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USS Iowa comes back to life for its final voyage

Gett'in a nice history lesson here. Didn't one of the Iowa class ships run aground during her sea trials in Chesapeake Bay or Delaware Bay? I think the Captain also lost his command, spent all those years getting to captain a great new battleship only to blow it the first time out.
 
JohnVF said:
She also had a flaw in her left/right counter-flooding, IIRC, something to do with the centerline bulkhead (its been awhile since I read "A glorious way to die"- good book, BTW). A super-cavitation torpedo would solve that problem, so to speak. Without a bottom, both sides of the ship would flood equally...

Given the number of planes sent against her, and her relatively non-effective AA, she didn't stand a chance anyway. What a waste of a ship (and lives). Of course, she was eventually made into a space cruiser and saved the world.

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Favorite TV show of mine since I was a kid. Have all the episodes, comic books, etc. Built the model kits. The live action movie was way cool, in a way that only the Japanese could do.

I also built the original version of the Tamiya Yamato kit, as well as the big Nichimo Yamato in 1/200 scale. Coolest kit I ever built.

Have you seen the re-release of the Yamato kit by Tamiya? Looks Amazing!!!

And speaking of cool as only the Japanese can do, I would love to see the 1/10 scale Yamato they built:

yamato_01.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdR0h7MvtNA
 
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Sad that the greatest Battleship navy in the world, the Royal Navy, didn't manage to save any of theirs. At least one should have been saved. So many great choices:

Warspite- took part in Jutland and many engagements in WW2. May have the longest range hit on another ship in history.

King George V- the mainstay of the WW2 British fleet, her class, though on paper outmatched by foreign ships, served incredibly well. The KGV's were responsible or involved in the destruction of the Bismarck and Scharnhorst, in about the only true Battleship actions of the War.

Vanguard - tho arguably undergunned, she might have been the best balanced, and maybe even the best, battleship of WW2. Yes, even better than the Iowas. Maybe. Last, and mightiest, Battleship built for the Royal Navy.

Damn shame that none of them were saved.
 
Bigerik said:
Favorite TV show of mine since I was a kid. Have all the episodes, comic books, etc. Built the model kits. The live action movie was way cool, in a way that only the Japanese could do.

I also built the original version of the Tamiya Yamato kit, as well as the big Nichimo Yamato in 1/200 scale. Coolest kit I ever built.

Have you seen the re-release of the Yamato kit by Tamiya? Looks Amazing!!!

And speaking of cool as only the Japanese can do, I would love to see the 1/10 scale Yamato they built:

yamato_01.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdR0h7MvtNA
Click to expand...

Wasn't Trumpeter going to do a new 1/200 Yamato? I've kind of lost track of what is coming out, though I used to be as obsessed with plastic kits of ships as I am of my stereo stuff- still have a backlog of 1/350 kits that will last a lifetime. I have seen pictures of the new Tamiya kit--looks really nice. I guess I should strip the photoectched brass gunnery control radar array I put on the superstructure of the old kit, as that's is as far as I got. The rest would make a nice bb-target (or fun for my nephews).
 
JohnVF said:
Wasn't Trumpeter going to do a new 1/200 Yamato? I've kind of lost track of what is coming out, though I used to be as obsessed with plastic kits of ships as I am of my stereo stuff- still have a backlog of 1/350 kits that will last a lifetime. I have seen pictures of the new Tamiya kit--looks really nice. I guess I should strip the photoectched brass gunnery control radar array I put on the superstructure of the old kit, as that's is as far as I got. The rest would make a nice bb-target (or fun for my nephews).
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Trumpeter makes amazing kits. I think Tamiya has upped the quality of their stuff because of what trumpeter is doing.

It is great to see that there is finally a 1/350 scale HMS Hood. Always seemed wrong that Tamiya never made one.
 
Bigerik said:
Sad that the greatest Battleship navy in the world, the Royal Navy, didn't manage to save any of theirs. At least one should have been saved. So many great choices:

.
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Rodney and Nelson are my favorites, slow but very heavy hitters. And it seems Rodney did more damage to Bismarck than KGV.


1071.jpg


bb_hms_rodney.jpg
 
The Hood kit is nice. I bought brass for it and new barrels but never started it. That was right before stereo took over my life.

I've always loved the Nelson class. My favorite of the treaty ships.
 
Tom Brennan said:
Rodney and Nelson are my favorites, slow but very heavy hitters. And it seems Rodney did more damage to Bismarck than KGV.
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And the Rodney did more damage to herself than the Bismarck did. :)

That really was not a great design. Unstable. And absolute pig to handle. SLow. But, the Royal Navy made the best of them. The original design, with two turrets up front and one in the back, would have been a heck of a ship.
 
One of the last operational battleships, I believe it was the Missouri, was called to the first gulf war. One of the TV networks was interviewing a retired Admiral and asked about the Battleship. Specifically they asked in the age of modern air craft carriers why bring an old battleship. The Admiral answer stuck with me. He said that a modern air craft carrier if all of it's tactical planes few three sorties, it could deliver 250 tons of ordinance in 24 hours, the Missouri can deliver 250 tons of ordinance in 30 minutes. That's pretty impressive.

- Pete
 
rnorton said:
I kinda wish they'd kept one of Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet as a museum piece, though.
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They did, while not a battleship.. a dreadnaught of its day..

USS Olympia

olympia2.jpg


If you ever visit Philly..

To stay on topic.. in the late 80's was stationed on board the USS Trippe and spent time in both the USS Iowa and New Jersey battle groups.
 
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rnorton said:
2 modern torpedoes can probably sink a supercarrier in 5 minutes or less by cavitation. I've seen video of one such torpedo snapping a decommissioned destroyer in two and sinking it in under a minute. Surface ships are SO 20th century. Of course, we always prepare to fight the last war instead of the next one. Torpedoes have come a long way since the Falklands war.
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'cavitating' and super cavitating torpedos are driven that way, a MK48ADCAP explodes under the keel, the pressure wave lifting the ship which may break something, only to have it fall onto the explosion itself damaging weakened plates. Works on 2800tonish escorts....on a carrier?

As for a comment about the exocet, 2 hit the USS stark in the same place and did relatively little damage.
 
Can't wait for this ship to come into San Pedro....
I would love to watch it come into port...Have to take a day off work to go watch this......
Thanks for all the post here and the education.

Got me poking around and found this nice early training film on loading and firing the Iowa Class 16" guns....
wow...2500lb projectiles....and 6-25lb bags of black powder....BOOOOOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OmOQs0ziSU&feature=related
 
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rnorton said:
They were outmoded 70 years ago, and very expensive to operate. Using the New Jersey in Nam was a Pentagon publicity stunt. It rarely hit within 100 yards of its target and it costed about 10,000X as much as ground based artillery that actually hit its targets..

I kinda wish they'd kept one of Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet as a museum piece, though.
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Closest thing to the Great White Fleet remaining afloat is the USS Olympia here in Philly. I don't need to remind you that it was Commodore Dewey's flagship at the battle of Manilla Bay. Before being put on display she was refitted back to her 1898 specifications. She's a sight to behold. Beautiful old ship. :(

Sadly the Independence Seaport museum is running out of funds to keep her open and there's talk of scuttling her to become a coral reef :(
 
LBPete said:
One of the last operational battleships, I believe it was the Missouri, was called to the first gulf war. One of the TV networks was interviewing a retired Admiral and asked about the Battleship. Specifically they asked in the age of modern air craft carriers why bring an old battleship. The Admiral answer stuck with me. He said that a modern air craft carrier if all of it's tactical planes few three sorties, it could deliver 250 tons of ordinance in 24 hours, the Missouri can deliver 250 tons of ordinance in 30 minutes. That's pretty impressive.

- Pete
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Yeah, but the planes would hit the targets.
 
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