Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 246" video.

@sharlin648 the "high velocity" version was not a cure. The LV round had an MV of 1920fps, vs 2400fps for the HV round, which provided a ceiling of 13,300ft. The Bofors MV was 2800, with a ceiling of 23,500ft, meaning it could start plinking dive bombers before they started their dive.
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@sharlin648 in short, yes, the Pom-Pom was hindered by a low muzzle velocity, which limited range. Keep in mind how old the Pom-Pom design was by WWII. The early, smaller bore version, dated from the Boer War. I have heard wartime Pom-Pom gunners say their objective was not so much to shoot down enemy aircraft, as it was to provide deterrence: throw so much flack in the aircraft's path that the pilot decides to go look for an easier target. The Pom-Pom had something of a renaissance when the RN returned to the Pacific late in the war. While the Pom-Pom lacked the range to effectively engage attacking aircraft before they dropped their payload, in the case of a kamikaze, where the aircraft does it's damage at zero range, the range limitation of the gun was not a factor. When a kamikaze closed to effective range, a Pom-Pom could shoot it to bits much more effectively than an Oerlikon.
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@sharlin648 on the issue of reloading the Pom-Pom, I was looking for pix of ratings carrying ammo belts to put the question to the brain trust of how the things were reloaded. Found a pic on Navweaps, and read the caption. Ah! Now, I understand. The bins don't hold the ammo like I figured. The caption says it would be difficult to reload while the gun was firing, but, I can see how it would be possible. Only the first and last rounds of each belt were in the rail, with the rest of the belt hanging below. That means that last round would be stationary, while the belt hanging below is fed into the gun, so the loader would have a few seconds where it would be possible to attach another belt.
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@sharlin648 agree, better than throwing rocks! The reload is something I would really like to see being done. With the Bofors, you just keep dropping clips in the loading machine, and the gun fires continuously. The USN 1.1 had two magazines, so it would feed from one magazine while the other was being replaced, so it could fire continuously. To change out the entire bin on a Pom-Pom would require a crane. I have seen many photos of ratings carrying belts of Pom-Pom ammo, something like 15 or 20 rounds per belt. So, do they reload the bins by hitching the belts together? If the gun is firing, how do you hitch another belt to the end of the one in the gun, when the belt is feeding through the gun and the free end is rapidly running away from you?
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