Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "The Drydock - Episode 087" video.

  1. I can remember my 11 year old self devouring the latest Popular Mechanics , Popular Science and magazines like that at the local library. There were multiple articles about the latest in naval technology, and one of them was the quest for fully automatic 6" and 8" guns that would really be dual purpose. Even though this was in 1957, it was clear that the problem being solved was the Invasion of Japan, 1946. If the Japanese would have been able to continue, or worse, increase, their rate of kamikaze attacks, the USN would have had a loss of vessels and crews rising to near catastrophic levels during the invasion. Even more alarming were the results of the survey of Japanese air power still available directly before the surrender. Rather than the assumed 3,000 to 4,000 aircraft still airworthy, the Japanese had been husbanding virtually every kind of aircraft produced since the start of the war. These ranged from biplane trainers to the hundreds of Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka human guided rockets, commonly known to the USN as the "Baka" (Fool) flying warhead. It was a name that demonstrated the US misunderstanding of why Japanese pilots were willing to sacrifice their lives to forestall an invasion of the home islands. It turned out there were nearly 50,000 aircraft that the Japanese were willing to lose in kamikaze attacks, and the number was a real shock to USN planners. With this background, it's easier to understand why the concept of large caliber guns under radar direction and firing proximity fused shells was important. The concept was to put up a nearly impenetrable wall of flak that would splash even the most determined attacker. The Navy went back and forth on the best way to defend the fleet would in the next war, with the gun admirals battling the missile admirals. AA missiles were still in their infancy in 1957, and a dual path of guns and missiles was generally considered the right concept. Work on the 6" and 8" automatic guns went forward together, but the 6" gun turned out to be the hardest to bring to service. The basic problem was not the gun, which was the same 6"/47 gun that had been in use by the USN since the Brooklyn class cruisers of the 1930's. The main stumbling point was the size and weight needed for the automatic loaders, as well as the need to be able to use dual loaders for switching from surface fire to AA rounds, and to load the separate powder charges and cartridges at any angle. Even though the resulting Worcester class was the largest "light" cruiser ever built, with the length and tonnage of a Baltimore class heavy Cruiser, but using dual mount turrets. Even this immense size didn't provide enough room in the turrets for the dual feed system to operate properly, with the initial tests showing many jams and failures to feed. In keeping with the quest to provide the heaviest AA gun armament possible, the ships were also to mount the new dual 3"/50 automatic AA guns to replace the quad 40mm guns then in use. The development of the 3"/50 automatic guns was taking place at the same time as the 6" automatic gun, and it had its own teething problems. As a result, the Worcester class came into service with advanced guns, but none of them worked reliably. Work continued on and off to correct the problems of both types of guns. The 3"/50 gun's problems were mostly corrected by about 1950, but the feed system 6" guns, while experimentally showing success as the feed problems were more or less corrected by 1956, would need to have a completely new turret and feed system built on a hull that was already carrying more weight than designed. New sketch designs showed the follow on to the Worcester class would need to be about 700' in length and about 18,000 tons standard displacement. This was going to cost too much in money and time compared to the guided missile cruisers already under design, and it becoming increasingly clear that the guided missile would be the new AA defense going forward, not the gun. Both ships of the class, USS Worcester and USS Roanoke were retained on active duty until late 1958 since they were the last all-gun light cruisers in the Navy, but the role of light cruisers was thought to be over with by then. They were decommissioned to reserve and finally sold for scrapping in 1972. The technology used for the automatic guns of the Worcester class was used much more successfully for the 8"/55 armament of the Des Moines class cruisers, with the USS Newport News being the last of the proud line of US gun cruisers, decommissioned in 1975, stricken in 1978, and finally scrapped in 1993.
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