31 May 2023

Fail

Something that finally connected about the Iowa turret explosion.

Everyone in the barbette died.

Despite all the things in place that were supposed to isolate an explosion to JUST the compartment it happened in, everyone in the barbette died.

The gun room failed to contain the blast from the powder.

The powder trunk failed to prevent the blast from traveling down to the powder handling area.

Those compartments are billed as being able to contain exactly what happened to Iowa in the single gun room where the explosion originated.

Mississippi had had similar explosions, and efforts were made to make later classes less susceptable to total party kills like this.

To no avail, apparently.

Posted by Angus McThag at 11:54
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3 comments:

  1. Counter Jockey31 May, 2023 12:31

    So. My thought on that is the safety procedures were designed to contain the maximum blast of the biggest charge the Navy Ordnance Bureau said the 16" rifles could carry.

    I ascribe to the believe that the Iowa explosion happened due to some numb nuts gunnery officer wanting to extend the range of his guns by shoving more powder in there.

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  2. Beans31 May, 2023 21:40

    From what I remember, it was a combination of attempting to fire further than the guns were designed and old powder.

    As to the barbette, it worked. To a point. The explosion did not extend into the magazines. It didn't extend to enough damage to break the keel and sink the ship, like the Hood.

    So, well, worked, kinda. To a point.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aesop31 May, 2023 22:34

    Point noted.
    The naval engineers and Pentagon apparatchiks from 1938-43 were not immediately available for comment.

    Having frequently seen what a free powder burn from mere 6" bags of powder looks like (a 20' tall jet of flame) when the unused increment for 155mm were disposed of upon departing a firing position, I doubt there has ever been a structure, or ship in the fleet, that would contain the explosion suffered from 16" increments any better.

    That Iowa didn't catastrophically explode and/or sink outright when it happened is a testimony to the structure as built, and probably something bordering on the miraculous.

    I also don't think it's an accident that we desisted in deploying multi-gun turrets.

    Sad in some ways, but understandable.

    ReplyDelete

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