Battleship loads

[Bob Eaton]

I served aboard the Iowa as a Midshipman the summer of 1948. As we left Pearl Harbor, the Navy towed the Nevada, which had endured the atomic tests at Eniwetok, out to sea. Later that week the Iowa fired several broadsides at her. The "I", like her sister ships the Missouri and the Wisconsin, had a semi-hinged armor belt, which allowed a certain flexibility. I don't know if she moved sideways in the water, but she sure did vibrate when the 16's went off. For most of the broadsides I was, mercifully, below decks. (The Navy, or possibly the Air Force, was testing some top secret weapns.) However, when battle stations were manned, I was issued some cotton to stuff in my ears (!) and went up to my little 20 mm. gun tub.

We were warned over the bull horn when the 16's were going to fire. We were told that opening our muths and screaming might help. Those 16's were truly awesome. The effect was a little like being simultaneously punched in the face, chest, abdomen, and gonads. Oddly enough, though the sound of the 16's was extremely loud, it was not as painful as the 5 inch 38's located both fore and aft of my 20 mm tub. Nor of the quad 40 mm. six feet above me and just inboard. The muzzle blast of the 40's used to knock my cap off.

Needless to say, I have a deep notch in my audiological profile at 4000 Hz.

[Lee Stone]

[quote] Oddly enough, though the sound of the 16's was extremely loud, it was not as painful as the 5 inch 38's located both fore and aft of my 20 mm tub. Nor of the quad 40 mm. six feet above me and just inboard. The muzzle blast of the 40's used to knock my cap off. [/quote]

Considering the lenght of those barrels, I wonder if the fact that the muzzles were so far over the side, putting you way behind the blast, could have some bearing on the fact that the noise was not as painful as that of the 5 inchers or the quad 40s. You were obviously quite close to the muzzles of those guns.

I, of course, never having been there don't know. What do you think Bob?

[Bob Eaton]

Lee,

You are right concerning being behind the muzzles. but not by as much as you might think. My 20 mm tub was considerably starboard of the center line. On the USS Iowa web site, there is a magnificent picture taken from directly above of the firing of a broadside. You can make out rather strange catenary shaped shock waves being propagated.

Partially, I think, it was the badic frequency of the 16's sound--very low pitched boom. The 5 inch 38's had a nasty sound. Imagine the largest whip in the world cracking--to the tenth power.

Cheers and good shooting,

[RMulhern]

Watch this BIG GUN shoot and what takes place in the impact area! It's worth taking time to download it!!

http://www.vce.com/grable.html

[Texas Shooter]

Sharpsman:

Unbelievable web site. Spooky.

Ty
aka Texas Shooter

[Mike Hansen]

The IOWA class battleships were provided with a nuclear projectile. The Mk 23 "Katie" munition was to be carried by the four ships, but was never deployed.

http://www.warships1.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.htm

[Omak Cowboy]

The Miss with a nuclear shells.. COOL, that ought to have put the frear of GOD into some nasty folks!

There is no such thing as too much gun!