jutland the Germans removed unexploded large-calibre shells from several ships.
Back on topic, I have nothing but respect and gratitude for the bravery and sacrifice of the services.