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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Iowa Turret Disaster
Message-ID: <1990Nov29.001845.18016@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 29 Nov 90 00:18:45 GMT
References: <1990Nov21.213959.16901@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
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Organization: New York State Institute for Sebastian Cabot Studies
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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

In article <1990Nov21.213959.16901@cbnews.att.com>, Michael Edelman writes: 
..about the Iowa turret explosion ...

*Has such an explosion occurred before in WWII era battleships? Did any lose
*turrets either in battle or in practice from an internal detonation?

such an explosion occurred in Maryland during a pre-invasion
shore bombardment in the pacific during wwii.  as i recall
approximately 40 crewmembers were killed in the incident.
the turret remained attached to the ship; the force needed to
lift a turret from the barbette would be quite great, and
evidently there isn't enough explosive in the powder and shell
handling equipment at any point in time to do so.

[mod.note:  I'll point out that the Maryland had double turrets, as opposed
to the Iowa's triples, so probably had a smaller turret crew.  - Bill ]

richard
-- 
richard welty         518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
welty@lewis.crd.ge.com                 ...!crdgw1!lewis.crd.ge.com!welty            
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