Perspective

[CINDERS]

Imagine Bob dropping that door on your foot or getting one's finger jammed in it !

WWII history ~ I am fairly sure I read in my book "Pursuit" that the Rodney scored a direct hit on Bismarck's Citadel with one of her 16" A.P.C projectiles wrecking it along with effectively killing everyone in there.

[Bob Womack]

Imagine Bob dropping that door on your foot or getting one's finger jammed in it !

It must weight several hundred pounds!

WWII history ~ I am fairly sure I read in my book "Pursuit" that the Rodney scored a direct hit on Bismarck's Citadel with one of her 16" A.P.C projectiles wrecking it along with effectively killing everyone in there.[/QUOTE]Bismarck was a heavy cruiser. She achieved her speed and heavy armament at the expense of armor. Her citadel was protected by 7-8" armor, for instance.

Bob

[Sapper740]

[/QUOTE]Bismarck was a heavy cruiser. Her citadel was protected by 7-8" armor, for instance.[/QUOTE]

The Bismarck was every bit a battleship with 12.5" of armor on her conning tower (citadel) and 13.8" belts and turret faces.

[Bob Womack]

The Bismarck was every bit a battleship with 12.5" of armor on her conning tower (citadel) and 13.8" belts and turret faces.

I'm sorry, I was quoting the figures for the transverse bulkheads at the for and aft ends of the citadel lower, which were in fact 8" thick. The upper citadel transverse bulkheads were 4"-5.71" thick. While the conning tower had thicker armor, the rest of the citadel did not. The German designers put more stock in the horizontal armor to protect from vertically-arriving shot than the vertical armor to protect from raking fire, apparently thinking her long guns would prevent her from getting into a knife fight with any other large ship.

Bob

[Sapper740]

Moderately surprised they don't move more of these museum ships into the Great lakes because of the reduced maintenance costs from fresh water. I heard the cooler temperature helps too. Every once in a while I end up in the neighborhood of the St. Mary's Challenger, still in use as a barge after being launched in 1906. We also have a couple of Gato class subs and a number of tugs. The Iowa class ships are a bit large for the seaway, but it would be nice to think about how much more these museums could do with a larger budget.

The maximum draft allowed on the St. Lawrence Seaway locks is 26 1/2' (8.5 m) and the maximum length is 740' (225.6 m). That precludes most of the larger vessels.

[Flying10uk]

When the Iowa Class Battleships were reactivated in the 1980's did any/many other older US warships also get reactivated?

I remember at the time the reason given in the media was that Ronald Reagan wanted a bigger navy and, therefore, the WW2 Iowa Class Battleships were being reactivated. Presumably the real reason was the firepower of the 16" main armament was what was wanted.

[Sapper740]

I remember at the time the reason given in the media was that Ronald Reagan wanted a bigger navy and, therefore, the WW2 Iowa Class Battleships were being reactivated. Presumably the real reason was the firepower of the 16" main armament was what was wanted.

Yes, President Reagan wanted a 600 ship Navy and part of that proved an opportunity to reactivate the four Iowa-class battleships. It wasn't just numbers that the four Iowa-class battleships provided, they were upgraded with new combat systems, removing 4 of the five-inch 38's in order to accommodate Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and Phalanx CIWS close-in weapon systems. Each ship retained its nine sixteen-inch guns since the new, modern Navy had no naval guns over five inches in diameter, and the big guns of the battleships would prove invaluable in the event of an amphibious landing.

[Bob Womack]

By the way, here is why she is called "Wisky."



On May 6th, 1956 in heavy fog she collide with DD-510 Eaton and suffered bow damage. She was sent to Norfolk Naval Shipyard. A 120-ton, 68 foot section of the bow of Wisconsin's incomplete classmate, Kentucky, was removed from her in dry dock at Newport News Shipbuilding across the James River, transported across the bay, and installed on the Wisconsin.

The resultant hybrid was jokingly named "WisKY" by wags in the crew.

Bob

[Eaglelord17]

Yes, President Reagan wanted a 600 ship Navy and part of that proved an opportunity to reactivate the four Iowa-class battleships. It wasn't just numbers that the four Iowa-class battleships provided, they were upgraded with new combat systems, removing 4 of the five-inch 38's in order to accommodate Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and Phalanx CIWS close-in weapon systems. Each ship retained its nine sixteen-inch guns since the new, modern Navy had no naval guns over five inches in diameter, and the big guns of the battleships would prove invaluable in the event of an amphibious landing.

Those 16" guns also shredded the Iraqis during the Gulf War, exceptionally effective I think would be the best way to describe it.

[CINDERS]

Those 16" guns also shredded the Iraqis

Yes they were rather devastating.

In Pursuit also I remember a gunner in one of Rodney's turrets saying at the beginning of the engagement the breech when firing was in the bottom of the turret but when they closed on the Bismarck the breech was level.
In fact Rodney closed to point blank range for her 16" guns which I think they said in the book was 3000 yards hence as Bob stated the deck armour was thicker rather than the raking shots she was receiving.

In my book I have Tiger I & II Combat Tactics By Jentz the brits in WWII did a huge test on captured Tiger 1 & Tiger 2 armour and it was found to be far superior to what any of the stuff the allies had the testing involved various calibers but predominantly the 6pdr at 0 - 30 degrees.
Consensus was that the Germans made very good tough to defeat armour.