USS North Carolina

I think the only damage suffered during the deployment was when a neighboring ship opened up with her CIWS (Phalanx) on some chaff and hit her, closest was a round that went through an officers head porthole and missed someone "away" from his battle station by a few inches... Low angle AA fire in formation as a recuring issue during WWII.

T
 
Silkworm, that's what the Iraqis fired at "Big MO" in "Gulf War I". They fired two, one of which crashed short of target. The other was shot down by HMS Gloucester, firing Sea Dart missiles. (Love Google...) I thought it was something other than an Exocet, but couldn't remember what. Rgr of low angle "friendly fire" mishaps!
 
This pic shows something that was unique to the North Carolina and her sister Washington. Something that was changed in both South Dakota and Iowa class battlewagons, after experience at sea revealed a need for a change...

 
Yep, secondary battery was raised a deck. Believe you are right, was a Silkworm. Apparently they sent an RPV back down the launch track and found the site, which they pasted....

T
 
Though the deck photo does not show it well, the 5" 38 twin mounts have a two slope top, the back most portion of the mount parallel wiht the base and the front 2/3 sloped about 10 deg. Most had a hood for the gun captains hatch to help protect from blast effects from adjacent guns.

Tom
 
I seem to recall one of the many injustices with the Iowa incident was the fact that some of the leadership wanted to set a long distance shoot record. That was part of the shell game with the investigation. The officer whose idea it was to set the record skated through the investigation and they were pushing the blame on one of the casualties. All for one of those lifer type records that no one will ever care about.
 
The person pushing various experiments on Iowa was Master Chief Skelly, often to the discomfort of the turret crews. It was amazing how uninterested and uniformed about the 16 inch gunnery that Capt Moosally and his weapons officer were.

One of the experiments was to use a full load of a faster burning powder with the heavy 2700 lb shell, powder tha was designed to be used with the 1900 lb high capacity shell. Faster powders with heavier projectiles create higher pressures, and higher velocities. Use of the D846 powder was prohibited for use with the 2700 lb shell....

T
 
fliger747 said:
The person pushing various experiments on Iowa was Master Chief Skelly, often to the discomfort of the turret crews. It was amazing how uninterested and uniformed about the 16 inch gunnery that Capt Moosally and his weapons officer were.

One of the experiments was to use a full load of a faster burning powder with the heavy 2700 lb shell, powder tha was designed to be used with the 1900 lb high capacity shell. Faster powders with heavier projectiles create higher pressures, and higher velocities. Use of the D846 powder was prohibited for use with the 2700 lb shell....

T
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Yeah that's it. It has been a long time since I read up on it but I seemed to remember reading was it was the Master Chief and the weapons officer's pet project they pushed. The military is rife with these lifer projects that serve to make them stand out from the crowd come promotion board time.
 
There were some interesting experiments done, including a sabot round out to 100,000 yds. After an accident everyone goes into CYA mode. I am glad to see that a number of these historic ladies are preserved. Sadly several of the most historic or sucessful WWII ships met the cutters torch, including Enterprise and Washington.

After the war, everyon's brother or cousin had served in the Navy, today few know what the inside of a warship looks like, or how the war atr sea in the analogue era was fought.

T
 
fliger747 said:
There were some interesting experiments done, including a sabot round out to 100,000 yds. After an accident everyone goes into CYA mode. I am glad to see that a number of these historic ladies are preserved. Sadly several of the most historic or sucessful WWII ships met the cutters torch, including Enterprise and Washington....
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And South Dakota! Interesting to note that besides the Iowa class ships, no battleship named for a land-locked State has survived the scrap yard. Why would Florida spend any time and money trying to preserve the USS Indiana, after all? Probably why none of the Pre-war carriers survived either.

- Paul
 
Texas is around, as is North Carolina. There are a couple still around - but you're right, there not one from a land-locked state.

That sort of tendency you speak of isn't confined just to that part of the Navy. In my agency, during the Iowa investigation, there was a lot of buzz about how quickly the two "miscreants" were identified following the incident. I, who had a few years under my belt by then, was mystified at how quickly these two crew members could be identified with such certainty by the senior investigators in Norfolk who were handling the probe for the DON. Won't go into that aspect any further. I was quick to note we had not as an agency (apparently) engaged the independent consulting services of anyone, within the Navy or Army or elsewhere, who had any experience with these guns or their support systems - that is, beyond those already provided by the Navy, who may have had their own viewpoint to advocate. The Army did operate them for many years within the Coast Artillery Corps. I know because Dad was one of the guys who did. There were a number of CAC veterans, plus their Association, who also could have been consulted but were not. There was a rush to blame people rather than equipment, propellant, and training, which turned out to be the causes after all - just as I maintained at the time but was dismissed. It was an overram of the powder bags, caused by equipment problems and not-quite-completed training, that caused the explosion. It doesn't bring back the dead, but it does do them and their families justice and clears them of blame. You're absolutely right about the command environment on that ship. For a first-rate look at the circumstances leading up to the accident, the investigation and the aftermath, read "A Glimpse of Hell," can't remember the author, it's in storage over on the mainland. AFAIK nothing more was ever said about the two investigators who were running the show for my agency. This incident is one of the two big reasons - the other being Tailhook - my former agency changed its name. Sandia National Laboratory solved this one, not my former agency.
 
PRB said:
And South Dakota! Interesting to note that besides the Iowa class ships, no battleship named for a land-locked State has survived the scrap yard. Why would Florida spend any time and money trying to preserve the USS Indiana, after all? Probably why none of the Pre-war carriers survived either.

- Paul
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When it became apparent "Enterprise" (CV-6) couldn't be saved from the breaker's yard, an effort was launched to at least save the ship's Sky Control station (what you see on its tripod legs high above the superstructure, in pictures) and mount it on the top of the stadium in Philadelphia where the Army-Navy game is played every year. That effort also failed. If it hadn't the skyline of Philly might have been different.

I was on lead work once to South Dakota. After flying into Sioux Falls, I noted a sign in town saying something about the USS South Dakota memorial. Drove over there quickly to see what this was about. I recall seeing an outline of the ship's hull in the ground composed of white-painted poured concrete, on a 1:1 scale. There were a couple of other artifacts as well (I think a piece of armor from the ship was one of them) and a plaque or sign but that was about it. Discounting Surigao Strait, I believe North Carolina and South Dakota were the only other American battleships to engage major Japanese warships in surface action in WWII. Out of all these ships, only one survived the scrapyard. Sad.
 
Well USS Wisconsin is named after a Land locked state. Your not going to get her to Wisconsin as a museum ship.
 
It was Washington and not North Carolina that slugged it out off Savo alongside South Dakota in the second naval battle of Guadalcanal. Washington, under the guidance of radar and gunnery expert Willis A "Ching" Lee in a matter of minutes Washington hit Krishima with nine out of 75 16" shells fired, making a wreck of the ship and leading to her loss three hours later. Washington recieved no hits in return. Sodak by contrast was illuminated and bombarded with numerous hits of all callibers, and suffered significant damage to upperworks, but not a single penetration of her armor. Though taken for a loop that night, she was right back in reasonable fighting trim not long afterwards. However this opportunity was taken to head back stateside for overhaul and complete repair of all the battle damage.

T
 
Actually Wisconsin is not totally a landlocked state.... You probably could get a Battleship through the St Lawrence seaway, maybe, not sure what the lock dimensions are. That's how U505 got to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Certainly lots of ocean going ships have access to Superior and lake Michigan.

But you are right, it's not on the ocean.....

T
 
You know, you're right and I forgot S. Dakota got fairly well roughed up that night. Nothing vital was hit but lots of sheet metal damage. I remember now there was a list at the memorial of crew members lost in that battle. When SODAK came back to the States she went into the yard as mentioned; at the Washington Navy Yard there is a section of the ship's armor plate that was hit by a major-caliber Japanese projectile. Interesting to note how the armor plate almost looks like it flowed as if it were molten where the shell hit, but never penetrated. One of the ship's screws is there as well. I remember reading Lee got on the TBS (Talk Between Ships) radio that night on his approach and was telling the American ships to "get the hell out out of the way, I'm coming through!" Lots of politically-incorrect senior officers in those days - thank God.
 
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