ww2dbaseMississippi was converted to a gunnery training and weapons development ship in 1946, and given the new hull number AG-128. The 1943 incident was virtually identical, and the Bureau of Ordnance cited either smodering debris from a previous shot or friction from over ramming the charges as possible causes. She was present in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, when Japan formally surrendered and returned to the United States soon thereafter. Here is one of my postings from another collecting forum. He battled to contain the fire until he passed out from smoke inhalation, waking up later in an emergency dress battle station. From the Washington Naval Treaty to the end of the Second World War. Abner Read began sinking by the stern and 20 minutes after the attack, she rolled over and sank. 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. 20 November 1943. USS Mississippi (BB-41/AG-128), the second of three members of the New Mexico class of battleship, was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 20th state.The ship was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia, from her keel laying in April 1915, her launching in January 1917, and her commissioning in December that year. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. "They knew more about guns than everybody else in the Navy put together.". by paul.mercer Thu Apr 03, 2014 9:29 pm, Post Nearly twenty yearsand a major refit laterthe USSMississippiwent to war in the Pacific. Debris from firing the big guns had again ignited powder bags, causing the same accident and the same damage. Australian news report on the USS . July 1999. p. 9. 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. In early 1942, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mississippi rejoined the Pacific Fleet. The last shell and charge was removed the next day. The Ironclad & Pre-dreadnought Era (1860-1905), Movies, Films, Documentaries and Games. German dive bombers would sink both ships in the spring of 1941. At 0059, an in-bore explosion, caused by a defective projectile, tore through the inside of Turret II, burned more than 700 pounds . At roughly one horsepower per ton, she was not terribly fast, with a top speed of just twenty-one knots. 2 turret aboard the battleship Mississippi, which also claimed 47 lives. She arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, in June but soon shifted her base to Newport, Rhode Island. On 19 April 1989, the Iowa. The U.S.A. is now at war with Germany, Japan, and Italy. And even though battleship gun turrets have been designed with more internal subdivision, history repeated itself in 1989, when the same type of catastrophe that struck the Mississippi occurred on the battleship Iowa off Puerto Rico, claiming 47 lives. 47 men were killed. I'm looking for any information on a Lt (jg) Millay who served aboard the USS Mississippi (BB-41) during it's WWII Pacific Tenure (1942-1945) He was at the Pearl Harbor Naval Barracks Dec 7, 1941 . US National Archives and Records Administration. They further claimed Hartwig became suicidal because he and Truitt who was married at the time had been lovers but Truitt had rebuffed him. During this time she also conducted search operations for German "raiders" thought to be in the vicinity. 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. In 1943, she took part operations against Kiska Island, in the Aleutians, and in the capture of the Gilbert Islands. "The powder door was still open to the center gun that armored hatch was still open," Carr said. 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. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami. 2, the ship was anchored just inside the breakwater. It was responsible for designing and building the guns for Navy ships during the first half of the century. During the mid-1950s, she was test ship for the Navy's first surface-to-air guided missile, the "Terrier". "We did not accuse Kendall Truitt of anything in the investigation or the other gent," Kelso said. After the explosion, Truitt mentioned the insurance policy in passing to Hartwig's family. Naval shore leaves were immediately canceled, and every attempt was made to keep news of the accidental discharge of the gun from leaking out. 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 . She was launched on 27 August 1942 and commissioned on 22 February 1943. We just outran several units of the German fleet (submarines). 1941- Enroute Hvalfordur, Iceland to Portsmouth, Va. At last we are steaming homeward in company with the U.S.S. They are considered buried at sea by the US Navy. But it soon became apparent that the World War II-era battleships required too much time, money, and manpower to be overhauled, Carroll said. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Later, the Navy would honor Zellars by naming a destroyer after him. I'm very sorry it ever occurred. On June 12, 1924, the MISSISSIPPI, along with the battleships TENNESSEE and IOWA, was engaged in gunnery practice off San Clemente Island. According to the findings from a 1944 investigation by the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance, the explosion in turret No. Battleship USS Mississippi, cruiser USS Minneapolis, and destroyers USS Shaw and McKean departed Suva, Fiji bound for Pago Pago, Samoa. site is two fold. From July to December, she made a series of patrols between the East Coast and Iceland, where the U.S. had recently established a base at Hvalfjordur. They have been throwing torpedoes at us for the past four months. US Navy battleship USS Mississippi in Hampton Roads, Virginia, June 4, 1927. So when that flame came down, all those powder bags went off, and that was the third and final detonation.". "I just thought they had some really strange questions for what I assumed was an honest attempt at an investigation.". Incredibly it had happened again: in their haste to lay down a rain of shells on the Japanese, the gunners of number two turret had apparently experienced yet another flare back. An Aichi D3A 'Val' crashed across Abner Read's main deck as it dropped a bomb down one the destroyer's stacks that exploded in the engine room. "At 10 minutes to 10 a.m., somebody came over the phones and said, 'We're having a problem, Turret 2, center gun,'" Carr recalled. 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. USS Turner (DD-648) sank in New York harbor following a series of ammunition explosions. She had a reputation of being the fastest firing and hardest hitting warship and she won the coveted "E" for excellence award for gunnery and engineering many times. Idaho and four destroyers. I served aboad the USS . 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. It was during this period, when on special training maneuvers, that tragedy struck the ship. In this role, she carried a variety of old and new guns and radars, while serving with the Operational Development Force in the Atlantic. Two major investigations were undertaken into the cause of the explosion, one by the U.S. Navy and then one by the General Accounting . This need not have happened. WW2DB site administrators reserve the right to moderate, censor, and/or remove any comment. . On 19 April 1989, the Number Two 16-inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) exploded. Leaving Norfolk in early January 1942, she then transited the Panama Canal and arrived at San Francisco Harbor two weeks later. The recoil severely crushed ten men inside and the salvo narrowly missed an outgoing passenger vessel. ", Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. Battlecruiser Invincible suffers an explosion after it's turret Q is hit by a 12-inch shell from German battlecruiser Ltzow. -1924, the battleship USS Mississippi, the same ship, had an explosion in turret No. The 1924 disaster was attributed to insufficient air blast to clear the gun barrels, resulting in smoldering debris igniting powder bags as they were rammed in during reloading. Mississippi was converted to a gunnery training and weapons development ship in 1946, and given the new hull number AG-128. 2 turret as Carr and other sailors donned their firefighting gear. Navy.". Photo courtesy of Irv Jacobs via Ron Reeves (of blessed memory). You need to play a total of 20 battles to post in this section. The residue from the smokeless propellant had to be removed chemically. "They were trying to build up the Navy. This cool kids outdoors club will introduce you to L.A.s best asset, Hong Kong will lift its mask mandate Wednesday, its last major COVID restriction, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, Burbank aborted landing was latest close call for U.S. flights. Lt. Zellars' body had already been sent to Georgia for burial. All comment submissions will become the property of WW2DB. Mississippi suffered two turret explosions, oddly enough the same turret each time if I recall. Did you enjoy this article or find this article helpful? --another violation of regulations. Mississippi provided gunfire support for the Lingayen landings in January 1945 and for the conquest of Okinawa in March-June. 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. In November 1943 New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Idaho and Mississippi formed the Northern Attack Group (TG 52.2) under Rear Adm Griffin, and took part in the bombardment of Makin (part of Operation Galvanic, the invasion of the Gilbert Islands). Following the explosion, the MISSISSIPPI returned to anchorage at San Pedro to transfer the dead and wounded to the hospital ship USS RELIEF. In this part I will briefly describe . "Cover-up aboard the USS Iowa" (PDF). Prewar and during the Pacific War located in the Gilbert Islands. If Germany has declared war on the U.S., they should be bombing Iceland soon.". Carr was wearing headphones that allowed him to hear what the crews in the other turrets were saying. The battleship was damaged by suicide planes in both operations. Decommissioned in September 1956, USS Mississippi was sold for scrapping in November of that year, after almost forty years of service. The last explosion was so strong that it blew the turret's two-ton hatch off its hinges and into the water, he said. Out of commission? 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 . By Battleship Mississippi (BB-41) Interactive Map. The Senator from Michigan has asked for a Court Martial of leading admirals and in the 14th Naval District. It was a foreseeable result of lack of training and the running . Seamen in the upper chambers of the gun turret died instantly in the fiery explosion; those in the lower levels were suffocated as the blast siphoned off their oxygen. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives. Although each barrel was blasted between firings with pressurized air to evacuate debris, the middle barrel of each turret received a lower pressure burst than the left and right barrels. "USS Mississippi (BB-41) cordite fire in the #2 14-inch gun turret. Iowa . Following repairs, she participated in the capture of Kwajalein in February 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held islands in February and March. The hand of a dead crewman in the number two turret accidentally hit the firing switch for the port gun, firing it. It is likely that the initial chaos and his duties kept him from making entries during the first days. Navy officials said this week the report on the Mississippi was authentic, but pointed out that it was later overruled by higher-ranking investigators. When the Iowa investigation was completed and released on Sept. 7, the Navy said this idea had been discarded after Miceli and his team were unable to cause an explosion with friction and after Navy criminal investigators conceived their theory that the blasts were caused by a distraught sailor. His work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Esquire, The National Interest, Car and Driver, Men's Health, and many others. Article on accident here. 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. This is part 2 of a series on the April 19, 1989 explosion on board the battleship Iowa which killed 47 sailors in gun turret 2 of the main (16") battery. H.M.S. She spent most of 1942 along the U.S. west coast and went to the South Pacific late in that year. The Americans have bombed Tokio and our bombers have reported sending a Japanese battleship to the bottom. When we're doing a shot with more than three shells, you would stage powder bags inside the powder flats. 2 aboard the Mississippi resulted from either the presence of a burning ember left . 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. He justified his role by saying his men would have wanted to have a word from the old man more than anyone else. The battleships three remaining turrets continued firing until the naval support phase of the invasion had ended. It was one of the worst disasters suffered by the Navy during peacetime. "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. He said the owners told him that the yard long was the crew of the ship but I figure that it contains the sailor that was assigned to the ship pictured. Caviezel and Robert McAvin, escaped, by diving down through a 40-foot hatchway that closed automatically behind them. 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. Following repairs, she participated in the capture of Kwajalein in February 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held islands in February and March. July 29, 2009 in EPHEMERA, PHOTOGRAPHS & MILITARY ARTWORK. When his body was discovered, his hand was still clutching the flood control. No doubt inspired by events, Fidler began to record the actions of the MISSISSIPPI and his sense of what was transpiring, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. On June 12, 1924,Mississippi found herself off the coast of California conducting gun trials. 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 USS Mississippi is home to one of the most intriguing naval coincidences of all time. USS New Jersey During World War II . "This is just from my experience of three years of working and shooting those guns: Eventually the powder bags ripped and the rammer head or the rammer chain sparked, and that's what set off the first explosion," Carr said. Please refrain from using strong language. Only two sailors in the turret firing room, J.F. It's been 30 years since an explosion inside the number two gun turret on the USSIowakilled 47 American sailors, but for Mike Carr, it still feels like yesterday. 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. Your email address will not be published. HTML tags are not allowed. The Oklahoma capsizing is straight dope. Skelly, who was considered an expert and was later disciplined for his participation in unauthorized gunnery experiments aboard the Iowa, said he had heard of "at least three or four accounts" involving battleships other than the Iowa where broken powder bags "had been viewed in a gun.". It took the sailors eight hours to douse the blaze. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. The right gun had just fired and was returned to loading position and the plug opened. 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. He had instinctively closed the doors to the ammunition hoist and flooded the magazines. Seaman First Class Fidler was just seventeen years old when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. fully into the war. Forty-seven coffins were arranged on the field. Mississippi sustained a turret explosion that killed 43 people. Incredibly it had happened again: in their haste to lay down a rain of shells on the Japanese, the gunners of number two turret had apparently experienced yet another flare back. 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. Post 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. Battleships USS Idaho, USS Mississippi, and USS New Mexico, escorted by 2 cruisers and 13 destroyers, were dispatched to patrol the Denmark Strait to protect American merchant shipping. Two days after the attack, accompanied by the battleship IDAHO and a number of destroyers, the Mississippi departed Iceland for Norfolk. Even before the sailors caskets could be shipped to their hometowns, the court of inquiry was underway. "Thus helping Kendall suddenly become a suspect," Truitt said. . 1. He already had policies that named his parents and another friend as beneficiaries. They also repeated assurances that friction or other accidental means did not cause the Iowa deaths. 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. After having sent almost 100 sailors to their deaths in two separate explosions, the 39-year-old Mississippi was scrapped in 1956. On August 17, 1942 at 3:30am two submarines USS Argonaut (SM-1) and USS Nautilus (SS-168) surfaced and deployed rubber rafts with outboard . Repulse have gone down. USS Mississippi arrived at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for an overhaul. 2 turret. by tommy303 Thu Apr 03, 2014 11:55 pm, Post The mighty warship was 624 feet long with a beam of 97.5 feet, and displaced 33,000 tons fully loaded. A bizarre accident occurred afterward while theMississippiwas anchored in San Pedro Bay. 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. Luckily, the fire did not set off the powder bags in the other two guns. The military eats their own it takes a while to realize that.". Note, however, he is identified as Frederick. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Because there were still unfired rounds in the other two guns of Turret No. Sandia National Laboratories later determined that the powder had been rammed 24 inches too far, compressing the powder charge against the base of the dummy projectile before it ignited, the GAO report said. Forty-seven sailors in the turret died in the blast and ensuing fire. April 20, 1989. A news report about the USS Iowa gun turret explosion in 1989. 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 . She was powered by nine Babcock and Wilcox boilers and her four screws were driven by four Curtis turbines producing a maximum 32,000 horsepower. 2, the ship was anchored just inside the breakwater. At roughly one horsepower per ton, she was not terribly fast, with a top speed of just twenty-one knots. US MILITARIA FORUM - COLLECTORS PRESERVING HISTORY Warships, naval battles, technology, weapons, navies of all eras, modeling, etc. The investigations produced conflicting conclusions. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Jaguars, narcos, illegal loggers: One mans battle to save a Guatemalan jungle and Maya ruins, Has wildflower shaming gone too far? The ship was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia, from her keel laying in April 1915, her launching. Mississippi. Here's the explanation: http://archive . . Also served on USS TENNESSEE, USS KULA GULF (CVE108) and USS FRANK FRIDAY FLETCHER. USS Mississippi was damaged by Japanese special attack aircraft at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippine Islands. At the time of the 1943 explosion, the Mississippi, a New Mexico-class battleship built at Newport News Shipbuilding and commissioned in 1917, was shelling Makin Island in the Pacific. At first, because of the fumes, it was impossible to reach any of the men, even with masks and oxygen tanks. As the stricken battleship glided into a San Pedro berth, Rear Adm. William V. Pratt boarded the ship and the hospital ship Relief pulled alongside. . She also featured twelve 5-inch/51 caliber guns, eight 3-inch anti-aircraft guns and two submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes. by Dod Grile Sat Apr 05, 2014 3:20 am, Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited. Investigators also found that some access safety doors inside the turret had been left partly open. RSS. Ward Carroll, a naval aviator who was a spokesman for the Naval Safety Center at the time. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. 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. Rather than admitting that the age of the battleship was over, Navy leaders cut corners on training, manpower, and maintenance to get theIowaback out to sea, he said. BB-41 suffered another turret explosion killing 43 men 20 November 1943 off Makin Island. The current unconfirmed reports say that Germany has declared war on the U.S., which doesn't make much difference. If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. He said: "It's no big deal. At the time of her commissioning in 1943, the USS Iowa was one of the world's most formidable war machines. The General Accounting Office and both House and Senate armed services committees are reviewing the Navy's investigation. -November 1943, the battleship USS Mississippi, while shelling Makin Island in World War II, had an explosion in turret No. Fire in center gun, turret 2. Over the protests of local clergymen, who believed that an admiral had no right officiating at funeral rites, Pratt insisted on delivering a tearful and moving eulogy. While at Navy Federal, bankers told Hartwig that buying an extra life insurance policy would only cost $4 per month. Before his death, he asked to be buried next to one of the victims of the Mississippi disaster at Point Loma in San Diego. The blast, which killed 47 men on five of the six levels inside the No. Navy officials say technical experts conducted more than 20,000 tests on bags of powder taken from the Iowa last spring, including attempts to create an explosion through friction. . In the years since the blast, Carr has surmised what might have happened. Japanese observation planes have been seen over San Francisco. One man who was recognized as a hero of the disaster and credited with saving the ship was the turret captain, Lt. (jg) Thomas E. Zellars. All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB. Meanwhile, Mississippi and Nashville had to take emergency evasive actions to avoid the torpedoes. Suddenly, in the midst of the barrage, smoke and gas erupted from the rangefinders on either side of the number two turret. The old warship was decommissioned in 1956, sold for scrap. He passed away in 2010. During gunnery practice on 12 June 1924, she suffered a turret fire that took the lives of 48 of her crew. Only the turret officers can be identified. The battleship was damaged by suicide planes in both operations. That investigation continues to attract scrutiny. A similar explosion in a turret of the battleship Mississippi in 1920 led the Navy to redesign its turrets to prevent future accidents . he Washington Post reported in September 1989. Riska Island was shelled 22 July, and a few days later the Japanese withdrew. Accidents also occurred when the guns were pointing into a strong wind, causing a flashback into the gun house even with the air blast. The waterspray system was not, if I recall, used to clear the bore between shots, just the compressed air blast. Less than two decades later, the Mississippi went through the same agony again. She was powered by nine Babcock and Wilcox boilers and her four screws were driven by four Curtis turbines producing a maximum 32,000 horsepower. I collect yard longs - mostly army or armored WWII but do have some Navy. Base to Newport, Rhode Island on five of the barrage, smoke and gas erupted from the propellant... Last we are steaming homeward in company with the U.S.S postings from another collecting forum Mississippi and Nashville had take! U.S. Navy and then one by the battleship USS Mississippi was damaged by suicide planes in both operations two!, accompanied by the Navy to redesign its turrets to prevent future accidents salvo. 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