8 inch Guns

Declassiified US Navy Training Film

[@Bellthorian]

I served on the USS Iowa as a gunners mate in 16 inch turret #1. When I was watching this film and they were showing the projectile decks I couldn't help but think awwww look at those cute little shells.

[@ramairgto72]

Thanks for serving brother. I have always felt we should have at least ONE battleship kept in service, we keep the Constitution on the books, seems we should do the same for a battleship. US ARMY Combat Engineer

[@Bellthorian]

I would disagree for one simple reason. The Battleships are old and worn out. The Iowa leaked about 5 gallons of hydraulic fluid A DAY on the electrical decks. The replacement parts were no longer made and she could not be fixed. A secondary reason is the powder is all old and in unusable condition. I do not think anyone makes that kind of powder anymore. We had powder on the Iowa from the 1930's. It was old, breaking down and was quite possible the reason why we had out accident on 4/19/89.

[@tonytrotta9322]

Remember in WW2: The majority of the Pacific Island bombarding was done by the older battleships and cruisers for the newer battleships were used to screen the aircraft carriers. My dad was on the USS Louisville CA 28 and here is a list of some of her bombardments along with the older battleships: Not the USS Iowa: USS LOUISVILLE CA- 28 Heavy Cruiser 1944-45 1 - Extensive shelling Island of Wotje in Marshalls. 2 - Bombardment Roi & Namur Islands. 3 - Led gunfire support Eniwetok Island. 4 - Bombarded Palaus Island. 5 - Bombarded Truk & Sawatan. 6 - 11 days of continued fire support Siapan. 7 - Bombarded Tinian & Guam. 8 - Enter Leyte Gulf - support major allied invasion force & shelled shore installations for 7 straight days. 9 - Battle of Surigao Strait - Flagship for Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf. 10 - Support landings at Lingayen Gulf. Hit by (2) kamikaze & killed Rear Admiral Theodore Chandler & many sailors. 11 - Fire support for Okinawa. Hit by another Kamikaze. 12 - Delivered Bull Halsey’s officers & staff - (150) to USS Missouri. 13 - Continued fire support duties. 14 - War ends. 15 - Escorted surrendered Japanese ships from Tsingato, China to Jinsen, Korea.

[@therecklessboyt.r.b5207]

Theokolese The Shadow Of Death what ship is the video showing like the name of it example uss nc

[@therecklessboyt.r.b5207]

And thank you for your service sir ooorah

[@Jamestfarrell]

The USS Saint Paul (CA73) used a fundamentally different system, and I mean FUNDAMENTALLY different. Of course, the Fighting Saint was born towards the end of WWII. The projectile arrived in the gun room and the hoist it came up on dropped flat at the scissor hinge near the top of the projectile. Then the projectile was rammed into the bore. As soon as the ram retracted, two separate, 45lb bags of powder were tossed by crew members into the bore behind the projectile. The gun captain then closed and latched the breech and primed it with what was, essentially, a 45 Long Colt cartridge. That is what fired the round AFTER the gun pointer (which was ME in Vietnam) closes the foot trigger. Each gun in each turret had a pointer (controlled elevation of each gun in each turret) and each turret needed only one trainer (controlled lateral rotation of entire turret). As I recall, we fired either 260 lb projectiles or 365 lb armor piercing, most with brass nose fuses we installed as directed by CIC.

[@captainrevenge5960]

Des Moines Class Mark 16 gun, we still have the USS Salem CA 139, although the film indicates Salem was the 1st, USS Des Moines was 1st, 3 were built. The 3rd being the USS Newport News.

[@ericcorse]

I never realized they could be used for AA. That is a heck of a punch a heavy Cruiser has.

[@hyperiongm330]

I'd Imagine that the 8"/55RF was more useful against Torpedo bombers than anything else, they flew low, slow, and on predictable courses that the 6 second loading time for each gun could take advantage of.

[@Sean_Coyne]

Proximity fuses on rapid fire 8" shells under radar fire control = devastating wall of metal.

[@MajesticDemonLord]

the Yamato's 18 Inch Monsters had an AA Shell that they could fire too (although, apparently it wasn't very succesful)

[@steeltrap3800]

Yamato's shells were like giant shotgun cartridges, not at all similar to a proximity fused AA shell. As far as anyone knows, they never killed any aircraft with them. Proximity fusing was one of THE greatest factors responsible for the differences in AA performance (and arty for that matter) between the Allied and Axis forces in WW2.

[@hyperiongm330]

Actually apparently Yamato did shoot down planes with the Type 3 shells. They were A6M Zeros.

[@jockbeems4798]

Parbuckling looks tiring. Imagine a 3 or 4 hour bombardment... I bet they took turns relieving each other.

[@Ekatjam]

The USS Salem is docked in Quincy, Massachusetts where it was built. It is a floating museum, but last summer when I went out there it was closed and looked neglected.

[@ramairgto72]

I been wanting to look up the Texas, but I don't want to get upset....again.

[@mrz80]

@@ramairgto72 Hang in there, Texas is getting some TLC. The museum's spent the last while torching out rusted framing and pretty much rebuilding her keel and ribbing to get her stable enough to move to drydock to have her hull plating replaced. From what I've seen and read, it was a LOT, a lot, of hot, unpleasant hard work down in the bowels of the hull welding in new steel here there and everywhere to shore up the ship's structure.

[@chriscunningham9740]

Maintaining a 700 foot heavy cruiser is expensive

[@hbscimitar]

Thanks for the upload. Thanks for your service.

[@a.saintango1311]

This is beautiful. Now that’s firepower. A round every two seconds.

[@bambam144]

thx for uploading very informative video and explains a lot why the dms are so good at wows.

[@MartyInLa]

These guns are awesome in World of Warships. They make a heavy cruiser a threat to battleships!

[@GrantE90]

My BB captains probably have PTSD after fighting enough Des Moines and Salems. I even received a citadel in my Vladivostok from a Des Moine at close range :)

[@stupidburp]

Should use 8 inch guns again. Turret movement can now be much faster to train and elevate onto targets. Automation now enables faster loading with less muscle required. The size and weight does not have to be that much more than for 5 or 6 inch guns. Much more effective when used for shore bombardment than the common 5 inch guns. With modern fire control they would be effective against many different targets. They already had much of this long ago but we could make them even better today with modern tech.

[@deafsmith1006]

So the rammer moved with the gun as it elevated, thus they didn't have to lower the gun to load! Ammo first transferred to a loader sort of like a .22 rifle with a tube! 10 rounds a minute per gun at ANY ANGLE! I bet a lot of their ideas are now used on rapid fire 6 and six inch mounts.

[@bambam144]

it's a fantastic piece of engineering. huge respect

[@217mrscotty]

Great vid thanks for the upload

[@ut000bs]

In my opinion, the Des Moines and Oregon City class CAs, while still sleek, weren't as pleasing to the eye as the Baltimores. That big, single funnel took something away from the flow the eye took over the twin-funneled Baltimore class. What do you think?

[@MrDgwphotos]

After watching this, you should watch the video of the Iowas and their 16in guns to see the difference between them.

[@marko11kram]

and watch how the us army used the 8" gun on a tracked vehicle

[@MajesticDemonLord]

I love sailing my USS Des Moines in World of Warships - so much pew pew pew. Thanks for Sharing!

[@ygma1460]

Hanging down from this erect structure is the suspended structure... *Beavis and Butt-Head laugh*

[@pingpong5000]

Interesting video thanks

[@SengTien93]

It looks like the inside of the turret of the previous warship seems to be very interesting😂

[@gengennewnew]

At that time, American war-weapons videos always have that voice. lol. I am a Korean who likes those 1950s videos. Does anyone know the name of that narrator?

[@nosteponsneek4616]

its not one specific narrator, voice actors and narrators were cast and trained differently back then - If you listen to smth like the History channels some of the voices there will be quite similar, barring advances in microphone technology

[@gengennewnew]

@@nosteponsneek4616 aha. Im poor English. Sry and thank you so much

[@Beemer917]

I'll bet that thing made a cloud of ack ack schrapnal for any unwise aircraft, as long as it didn't fire any missiles at the ship from forty miles.

[@logansorenssen]

When they were first introduced, the closest thing to an anti-ship missile had much shorter range than the 8" or even 5" guns. Of course, that was no longer true by the time they took USS Newport News out of service in 1975. If the class had hung around any longer they likely would have been refitted with SRBOC, Phalanx and possibly either Sea Sparrow or Standard.

[@blipzero]

thank you i had no idea :D

[@nickriley4609]

Wish we still had guns like these...I know what your gonna say about missiles but with missles and vls you can't resupply at sea...guns you could..each has its pros and cons but why not have em

[@frankmueller2781]

I want one!

[@N_Wheeler]

So the expended powder casings ended up on the weather deck. Probably rolled over the side eventually. What about collecting those and repacking them with powder bags?

[@kimmer6]

One of them rolled into my bedroom..... I actually threw out my back putting the case in the back seat of my car. What a brutal piece of brass. Its the king of my collection.

[@invadegreece9281]

@@kimmer6 cool

[@ramairgto72]

......."Almost completely automatic in operation"... ... "The crew is made up of 35 officers and men"..... That's the military talking, for sure.

[@GlowingSpamraam]

lol

[@clarencedelacruz7822]

I wish the battleships had this but with silk bags. I wonder how complex would it be?

[@bambam144]

never a fan of these silk bags, 'cause the germans have put them in messing cartridges, before the loading cycle.

[@0ldFrittenfett]

Sorry if I sound disrespectful, but everytime the narrator says "Turret", it sounds like "Turd" to me. Partially because I'm german and in Germany we usually learn british english, I suppose. American sounds to me very much like a southern accent must sound to a Yankee.

[@bnipmnaa]

Amis sind halt ein bißchen psychisch zurückgeblieben, da sie so gerne die eigene Schwester bzw. Mütter ficken.

[@0ldFrittenfett]

Ts, ts.

[@0ldFrittenfett]

Interesting indeed. Thank you very much. What does DKM mean? I know of the ship simply as "Admiral Graf Spee".

[@0ldFrittenfett]

I did a bit of research. Some non-german Authors use this prefix for "Deutsche Kriegsmarine", but originally, the ships of the Third Reich had no prefixes at all. I guess these Authors do it to fit in with all the "USS", "HMS" and so forth.

[@0ldFrittenfett]

Most probable.

[@fastfingers110]

so what actually ignites the powder keg???

[@ramairgto72]

They feed a mouse crack cocaine, stuff it in at the last moment.

[@JohnMaxGriffin]

It's a casing, so it's got the primer built into it. Firing pin on the breech ignites the primer, which ignites the charge.

[@Jamestfarrell]

Basically a 45 Long Colt cartridge (sans projectile, of course!). It's an electronically controlled firing pin but the gun captain also has a lanyard in case of a misfire or hang fire. A VERY tense few minutes for those of us in the gun room on the few occasions it happened off the coast of Vietnam. We all new about the explosion on our ship (the Saint Paul), the result of a hang fire, about 15 years earlier. Still not something the US Navy likes to talk about. Google it.

[@mattp9361]

Whoa, whoa, whoa! I know how bullets work, I reload. The video shows the projectile and powder going in the a case comes out??? Where did the case come from? Is the "powder case" the case and powder then it gets the projectile pressed in?

[@MrDgwphotos]

These rounds are semi fixed, the powder is carried in the separate case, then mated with the shell on the loading tray.

[@steeltrap3800]

The case IS the powder. Unlike earlier guns, especially the big naval rifles (12" and up), these ones had powder in a fixed case instead of bags that were destroyed when fired.

[@Jamestfarrell]

@@steeltrap3800 Correcto!

[@byronking9573]

Interesting look-back at 8"-guns... Noticed that ammo handlers seemed to be wearing ankle-cut, normal shoes (polished, too!), and not steel-toed boots. Drop a shell or powder can on your foot, and it'll leave a mark. Yikes...

[@thomassutherland8020]

Byron King the classic Navy "Boondockers ".

[@BarbikaPahor]

they are wearing jeans too. all just for this film

[@ut000bs]

The boondockers I wore in the Navy had steel toes.

[@Debbiebabe69]

Did steely toe boots exist in the 1940s?

[@JackpineGandy]

those are Navy dungarees, standard issue - the leg is straight-cut, but looks bell-bottomed -- the shirt is called a chambray, and is a light blue cotton fabric.

[@lagrangesix9836]

18 guys, permanently deaf after one shot.

[@ericcorse]

I have read that when they fired the 18" guns sailors shouldn't be on the deck as it would turn them into protoplasm.

[@geraldalamboloto9634]

Where the gun come from

[@alansawyer2799]

Want to see real rapid fire guns check out HMS Tiger firing 6 and 3 inch guns .

[@DIVeltro]

Link?

[@bestamerica]

' american military company can make it 8 inch big gun on the big tank and 2 big wide tracks... almost same as maus tank or T-28/95 tank... same similar big artillery gun or big howtizer gun

[@swaghauler8334]

That would be the now retired M110 8" self propelled howitzer. The MLRS replaced them.

[@bestamerica]

thank swaghauler... better keep both military vehicles services... MLRS must use it with 8 patriot missiles or another missiles... M110 howitzer gun with a tank keep use it... no retirement = no stoppable

[@hyperiongm330]

The M110 was retired for a variety of reasons, least of which was that the smaller 155mm guns could do the same job but far more efficiently and are far more mobile when either used as towed and self-propelled guns.

[@rickkernell6131]

They are really only 6 inches, we just tell the girls that they are eight...

[@alanpeterson6224]

What's the 55 stand for?

[@stephenkeebler732]

The length of the barrel in 'Diameters' of the Round fired. 8" x 55 = about 37'

[@alanpeterson6224]

+Stephen Keebler:Thank you.

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

Too bad they came too late to see service in WW2.