Text 5248, 112 rader
Skriven 2007-07-30 10:59:25 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
   Kommentar till text 5008 av Bob Ackley (1:2905/3)
Ärende: FidoNews 24:29 [02/06]: General Articles
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29 Jul 07 07:37, Bob Ackley wrote to Roy Witt:

 BA> Replying to a message of Roy Witt to Bob Ackley:

 RW>> By 0704, under fire from the shore battery at El Hank and Battleship
 RW>> Jean Bart, the Massachusetts fired the first American 16-inch gun
 RW>> salvos of World War II in anger.

 BA> I don't think that's true.

Well, let's do a bit of research.

Text from "The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships" published by
the 'Naval Historical Center'...

USS Massachusetts:

"After shakedown, Massachusetts departed Casco Bay, Maine, 24 October 1942
and 4 days later made rendezvous with the Western Naval Task Force for the
invasion of north Africa, serving as flagship for Adm. H. Kent Hewitt."

"While steaming off Casablanca 8 November, she came under fire from French
battleship Jean Bart's 13-inch guns. She returned fire at 0740 firing the
first 16-inch shells fired by the U.S. against the European Axis Powers.
Within a few minutes she silenced Jean Bart's main battery; then she
turned her guns on French destroyers which had joined the attack, sinking
two of them. She also shelled shore batteries and blew up an ammunition
dump. After a cease-fire had been arranged with the French, she headed for
the United States 12 November, and prepared for Pacific duty."

USS South Dakota

"USS South Dakota, lead ship of a class of 35,000-ton battleships, was
built at Camden, New Jersey. She was commissioned in March 1942 and in
August was transferred to the Pacific where she was soon involved in the
Guadalcanal Campaign. On 26 October1942, her anti-aircraft guns played a
prominent role in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, during which her
forward sixteen-inch gun turret was hit by a Japanese bomb."

Note: presumably, she didn't use her 16" guns.

"Shortly thereafter, she collided with USS Mahan (DD-364). Damage from
these incidents was repaired locally, and she was heavily engaged, and
damaged again, during the 14-15 November battleship night action off
Guadalcanal, a battle that effectively ended Japan's plans to retake that
strategic island."

"Following repairs in the United States, South Dakota operated in the
Atlantic from February into August 1943, including service with the
British Home Fleet."

"Returning to the Pacific, in March and April 1945, South Dakota's guns
joined in bombarding Okinawa."


 BA>   If memory serves they occurred shortly after the battle of
 BA> Savo Island (where the Allies lost 4 heavy cruisers against zero
 BA> Japanese losses).

How about the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October 1942?

 BA> The action I'm thinking of cost the Japanese fleet a battleship
 BA> (Kirishima) and some smaller vessels against a couple of
 BA> US destroyers.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/japan/japsh-k/kirishma.htm

During the Solomons Campaign later in 1942, Kirishima was present during
the carrier battles of the Eastern Solomons in August and the Santa Cruz
Islands in October.

She was later scuttled a few miles west of Savo Island, after being
disabled by the USS Washington during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
in October, 1942.

 BA> Beginning with the South Dakotas, all US BBs were fitted with 16"
 BA> main batteries. The South Dakotas (BB 55, 56, 57 and 58) used 16" 48
 BA> caliber rifles and the Iowas (BB 61, 62, 63, 64, 65 and 66 - 65 and
 BA> 66, Illinois and Kentucky, were not completed) used 16" 50 caliber
 BA> rifles (for large naval guns the caliber number is the length of the
 BA> barrel expressed in barrel diameters).  Not sure about the North
 BA> Carolina class (NC and Washington, BB 59 and 60) I think they were 48
 BA> caliber.  The Montana class (BB 67 et seq) never got off the drawing
 BA> boards - they were basically Iowas stretched out a bit with a fourth
 BA> turret aft.

 BA> Prior to the late 1930s construction at least one BB (Mississippi)
 BA> had 16" main batteries.  Mostly the earlier constructions back to
 BA> pre-WWI Texas used 14" or 15" main batteries.  Somewhere around here
 BA> I have a breakdown of US battleships beginning with BB 1, giving
 BA> dimensions, displacement and gun arrangements (and what happened to
 BA> it); it occurs to me that the Navy probably also has the information
 BA> on a web site someplace.

Yeup. Quite extensive work at that.

 BA> Only one BB is still (technically) in commission - Arizona.  One
 BA> could, I suppose, also count Constitution as in her day she certainly
 BA> was a capital ship; but they weren't called 'battleships' and given
 BA> the BB designation until the very late 1800s.

Actually, the USS Constitution was classified as a frigate, which would be
equivalent to a cruiser today.

                R\%/itt


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