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Ship Photo of the Day

HAL Pilot

Well-Known Member
None
Contributor
...For those of you over a certain age, you might recall the ship’s exploits and unusual arrangement of being commanded by a Navy officer at sea and an Army officer in port served as the inspiration for the movie and TV show, “The Wackiest Ship in the Army....
The Army had more ships than the navy in WW2. They were crewed by Transportation Corps - Water Division commonly referred to as Army Transportation Service (ATS). The large ships were mostly crewed by contract civilians but the smaller vessels were crewed by Army and Coasties loaned to the Army.

http://www.usmm.org/armynavy.html

The Army still has a lot of boats. 49 are large and a whole shitload of harbor/small craft.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/6149/meet-the-biggest-and-baddest-ships-in-the-us-army

http://www.transportation.army.mil/maritime/watercraft.html
 

Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
And on the last day of 2017, lead ship of the Iowa class battleships: USS Iowa (BB-61). Originally planned for a class of 6 (Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois and Kentucky), the last 2 ships were cancelled and and finally broken up in 1959. (The Illinois and Kentucky had a slight hull redesign that gave them 20% better protection against torpedoes.)

These ships were designed before the new super-heavy 2,700 lb AP shells - thus their main armor belt of 12" was only proof against the standard 2,200 lb 16" AP shell - which was the biggest shell anyone had outside of the Yamato. Outside of the norm for American battleship design, they were designed for maximum speed. Previous US battleships were either 21 knots, or the fast battleships of the North Carolina and South Dakota classes were 28 knots. The steam turbines not only gave 212,000 HP, but were designed for a 20% overload. New Jersey (lightly loaded) managed 35.2 knots sustained for 6 hours in 1968, during WW2 at the Battle of Truk, Iowa and New Jersey gave chase at 32.5 knots to the Japanese destroyer Nowaki but were unable to catch her. They attempted shots at ranges of 39,000 yards and bracketed the fleeing destroyer, just missing the longest range battleship gun hit. (This is a 50% jump over the actual longest battleship hit, 26,000 yards disputed between HMS Warspite and the Kriegsmarine Scharnhorst.) Another distinguishing feature was a very heavy anti-aircraft armament of 10 dual mount 5" guns, 20 quad mount 40mm Bofors and 49 single mount 20mm Oerlikons.

The Iowa class was brought back for both shore bombardment in Korea. During the Cold War, designers added 32 Tomahawks, 16 Harpoons and 4 CIWS's to the battleships as the centerpiece of a surface action group to counter the Soviet Kirov class cruisers. The Iowa class was also the basis for a number of proposals to turn the ships into hybrid battleship / carriers.

Length: 887', Beam: 108', Displacement: 58,400 tons at full load. 212,000 HP gave 32.5 knots and a tremendous range of 14,890 NM at 15 knots.
Main armament: 9 x 16"/50 cal firing 2,700 lb shells, 20 x 5"/38 cal secondaries
Commissioned: 1943, Final Decommissioning: 1990, Struck: 2006

Battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) in Shakedown Tests - February 1943



800px-BB61_USS_Iowa_BB61_broadside_USN.jpg

A bow view of the battleship USS IOWA (BB-61) firing its Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber guns off the starboard side during a fire power demonstration.

1024px-USS_Iowa_%28BB-61%29_Preps.jpg

Iowa in the Pacific; Indiana can be seen in the distance

USS_Missouri_transfers.JPG

Missouri (left) transfers personnel to Iowa in advance of the surrender ceremony planned for 2 September.

800px-Battle_Group_Alpha_%28Midway%2C_Iowa%29_underway%2C_1987.jpg

Battlegroup Alpha with the Iowa and the Midway.

bb-62-bbbg-dnsn8700356.jpg

As the centerpiece of a Surface Action Group, the Navy of the late 1980's operated 4 battleships in addition to its 15 carriers.


Here are a couple of the proposals to turn the battleship into a hybrid carrier for helicopters and/or Harriers.
https://warisboring.com/the-battlecarrier-was-part-battleship-part-aircraft-carrier/
1*Qg75qREf8eJG1PbiqhsGZg.jpeg


1*Zh_m78YEiA6k3Aws5JXJQQ.png
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
I wonder how loud it was in the helo when that 9-gun photo was captured.

Also, I still don't understand how the Long Beach stays upright.
 

GroundPounder

Well-Known Member
The Army had more ships than the navy in WW2. They were crewed by Transportation Corps - Water Division commonly referred to as Army Transportation Service (ATS). The large ships were mostly crewed by contract civilians but the smaller vessels were crewed by Army and Coasties loaned to the Army.

http://www.usmm.org/armynavy.html

The Army still has a lot of boats. 49 are large and a whole shitload of harbor/small craft.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/6149/meet-the-biggest-and-baddest-ships-in-the-us-army

http://www.transportation.army.mil/maritime/watercraft.html


My dad had two older cousins that took different paths after 7 Dec 41. One of the brothers enlisted in the Army within weeks. The other brother holds off until his draft is imminent, he preemptively joins the Coast Guard and is quite vocal about living through the war.

The guy who enlisted right away lands a day or so after D day and rides a tank ( but did not hold a general's rank ) all the way to Berlin.

The guy who did everything he could to ensure his survival dies on D day driving a landing craft. Funny how things work out.
 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
I was in Lebanon in early 84 when the New Jersey was blasting Syrian positions there. What a thunder-maker that thing was. Couldn’t hit with much accuracy, but it looked fantastic.
 

Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
As 2017 ended on the Iowa class, a good way to start 2018 would be with its designed but never built successor: the 5 ship Montana Class. (Montana, Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire and Louisiana.) Looking like an enlarged Iowa class with a 4th triple 16" turret, the Montana's were more different than their appearance suggests. The "standard" class battleline (Colorado and all previous classes) was 21 knots, the North Carolina and South Dakota class battlelines were set for 28 knots - the designed speed of the Montana class. The Iowas appear to be anomaly - not so much for being confined to the battleline but also being to rundown and destroy any other battleship with their 32.5 knot speed.

As mentioned above, the Montana's sacrificed speed for more protection. The armor belt was not only increased 33% (from 12" to 16"), but it was moved to become an exterior belt as in the North Carolina class for increased protection against torpedoes. (The armor belt on the South Dakota and Iowa classes was an interior belt - which allowed more flooding and made maintenance more difficult.)

As the 16"/50 cal Mark 7 was considered by most to be the best battleship gun of WW2 (nearly matching the Yamato's 18.1" in penetrating power but weighing substantially less.), the decision was made to add a 4th turret. In addition to the the extra 16" turret (which allowed the Montana class to have a bigger broadside than the Yamato class), the 5" guns were now a 5"/54 vice the older 5"/38". This allowed a new shell (69 lbs vs the older 55 lbs) and increased range from 17,000 yards to 25,000 yards.

Length: 920', Beam: 121', Displacement: 72,100 tons. 172,000 HP gave 28 knots and a range of 15,000 NM at 15 knots (another feature of US battleships was tremendous range as compared to other nations)
Main armament: 12 x 16"/50 cal with a shell weight of 2,700 lbs. Secondary: 20 x 5"/54 cal with a shell weight of 69 lbs.

Montana_Class.png


1920px-Battleship_Study_-_BB65_-_Scheme_4_-_%281940_Studies%29.jpg


1920px-USS_Montana_line_drawing.jpg


1250px-Iowa_16_inch_Gun-EN.svg.png


1920px-USS_Montana_bb67.jpg
 

Duc'-guy25

Well-Known Member
pilot
I wonder how loud it was in the helo when that 9-gun photo was captured.

Also, I still don't understand how the Long Beach stays upright.

https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/intact-stability-of-surface-ships/

Transverse CG stays inboard of Transverse CB and life is good. The thing is when you look at ships you have to remember most of what is above the water line is just air (IE hangers, superstructure, empty containers), so its really not that dense at all when you compare it to ballast, machinery, cargo, and fuel which have the greatest impact on TCG.

I know you weren't looking for an answer but I gave you one...
 
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