Tag Archives: 5″/51

Modern salts on Uncle’s atomic roller coaster, 77 years ago OTD

Posted on by Leave a comment

modern-salts-spinning-a-yarn-in-the-casemate-of-5-51-gun-number-eleven-of-uss-arkansas-bb-33-on-27-october-1940

“Modern Salts”, Spinning a Yarn in the casemate of 5″/51 Gun Number Eleven of USS Arkansas (BB 33) on 27 October 1940. The men are (from left to right): Gunner’s Mate Second Class N.I. Fewell; Boatswain’s Mate First Class R.D. Dennies; Coxwain G.E. Lehto and Gunner’s Mate First Class W.A. Crook. NHHC Photograph Collection, NH 101674

Arkansas was the only sister to the USS Wyoming (BB-32), a two-ship series of early dreadnought battleships in the U.S. Navy commissioned in 1912. One of the last coal-burning battlewagons in the fleet, both Wyoming and Arkansas were shipped to the British Isles when the U.S. entered WWI as part of Battleship Division Nine, which was attached to the British Grand Fleet due to the availability of good Welsh coal in the UK.

“Arky” dodged the Kaiser’s Germans in the Great War but was still around to win 4 battle stars in the Second World War supporting both the D-Day invasions and the Dragoon landings in Southern France before shipping off to the Pacific to plaster the Japanese in Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

The weary 33rd battleship ended her service to the nation on 25 July 1946, sunk as part of Operation Crossroads where she was just 620 yards from the Able shot and only 170 from the Baker blast.

‘A Sailor’s Prayer’

Posted on by Leave a comment

Donation of the Montana Historical Society. Collection of Philip Barbour, Jr., 1958. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 86250 click to big up 1000×787

“A Sailor’s Prayer: A hammock-bound Sailor’s reflections on Navy lower deck life, with second thoughts as re-enlistment time nears.”

Taken in a 5″/51 cal gun casemate on board USS Nevada (BB-36) by A.E. Wells, the ship’s photographer, during the early 1920s. Note ready-service shells on the casemate bulkhead, gun at left, shoes tied to hammock lashings and tattoo on the man’s left leg.

No .4 gun reporting for duty

Posted on by One comment

From Kevin Smith at the Cruiser Olympia at Independence Seaport Museum:

“Today the crew performed the task of a gunners gang, taking down the traversing gear for our #4 5″/51 broadside gun, which we use for demonstration. The gearing was assessed to be too dirty, slowing the travel of the gun left and right. The gearing was taken apart, cleaned thoroughly, and greased anew”

USS Olympia museum No 4 5 inch 51 broadside gun, used for demonstration, cleaned USS Olympia museum No 4 5 inch 51 broadside gun, used for demonstration, cleaned 2 USS Olympia museum No 4 5 inch 51 broadside gun, used for demonstration, cleaned 3 USS Olympia museum No 4 5 inch 51 broadside gun, used for demonstration, cleaned 4
USS Olympia (C-6) was of course Dewey’s flag at Manila Bay, commissioned 5 February 1895 after her completion in San Francisco.

Laid up in 1906, she was brought back out of mothballs in 1916 with the Great War on the horizon and her 5″/40 cals that she carried against the Spanish were replaced with the newer 5″/51s that were standard on battleships (as secondary armament) and cruisers of that time.

She carried and used those weapons in training new bluejacket gunners during the war, then in support of the U.S. Expeditionary Forces to Russia during the civil war in that country, and in carrying the Unknown Soldier of WWI back from France.

It’s nice to see, that although she was decommissioned as a warship 9 December 1922 (now some 93-years ago) and has been used as a relic and museum ship since, at least one of these old 5-inch casemate guns is still fit for service.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA