Warship Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter Husky_Khan
- Start date
It's another victim of the general bullshit the mayor/gov of Portland has tried to push for political reasons, because if she had not allowed the Antifa bullshit to fester, maybe Portland's cops could have kept the homeless off the ship.
That would be...a mistake in my mind.
They are looking at using them as training boats for the SSN crews they'll need for the attack subs they are planning to purchase.
I'm more thinking about (worried really) the potential leaking of high sub tech through the Australians and into China. I guess they'll dumb down the Las Angeles class boats if necessary?
Dumbing them down would be counterproductive to help the Aussies train crews for the subs they are going to be buying from us and the Brits.
Besides, the old tech on a LA class is probably at least a decade behind our current Virginia's and the new Colombia's.
The USS New Jersey showing it can take two ships at once... 
Someone do the math on the stress those shot imparted to the frame...cuz I'm just kinda curious.
So our subs have had compromised steel in thier hulls since 1985-2017 due to fraud by Washington state metallurgist.
Words really fail to describe how bad looks/sounds, and how dark a hole this fuck should rot in.
Harlock
I should have expected that really
just over a hundred tons per gun per shot, which sounds a lot but with the recoil mechanisms and sheer mass of everything it barely vibrates the ship. its the muzzle blast that shakes things, shatters plates, even kills people if the are with a couple dozen yards of the gun firing
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
This wasn't just due to metallurgist, this was also due to the company which owns the steelworks making this steel, as the most likely reason for her falsifying the tests was that they bribed her, so they could get away with lower (thus cheaper) quality work. Bribes of testers and Congress critters have always been cheaper, than doing the work correctly.
Harlock
I should have expected that really
When it comes to unlucky ships I think everyone knows the absolute legend that is the William D Porter
www.historynet.com
but I always thought it was more those in proximity that suffered rather than the ship itself. Rather there is the German heavy cruiser Blucher which was declared operational on April 5th 1940 and sunk just three and a bit days later. That has to be some sort of record
Probably best known for being knocked out by guns and torpedoes made in the 1890s. The scene showed up in a film which was made at the same fortress using the same elderly cannons
Blucher herself was a potent warship and sister to Prinz Eugen (and one sold to the Soviets and later used against the Germans) but her crew were green and inadequately trained. Blucher was tasked with leading a task force to capture Oslo landing by surprise in the early morning dark and deploying a battalion of troops directly into the city. these men would seize the Norweigian king, government and gold reserves.
It did not go as planned
Oslo was approached by sea using quite a narrow fjord which was defended by an old fortress at Oscarborg dating back over a century and last modernised in the 1890s. By 1940 it was being used as a training facility for gunners.
The main fort boasted a trio of old but still impressive 11 inch guns, plus a supporting defence of three 5.9 inch guns further down the fjord and some 57mm guns scattered as flank defence. There was also a hidden torpedo battery consisting of a trio of concrete tubes built into the coastline armed with whitehead torpedoes delivered in 1900.
If Blucher's crew were new the fortress gunners were even more so, most of them having being conscripted 7 days earlier. They were also greatly understaffed with only enough men to crew two guns and not enough to reload them in a timely manner after firing.
Before the battle to man the torpedo battery the fort had needed to recall a previous commander who had once run the place but had retired in the 20s and had been enjoying his pension ever since. Luckily he remained an expert on the exact same weapons he had overseen before WWI
The Colonel commanding the fort was in a sticky situation, with no clear orders he had to make the call on whether to shoot or not without knowing the identity or intentions of the ships. Ultimately he chose wisely. despite having just two shots both hit squarely at point blank range. The first hit the aircraft fuel and munitions magazine causing massive damage and a fierce fire, the second knocked out Blucher's main turret generators.
The smaller guns joined in after knocking out the cruisers steering and her firefighting capacity, in addition to keeping her crew pinned down under a hail of splinters.
Finally there were the two ancient torpedoes fired by their pensioner commander who had been waiting since 1909 for this moment. His aim was perfect and the forty year old weapons worked perfectly. The second torpedo in particular was highly effective hitting n area already weakened by one of the big gun hits, it killed the engines and compounded the already severe structural damage.
Eventually fire spread to one of the 105mm ammo magazines blasting a massive hole in the side and further cracking the already weakened hull. The raging fires ignited her ruptured fuel tanks and that was that.
While the Blucher was clearly unlucky falling to such elderly weapons it was more than just that. Most of the damage was concentrated in one section, both the 11 inch hit, a torpedo and the magazine detonation happened in close proximity. These blew out all the bulkheads and opened up the machinery spaces making it incredibly hard to control flooding. This was made worse by the inferno which ultimately doomed her.
Damage to the fire suppression system meant there was no water pressure in the hoses to fight the flames, plus the crew were being suppressed by the defenders light guns in the crucial early stages greatly hindering damage control. When they tried to flood the burning magazine again there was no water pressure meaning the operation failed dooming the ship. As an added bonus the fires also set off grenades and ammo the embarked soldiers had brought along killing and wounding sailors trying to fix the situation.
While the victory only bought Oslo a few hours it was enough to evacuate key persons and avoid the country losing its leaders at the start of the invasion. Still, sinking a ship only on its fourth operational day has to count for something, and that the killing blow was delivered by 40 year old torpedoes launched by a pensioner
USS William D. Porter: The U.S. Navy Destroyer's Service in World War II
Almost torpedoing the battleship carrying President Franklin Roosevelt to the Tehran Conference was not the first misadventure of the ill-fated 'Willie Dee'.
www.historynet.com
but I always thought it was more those in proximity that suffered rather than the ship itself. Rather there is the German heavy cruiser Blucher which was declared operational on April 5th 1940 and sunk just three and a bit days later. That has to be some sort of record
Probably best known for being knocked out by guns and torpedoes made in the 1890s. The scene showed up in a film which was made at the same fortress using the same elderly cannons
Blucher herself was a potent warship and sister to Prinz Eugen (and one sold to the Soviets and later used against the Germans) but her crew were green and inadequately trained. Blucher was tasked with leading a task force to capture Oslo landing by surprise in the early morning dark and deploying a battalion of troops directly into the city. these men would seize the Norweigian king, government and gold reserves.
It did not go as planned
Oslo was approached by sea using quite a narrow fjord which was defended by an old fortress at Oscarborg dating back over a century and last modernised in the 1890s. By 1940 it was being used as a training facility for gunners.
The main fort boasted a trio of old but still impressive 11 inch guns, plus a supporting defence of three 5.9 inch guns further down the fjord and some 57mm guns scattered as flank defence. There was also a hidden torpedo battery consisting of a trio of concrete tubes built into the coastline armed with whitehead torpedoes delivered in 1900.
If Blucher's crew were new the fortress gunners were even more so, most of them having being conscripted 7 days earlier. They were also greatly understaffed with only enough men to crew two guns and not enough to reload them in a timely manner after firing.
Before the battle to man the torpedo battery the fort had needed to recall a previous commander who had once run the place but had retired in the 20s and had been enjoying his pension ever since. Luckily he remained an expert on the exact same weapons he had overseen before WWI
The Colonel commanding the fort was in a sticky situation, with no clear orders he had to make the call on whether to shoot or not without knowing the identity or intentions of the ships. Ultimately he chose wisely. despite having just two shots both hit squarely at point blank range. The first hit the aircraft fuel and munitions magazine causing massive damage and a fierce fire, the second knocked out Blucher's main turret generators.
The smaller guns joined in after knocking out the cruisers steering and her firefighting capacity, in addition to keeping her crew pinned down under a hail of splinters.
Finally there were the two ancient torpedoes fired by their pensioner commander who had been waiting since 1909 for this moment. His aim was perfect and the forty year old weapons worked perfectly. The second torpedo in particular was highly effective hitting n area already weakened by one of the big gun hits, it killed the engines and compounded the already severe structural damage.
Eventually fire spread to one of the 105mm ammo magazines blasting a massive hole in the side and further cracking the already weakened hull. The raging fires ignited her ruptured fuel tanks and that was that.
While the Blucher was clearly unlucky falling to such elderly weapons it was more than just that. Most of the damage was concentrated in one section, both the 11 inch hit, a torpedo and the magazine detonation happened in close proximity. These blew out all the bulkheads and opened up the machinery spaces making it incredibly hard to control flooding. This was made worse by the inferno which ultimately doomed her.
Damage to the fire suppression system meant there was no water pressure in the hoses to fight the flames, plus the crew were being suppressed by the defenders light guns in the crucial early stages greatly hindering damage control. When they tried to flood the burning magazine again there was no water pressure meaning the operation failed dooming the ship. As an added bonus the fires also set off grenades and ammo the embarked soldiers had brought along killing and wounding sailors trying to fix the situation.
While the victory only bought Oslo a few hours it was enough to evacuate key persons and avoid the country losing its leaders at the start of the invasion. Still, sinking a ship only on its fourth operational day has to count for something, and that the killing blow was delivered by 40 year old torpedoes launched by a pensioner
I mean, why dont we look at how the largest battleships of the Axis all died too aircraft and not the grand naval engagements they were built for, or how nearly the whole Japanese Aircraft carrier fleet was destroyed by the worst American torpedo bombers and the decent Dive Bombers.
I do have to say, that is hilarious watching the Germans get delayed by such old stuff
I do have to say, that is hilarious watching the Germans get delayed by such old stuff
Harlock
I should have expected that really
Yeah, apparently for the Japanese damage control was just something which happened to other people
They could have saved at least Taiho and Shinano, maybe one or two Midway carriers too.
Compare to the Franklin which got shredded but still somehow floated home, or Lusty which burned so fiercely parts of her hull were glowing red from the fires behind it yet still survived
They could have saved at least Taiho and Shinano, maybe one or two Midway carriers too.
Compare to the Franklin which got shredded but still somehow floated home, or Lusty which burned so fiercely parts of her hull were glowing red from the fires behind it yet still survived
I mean, they had horrible AA as well.Yeah, apparently for the Japanese damage control was just something which happened to other people
They could have saved at least Taiho and Shinano, maybe one or two Midway carriers too.
Compare to the Franklin which got shredded but still somehow floated home, or Lusty which burned so fiercely parts of her hull were glowing red from the fires behind it yet still survived
They remind me of the battle droid firefighters in Star Wars The Clone Wars. Incapable of stopping the fire.
THen again, they also painted a giant meatball perfect for targeting.
bintananth
behind a desk
Not for lack of trying on their part. The IJN was saddled with inadequate AA directors and a horrible light AA gun (the 25mm Hotckiss).
The Yamato, fr'ex, had 24x5" and 168x25mm available for AA when she went down. Compare that to what the Iowa's carried (20x5", 80x40mm, 49x25mm) and the Yamato's doesn't look inadequate ... on paper.