USS Utah Unusual Armament

K

kdriver

Library Staff
Staff member
With Talon's Pearl Harbour missions I finally got to see what the Utah looked like. Does anyone else have her armed with log cabins?
 
Havent tried it but...

kdriver said:
With Talon's Pearl Harbour missions I finally got to see what the Utah looked like. Does anyone else have her armed with log cabins?
Click to expand...

Unusual camouflage for a ship! May be someone hoped it would be mistaken for a very, very, very big tree log (in a river)!

Beware of fires!

Cheers, Discus
 
By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, the USS Utah was no longer an operational battleship. It served as a Target Ship. Some of the crud on top of the turrets may be ballast because the ship no longer carried armament.

- Ivan.
 
Utah had her topsides covered in timbers to absorb practice ordnance dropped on it. According to some histories, the timber covered decks caused many IJN pilots to think she was the aircraft carrier they hoped to find anchored in Pearl. That caused the Utah to be singled out as a target for many extra dive bombing attacks.

The attention detail in the PHP scenery and missions is phenomenal. If you haven't loaded PHP up yet, you are really missing something special for CFS2.
 
USS Utah

The USS Utah, as far as I know, is still on the bottom of Pearl Harbor. She was anchored on the west side of Ford Island and, like the USS Arizona, is the grave of many of her crew.
 
The "log cabins" were in reality corrugated steel maintenance sheds constructed around the 5" practice AA mounts while in harbor. These are visible in the capsizing photo. As she was no longer a battleship, her main armament was removed. In addition to Utah being a bombing trainer (target ship), she was also a trainer for anti aircraft gunnery proficiency. Many AA gunners received their training on USS Utah prior to her loss.
 
Fantastic Information Guys!.....

begs the question: was she armed enough to try and defend herself during the attack?
 
As far as being armed enough there are sites describing her armed with 5", 1.1", 20mm's and 50 cals for AA training. Whether she carried 'live' ammo, I'm not sure. However other USN ships designated as auxiliary (Utah was changed from BB-31 to AG-16) were armed enough to contribute to the defense that morning. Utah was one of the first ships torpedoed and capsized within minutes. Theres lots more info at this site: http://www.ussutah.org/Default.htm

BTW that is a very accurate rendition of Utah for a flight simulator! Awesome job whomever deserves the credit.:medals:
 
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