5 Inch Guns

[Nemisis]

That is very possible.

I always aim for LA-7s.  Because I hate them.  I hate them to their very last rivet.  I will persecute them to no end.  I show no quarter to LA-7s.

Bring it on AP, BRING...IT...ON!!!


Lets see if you can shoot me down in a wirble, or if my cannons will kill you first.


Just kidding.................or am I?

[APDrone]

LOL... I'll still aim at you.. but, with a wirby, I probably won't hit you. 

I don't think I could hit a Shark with freakin' Laser beam with a barn door skin with that beast. 

Paints pretty pictures in the sky with my tracers, tho...

[SIM]

I spent four years working on and in 5 inch 38 caliber gun mounts for the US Navy. The biggest difference I see is not the accuracy of the guns but rather the firing rate.

If a gun crew were to fire as many shells as can be done in AH, that crew would receive a burial at sea shortly after the completion of the firing.

A single mount 5 inch normally has a crew of 8 within the mount itself. There were 10 in the upper handling room and a minimum of 3 in the magazine. Thats 21 personnel necessary for a gun shoot. That is not counting the fire control folks in gun plot and the gun director.

The firing rate of the twin 5 inch mounts would be faster, but with the same consequences. Men can only work so fast and those mounts are hot, noisy and cramped.

A single 5 inch 38 mount crew could put out a max of MAYBE 8 rounds per minute.

The projectile for a 5 inch 38 caliber mount wieghed in at 55lbs. The powder canister weighed 35lbs.
Even a man in optimum physical condition would give out quickly having to manually load those shells for an extended period(3-5 minutes).

One of the biggest issues we had with those guns was the shock waves generated by firing. The projectile hoist from the upper handling room to the mount was activated by a series of cams within the hoist. When the gun fired these cams would be knocked out of their mounts causing the hoist to repeatedly cycle. This was a dangerous situation at best as this most often happened when a projectile was ready to be lifted to the mount.

[DREDger]

interesting post above 

[Brooke]

Yes -- thank you for that information, SIM.

[SIM]

We used to run a firing equation called "Quickdraw".
When operating as part of a squadron or TG, we would receive orders from the flagship to fire 5 rounds on a specific bearing in less than one minute. Normally we would have the rounds stowed in the mount itself for this exercise. The gun crew for this exercise was made up entirely of the Gunners from Fox Div. All 5 of us would run to the mount, light off the equipment, train out on bearing, elevate and fire the rounds. Was kinda neat seeing the Chief huff and puff his way thru the passageways to get to the mount.
Those mounts could and often were fired with less than a full complement of crew. But the gunners paid the price over the next couple of days.

[Sincraft]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_fuze