quote:

Originally posted by Karl:
Hog killer I understand the loading and manpower requirements of it etc.

What I meant was did they stay in the same turret?
In other words would there have been an old sailor who would have said to the above monument "hey that was MY gun ".
Karl.

Sadly most of them have passed on.....I hunted with a guide that was at the battle of Okinawa and IIRC he was on the Missouri and I asked him if he was scared....he said they was so busy that didn't have time to be scared (he was 17)....I assure you that if he was assigned to that gun he'd have filed some mark on it somewhere.....alas he too is gone now...my brother's father in law just passed away and was at the invasion of Normandy.....and one other survivor who actually witnessed Moussolini hanging on a hook in Milan will be gone soon as well.....it's an era almost gone....get their stories now!

Karl,

Gunners mates were assigned to a specific turret crew. So theoretically a veteran who has served as a gunnersmate on the South Dakota would be able to say "hey that was my gun".

ASS_CLOWN

What a great shot . . . in both senses of the term! I say we park that puppy off the coast of (fill in the blank) and make an impression.

lawndart,

Awsome pic! I found a few surfing:

USS Colorado:



USS Iowa:



USS Nevada;



USS New Jersey:



USS Wisconsin:

Just imagen a round the size of an old VW bug,, going down range 32 miles, and dropping in your lap,A buddy of mine told me when you swung all guns to port or starboard and fire the complete battery, the ship move, 25 yards thru the water side ways..

Oldsarge, I believe you , I have heard the freight train as it roars in,under some what same,same

And then there was the Montana class! Regrettably those in power saw that the war was going to be over before the monsters could ever be launched but if it hadn't been for the geniuses at Los Alamos, you'd have seen real firepower. Mark VII 16", 50 caliber guns, three to the turret in four turrets! Where is gunboat diplomacy when we really need it?

Amazingly, that is not the biggest gun around. The french 520mm howitzer shot 24" diameter 3100lb projectiles, and the German Paris Gun shoot a shell 70 miles with an altitude of 24 miles. The Iraqi supergun fired 1,000mm projectiles, and with the rocket assist could fire items into orbit.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/images/02_supergun.jpg

If you click on the URL of one of the superguns, you can see tiny cars at the bottom of the gun, puts into perspective how long the barrel is.

And there was the 36" mortor developed and tested at the US Ordnance labs that was designed to throw nuclear weapons. None of these was ever particularly practical though the "Paris Express" came closest. The biggest useful guns ever fired remain the wonderful naval rifles of WWII. We shall not see their like again.

Oldsarge,

The Montana's really were nothing but bigger Iowa's. The Iowa's were a little light in the armor, which was accounted for in the Montana's design. Also the Montana's, as you indicated, had one additional triple turret.

Both the Montana's and the Iowa's utilized the AWESOME 16/50 MkVII rifle. That is 16" diameter, 50 calibers long. The Iowa's were the ONLY battleships ever built using the 16" / 50 MkVII.

ASS_CLOWN

quote:

Originally posted by ASS_CLOWN:
Oldsarge,

The Montana's really were nothing but bigger Iowa's. The Iowa's were a little light in the armor, which was accounted for in the Montana's design. Also the Montana's, as you indicated, had one additional triple turret.

Both the Montana's and the Iowa's utilized the AWESOME 16/50 MkVII rifle. That is 16" diameter, 50 calibers long. The Iowa's were the ONLY battleships ever built using the 16" / 50 MkVII.

ASS_CLOWN

I would call them improved Iowa's. What a difference three more MkVII's could have made!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mrlexma:

USS Iowa:



Notice the waterline of the Iowa, the ship under the full recoil of all 9, 16" guns IS MOVING SIDEWAYS, TO PORT. This is a great picture, showing the awsome power of the worlds greatest varmit rifles.

Hog Killer

The New Jersey (BB-62) cuts loose!!

I hope those guys were wearing some hearing protection!!!!



I don't have any details on the photo as to when, etc. Just something I found on the web.
From http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/mk-7.htm

-Bob F.

Do Battleships move sideways when they fire?

See: http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-022.htm
which is a link on:
http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/index_tech.htm

Also see: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.htm

-Bob F.

Are those the Ackley Improved version?

BF,

Neat bunch of sites, to bad they blow away the sideways story. It is always good to learn something new.

Hog Killer

Ok, varmint hunters; Uncle Bull (that's Gerald Bull, not what you might be thinking) had some tricks that he used on his HARP guns (since we were talking about 16 inchers):

First, don't be afraid to weld two barrels together end to end. Remember, length does matter.

Second, sabots work: you can even use wood.

Third, you can always get a little extra velocity by evacuating the air from your barrel, just be sure to cap the barrel with something that you can shoot through.

That's all for now,

45LC

45LC
Its a shame the Mossad knocked him off no telling what could have been next. The man was an outright genious for artillery.
His ultimate goal was always to use a gun to launch spacecraft and sattelites!

What a bunch of wussies...not a single one of you has mentioned the rail car guns....the Gustof Guns of the German army in WWII...
Krupp made the largest guns of history....IIRC 30" bores and ...well I'll let someone else tell us.....maybe you can find the data faster than I!!

Those are what gixxer was talking about when he wrote of Paris guns. The problem was that they had about the same degree of accuracy and thus the same purpose as the V weapons of the second war. Though huge in bore and long in range, they simply do not compare with the great naval rifles in effectiveness. They were not very mobile, having to have track laid wherever they wanted to go. There weren't enough of them to be able to lay down the quantity of fire the battleships could and they're rate of fire was extremely slow, on the order of a few rounds per day if I recall correctly. Impressive, yes, but not practical.

Paris Gun (German WWI)
38cm gun lined down to 21cm, 264lb. proj., 60+ mile range.

Granny (British WWI)
15" Howitzer

Schlanke Emma (Austrian WWI)
30.5cm Howitzer (12.00")

Big Bertha (German WWI)
42cm Howitzer (16.53")

US 14" Railway Gun (1920's)

Anzio Annie German (WWII)
28cm Railway Gun

US Little David (WWII)
36" RML Howitzer 3650lb proj.

Data from (Artillery/Batchelor-Hogg)

quote:

.....it's an era almost gone....get their stories now!

Aint that the truth vapo dog.

Karl.