Shipbucket

My bigger concern was with the main battery, actually. Not that they'd be in action at the same time, but 40mm isn't indestructible.

Agreed, I’ve been on an 8” gun cruiser and when I was a 105 feet away from the muzzle when it went off my head snapped back , over pressure is a bitch.

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French Vice-admiral Louis-René-Madeleine Le Vassor de La Touche, comte de Tréville
The original spelling of my last name is: LaTouche.

Is there any guidance we might draw from Yamato? The crews and design teams would obviously be separate, but they would probably learn the same lessons.

I'm wondering about a rather stupendous fantail sponson with acres of 40mm, among other things.

The original light AA on Yamato was enclosed for this very reason. Later additional mounts were not, the crews had to take their chances...

I often wondered what the effect of firing San-Shiki (AA) rounds had on the exposed personnel...

Try ANY shells fired by the 18-inchers. On tests performed on Musashi's shakedown cruise in June 1942, it was revealed that the blast pressure from the ship's massive main battery was so severe that anyone standing in exposed positions on deck when the main guns fired would be knocked unconscious and the clothes ripped from their body.

I don't even want to think about what the blast pressure would've been from the 20-inch guns had the super-Yamatos actually been completed...

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I was thinking that the AA wouldn't be manned during surface attacks. Thus if the 18-inchers are firing while the AA Battery is manned then it's an attack from aircraft, thus only San-Shiki shells would be fired...

It would seem highly problematic if the AA battery was unable to engage attacking aircraft while the main battery was firing. However I too have heard anecdotal testimonies stating that anyone on the weather decks could be killed by the overpressure of Yamato's 18.1s. Did the Iowas utilize both AA and the main batteries conjointly?

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French Vice-admiral Louis-René-Madeleine Le Vassor de La Touche, comte de Tréville
The original spelling of my last name is: LaTouche.

I very much doubt it, but I have no direct evidence. In practice, I don't think surface engagement was common during an aerial attack. And when I say "not common", I don't know if it ever happened.

Now that I think I have the New Hampshire complete in all of her refit periods, I beginning her bow and stern views.

Here is the first,

USS New Hampshire (BB-55) As Commissioned in 1927:

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French Vice-admiral Louis-René-Madeleine Le Vassor de La Touche, comte de Tréville
The original spelling of my last name is: LaTouche.

Great work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB