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Wonder how they rate them. In terms of battles? We just toured the Iowa, sister to the Missouri a couple of weeks ago. It's only been open for two years. Quite the ship! Attachment 9445
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I am no navy man. I know of every ship but the Mikasa.Originally Posted by Peter1469
I need to find out since the article did not say.
Would it be fair to rate them ship vs ship as opposed to discussing how some were sank by airplanes?
I have stood on the deck of the then active duty Missouri and since it was active, most of the ship was off limits at the time. I later stood on the deck of the Wisconsin at Norfolk VA and marveled at the condition and was able to see a bit more of that ship.
I also recall the magazine explosion on one of the battle ships when it happened.
I know enough about tanks to know if one can destroy the ammunition inside the tank, the tank gets destroyed.
I wish the article addressed the safety factor in the ships guns. I realize our ships could bring up ammo from the inside of the ship but don't know a thing as to how much ammo was in the turret during active firing periods.
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The Iowa lost 47 sailors to an explosion of one of the 16" guns.
Fascinating to see how the guns were packed. Those are some big ass explosive projectiles!
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Yes they are.
ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
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I was on the aircraft carrier Saratoga when we linked up with the Iowa battle group and the Coral Sea battle group for a joint operation in the Mediterranean in 1987.
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We had the M-65 Atomic Cannon in Germany when I was there. It is enormous. It has a bore of 280 mm or 11 inches and it was simply huge.
I have been on battle ships and the ship is so large, in a way you don't appreciate the raw size of it's guns.
5 inches larger in bore than the Atomic Cannon. Simply amazing.
M-65 Atomic Cannon.jpg
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To add more about the M-65 atomic Cannon, it also used the system Battle ships to load powder.
I did not measure the projectile at the time but standing on end, it came up to my hips at the least. It was 11 inches in diameter and I saw how they loaded it. Though the Army was in the process of phasing them out, they were at the time still classified top secret. I tried to discuss his cannon with some Lt at the time but he kept saying, sorry that is classified.
The photo I included above does not show the two enormous trucks that was hooked up to each end of the gun. The trucks are twins I believe and will tow the gun in either direction. One truck moves forward as the other moves backward. It was pretty clever how they did that. And the Lt did say it fired a round and moved. I asked why and he said because radar can track such large projectiles. Bear in mind what it fired though. A nuclear bomb. So far as I am aware, the Navy did not fire nuclear bombs from the 16 inch guns.
If a poster knows the navy was able to fire nuclear bombs from the 16 inch guns, let me know.
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Never heard of it although the size of Navy 14 inch and 16 inch guns made it possible. I suspect they didn't bother spending money on R&D since they already had nuclear torpedoes and missiles which were cheaper, more flexible and more easily upgradeable.
Bob (11-01-2014)
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They used tomahawks on the Iowa, and yes they could carry nukes. I think they said the longest range hit was 26.9 miles.
Peter1469 (11-01-2014)
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