Has anyone on here ever been on the Missouri or any other battleship to hear the guns ? Let's hear about it .

here's our big guns..... in front of the 16"ers on the Iowa.

Wish. I do remember that when the bicentennial came they thought about firing a salute but decuded not to because it would break too many windows in Brooklyn. I've heard Noone was allowed on deck because of the pressure wave.
Anyone know the pressure? The pure amount of ejecta would nake an impression. Thinking of tge relative noise if a shotgun vs. rifle, and barrel lengths

Heard and saw the New Jersey in 1968, very,very impressive for a WWII battleship.

I'm a Plankowner / original member of USS New Jersey recommissioning crew from 1982.
Served on her from '82 - '86. Not only heard the big guns but fired them too.

I did not serve but did tour the Missouri in Pearl Harbor. Words can’t describe the massiveness of that ship. It must have been quite a show when they touched off those big 16 inch rifles.

And the battleships never switched to smokeless powder. They used black powder right up to the end.

video posted to YouTube on Aug 12, 2021
YouTube channel: Battleship New Jersey
https://www.battleshipnewjersey.org/

Cool! Were you able to look inside the turrets or see the loading gates?

I was off the coast of VA on the naval gun range when they brought the battlewagons back into commission. Watched the Wisconsin fire a broadside from my ship. We were about 5 miles away and it was still incredible. The power those ships had was amazing. I hated to see them go for good but they were worn out and pretty much obsolete. Those 16 inch guns were impressive but in actuality they paled compared to missiles and aircraft.

I was also on the pier in Norfolk doing line handlers when they brought the Iowa in after the turret explosion. Watched the body bags come off and into the ambulances. Very sobering thing to watch. Whole side of the ship was blackened. They had the turret covered in canvas and tarps but it was obvious she was severely damaged.

Missed the New Jersey in Viet Nam but did see the Newport News provide 8 inch NGS for the ground pounders. Quite a sight.

I heard the shells flying over head more than a few times. Also felt the ground shake when they hit.

My father served on the New Jersey. I’ve seen the guns but never heard or seen them in action.

Osky

I was onboard during the recommissioning sea trials. They fired the 16's both individually and a broad side. Impressive to say the least. The muzzle blast, the concussion etc. One could actually see the round in flight. A single firing, I was in space that had just been through field day, white glove. The amount of dust that came out of the overhead was also impressive when the turret fired. The Missouri was always a cleaner ship, the New Jersey was a bit of a dirty burt in comparison,

I’ll ask a guy at work today. He was a Sea Duty Marine on the Missouri.

He said he actually pointed his M16 at Steven Segal when he was on the ship. Scared the crap out of segal he said.

I absolutely hate wasteful government spending, but if I was in charge, there would be a fully functional Iowa class battleship with every carrier group. We waste our tax money in much worse ways than that.

Umm..no

Per Wikipedia:

Each D839 propellant (smokeless powder) grain used for full charges for this gun was 2 in (51 mm) long, 1 in (25 mm) in diameter and had seven perforations, each 0.060 in (1.5 mm) in diameter with a web thickness range of 0.193 to 0.197 in (4.9 to 5.0 mm) between the perforations and the grain diameter. A maximum charge consisted of six silk bags (hence the term "bag gun"), each filled with 110 lb (50 kg) of propellant.

For you handloaders, that’s 770,000 grains of powder per shot!

That 5 fps spread impresses me.

The Jersey was always an amazement to me. It's hard to imagine what those brave men thought on the USS Johnson when the Jap Battle wagons and Cruisers laid in to them. Talk about an adrenalin rush.

My CC in boot camp was GMGC Bender. I bet you guys crossed paths. Saw the Cruise Book from the one after that recommissioning

Some confusion probably comes from the ignitor charge of black powder sewn into a red quilted layer on the end of the silk bags. Red end of bags were loaded facing the breech, firing cartridge set off black powder which in turn ignited main smokeless powder charge. There was maybe a half pound or less of black powder for every 110 pound bag.

Modern artillery propellant charges like the 155mm howitzer still use a few ounces of black powder as an igniter.

Thanks Mike. Glad to hear from a non Google answer

"Guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees" never seemed like a very good analogy.

My father was on an LST in the SW Pacific and he said that at night you could see the red hot shells going overhead during the pre-invasion bombardment. I don’t know if the shells were from battleships or cruisers or both.

Hmmm, how's she group?

Not an onboard witness, but booms heard in DaNang were rumored to be Missouri sourced.

I heard those booms.

After this thread I spent an hour or so reading about the explosion on the IOWA.

What a disaster.

That would be per bag…..so 4,900,000 grains per shot
Don’t want a squib load

Equaling between 20-24 MILE/TONS of energy

Did you get the early read where they were crucifying one poor kid, or the later one where they rescinded that?

Personally, I'd wonder about replacing the turrets with VLS launchers, and replacing the boilers & engines with gas turbines. It would still be a fast, heavily armored ship, but now carrying hundreds of offensive & defensive missiles, with much longer range than the guns.

I've read stories of the naval battles of WWII and it always amazes me how many shells were fired and how far away they engaged. Seems like often there were several hundred firings during a naval battle in order to land a killing blow on the enemy. Imagine the magazine hold on the ship that had to hold all the ammo that ship could fire in a tour at sea . Did they have to return to port to restock or did they restock at sea?

During the Korean War a 156mm shore battery got lucky/unlucky and hit the USS Wisconsin

The captain delivered a full 9 gun salvo obliterating the battery.

A destroyer captain near by radioed the skipper of the Wisconsin “Temper temper Captain”

We didn't really do much underway replenishment during WW-II. In the Pacific, as we took islands back, they would start moving supplies forward to these advanced bases so stocks of shells, bombs and fuel could be picked up in places like Espiritu Santo and not have a trip back to Pearl. The SeeBees did a tremendous job building those bases in rapid fashion as we beat Japan back.

Uhhmmm.... no.

When I was 3 or 4 years old, dad took us to see the San Jacinto Monument where the battleship Texas was berthed.
I can remember wanting to go see it. At that age, my requests didn't carry much weight. We didn't go.

As for the New Jersey, a fellow i worked with told this story. True? I dunno? It was his story.
He was in the Navy. First day "in country" in 'Nam, he was so scared he could't sleep.
After a full day of duty, he was exhausted and fell asleep easily and fitfully.
His barrack sat on the top of a small hill.
Just at daybreak the next morning, a powerful explosion scared him so bad he ran out the back of the barracks and tumbled down the hill in his skivvies!
Once he realized he wasn't about to die, he made his way back to his barrack. Nobody seemed to be that concerned with the noise!
"What the hell was that?", he asked.
One of the guys that had been there told him, "No big deal. It's the New Jersey clearing her guns!"

A very few of my fellow USAF FACs got a chance to work the Jersey (?) against targets in the northern part of 'Nam. The difficulty was the difference in terminology between Army and Navy, but we all learned it, just in case. To a man, they said it was unforgettable. Call in the coords, give the firing instructions, then wait. A minute or so later, the ground simply erupted as bison-weight shells impacted.

It was difficult enough working Navy fighters against a target due to the terminology gap, btw. Navy versus USAF versus Army standards was a booger to remember when you are getting your ass shot at.

MJones: Been on the U.S.S. Missouri battleship MANY times both in Bremerton and in Hawaii.
I was absolutely stunned to learn that some of the "bullets" the U.S.S. Missouri's 16" "guns" could fire weighed 2,700 pounds (two thousand seven hundred pounds!)!
Whilst the U.S.S. Missouri was in Bremerton they had some of those "bullets" (shells) on deck - they weighed more than a Volkswagen Beetle and I forget how many miles they could be slung - something like 27 miles. And if needed to fly further the Captain could flood some ballast tanks on the other side of the ship so they could get some more degrees of elevation for the "guns".
I was told that technique was used on multiple occasions in the Persian Gulf (IIRC).
Will not lie - I shed a tear or two each time I stood under those huge guns on the U.S.S. Missouri.
Worth seeing if ever in Hawaii.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

My Dad was on the USS Evans (DD552) in the South Pacific during WWII. Supporting the Marines at Iwo Jima, they fired a total of 1889 rounds of 5"/38 shells in 12 hours.

A few years ago, I watched an old black and white training film on YouTube on firing those 16 inch guns.
Those turrets consisted of several stories and took around 40 men at that time working together to make those guns fire.
Pretty amazing for late 30’s, early 40’s technology.

I toured the North Carolina a while back. Mind blowing doesn’t even begin to describe the logistics involved in supporting those 16” guns..

400+lbs of powder per shot

That’s part of the disaster. What a mess of incompetence.

The USS New Jersey (BB-62) was the only battleship to see duty in Vietnam.

"USS New Jersey was the only battleship recalled to duty during the Vietnam War. She recommissioned in April 1968 and arrived off Southeast Asia in September. From then until April 1969, she conducted frequent bombardments along the South Vietnamese coast. While preparing for a second Vietnam tour, she was ordered inactivated and decommissioned in December 1969."
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-co...-ships/battleships/new-jersey-bb-62.html

When I was stationed at Hickam AFB, lived in quarters that were right on the ship channel to Pearl Harbor. Carriers were impressive, but seeing the New Jersey coming down the channel was the best of sightings. Interesting factoid is that when firing all the 16 inch guns at one time in a broadside, the ship was pushed some 15 feet broadside through the water from the recoil.

Yep the Showboat is impressive.

It doesn’t move an inch in reality……doesn’t even heel.

7.74 inch seconds if the guns were fired horizontally…..which they seldom are….if the ship was on ice….

Considering it is pushing a wall of water 850’ by 38’…….. it is a fraction of a millimeter

This from the navy

If the battleship suddenly moved 15 feet when a broadside is fired, every member of the crew would be knocked off his feet and many of them would be severely injured or killed. Every piece of equipment not solidly attached to a bulkhead would fall to the deck and be smashed. Every piece of china in the wardroom would be broken, and most of the radars and other electronics would be disabled by the shock.

But it doesn't:

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

Craigster
My dad was also on the USS Evans in the Pacific during WW2.
He wouldn’t talk much about it until late in life, but had some amazing stories.

Most everything on a ship is secured one way or another so it won’t fall in heavy seas. Tables in the galley and/or wardroom are usually made with ~ a 1/4” lip so dishes, etc won’t slide off the table. Most file cabinets have a bar that can be secured to the deck and the top to hold the drawers in rough weather. You won’t find too many rolling office chairs either.

It appears that the ship is moving with the recoil in this picture. Seems to be fairly dramatic.

Maybe the wind is from starboard???

It appears that way.

But it is just the high pressure washing against the side of the ship on top of the water…..like a stiff breeze.

By actual calculation…….less than a millimeter

12.15 tons(9x2700) at 2300 fps against 57,000 tons ……4691:1……..against 850’ x 35’ in water

60 gr bullet at 2300 against a 40 lb rifle …… 4666:1……sliding on a leather bag

Doesn’t move 15’……..and the guns are seldom fired horizontally

Just an end point analysis to show scale

Yes…..it is a tremendous amount of energy……….but a battleship is quite the Fat Bottom Girl

Fat bottomed girl? Got pics?

Need a wide angle lens…..

😂

'
16-inch Gun Turret




source: https://www.history.navy.mil/resear...7/illustrations/sixteen-inch-turret.html

also see: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.php

The Battleship Texas Foundation
https://battleshiptexas.org/


USS Texas (BB-35)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(BB-35)


Cheers! Bob F.

It takes longer to build the guns than to build the rest of the ship I’ve heard

Rifling is .150” deep. Cut with a single cutter

Battleship USS Tennessee and World War 2
video posted to YouTube on Jun 3, 2022
video channel: The History Guy

---

USS Tennessee (BB-43)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tennessee_(BB-43)



After her refit / rebuild following Pearl Harbor.

My step grandfather was on the USS Missoula, an APA at Iwo Jima. The Missoula only had defensive guns and no cannons. They were a troop carrier and brought many of the Marines who landed on the beach to that little engagement. But, he got an eye full of big guns the 7 days they were at Iwo before taking wounded Marines back to Saipan.

kwg