The Mk12 5 inch, 38 caliber gun was one of the triumphs of American naval weaponry from World War Two. First used in 1934, it remained a standard weapon on new vessels until 1948. It used a 55 lb shell with a separate case that was manually loaded but power-rammed, allowing a high rate of fire from -15 to +85 degree angles of elevation. Coupled with the sophisticated fire control computers in US warships, it was one of the most effective anti-aircraft weapons in US inventory even before the introduction of radar proximity-fused shells in 1943. More than 8,000 of these guns were built by the end of World War Two, fitted to everything from merchant mariners to battleships like the USS New Jersey.
Make sure to check out the USS New Jersey Museum’s channel for tons more information on the ship!
https://www.youtube.com/battleshipnewjersey
Frederick Taylor’s apotheosis.
The Ship has a great description of these loading and aiming systems in action. Plus it’s a ripping yarn and good for your sonder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ship_(novel)
“In the old days travelling theatrical companies expected their players to do a double job, and take their places nightly in the orchestra preliminary to appearing on the stage; there would be advertisements in the theatrical papers for a “heavy” who could “double in brass.” Similarly in Artemis the musicians had a double duty, and the provision of music was the less important. The time they spent rehearsing “Colonel Bogey” and “A Life on the Ocean Wave” was only the time that could be spared from rehearsals of a more exacting piece of teamwork. The machines all round them, the superhuman machines, even when the Torpedo Gunner’s Mate had supplied them with electricity and Chief Electrical Artificer Sands had tuned them to perfection, were still dependent upon human agency to interpret and implement their findings. Under the glass top of the table there were needles which moved steadily and needles which moved erratically, needles which crept and needles which jumped, and each needle was watched by a bandsman who had his own individual pointer under his control which had to keep pace with it, creep when it crept, jump when it jumped, utterly unpredictably. At the Transmitting Station table every item the Marine Band played was unrehearsed and without score; the instrumentalists could never look ahead and find that some individuals among them had been allotted twenty bars’ rest by the composer. There was no looking ahead, and each bandsman was obeying a different baton which might at any moment leap into activity and summon him to action.”
Very good video. However at the risk of being pedantic, those 5/38’s are not in turrets, as they have no barbettes, they are actually called gun houses. I worked a number of years ago with a guy who had been a gunnery officer on a 692 long hull destroyer, which had a similar set up for 5/38 guns. He said that the WW2 era system couldn’t handle an aircraft moving faster than 400 mph. It would not get a lock.
PS He served in the early 60’s and also had some nasty things to say about the DASH system (drone anti-submarine Helicopter). He said it had a tendency to fly off into the distance and never be seen again.
DASH also had a nasty habit of dropping the homing torpedo on the deck as it lifted off.
That’s just one reason that while it was originally designed for nuclear stores, nobody ever tried putting them on even in a test.
Nobody wanted to be cleaning up busted bits of Mk 101 Lulu off the helipad.
clear ether
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Nothing says “bad day” better than having to sweep bits of broken nuke out through your scuppers…
I think at that point, the deck crew would like to have words with the drone operators/maintainers.
According to https://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/qh-50.html
…QH-50C’s test and development program had to be extremely rushed. This meant that problems with the automatic flight stabilization and control system could not be fully solved before delivery of operational drones began, and that lead to 27 crashes during the first two months of operational deployment. However, by June 1963 the problems had essentially been solved, and Gyrodyne proceeded to build a total of 373 QH-50Cs.
OUTSTANDING explanation of the entire 5″/38 weapon system with all the pieces included, not just select bits and pieces with no concept of how they work as a system.
As a former weapons officer responsible for 5″/38 guns on two different WW2 era FRAM destroyers during the Vietnam War, We had nearly identical systems and it was great to see Ian’s superb grasp of it all, and clear explanation. Ian did it better than I could!