My dad was on the Colorado for the duration of WW2. He was a Chief Petty Officer in the engine room. After they fired on Okinawa for weeks, he went up on deck during a lull in the attack and he said there were many pock marks on the sides of the upper decks and even in the barrels of the big guns from Japanese shore artillery. The kamakazi pilots did the most damage, killing dozens of sailors. Thank God for the armor that kept below decks safe.
What still amazes me is the sheer overall size of the continuous armour sheets themselves! To think they face hardened such huge and thick sections of steel. It is a testament to the resources a country like America can muster in building Battleship New Jersey . ☺
This is an interesting mini-series. I never thought about the details of the armor junctions and how much engineering work went into the design. It makes me curious how the US techniques compared to Japan and Germany.
Look, I realize, America can and is still building some amazing super structures in the aspect of ocean going naval vessels... But, there is just something about these old school units, that I am always blown away at, wondering how in the heck those old school men pulled this off, not just once, but so many times for all sorts of the Navy's tools for battle.. Mainly, these battle ships... Planning on paper, with a slide rule, is mind blowing enough, but, once you start to see how interwoven (if that is a word?) and detailed, while considering redundancy times 3 to 4 measures deep to safe guard the ship, and weaving all of its wiring, hoses, plumbing, gears, levers, pulleys, holding tanks, conveyors, etc...etc.. etc... to the point that, when you first see such a machine in person, I can't even wrap my head around how those hard core men did it. Not a single cubic foot of space was wasted, everything fulfilled and backed up with a logical mindset of purpose, all for the end game, FIGHT, SURVIVE, COME HOME,,, repeat in need be... When I see such amazing pieces of equipment, that kept so many men alive, in some of the most harshest of conditions of weather, and war, (this might come out wrong) but, I love being an American. It is a very proud feeling. Again, I hope that comes out correct, and not meant to sound in any measures of disrespectful. Perhaps, maybe, I can say, learning about the history of the USA, never seems to fail to inspire me, leaving me desiring more info upon these amazing machines. Thank you for sharing so many of these videos. I like having the fire lite under my a$$ to get off my lazy butt, after watching any of these channels that showcases what my fellow hard core American's of the past have done, resulting in me, questioning myself, "What am I going to do today, and what ever it is gonna be, I want it to count." Dang I love this country.
( 3:26 ) holy smokers! They used *6 beads of welding* the attach the bracket plates between the walls and roof! I had not thought of this when we were shown the same joins in the steering gear area. Good information, thanks Ryan and John and all at Battleship New Jersey ! ☺
It would help some if John referred to "class B armour" by its trade name "rolled homogenous armour". The thickness and hardening is finished by putting the armoured steel or alloy metal sheets through rollers.
I would love to see an episode that explains the production process of armour plate at the steel mills. How they handled such heavy thickness, the heat treatment, rolling, what steel mill produced the plates for the Iowas, etc. That would be fascinating! ⚓⚒🔗
I have been in several Gulf coast shipyards an can not imagine how they would have lifted a turret or even the plates used to build them. I have never seen any photos of the turrets being lifted or how they welded such thick plates together.
More episodes with tech wizards would greatly be appreciated! These old ships and methods of construction are being lost to history if not documented while we can. Kudos to the 'deep dive' on armor. Many more, please!
I love the sound of the rain in the background throughout. Especially at 5:03. (you can also see the rain run-off through the entrance hatch that Ryan is standing over). 🌧🌧🌧
Until I figured out that it was raining outside, I was deeply confused. "Where is that sound of running water coming from? Ryan's not reacting to it, is it on the video on in the real world? Is my house flooding?" :)
I wasn't able to find my own Iowa class battleship on e-bay, so I'm clearing space (and my neighbors' houses) so I can build one of my own in my backyard. The guy at the metal shop told me that they'd make me some class A armor if I have a big enough order. I gave him a copy of the booklet of general plans. He said he'd get back to me at the beginning of next week... fingers crossed I can fit the cost in my budget.
While you are at it Odin, you should get a guy lined up to dig a canal from your backyard to the nearest large river or the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean, as the case may be. Trust me, once it is done you are going to want to take it out for a spin on weekends and holiday vacations. So it is better to get the canal done ahead of time & not feel frustrated later!
@@pauld6967 i think it would be cooler if it were put into a nearby lake with all inlets and outlets far to shallow for the ship, so people wonder how it got there and what its doinf in that lake :D
That welding is not overkill. It is absolutely correct and is how structural / pressure code welds are done to this day. Multiple passes (multiple beads). The US Navy got it right, big time.
@@mdtransmissionspecialtiesIn all fairness he did specify 6 beads "at the top." Even saying that I'm not 100% sure if he understands how a fillet like that is actually structured lol. A part of me wants to visit the ship solely to examine the welds lol
Ryan can't know everything but he does a good job of bringing on specialists like this and also doing interviews with people. I'm sure if there was someone willing to do it, he would be happy to bring in a welder just to talk about the welding job, and it could be an hour long video and everyone would watch it. I would watch it!
GREAT!~ A specialist in armor!! Going to find out how expensive that book is and start saving, it will have a place right next to my books on gun fire. Guns and gun laying., armor, boilers, turbines, damage control all part of the tale of these behemoths. Have you considered putting your battleship freaks to work on the New Jersey? Sure there are a lot of specialists required on a battleship but on any project like that you will need people to torch off frozen bolts and all of these things. I am handicapped but if I could walk right I would love to spend a couple days helping refit the big girl. I bet you could get a lot of people who would be glad and proud to spend a day working on New Jersey for nothing more than a hat that says USS New Jersey - CREW. I know I would. Ryan you are doing a first class job of the care, feeding and education of the battleships, keep up the good work.
Very interesting concept of how they used the armor to protect the ship and crew. Great mention to Norm Abram in comparison with the shipbuilders. CHEERS from Colorado
A wonderful presentation from John. He's not only knowledgable but also an outspoken presenter. And a beatiful kind of crazy. I mean, it takes a special kind of person to catalogue every armor plate on a BB. And I love it 😊.
Very knowledgeable guest, I bet his book is filled with so much more knowledge, but even just from this video I was quite impressed. I learned many things from this, thanks!
The depth of knowledge John has with this subject is just phenomenal, and it's not like these ships are without any armour...much 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 and it would be interesting to see more of this subject, as the armour of the day probably weighs more in total than many naval ships of today. I know this an old upload, but I'm slowly getting through them all, and one thing that amazes me in the comments, is the amount of those having served on New Jersey, or another of the IOWA's, or have had family that have....and whilst being from Australia obviously I haven't....but I'm glad to see that not only the ship when she's open, but all these video's are providing such a brilliant in depth history of ships that are firstly built in a bygone era, and yes whilst they've had updates and recommisionings, never haave they lost their base build forms, and are truly a beautiful class of ship hands down. Thank you Ryan, and John for this one, would be nice to be able to download John's knowledge for the generations to come, so they to can see what went into making these behemoths the beautiful beasts that they are!!!! Cheers from Sydney Aus!!!!!
Did other nations weld scalloped patterns for additional strength, if they welded at all? Love the author/volunteer guest. I'll take a look at his book.
This was very informative and I always wondered why the outside of the armor looked so rough and sloppy and now I understand. Keep up the good work on this good channel
History Channel did a huge show, many years ago, when they did that stuff, about the worlds larget foundry in the US, that poured the metal for the battleships.. the "pot" was bigger than a house and also had a huge hammer thing too.
a scarf joint is where you cut two mirrored angles, one into each piece you intend to join and when you join the pieced your two angles join together to match the shape of your piece. maybe that's a bad explanation lol. it's like putting two triangles together to make a square. that's a scarf joint
Now we need a miniseries about mechanical connections of armor or steel in general like woodworking. Can we get a bob Vila type of character to come in and explain all these different types of joints Or norm Abrams for that matter let’s make this as a smash hit that’s good TV programming there
Absolutely fantastic interview/review, please thank John for his superb expertise, knowledge and explanation of the armour and how it’s used. Totally enthralled by this kind of episode 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Speaking as a Weldor, the reason for the multi-bead weld is you can only manipulate so much molten metal at one time..... especially in the overhead position.....as far as it being over kill, the weld needs to be the same thickness of the base metal..... when 2 plates are welded together, they are beveled to a 30 to 37.5 degree bevel or a 60 to 75 degree included angle so there is full penetration.... for a 1in plate, it take 21 weld passes to fill that gap...hope this explains a little about why there are so many weld passes..... One other note, when plates come together at an angle, as shown 6:00. the weld is called a Fillet Weld, as in Fill it Up.....they are welded to be about 3/4 the thickness of the base material at the throat of the weld [45 degrees of the triangle intersection] So by using those scalloped angle plates , they are saving an incredible amount of labor, time and material, and also not introducing stress into the joint from the shrinkage of the weld metal.....the weld metal for that material would have a pounds per square inch strength of over 70,000 lbs..... and welding in the overhead position would be much harder to have a weld with no defects....as smaller rods are needed for welding overhead....and less material is put into the weld with smaller rods.... you mentioned the cast armor plate, is it cast, or rolled plate.....rolled being much stronger...... something not thought of many times , is that weld material is actually cast metal.... as you are putting molten metal into the joint and it is melting the adjacent base metal to make up a joint of cast material.....it is called fusion welding so when someone says cast metal is not strong......they can be mistaken, as the weld metal is always [or supposed to be] stronger than the base material......the weak part of the weld is in the base material in the area adjacent to the weld called the 'heat affected zone' HAZ.... where cooling rate and inter granular changes shift the different alloys in the material around..... I hope this helps... cheers from an old weldor in Florida, Paul
I’d love to hear him talk about the deck armor scheme. As well as the citadel itself. Also curious about the up armored radio room, is there more he can add to the previous video?
I was working on the Iowa on top of one of the fwd turrets straightening the rod used to tie awning to. Some ensign was worried about me cutting a hole in the turret with the small torch i was using to heat and bend the round stock. I told him that if anything ever happened where we had to get into the turret there was no way we had a torch big enough to cut our way in. This wasn't too long before the explosion. I was only there 2 days so i did not really get to know the gun crews but it made me sad i might have met some of them.
As someone who has tapped holes (usually M3x0.5, close to 4-40 for imperial system enjoyers) on small aluminum plates for prototype parts, those equipment used to do the same job but for really large holes and heat-treated steel armor plates.
I would love to learn about the R&D&T of class A armor. They eventually must have at some point shot something big at a plate at different angles to see if it performs as expected. There would unlikely be footage of that, but maybe photos and certainly data. 😊
It is obvious that a lot of thought went into the technology to assemble the armor protecting the battleship. As weapon technology has progressed, one has to wonder how the old armor placements will fare against a hypersonic projectile.
The U S Navy is a bit... overbuilt, to actually order something like a new or modernized ''PT Boat". For whatever reasons frigates mostly fill that kind of Navy role now. Offensive and anti air missile technology is too vital on ships now to use something smaller than a Coast Guard "cutter" (or "corvette") type ship, that would carry torpedoes as its main weapons system. And "drone ships" will gradually take over most of the mission from long range "stand off" torpedoes (as Ukraine is demonstrating now). ☺
It is surreal to consider 9" of armor held to the ship using a 1" piece of ship's steel. On some level, you expect the armor steel to be weight bearing on it's own due to mass and construction.
John, thank you for sharing some of your knowledge !! And thanks to you all of you for enduring the rain to make this informative production possible !!
Cement between the armor and backing plate is similar to techniques used today. Servicable surfaces in crushers, such as the bowl and mantle in a cone crusher, have epoxy poured between the sacrificial liner and the solid steel body. The purpose is the same, fill in irregularities and spread impact over a bigger area, though a 41cm Japanese shell probaby has more impact than squishing a rock.
Another reason for the scalloped backing plates/angles being used for joining the armor plates is that the scalloping prevents the harder, more brittle metal of the heat affected zone surrounding the weld from fracturing, because the weld isn't in a single linear direction.
Very interesting. I'm an engineer who's designed many welded structures. I was wondering what metallurgy of the Class A armor is -- how much carbon; because that does make it harder to weld? The scallops to increase weld length can be see today on the SpaceX Starship!
Older ship armor like the short lived Harvey armor, like on the surviving Olympia cruiser, face hardened by increasing carbon to the outer layers. Class A armor is in line with more modern armor designs from the late 1890's that had a more complicated heat treatment process to get the desired amount of hardness/softness throughout the armor. Not just carbon content, but a long complicated heat treatment to get desired results. Even if you didn't crack the outside armor through welding, you would alter and diminish its properties. Another reason why welding to some metals is a no no. Not because it is impossible, but that it can ruin the heat treatment properties thereof.
Since he mentioned a scarf joint and different sizes of the armor, how did the mill, or in the instance the hole for the 40mm, the yard, CUT through the armor? I would think by torch it would ruin the heat treated face, so how did they do it? Or just molded that way (including hole and different sizes) by the mill?
There are materials a lot harder than steel armor like tungsten carbide. So you can drill and cut into it. The faced hardened part of the steel armor had a hardness like tool steel. Tungsten was one of the resources that Germany did not have enough of during WWII. It was used in some ammunition and to process steel in the industry. The quite quickly had to stop using it in ammunition
At about 5 minutes I though I was hearing water dripping. Then at 7 minutes they show me the source - Mother nature. I bet if just one or 2 door/ hatches were closed would not have heard or suspected.
I always thought the turret roof armor was more or less a lap or butt joint as the roof was removable to replace barrels and other equipment. Now I want to know how they get the roof off!
Remember there are some welds on the outside, as seen when they show the back plate attached to the side plates - from outside the gun house. Lots of labor hours breaking" the welds and attachment plates to take the roof off. This is why the firing parts of the guns themselves are meant to be pulled out through their openings in the front armour plates.
The roof of the turret is covered with screw heads. The bottom of those screws is seen at 4:07. There is video of the exterior topside of Iowa's Turret 2 that shows most of the screws removed. They started to remove them as part of disassembling Turret 2 in order to repair the damage from the April 1989 open breech explosion, but early in the disassembly process word came down that Iowa was to be deactivated rather than repaired, so the disassembly process was halted then and there.
Great video on battleship armor. I have to wonder if the US could even muster the steel production needed to fight a war like WWII today? We could always rely on our off shore partners, right? Yeah, not really.
John must have so many y hours and years in to these ships studying them I bet its amazing picking his brain about the armour and many other things as well great video as always hope we see more with John on the channel
I started building my own battleship. So far, I have the sand to make the molds.... Should I start a go-fund-me? Very interesting author and book! I could spend decades roaming the ship, and never learn what some others have learned in their areas of interest, and having these videos, Ryan provides the best way to learn the history and facts about the ship!
@@TheDuckofDoom. I remember a rowboat with a battleship topper years ago, and the 'Captain' was under the topper driving and operating the guns that fired blank 12 ga. shells!
