south dakota class

[Masherbrum]

Yep.  West Virginia, Maryland, Tennesee, California and Pennsylvania were the Pearl survivors that were in on that fight.  Over time I've been hunting histories of all the clipper bow BBs and Mississippi is the only one I haven't been able to come across.

Good works out there on California, Tennessee, West Virginia, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and Maryland.  For some reason I just really like the look of those BBs.  

I've always been a sucker for the Iowa's, but I believe you've converted me.   BB's just have a look of elegance that is no longer seen in today's ships.  

Neat pictures of the Mississippi:

[Guppy35]

The Google LIFE archive has some good photos.  I believe this is New Mexico in really nice color

[GtoRA2]

Navada post atomic bomb...

[Serenity]

i still think that the so daks were the best pound for pound. i also think the layout and damage control of the the ship was better in that if the outer props were hit, the inner props were still protected by the armored skirt. the guns also had a better firing angle over the bow than the idaho with its "clipper" bow.

Battleships can never fire straight over the bow or the stern. Considering the Missouri's broad-side moves the ship 6 feet to the side in the water, picture an accordion

[Blooz]

Battleships can never fire straight over the bow or the stern. Considering the Missouri's broad-side moves the ship 6 feet to the side in the water, picture an accordion

Huh?

They shoot just fine over bow and stern. Takes more work to shoot over the stern but it's not a problem.

[Guppy35]

Navada post atomic bomb...


(Image removed from quote.)

Always struck me as short sighted that at least one of the Pearl Harbor BBs wasn't preserved after the war.  Yeah I know the Arizona is still there, but imagine the West Virginia in the spot the Missouri sits, and then being able to walk the decks while learning the story.  Talk about a missed step back in time.  Nevada would have been a logical choice too considering her aborted, but epic sortie attempt that morning.

[Guppy35]

Battleships can never fire straight over the bow or the stern. Considering the Missouri's broad-side moves the ship 6 feet to the side in the water, picture an accordion

Not sure where that info came from Serenity.  Olendorf 'crossed the T" at Suriago Straights, meaning his BBs were lined up across the bow of the Japanese BBs so he could fire broadside, and the Japanese were limited to their forward turrets. 

[Masherbrum]

Battleships can never fire straight over the bow or the stern. Considering the Missouri's broad-side moves the ship 6 feet to the side in the water, picture an accordion

Not true bud.   

[Lusche]

Considering the Missouri's broad-side moves the ship 6 feet to the side in the water, picture an accordion

To calculate the velocity of the USS New Jersey moving sideways, what you need to consider is conservation of momentum.  A 16" Mark 8 APC shell weighs 2,700 lbs. and the muzzle velocity when fired is 2,500 feet per second (new gun).

The USS New Jersey weighs about 58,000 tons fully loaded (for ships, a ton is 2,240 lbs.) - Emphasis added on 16 June 2006 in an effort to stop vision-impaired individuals from sending Emails about the "missing" 2,000 in the equations below.

All weights must be divided by 32.17 to convert them to mass.

If the battleship were standing on ice, then:

Mass of broadside * Velocity of broadside = Mass of ship * Velocity of ship

9 * (2,700 / 32.17) * 2,500 = 58,000 * (2,240 / 32.17) * Velocity of ship

Solving for the ship's velocity:

Velocity of ship = [9 * (2,700 / 32.17) * 2,500] / [58,000 * (2,240 / 32.17)] = 0.46 feet per second

So, ship's velocity would be less than 6 inches per second, ON ICE.

This analysis excludes effects such as (1) roll of the ship, (2) elevation of the guns (3) offset of the line of action of the shell from the centre of gravity of the ship and (4) forces imposed by the water on the ship. These are variously significant, and will all tend to reduce the velocity calculated above.

Greg Locock

http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-022.htm

[Serenity]

Not sure where that info came from Serenity.  Olendorf 'crossed the T" at Suriago Straights, meaning his BBs were lined up across the bow of the Japanese BBs so he could fire broadside, and the Japanese were limited to their forward turrets. 

Was told by several former crew of the USS Missouri. True it is second hand info.

[Karnak]

Was told by several former crew of the USS Missouri. True it is second hand info.

The design of the King George V class BBs was intended to maximize forward firing options.  It made them very wet battleships.  BBs like the Iowas and Yamatos could not fire as flat of a trajectory forward due to the shape of the hull, but they handled heavy seas far better.

[Guppy35]

The design of the King George V class BBs was intended to maximize forward firing options.  It made them very wet battleships.  BBs like the Iowas and Yamatos could not fire as flat of a trajectory forward due to the shape of the hull, but they handled heavy seas far better.

What heavy seas?   USS California riding out the storm.


Turns out another of the older clipper bow BBs, the USS Colorado fired more tonnage, and spent more time in combat then any other ship in the US fleet during WW2.  Missed Pearl so not a familiar name, but clearly she did her work well.

[B4Buster]

Nice pic, is that an aircraft catapault on the back I assume?

[Guppy35]

Nice pic, is that an aircraft catapault on the back I assume?

Yep.  Kingfishers on em.

[Baumer]

There was an FC1 in my division on the USS Independence, he was the last one to fire turret number 1 on the USS Missouri. He had plenty of sea stories about shooting the 16" guns (like messing up the SINS). 

Here's a link to the turret operating procedures, the turrets could fire over the bow the same as broadside. Turrets 1 & 3 were limited to -2 degrees elevation, and turret 2 was limited to 0 degrees elevation.

http://www.eugeneleeslover.com/AMMUNITION/NAVORD-OP-769-TITLE-AND-FORWARD.html