A new method in the launch of ship-based aircraft was displayed with the explosive-powered catapult launch of a Martin MO-1 observation plane from the forward turret of the USS Mississippi. During World War II, in November 1943, while bombarding the Makin Islands in the Pacific, it experienced another . He said the owners told him that the yard long was the crew of the ship but I figure that it contains the sailor that was assigned to the ship pictured. 2. "They were the real gun experts," said retired Rear Adm. Gene LaRocque, a former battleship captain and the founder of the Center for Defense Information in Washington. Class: Allen M. Sumner class destroyer Named for: Reigart Bolivar Lowry Complement: 336 Officers and Enlisted Displacement: 2200 tons Length: 376 feet 6 inches Beam: 40 feet Flank Speed: 34 knots Range: 6500 Nautical Miles Final Disposition:Scrapped October 1996 The last U.S. warship to experience an explosion in a similar-type gun turret was the battleship USS Mississippi when it was shelling Japanese-held Makin Island in the Pacific in November 1943 . The guns' lubricants were the next to ignite, he said. Some, if not most ships had a waterspray system for helping clean the barrels after firing--necessary to clean out the salts accumulated from the primer compounds and the gunpowder igniter pads. Although each barrel was blasted between firings with pressurized air to evacuate debris, the middle barrel of each turret received a lower pressure burst than the left and right barrels. Facts later emerged that undermined the Navy's first investigation into the explosion, Truitt said. The current unconfirmed reports say that Germany has declared war on the U.S., which doesn't make much difference. The battleships three remaining turrets continued firing until the naval support phase of the invasion had ended. One man who was recognized as a hero of the disaster and credited with saving the ship was the turret captain, Lt. (jg) Thomas E. Zellars. Destroyers report there are six subs in back of us. . 47 men were killed. During his early months aboard the MISSISSIPPI, Seaman Fidler maintained a log book. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. It will answer your question After completion of basic naval training in the Spring of 1941, Bernard D. Fidler, of Burlington, Iowa, was given duty aboard the battleship U.S.S. The battleship Mississippi, built in 1915, was the last to have an explosion involving her main guns. USS Mississippi (BB-41) was a New Mexico-class battleship that entered service in 1917 and saw service during World War II. Two major investigations were undertaken into the cause of the explosion, one by the U.S. Navy and then one by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Sandia National Laboratories. Over more than a decade, she operated with the fleet's other battleships, conducting exercises and training operations in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. USS Mississippi (BB-41/AG-128), a New Mexico-class battleship, was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 20th state, and the second battleship to carry the name.Commissioned in 1917, too late to serve in World War I, she served extensively in the Pacific in World War II, for which she earned eight battle stars.She was one of several pre-war battleships that . Several salvos were fired by each ship, but then there was trouble with "Missy's" number two turret. I'm sorry for anyone's personal grief or personal anguish over that.". Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. On June 12, 1924,Mississippifound herselfoff the coast of California conducting gun trials. Forty-eight sailors were killed, and only one of the sailors manning the turret survived. After an extensive preliminary bombardment, the Marine assault force headed towards the beach and Mississippi and the other ships increased their rate of fire. Hartwig who died in the blast had planted a bomb in the gun. If Germany has declared war on the U.S., they should be bombing Iceland soon.". While at Navy Federal, bankers told Hartwig that buying an extra life insurance policy would only cost $4 per month. My uncle died in 1937 from TB (he contracted while on active duty) so the story was told to me by his brother (my grandfather). The main battery was distributed two turrets forward and two aft. Saturday, April 26, -(UP)An explosion in the forward turret of the U.S. heavy cruiser St. Paul killed 30 men Monday while the ship was firing on Communist targets in Korea, the Navy announced today. The U.S.A. is now at war with Germany, Japan, and Italy. by paul.mercer Fri Apr 04, 2014 9:12 am, Post Investigators also found that some access safety doors inside the turret had been left partly open. Naval officers in dress uniforms stood in front as 1200 sailors in dress blues stood on the sides of the coffins. "It's a classic example of Navy leaders not being willing to speak truth to power and make the hard decisions," Carroll said. As a battleship, the Mississippi was heavily armored to slug it out with enemy ships. In June 1941, USS Mississippi patrolled the North Atlantic. by tommy303 Thu Apr 03, 2014 11:55 pm, Post Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. Debris from firing the big guns had again ignited powder bags, causing the same accident and the same damage. He braved the flames, smoke, and carnage inside the turret to turn on sprinklers so that bags of gunpowder would not go off, and he secured hatches so that the accumulating water would not sink the ship,he told Penthouse in a January 1990 interview. Assigned to Task Group 58.2, the battleship supported operations in the Marshall Islands in January 1944 including the invasion of Kwajalein. Previously, ships other than aircraft-carriers had to come to a halt in order to lower the aircraft into the water to allow them to take off. I still think we will make it without any casualties.". The old warship was decommissioned in 1956, sold for scrap. Only the turret officers can be identified. Post Gunners mate Kendall L. Truitt, one of the 12 sailors who escaped the No. The investigations produced conflicting conclusions. According to the findings from a 1944 investigation by the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance, the explosion in turret No. The fleet in Pearl Harbor must have been asleep and I do not mean dozing. Luckily, the fire did not set off the powder bags in the other two guns. Mississippi was a heavily armed battleship by the standards of the day. Later, the Navy would honor Zellars by naming a destroyer after him. The explosion tore through the No. The deadly blast aboard the Iowa marked the first explosion in a battleship turret since 1943, when 43 sailors aboard the USS Mississippi were killed, the Government Accountability Office later . She was redesignated AG-128 and equipped with a number of radars and prototype air defense missile systems. His work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Esquire, The National Interest, Car and Driver, Men's Health, and many others. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Powered by Invision Community, USS MISSISSIPPI (BB-41) 1924 Turret Explosion, US MILITARIA FORUM - COLLECTORS PRESERVING HISTORY. 138 killed and 60 injured. Ward Carroll, a naval aviator who was a spokesman for the Naval Safety Center at the time. Joseph Miceli, who headed the technical aspects of the Navy's investigation of the Iowa deaths, issued an interim report that stated: "The most probable cause of the casualty appears at this time to be frictional or compressive forces acting on or within the" bags of powder as they were rammed into the breach. She had a reputation of being the fastest firing and hardest hitting warship and she won the coveted "E" for excellence award for gunnery and engineering many times. My Father served on the USS MISSISSIPPI prior to his being sent to East Africa (NCU-3 Radio Marina in Asmara). 3. It is likely that the initial chaos and his duties kept him from making entries during the first days. Incredibly it had happened again: in their haste to lay down a rain of shells on the Japanese, the gunners of number two turret had apparently experienced yet another flare back. She spent most of 1942 along the U.S. west coast and went to the South Pacific late in that year. Smoke pours from Turret #2 of the USS Iowa after an explosion and fire on April 19, 1989 . The Navy' s Investigation Based on the survivors account, the Navy believed that a fire or burning debris was present in the gun barrel and ignited the powder bags. 12:00 a.m. June 9, 1999: For the Record Los Angeles Times Wednesday June 9, 1999 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 3 Metro Desk 2 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction Battleship photo--A photo of a naval funeral that accompanied the L.A. Then and Now column in Sundays Times was incorrectly credited. Navy officials said this week the report on the Mississippi was authentic, but pointed out that it was later overruled by higher-ranking investigators. . Official USN photo # DN-ST-89-06800, by LT. "Cover-up aboard the USS Iowa" (PDF). he Washington Post reported in September 1989. 2. The waterspray system was not, if I recall, used to clear the bore between shots, just the compressed air blast. Over more than a decade, she operated with the fleet's other battleships, conducting exercises and training operations in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. 2 Turret was cold, meaning it hadn't been fired yet. The crew members in the upper chambers of the massive gun turret aboard the USS Iowa were killed by the explosion and fire while sailors working several levels below suffocated when the blast sucked all the oxygen from their chambers, Navy officials said Friday. HTML tags are not allowed. On June 12, 1924,Mississippi found herself off the coast of California conducting gun trials. 24 were killed. . In June 1941, in response to the deteriorating war situation in Europe, she was brought back to the Atlantic, operating between the United States and Iceland during much of the rest of that year. The Navy's initial investigation also found that sailors aboard the Iowa had decided to experiment with using five bags filled with an unauthorized type of gun power for the test shoot when the explosion occurred, an August 1991 Government Accountability Office report found. Also, the crew failed to examine one or more of the gun bores and call out Bore clear!" Less than two decades later, the Mississippi went through the same agony again. In 1943, the big battleship was off the coast of Makin Island, providing naval gunfire support to a landing force preparing to secure the island. Team Mighty. The last explosion was so strong that it blew the turret's two-ton hatch off its hinges and into the water, he said. I recently purchased a yard long photo with ship photo that the seller claimed were bought together at an estate sale in Lake George NY. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives . It took the sailors eight hours to douse the blaze. The scene inside was too terrible to describe. Despite her forty years of service,Mississippiwas bound to tragedy, experiencing two major accidents in the same turret, in the same gun, twenty years apart. On 19 April 1989, 47 crewmen were killed in an explosion in the Number Two gun turret on the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61). In a chilling reprise of the 1924 disaster, another turret explosion occurred on Nov. 29, 1943 near Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands, killing 43 men. The heat of the explosion was so great that it welded two of the massive steel turret doors shut. It's easy! The mighty warship was 624 feet long with a beam of 97.5 feet, and displaced 33,000 tons fully loaded. The old warship was decommissioned in 1956, sold for scrap. The turret explosion was captured by a camera mounted in one of the USS Iowa's towers. She was launched on 27 August 1942 and commissioned on 22 February 1943. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. Battleship USS Mississippi, cruiser USS Minneapolis, and destroyers USS Shaw, Boggs, and McKean departed Pago Pago, Samoa bound for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Here is a portion of a realphoto postcard showing the removal of the dead once the ship returned to port. Funeral services were held June 17 on Trona Field at San Pedro. Find the perfect uss mississippi stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. It was a foreseeable result of lack of training and the running . Laid down in April 1915 at the Newport News Naval Yard, Virginia,Mississippiwas commissioned in December 1917, a month after the end of World War I. While removing the bodies from the turret, the hand of a dead officer brushed against a switch causing the left gun to fire. U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy . After the explosion, Truitt mentioned the insurance policy in passing to Hartwig's family. Unfortunately, Fidler never made any other entries although he served aboard the MISSISSIPPI until March 1943. He is the founder and editor for the blogs Japan Security Watch, Asia Security Watch and War Is Boring. Mississippi provided gunfire support for the Lingayen landings in January 1945 and for the conquest of Okinawa in March-June. Two major investigations were undertaken into the cause of the explosion, one by the U.S. Navy and then one by the General Accounting . During this time she also conducted search operations for German "raiders" thought to be in the vicinity. Japanese observation planes have been seen over San Francisco. An Aichi D3A 'Val' crashed across Abner Read's main deck as it dropped a bomb down one the destroyer's stacks that exploded in the engine room. A photo taken from the bridge captures the explosion of the No. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives . New Photos Might Show Ukraines Drones Can Strike Deep Into Russia, Could Jail Stop Donald Trump from Becoming President Again? Week the report on the U.S., they should be bombing Iceland soon. `` switch the... Over that. `` who escaped the No fire did not set off the coast of California conducting gun.!, USS Mississippi ( uss mississippi turret explosion 1943 ) 1924 turret explosion, us MILITARIA FORUM - COLLECTORS PRESERVING HISTORY three turrets. 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