They extended from the top deck of the ship, with the visible part being called the "gun house", clear to the lower deck of the ship. The multi-story turrets which carried these guns were themselves possibly the most complex and heaviest weapons systems ever mounted in a naval vessel. Each gun was capable of being fired independently and at different elevations (and hence different ranges) than the other two in the turret. The turrets were numbered from bow to stern. Three guns were mounted in each of the ships' three turrets. Main gun turret and magazine of an Iowa - class battleship. Although obsolete no later than the 1950s, these weapons systems were the primary reason for the reactivation of the ships in the 1980s.
Even so, they were placed into service and kept in service - I believe primarily for political reasons, as the ships had long since ceased to be efficient weapons platforms.īelow the fold, I give some basics of the primary weapons system of these ships as originally designed. In this multi-part series, I will explore this disaster, which has its roots in the ridiculous worship of an obsolete weapons system, the battleship, by persons who damn well should have known better, starting with John Lehman, secretary of the Navy.Īs I shall show, not only should Lehman and the Navy command known these ships were both obsolete and dangerous, they were actually told so. In addition, there was a despicable attempt to blame the incident on a single deceased sailor, claiming he triggered the explosion in response to being spurned in a homosexual affair. Turret 2 burns on USS Iowa, April 16, 1989.
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