After firing its seventh salvo, the Mississippis gun crew prepared to load silk bags of gunpowder into the magazines of the ships 14-inch guns in the No. 1943 - 1943: 9: My father, A.A. Frye was an anti-aircraft gunner's mate on the starboard side. The Navy Bureau of Ordnance is considered authoritative on both weapons. I'm very sorry it ever occurred. Mississippi suffered two turret explosions, oddly enough the same turret each time if I recall. 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. On the eighth salvo, turret two, gun two suffered a rare flare back. The four powder bags inserted into the breech, totaling 470 pounds of explosive powder, caught fire and ignited other bags waiting to be loaded. This need not have happened. On the back, he marked the place where each body was found! The Navy's investigation of this tragedy initially concluded that the explosion was caused by the suicidal acts of Gunner's Mate Clayton Hartwig, who was killed in the explosion. --another violation of regulations. I was on active duty at that time. TURRET TWO: DAMAGE CONTROL MEASURES FOLLOWING THE EXPLOSION . At roughly one horsepower per ton, she was not terribly fast, with a top speed of just twenty-one knots. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. 3 other similar ships, the USS New Jersey, the USS Wisconsin, and the USS Missouri were built at the same time. See attached. Later in the year, she was part of the force that invaded Peleliu and Leyte and defeated a Japanese task force in the Battle of Surigao Strait. The battleship would continue participating mainly in training exercises until the 1940s. The guns' lubricants were the next to ignite, he said. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Fransisco. 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. A news report about the USS Iowa gun turret explosion in 1989. The Oklahoma capsizing is straight dope. Battleship USS Mississippi, cruiser USS Minneapolis, and destroyers USS Shaw, Boggs, and McKean arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Americans have bombed Tokio and our bombers have reported sending a Japanese battleship to the bottom. The following video remembers those. The Navy' s Investigation -1924, the battleship USS Mississippi, the same ship, had an explosion in turret No. Outbound passengers aboard the all-night party ship Yale watched in disbelief as the shell from the Mississippi flew over them, landing in the ocean only a few hundred feet away without exploding. ww2dbaseDuring 1931-33 , Mississippi underwent a major modernization that gave her an all-new superstructure, improved armament and enhanced protection. "We stand by the results of the investigation," Coles said. Unfortunately, Fidler never made any other entries although he served aboard the MISSISSIPPI until March 1943. She was armed with a main battery of twelve 14-inch/50 caliber guns mounted in four turrets of three guns each, with each gun mounted in a separate sleeve. I heard they are going to put up a telephone line from Portsmouth, Virginia, to Hvalfordur, Iceland, using the periscopes for poles. Copyright 2004-2023 Lava Development, LLC., all rights reserved, Battleship Mississippi (BB-41) Photo Gallery, See all 12 photographs of Battleship Mississippi (BB-41), Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign, 8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 4 steam turbines, 4 screws, 12x14in/50cal guns, 14x5in/51cal guns, 4x3in/50cal guns, 2x21in torpedo tubes, 8-13.5in belt, 18in turret face, 16in conning tower, 3.5in decks. Panoramic photograph of the funeral for the forty-eight officers and men killed when Mississippi's (BB-41) Number Two 14-inch Gun Turret burned during gunnery practice on 12 June 1924. Suddenly, in the midst of the barrage . The 14-inch/50 caliber gun was plagued with technical issues, a major problem considering it was the primary armament on the majority of serving U.S. Navy battleships. USS Mississippi (BB-41) was the second of three ships of the New Mexico-class battleships. "Dec. 10. He noted that the Navy ultimately discarded the Bureau of Ordnance's 1944 friction theory, deciding that a burning ember in the bore from a previously fired round had ignited the powder and caused the explosion. Bipartisan. In this part I will briefly describe . A similar explosion in a turret of the battleship Mississippi in 1920 led the Navy to redesign its turrets to prevent future accidents . . Gunners mate Kendall L. Truitt, one of the 12 sailors who escaped the No. In 1961 the USS ARIZONA was altered once more. The USS Iowa turret explosion occurred in the Number Two 16inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USSIowa(BB61) on 19 April 1989. . 2 Turret was cold, meaning it hadn't been fired yet. I'm sorry for anyone's personal grief or personal anguish over that.". It is likely that the initial chaos and his duties kept him from making entries during the first days. After repairs, the Mississippi continued its wartime service, and was present in Tokyo Bay for Japan's formal surrender to the U.S. on Sept. 2, 1945. . Navy.". Another sailor, Senior Master Chief Steven Skelly, told Milligan that "There has been account after account of all classes of battleship" where friction ignited ripped bags of powder as they were rammed into the gun. United States General Accounting Office. "He hit me on the shoulder one day, and he's like, 'If I ever die, you're going to be a rich man,'" Truitt recalled. . In 1943, the big battleship was off the coast of Makin Island, providing naval gunfire support to a . 2 gun turret during a firing exercise on the big American battleship, killing more than 40 sailors and triggering an inquiry into how such an accident could . If Germany has declared war on the U.S., they should be bombing Iceland soon.". It doesn't make any difference to the crew, their attitude being the same as six months ago, except that boys talk more about the Japs than the Germans. The MISSISSIPPI and her sister ships of Battleship Division Three represented most of the remaining battleship strength in the U.S. Navy. Built while America was a neutral party in World War I, Mississippi sailed into the atomic age and later served as a massive test platform for surface-to-air missiles. It was a foreseeable result of lack of training and the running . We hope that visitor conversations at WW2DB will be constructive and thought-provoking. The shell flew harmlessly out to sea. 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. . Ward Carroll, a naval aviator who was a spokesman for the Naval Safety Center at the time. Very interesting thread and a great read. Mississippi suffered two turret explosions, oddly enough the same turret each time if I recall. 48 killed. 1919-1940, by Harvey M. Beigel. The Iowa was commissioned in 1943. Each of those visits was special, but a particularly unique one resulted in a perk rarely seen on a military vessel: in 1943 a bathtub was . I served aboad the USS . The MISSISSIPPI was part of the covering force for convoys and lines of communications in the North Atlantic. I never researched the turret explosion story, but the one aboard the Iowa in 1989 (killing 47) was what spurred my grandfather to relay the story to me regarding his brother. 2, Senior Chief Reginald Ziegler, told him that ripped bags of propellant were not always discarded as required by Navy safety rules. Forty-eight sailors were killed, and only one of the sailors manning the turret survived. Navy records show that Emett C. Dunn, Jr., a civilian employee of the Navy stationed in Charleston, S.C., told investigators that during a March visit to the Iowa the senior enlisted man in turret No. After taking the remainder of 1943 to complete shakedown and training activities, New Jersey then transited the Panama Canal and reported for combat operations at Funafuti in the Pacific. On 19 April 1989, the Iowa. Don't worry about collecting. Naval officers in dress uniforms stood in front as 1200 sailors in dress blues stood on the sides of the coffins. The U.S.A. is now at war with Germany, Japan, and Italy. It was the deadliest peacetime naval disaster ever to occur along the California coast, an explosion that tore through a gun turret on the battleship Mississippi, killing 48 sailors and injuring dozens more. 2 turret of the battleship USS Mississippi in 1943 that killed 43 sailors was caused by a "flareback" when unexpelled gases from a previous round ignited powder bags. In these tests, Navy technicians simulated conditions in the center gun at the time of the accident, including ramming the 110-pound bags of powder 21-inches further into the barrel than normal. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Find the perfect uss mississippi stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives . H.M.S. Iowa: Gauging Reliability of the Psychological Autopsy On April 19, 1989, 47 U.S. Navy sailors were killed when an explosion ripped through turret 2 of the U.S.S. Mississippi steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925. Lava's technical capabilities. DD-770 General Specifications. Following the explosion, the MISSISSIPPI returned to anchorage at San Pedro to transfer the dead and wounded to the hospital ship USS RELIEF. There's some paper with this group and his hat. Running a zigzag course at 19 knots (known as Baker 3 in Navy lingo), the 624-foot Mississippi chased another battleship, the California, which was towing a large target. Initially this had been the area of a flag and platform for ceremonies and visits to the site from 1950-1960. He had instinctively closed the doors to the ammunition hoist and flooded the magazines. "USS Mississippi (BB-41) cordite fire in the #2 14-inch gun turret. 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 determined. Iowa's turret two on fire immediately following the explosion. On June 12, 1924, the MISSISSIPPI, along with the battleships TENNESSEE and IOWA, was engaged in gunnery practice off San Clemente Island. 2 turret of the Iowa, told investigators after the incident that if the sailor operating the ram had pushed the bags of powder too far into the breach the gun, the powder "would have gone off," Navy records say. USS Mississippi (BB-41, later AG-128), 1917-1956, DANFS - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Permitting Policy and Resource Management, The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: 20 Years Later, "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. "It's a classic example of Navy leaders not being willing to speak truth to power and make the hard decisions," Carroll said. Sometimes, if firing was prolonged and fairly rapid, the compressors supplying the air to the compressed air bottles could not keep up with the demand and in those cases, the bores might not receive a complete blast of air, leaving some debris or incandescent gases lingering inside. he Washington Post reported in September 1989. The last explosion was so strong that it blew the turret's two-ton hatch off its hinges and into the water, he said. Here is one of my postings from another collecting forum. Assigned to Task Group 58.2, the battleship supported operations in the Marshall Islands in January 1944 including the invasion of Kwajalein. Second, it is to showcase The reports by psycholgists of the FBI and the Naval Investigative Service indicated Hartwig deliberately caused the April 19 blast in one of the battleship's gun turrents, killing himself and 46 . Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. 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