1941- Enroute Hvalfordur, Iceland to Portsmouth, Va. At last we are steaming homeward in company with the U.S.S. By Mississippi steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925. Assigned to Task Group 58.2, the battleship supported operations in the Marshall Islands in January 1944 including the invasion of Kwajalein. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. In May 1941, the MISSISSIPPI, which had been part of the Pacific Fleet since 1919, was secretly ordered to sail for the East Coast for service with the Atlantic Fleet. In 1943, the big battleship was off the coast of Makin Island, providing naval gunfire support to a landing force preparing to secure the island. "They were the real gun experts," said retired Rear Adm. Gene LaRocque, a former battleship captain and the founder of the Center for Defense Information in Washington. . Forty-seven coffins were arranged on the field. If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. It took the sailors eight hours to douse the blaze. The aging battlewagon had served longer than most ships at the time, but it had also experienced two rare tragedies, in the same place, under similar circumstances. Of her complement, 1026 officers and men were killed, including Rear-Admiral Hood. Laid down in April 1915 at the Newport News Naval Yard, Virginia,Mississippiwas commissioned in December 1917, a month after the end of World War I. But unlike other explosions, the 16-inch gun in the No. RLoret 1 yr. ago. The Invasion of Lingayen Gulf (Filipino: Paglusob sa Golpo ng Lingayen), 6-9 January 1945, was an Allied amphibious operation in the Philippines during World War II.In the early morning of 6 January 1945, a large Allied force commanded by Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf began approaching the shores of Lingayen from Lingayen Gulf, on the island of Luzon. 2. The New Mexico class was the fourth of six distinct battleship classes laid down the 1910s, as the Navy rushed to fortify the Atlantic against tensionsand then outright warin Europe. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. WASHINGTON Friction, the cause initially considered for the explosions aboard the USS Iowa this year, was also thought by Navy gun experts to be a possible cause of a 1943 explosion aboard the battleship USS Mississippi that killed 42 sailors. Despite her forty years of service,Mississippiwas bound to tragedy, experiencing two major accidents in the same turret, in the same gun, twenty years apart. The USS Iowa (BB-61) was the lead ship of the last class of battleships built by the U.S. Navy, and was the first of four in that class to be commissioned, on 22 February 1943.Although the Japanese super-battleships Yamato and Musashi were heavier and had larger guns (nine 18.1-inch) the Iowa-class (Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin) were without doubt the most sophisticated . 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. . I'll bet the Prince took something down with her. Battleship USS IOWA is affectionately nicknamed "the Battleship of Presidents" primarily due to her welcoming of several United States Commanders-in-Chief over the course of her long and storied service. Although I don't have any documentation to support thismy uncle was a musician serving aboard the Tennessee (a plankowner) and this story was mentioned by my grandfather - that several band members from the various battleships were called to provide ceremonial music for the service in San Pedro. Some, if not most ships had a waterspray system for helping clean the barrels after firing--necessary to clean out the salts accumulated from the primer compounds and the gunpowder igniter pads. 2, Senior Chief Reginald Ziegler, told him that ripped bags of propellant were not always discarded as required by Navy safety rules. 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 . WW2DB site administrators reserve the right to moderate, censor, and/or remove any comment. The shell flew harmlessly out to sea. 2. 2. Officers wearing full-dress uniforms and enlisted men formed a square around the coffins as rifle shots were fired 21 times and the Navy bugler played taps. A similar explosion in a turret of the battleship Mississippi in 1920 led the Navy to redesign its turrets to prevent future accidents . Nearly twenty yearsand a major refit laterthe USSMississippiwent to war in the Pacific. "The sad thing is I understand what they were doing and why they were doing it," Truitt told Task & Purpose. Two hundred sailors of each battleship of Battleship Division 4 were present. Destroyers report there are six subs in back of us. In 1943, she took part operations against Kiska Island, in the Aleutians, and in the capture of the Gilbert Islands. . "The gun where the explosion occurred had not fired" that day. During gunnery practice on 12 June 1924, she suffered a turret fire that took the lives of 48 of her crew. The Case of the U.S.S. Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. The fleet in Pearl Harbor must have been asleep and I do not mean dozing. Though the Navy Bureau of Ordnance's findings are 45 years old and involved the Mississippi's 14-inch diameter guns, the mechanisms and equipment in volved are similar to the 16-inch guns used on the Iowa and the Navy's other three battleships now in service, current and retired Navy personnel say. Iowa. Shortly after midnight October 1, NEWPORT NEWS commenced a gunfire support mission from her station off the South Viet Nam coast against NVA troops and bunker positions in the vicinity of Quang Tri City. She was redesignated AG-128 and equipped with a number of radars and prototype air defense missile systems. The scene inside was too terrible to describe. I imagine that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had a bit to do with us leaving Hvalfordur, but we sure got out of there in a hurry after the Japs started firing. Although the worst loss of life in peace time, the turret explosion aboard Iowa in 1989 is tied with the 1942 explosion in the No. July 29, 2009 in EPHEMERA, PHOTOGRAPHS & MILITARY ARTWORK. Your email address will not be published. 47 men were killed. The deck was armored to 3.5 inches and the conning tower to sixteen inches. In this part I will briefly describe . 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. "I knew all 47 guys inside that turret because as part of the ship's policy we had rotated between all three turrets," Carr, who served as a gunner's mate in the Iowa's aft 16-inch turret, told Task & Purpose. Almost instantly, forty-five men and three officers were dead from asphyxiation. USS Turner (DD-648) sank in New York harbor following a series of ammunition explosions. 1920's (U.S. Navy photo) USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. On April 19, 1989, the day of the blast, the ship was preparing for live-fire training at Vieques, Puerto Rico Naval Training Range. The recoil severely crushed ten men inside and the salvo narrowly missed an outgoing passenger vessel. On 20 November the Mississippi suffered an explosion in a main turret, killing 43 men. 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. Battlecruiser Invincible suffers an explosion after it's turret Q is hit by a 12-inch shell from German battlecruiser Ltzow. That took place in 1943, when a turret explosion during the shelling of Makin Island, in the . Naval Academy, The Sullivan Brothers and the Assignment of Family Members, Historic Former U.S. Navy Bases and Stations, The African American Experience in the U.S. Navy, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Navy, Contributions of Native Americans to the U.S. Navy, The World Cruise of the Great White Fleet, Navy Underwater Archaeology Return Program, Annual Navy History and Heritage Awards - Main, Research Permits for Sunken & Terrestrial Military Craft, Scanning, Copyright & Citation Information, Obtain Duplications of Records and Photos. In 1924 and 1943, open breech explosions had occurred in the Turret Two center gun aboard Mississippi, each time killing most of the crewmen in the turret. 2s 14-inch guns went off again. Key point:Twice the same gun turret had an issue that caused it to blow up. US Battleship Turret Explosions 1904-1989. She was commissioned in December 1917, and operated in the western Atlantic area until July 1919, when she transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific. It was also clear that each 16-inch gun turret required more sailors than the Navy could afford to assign. . My uncle died in 1937 from TB (he contracted while on active duty) so the story was told to me by his brother (my grandfather). Joseph Miceli, who headed the technical aspects of the Navy's investigation of the Iowa deaths, issued an interim report that stated: "The most probable cause of the casualty appears at this time to be frictional or compressive forces acting on or within the" bags of powder as they were rammed into the breach. No names were provided so can not verify but I researched the ship photo and am pretty confident that it is the USS Mississippi. After the war, Mississippi was effectively defanged, with three of her four main battery turrets removed. -23), the erstwhile Normandie, pride of the Compagnie . 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 . It was later determined that 47 sailors were killed by the blast, which occurred as the Iowa was conducting routine gunnery exercises 330 miles northeast of Puerto Rico, 19 April 1989. The battleship was damaged by suicide planes in both operations. The World War II Database is founded and managed by My Father served on the USS MISSISSIPPI prior to his being sent to East Africa (NCU-3 Radio Marina in Asmara). The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. Then they found two sailors who had been blown from the turret onto the deck. They are thick, alright. Because there were still unfired rounds in the other two guns of Turret No. Battleship USS Mississippi, cruiser USS Minneapolis, and destroyers USS Shaw, Boggs, and McKean arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Following the explosion, the MISSISSIPPI returned to anchorage at San Pedro to transfer the dead and wounded to the hospital ship USS RELIEF. 1919-1940, by Harvey M. Beigel. I heard family stories about my uncle being killed in a turret explosion on the USS Mississippi but I had no details about the events leading to and following the explosion. The USS Iowa turret explosion occurred in the Number Two 16-inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) on April 19, 1989. While bombarding Makin 20 November, a turret explosion, almost identical to the earlier tragedy, killed 43 men. Naval officers in dress uniforms stood in front as 1200 sailors in dress blues stood on the sides of the coffins. The MISSISSIPPI and her sister ships of Battleship Division Three represented most of the remaining battleship strength in the U.S. Navy. A news report about the USS Iowa gun turret explosion in 1989. 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. Carr was wearing headphones that allowed him to hear what the crews in the other turrets were saying. Your email address will not be published. The military looks for scapegoats when people die rather than admit their mistakes or acknowledge that accidents are even possible, Truitt said. The right gun had just fired and was returned to loading position and the plug opened. After an extensive preliminary bombardment, the Marine assault force headed towards the beach andMississippiand the other ships increased their rate of fire. 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