Ship Photo of the Day

[Randy Daytona]

Perhaps the single greatest display of anti-aircraft gunnery of WW2 came from the Sumner class destroyer USS Hugh W Hadley DD-774. While on picket duty off of Okinawa with the Fletcher class destroyer USS Evans, the 2 destroyers were attacked by over 100 Japanese aircraft on May 11th, 1945.

Using 1940’s era radar and computing, her six 5”/38 caliber cannons firing proximity fused shells, along with twelve 40mm Bofors and eleven 20mm Oerkilons shot down 23 attacking Japanese aircraft. (USS Evans shot down 15 as well) Ultimately, a couple of kamikaze airplanes got through as ammunition ran low and then a rocket propelled Ohka with a 2600 lb warhead finally put the destroyer out of commission, although she remained afloat and was towed home.

https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-046/h-046-3.html

(my late uncle was a radarman aboard USS Oberrender DE-344 mentioned at the beginning of the article - she too was hit by a kamikaze and knocked out of the war)



USS Hugh W. Hadley


San Diego, CA area 23 December 1944 to 20 February 1945 period.


Battle damage diagram dated May 11 1945.

 

[Griz882]

Perhaps the single greatest display of anti-aircraft gunnery of WW2 came from the Sumner class destroyer USS Hugh W Hadley DD-774. While on picket duty off of Okinawa with the Fletcher class destroyer USS Evans, the 2 destroyers were attacked by over 100 Japanese aircraft on May 11th, 1945.

Using 1940’s era radar and computing, her six 5”/38 caliber cannons firing proximity fused shells, along with twelve 40mm Bofors and eleven 20mm Oerkilons shot down 23 attacking Japanese aircraft. Ultimately, a couple of kamikaze airplanes got through as ammunition ran low and then a rocket propelled Ohka with a 2600 lb warhead finally put the destroyer out of commission, although she remained afloat and was towed home.

https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-046/h-046-3.html

(my late uncle was a radarman aboard USS Oberrender DE-344 mentioned at the beginning of the article - she too was hit by a kamikaze and knocked out of the war)


View attachment 45166
USS Hugh W. Hadley

View attachment 45167
San Diego, CA area 23 December 1944 to 20 February 1945 period.

View attachment 45168
Battle damage diagram dated May 11 1945.

View attachment 45169

Excellent post. The fights all along the Okinawa picket line were remarkable for their ferocity. When all things are considered, especially the casualties, it is impressive we lost so few ships (actually sunk).

 

[Randy Daytona]

Excellent post. The fights all along the Okinawa picket line were remarkable for their ferocity. When all things are considered, especially the casualties, it is impressive we lost so few ships (actually sunk).

Amazing that those 2 destroyers took out 38 attacking aircraft - compared to just 5 years earlier half as many airplanes sank Force Z’s battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Wonder how the Pacific campaign, and warship design in general, would have changed had the proximity fused shells been in wide use at the beginning of WW2.

 

[Llarry]

Not a photo -- yet -- but nonetheless an interesting new Chinese PLAN SSN design that is under construction in North China. Only a small hump in place of the traditional submarine sail. This graphic compares the new design (designation not yet known) with the Type 095 SSN.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Today being Father’s Day, perhaps a look at the “Big Daddy” of US battleships, the never completed 5 Montana class bruisers. In particular, the largest design seriously considered was BB-65-8. Guns?, Armor?, Speed? Yes.

Length was 1,050 ft, Beam 116 ft and displacement at full load was hitting 80,000 tons.

12 (4x3) of the most excellent Mark 7 16”/50 caliber cannons were the main armament. Although an 18” weapon was considered throwing a monstrous 3,800 lb shell, only 8 could be carried versus the 12 16” cannons with 2,700 lb shells. The standard 20 (10x2) 5” cannons were the secondaries - although these were the new 5”/54’s with bigger shells and 50% greater range. As usual, as many smaller anti-aircraft guns that could fit, although by the time these ships would have been ready, the new twin 3” automatic cannons with proximity shells would replaced the quad 40mm Bofors and the powered Thunderbolt quad 20mm would have replaced the single 20mm Oerkilons - a defense that propeller airplanes would have extreme difficulty penetrating.

Armor was a massive 15.3” external belt (25% greater than the Iowas) with 6.2” of deck armor.

Horsepower was estimated at 320,000 SHP (50% more than the Iowas) to drive these leviathans at 33 knots - interestingly it would have required 6 shafts.






From the Youtube website Grim Reapers which specializes in naval battles, one can see the fully designed models with both 16” and 18” guns.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

20 January 1962. USS Noa, coming to the rescue. The Friendship 7, with John Glenn aboard for the first US orbital spaceflight, splashed down in the North Atlantic about 220 miles northwest of Puerto Rico, 40 miles short of the planned landing zone. Retrofire calculations had not taken into account spacecraft mass loss due to use of onboard consumables. USS Noa (DD-841), a destroyer code-named "Steelhead", had spotted the spacecraft when it was descending on its parachute. The destroyer was about 6 miles away when it radioed Glenn that it would reach him shortly. Noa came alongside Friendship 7 seventeen minutes later.



John Glenn enjoying the hospitality of the USS Noa.

 

[Gatordev]

It really is amazing when you think about the engineering and American manufacturing at the time. I'm of course talking about the chair, as it was still in service in 2010 on my last deployment.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

I'm of course talking about the chair, as it was still in service in 2010 on my last deployment.

And to think it was a brand new chair when the Noa left the Bath Iron Works after her launch in 1945. We definitely got our money's worth out of that contract.

 

[GroundPounder]

And to think it was a brand new chair when the Noa left the Bath Iron Works after her launch in 1945. We definitely got our money's worth out of that contract.

I have a chair in my office that I can see in a picture taken at our.HQ in 1920. It's 106ish years old and still going strong.

 

[Randy Daytona]

The last sailing corvette of the Royal Navy was HMS Calliope. Built during the transition from wood to steel and sail to steam, she had a steel hull reinforced with wood and full sails supplemented with a steam engine.

Length: 235 ft, Beam: 44 ft, Displacement: 2,700 tons.

6 boilers made 4,000 HP through a single screw for 15 knots.

Armament: Four 6” cannons, twelve 5” cannons, multiple quick firing guns.

She is famed for the escape from Apia harbor in Samoa in 1889 during a typhoon which sank all 12 ships that remained including 3 US warships and 3 German warships. The Royal Navy was mediating a serious dispute between an expanding US and an expanding Germany over the islands at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoan_crisis

Commissioned in 1887, sold for scrap in 1951.







HMS Calliope


Starboard quarterdeck, while at Port Chalmers, New Zealand


Starboard view


Illustrated London News for 27 April 1889; artist's conception of HMS Calliope being cheered on by the crew of USS Trentonas Calliope escapes from Apia Harbour. Calliope actually passed to Trenton'sport side.