What are the Different Types of Shells that the 16in Guns Fire? 

Some retired 16" shells are currently in use as pressure chambers to test small oceanographic instruments. They are precisely machined high strength steel, and with some added seals they can hold water at extreme pressures comparable to the bottom of the ocean.

My father served on the USS Wisconsin during WWII and briefly as it was pulled from mothballs for the Korean War. He was pictured in a Life magazine story of the . He told me that the Wisconsin fired the AA 16" shell as a salvo at least once off Okinawa. I can't remember how many guns were fired but I believe it was three guns. The flight of 5 or 7 Japanese planes was eliminated. He operated one of the 5" gun directors a battle station. I believe it was the forward port director.

Ryan’s videos from the start to now are like a high school freshman (when he started) to a college senior (now). Award class presentation to…let’s have fun lol. Thank you for your channel and all you share with us!

Armour piercing, high explosive, and super secret extra spicy high explosive.

Some people think that the battleship was too expensive to maintain but I think they're disregarding the psychological impact of being in possession of such a weapon of mass destruction. Shock and awe do count for something. But you wouldn't want to over depend on it. This video is terrific thanks dude.

Hey, I was on the New Jersey from 1988 to 1991, on the Decom Crew. I was a gunners mate in G4, 5 inch. It seems like the battlehsips should still be in service in the Navy, but when the New Jersey was being decommissioned, we were told the number one reason was the daily operating cost, it was said to be 1 million dollars a day. But this is a cool vid explaining to civilians the different kinds of ammo, where and how they came about. You should show some vids and pics of how the 16 inch guns were made, by Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem, PA. Very few people had the skill and knowledge to build something like these. Bethlehem Steel had special buildings called 'gun houses' the had vertical ovens to lower the gun barrels into.

Explosive "D" is Dunnite, or ammonium picrate, made from picric acid and ammonia, very stable, quite "boomy", but primarely stable and good to storage. Fun fact: Picric Acid was used to dye silk yellow and was first made in 1771.

I wish they had giant paint rounds like Odd-ball's Shermans

It took me a very long time, but I got to the bottom of the Mark 144 ICM projectile you mentioned! When you said it contained "400 M43A1 bouncing betty grenades" this raised questions for me, as a bouncing betty is typically just a name for a bounding mine, so I was thinking maybe it distributes mines instead based on that and had to look it up. Well I found a source, possibly one you read from, mentioning nearly your exact wording on them, and I was unable to find anything about the M43A1s still. I found out that an M43A1 is a type of light HE mortar shell used in an M1 81mm mortar first, and that went nowhere. But then I was finally able to find the submunition itself and get a decent explanation for everything. It is a grenade type submunition, as opposed to a mine, as it does indeed explode on it's own after being dispensed, moreover it is an airburst munition that first gets expelled from the shell in flight, spreads out on it's own from the air, hits the surface, then ejects it's explosive components (the actual 'grenade bit' a two piece steel ball filled with composition A5) upwards where they proceed to airburst. So the shell contains an expulsion charge that detonates to disperse the submunitions above the target area (what I found says it uses an "MT" fuze to do this), this then sheers the base retaining pins and pushes the base plug out, letting the submunitions disperse out of the back. It seems as though these were also used in some 155mm artillery shells, as well as the 8 inch HE M404 shell, too, and the source also lists the "16 inch HE Mk 19 mod 0" as a shell that contained this exact number of submunitions, so I wonder if it's a different naming scheme or a different shell. My main question I was able to answer, but it seems it always raises more!

When people try to argue that Iowa couldn't cripple or destroy Yamato they need to watch videoes like these to understand what the US Navy was going for - fast, efficient, long-leged battleships based more around plunging fire. As heavily armored as Yamato was, I guarantee you a 2600lb projectile traveling down at over 1000mph is going to crash right through the deck armor and do terrible things to the inside of your ship. It only took one such lucky shot against Hood to blow her apart when hitting a magazine.

When visiting the Nuclear History museu in Albuquerque, I saw the model of the 16-inch depleted uranium projectile the Iowas might've fired. 16-inch really does not do justice to exactly how massive one of those is.

In 66 I was in the Chu Lai area. We could see the 16 inch rounds going over. It was like watching a series of dashes, not a constant line. The sound was a faint pfft, pfft.

At ~ 0:40 you can see me awkwardly realizing I'm in the shot and then leaving

I would like to say that the caps on the AP shells weren't there only for aerodynamic purposes. They helped by taking the initial shock of the impact, thus reducing shuttering rates. Also they were made with extremely hard metal so they would "start" the hole and then the shell would have an easier time penetrating.

The US Navy guns for battleships -- 12", 14", and 16" -- during the 20th Century had "AP" projectiles only when used for ship-versus-ship battles until early 1942 when the "High Capacity" (HC -- from the French term for what the US Army called High Explosive (HE) projectiles) were introduced. Prior to 1942, the only "HE"-type shell that was issued to the US Navy battleships from circa the year 1900 were some special-purpose "Bombardment" -- Class "B" -- projectiles initially designed for naval guns mounted on railroad cars for lard artillery use during WWI. Battleships were supposed to fight other armored warships, primarily other battleships, period, and any other use, such as shore bombardment was considered to interfere with that due to reducing the available AP shells in the magazines. In fact, when it was realized from watching the war in Europe prior to US involvement in WWII that HE-type shells for shore bombardment were going to be required, particularly in assisting with invasions from the sea as occurred repeatedly during WWII in the Pacific, there was a scramble to create an Army-type HE shell that was more multi-functional to reduced the number of shells needed in the ship gun shell magazines that displaced AP shells; what became the HC shell that also was used in US Navy 6" and 8" cruisers a lot during WWII. Before the HC shells were designed and ready, a few months after Pearl Harbor, some blueprints for those old Bombardment shells were pulled out of the files and some of them made, though using modern base fuzes -- these Bombardment shells had very large amounts of explosive filler, 12% or so of the projectile's weight, about twice as much as the later HC shell had, and used a "non-delay" (inertial delay only due to the time it took the fuze mechanism to function) base fuze to allow the projectile to have a very small delay - 0.003-second or so -- on impact to get through thick earth, masonry, rock, or concrete protection of a land fort. The Bombardment shells were removed when HC shells became available (I do not know if any resurrected Bombardment shells were ever actually used during WWII). The US Navy HC shells were much more versatile than most regular HE shells. They came equipped with both a base fuze (non-delay originally for all sizes, but eventually a short 0.01-second delay was added for the 12" and larger HC shells to allow deeper penetration of land targets before exploding if this was desired. The base fuzes of all US Navy shells were only removable at a weapons depot and were always going to function on impact with anything even marginally solid unless the nose fuze set the shell off first. This allowed the HC shell to have some properties of an AP round -- though with four times the explosive weight -- against targets not protected by thick steel armor requiring an AP round, if the firing ship wanted this result. It was the nose of the HC shells that was made rather multi-functional to keep the number of HC shells down to the lowest number possible. The shells, the 1900-pound 16" Mark 13 HC here in the new WWII US battleships, were shipped with no nose fuze (other than a special safety fuze called the "Auxiliary Detonating Fuze" installed between the regular nose fuze and only armed when the shell was spinning after firing so dropping the shell on its nose during loading or other shell handling work could not blow up the ship, as had occurred in some foreign ships early around WWI (US Navy safety precautions were definitely second to none!). Instead, a hardened steel nose plug was on the nose so that the shell could be fired using its base fuze with no changes required, allowing the small delay on impact. With each shell, a pair of nose fuzes was also shipped to be installed by the crew, as desired: A "Point Detonating" impact fuze for essentially instantaneous detonation on impact with virtually anything heavier than thick cloth, or, if air bursts were desired, a "Mechanical Time" fuze -- clockwork run by the spinning of the shell after firing and set for time of flight by hand or by a fuze-setting device just prior to loading. By selecting which fuze was to function, base (using the hardened nose plug), PD, or MT, and installing it before the battle by hand in the ship's magazine, you essentially had several different kinds of HE shells in one HC shell for efficient magazine use. Later in WWII some other nations copied this to some extent, but the US had these multi-function shells first. NOTE: In the middle of WWII the radio proximity nose fuze ("Variable Time" or "VT" being its secret code name) was finally introduced, primarily for anti-aircraft guns, though it was also used for air bursts against land targets, replacing the MT fuze for many targets during WWII. These had tiny vacuum tubes inside of them and were bigger than the older nose fuzes, requiring special modifications to those HE/HC shells (90mm and up in WWII, though smaller guns got them later) to fit them. Also, as the US Navy considered them dangerous if exposed to radio signals from any source on the ship (remember, safety first, last, and always!), they came already installed with a removable thin steel nose covering shielding them from any outside signals. This covering was removed in the gun turret just prior to loading. To my knowledge, these modified HC shells, the Mark 14 HC for the 16" gun for example, only used this VT fuze (LIVE anti-enemy shells, not training!), though I think that it retained the base fuze for direct hits, if such occurred. I have never heard of a Mark 15 Target Round for an HC shell, though I am not saying this did not exist. The AP shells used by the US Navy battleships in WWII were a new design developed during the middle of the 1930s where oblique impact requirements for penetrating armor were increased from the circa 15 degrees of the former WWI-era US Navy AP shells (still in use due to money restrictions from late in WWI through the last few years prior to WWII) to 35-40 degrees from right-angles, the toughest test requirements of any nation during WWII. To get this superior performance, the new US Navy AP projectiles had their internal explosive charge dropped down to only 1.5% of the shell's total weight (compared to 2-2.5% for the latest British and German AP shells in WWII), thickening the lower body steel. They also had a unique hardening pattern called "sheath hardening" where the shells were made much like Russian dolls as to their hardness pattern, with the nose and upper side on the surface of maximum hardness and hardness dropping slowly as one went down the body from the nose and toward the center, allowing some bending in the middle and lower body to keep the shell from breaking apart at a highly angled impact against thick armor. They also went from a blunt pointed nose in the first designs to an oval nose with nio point for most Navy Ap shells from the middle of WWII and after. This strengthened the nose against sideways impact forces and made the projectile penetrate thick homogeneous, ductile (deck, turret roof, etc.) armor somewhat more easily as it created an upward bulge of armor in front of the shell ("anti-streamlined" nose shape). During most of WWII, all US Navy AP shells used the "Mark 21 Base Detonating Fuze" (6" guns and up) with its 0.033-second internal delay. Against steel plate (any kind), it needed roughly 0.07 x projectile diameter thickness to set it off -- 1.12" for a 16" AP shell. The new battleships (and latest cruisers) used the "20% Overweight" or "Super-Heavy" version of the above new AP shells -- 2700 pounds for the 16" Mark 8 AP shell -- while the older battleships and cruisers could not handle these longer (4.5 x projectile diameter in length), so they had to use the lighter version 4 x projectile diameter in length and in the WWI-era COLORADO Class 16" guns this was the 2240-pound 16" Mark 5 AP shell. The older 14"-gunned battleships had a scaled down version, the 1500-pound 14" Mark 126 AP shell. All HC shells were matched to the shorter AP shells, though much lighter in weight, to allow all ships to fire them, regardless of date commissioned.

When I was a young Marine in Vietnam, my base was on the coast near Marble Mountain, south of Danang. One day we were treated to the sight and sound of New Jersey sending "packages" far inland. Very impressive.

Watching the footage of the no.1 and no.2 turrets turning, I can only imagine the feeling of being the enemy and watching those guns training on you and realizing that you’re f’d. (Temper temper)

My grandfather caught a mark 8 super heavy mid air when he played college football back in the day. It was obviously a hail Mary to win the game, since the grid irons usually only 300' long since this pass was over 15 miles away that passing touchdown won the game for their team for 1200 years straight and is still on ESPNs great plays ever.

“Transport those shells at the non-profit’s expense.” I’m have a mental image of attempting to explain to the police in New Jersey why you have a 16in. shell on a flatbed trailer.

Well you answered the video I wanted to have made with a donation. Now I have to find another question to keep Ryan talking for twenty minutes or more. Great job on this subject, watched it twice.

I always enjoy Ryan's off the cuff explanations. It is still amazing the size, power and distance of the 16" guns.

I've seen VFWs displaying 16" rounds outside their buildings, if I remember right one in South Plainfield has a couple. Very cool to see up close

Excellent presentation on these armaments. I just finished Ian Toll's Pacific War Trilogy, so this video answered a lot of questions. Watching the loaders reminded me of how dangerous it was to be aboard a warship in a pitched naval battle. The heroics are on an unimaginable scale.

The Coolest 16 inch Projectile i have seen was Oct 1st 2018 . We stopped for Ice Cream at a Store / Campground / Museum by Watertown , N.Y . Justyn was sitting on a Crate on a Pallet with 2 Blue Practice 16 " Projectiles Eating an Ice Cream Cone . Thank you for the Video Ryan .

a video about shell types released on my Birthday, fantastic

I always enjoy your videos and learn something new each time. Thanks and keep up the good work.

One of the best videos you have put out. Thank you!

I’m new to these videos but I think it would be interesting to learn about the battles New Jersey participated in and the outcomes! If you have already covered this I do apologize, and thank you for what you do sir!

Excellent detailed, knowledgeable presentation as always. Outstanding !

Took a tour today, it was so good. If you’re in the Camden area, you gotta go

My dad was on the USS North Carolina battleship and was in every engagement she took part in. He said those 16" shells could fire up to 23 miles.

Iowa class had the 16 inch 50 caliber guns while North Carolina and South Dakota class battleships had 16 inch 45 caliber guns and the Iowas with the longer barrels had a longer range. The Mark 8 shells gave the North Carolina, South Dakota, and Iowa classes the second heaviest broadside of all battleship classes, even though the North Carolina and South Dakota ships were treaty battleships. Only the Yamato-class super-battleships could throw more weight. The design and build of the (3) triple gun turrets - (2) forward and (1) aft was first on the Northampton Class Heavy Cruisers of WW2 - CA 26 - CA 31.

Yes, keep the battleships around. Submunitions are a great area denial weapon. Mark 149 11inch round shows the Iowa would make a cost effective round. For some islands the MK-149 could hit both sides of the island and the folks living within 20 miles of the shore line. The modern rounds also have inflight course corrections. One day we should have "local hand off". That is local troops over the horizon use a laser designator on the target. The battle ship just needs to put the shells in flight.

Has anyone come across a cost of the shells themselves? I know they had thousands left over from ww2, but they must originally have a significant cost to purchase.

As always, very informative!! Keep up the great work!!! :D

The coolest shell the Iowa class battleships could fire is one of the shells that they never fired in battle; the nuclear shell. Taking something as outdated in the age of aircraft carriers and ICBM's as a battleship and giving it a nuclear attack capability is either genius or madness. Thankfully the world is yet to see an actual nuclear conflict where both sides deploy atomic weapons. It just boggles the mind that military engineers took something like an atomic bomb and stuffed it inside an artillery shell. An atomic bomb is cool, but an atomic bomb fired from a gun? That's insane level cool.

Great great video, love the info about those guns, man I'd give a lot to be around one when firing a few rounds haha, at least there is some video of them

Thanks Ryan! Well done!

Excellent lecture!!!

Ryan you always do a great job!! You're the best!

You mentioned that the nose fuses had issues with rain during Vietnam. That's an interesting design flaw for a naval shell. Do you know if it was a problem that had gone undetected since the 40s, or was it because the shells were 25 years old at that point?

“Wobbly and going all over the place". Well explained. Keep it simple.

Great video, interesting content..... thank you Ryan.

One might want to add that while the Italian 15 inch had the longest range, it had poor dispersion characteristics -- that is, the actual point of impact would vary much more from shot to shot than the US 16/50.

Would really like to see a compilation of all the steps of moving shells, powder etc, storing, selecting, loading firing etc --

In the early 2000’s when I was in the army reserves in a ordinance company we were still moving out those rounds to be de-milled. It’s nuts how heavy they are. Oh forgot to say that was at Camp Atterbury.

I recall reading on US Army 8 inch ICM rounds back in the 1980s, these were advertised as using air bursts of some kind and scattering the submunitions from that

I remember reading that the British did experiments with their own Super Heavy APs in the 30s but they weren't really satisfied with the relative small angle of impact relative to the surface that this type of shell is super effective. Beyond that narrow angle of impact the long and heavy shell body ends up being a liability which resulted in shatters or bananas. So they decided to use a 1,080 kg shell with a massive explosive charge to compensate in case of their Mark II 16 inch guns. Compare the Iowas Mark 8 Heavy shell with 18.55 kg explosive filler with that of the (1939) HMS Lion's 27 kg.

It's a pity that the Iowas didn't get to serve throughout the 90s. Some of the new shells planned for them would have been fantastic. Like the Mark 147 HC shell that puts those from Italy to shame at 861 meters sec and a range of over 46 km.

The reuse of dud ammo by the NVA during Vietnam was called: steaming.

I still say that naval gunfire has its place. I’m not arguing that the USN needs to reactivate the Iowas and reenactment D-Day, but larger caliber guns than the current 5 inchers, seem to me to be a cost effective means of placing HE on target. During the Korean and Vietnam wars the USN fired tens of thousands of 6 and 8 inch projectiles at enemy positions. I think the cancellation of the Mark 71 8-inch gun in the late ‘70s was a missed opportunity.

AP Mark 8: 2,700 lb (1,200 kg) HC Mark 13: 1,900 lb (860 kg) Nuclear Mark 23 (W23): 1,900 lb (860 kg) 16-inch/50-caliber Mark 7 gun The Mark 7 gun was originally intended to fire the relatively light 2,240-pound (1,020 kg) Mark 5 armor-piercing shell. However, the shell-handling system for these guns was redesigned to use the "super-heavy" 2,700-pound (1,200 kg) The North Carolina and South Dakota classes could also fire the 2,700-pound Mark 8 shell, although with a shorter range, using the 16"/45 caliber Mark 6 gun. The Mark 6 gun was lighter than the Mark 7, which helped both battleship classes to conform to the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty

Has Kilroy ever visited the USS New Jersey?

An unauthorized alteration to ordnance would and unauthorized ORDALT as opposed to a SHIPALT. Great video! Thanks!

The 16" Mark 9 test/training shell was called a "Target" projectile and was especially made (on the cheap, of course) to match the Mark 8 AP shell as to weight, balance, and shape. It was not a "BL&P" round. Those are, by definition, regular AP shells, usually obsolete ones, that have been "safed" to be used as inert training projectiles, which here would be the old early-1920's-design 2110-pound 16" Mark 3 AP Projectile replaced by the Mark 5/8 in the late 1930s and weighted to 2100 pounds exactly. These or BL&P Mark 5 AP rounds had to be used by COLORADO and her sisters, as they could not handle the bigger Mark 8/9 shells.

During the first Gulf War the Iowas shelled camouflaged weapon stockpiles. Firing a 16 in shell is much cheaper than firing a missile. The Iowas used both as appropriate. This is still a valid mission.

Great information.

I have visions of putting one of these 3 gun turret on a converted/strengthened merchant hull and use it for shore bombardment duties.

To get some idea of what shells like this can do. In 1940. The British battleship Warspite scored what is still the longest battleship on battleship hit ( approx. 28,000 yds) on the Italian Conte De Cavour. This single 15” shell which weighed 800 lbs less than the American 16” heavyweight shell killed 115 sailors and knocked out four of Cavour’s boilers reducing her speed from 25 to 18 knots. These shells are enormously powerful and when they hit it hurts

I could have sworn, when I visited the USS Alabama as a child, they had real shells - or at least one -- and I seem to recall one was blue. Fascinating that the New Jersey had a machine shop that could handle shells. Wonderful video - info packed and video inserts.

Did they ever make star shells for the 16s

The mark 13 shells exploding on contact with rain drops is an interesting design feature.

Pretty crazy that within about 10 years they had reduced the size and increased the durability of a nuclear warhead from a bomb that took up the entire load of a B29 to something that can fit into a 16in shell without really losing any yield from the warhead.

Paint shells. I saw, I believe the Iowa, shoot red white and blue paint shells just over the horizon around 85 or 86 when the Iowa, Ranger and Kitty met up off Vancouver. What a sight!

So the zumwalts cost $23+ billion and the 8" shells that were $800k/each with a range of about 100 miles. 30 years prior there were 11" sabot shells developed that were larger with the same range. The $23 billion put towards the ineffective zumwalts could have had the iowas going for 20 more years. The dod never ceases to amaze me.

I was an SOG at Marine Barracks Subic Bay when the NJ was placed back in service by Ronald Regan. Once the ceremony was over the ship set sail for Subic Bay as the first stop on an around the world tour. Why subic bay you say ? Well our naval weapons stations magazines had thousands of the 16" rounds stored from before these ships were originally decommissioned. The first order of rounds were taken out of storage and prepared by local workers at the Naval Magazine for the New Jerseys port call. Rounds from this stash were reconditioned and made available and used by the New Jersey in later years.

I use a one of these shells on a daily basis as part of a pressure testing system. I believe it's a MK13 HC.

My grandfather flew B52 in Vietnam as well as the 0-2 sky master as a forward air controller. He had a few missions where he would be spotting for the New Jersey. He said it was impressive watching the shells land because the destruction was incredible. Also those time delayed fuze tricks were also used by the Air Force when dropping bombs on the famous trail. They would time the bombs to go off at night when the Enemy would be more active.

Maybe it's because I just watched your video on the sinking of Yamato, but when you mentioned the 16" AA shells, I immediately thought "of course, so that if they were subjected to a massive air raid without surface engagement, their main battery wouldn't be sitting idle while their AA capability was being shot out around their ears." Keep in mind that in WWII, carrier tactics were a new, as yet not fully understood paradigm of warfare. As the situation developed and the proven effectiveness of these tactics kept going up, it would be a strangely non-prescient captain NOT to set aside a few 16" shells for a rainy day.

My dad was on the USS Heermann during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He told me the Japanese may have at first mistaken the Fletcher Class destroyers as light cruisers. This error saved some sailors because the Japanese fired AP rounds which just passed thru the thin skinned destroyers and not explode unless it hit an engine or something more solid. Later they switched to HE rounds. He said a round passed through the bow and didn’t explode.

Fantastic info on the shells of WW II, the '80s, and beyond. I never heard of the long distance shells, although on Drach's video with the captain of the Iowa during the Lebanon crisis, he did mention 100 mile distances from the big guns. But I do wish to add a bit of ballistics info here as to the speed of the Mark 8 shells, and shells in general. When Mark 8 AP 2,700 lb. shell was fired from the South Carolina or South Dakota, it had a MV of 2,300 fps from their 16/45 cal guns. But from the Iowa class ships, from the 16/50 cal guns, it was 2.500 fps. In addition, the heavier the shell in general meant s slower MV, across all battle ships and handguns and rifles as well. So, in the case of WW II battleships, all the powerful AP rounds had a MV around 2,500 fps. For instance, the Nelson fired a AP 2,046 lb. round at 2,525, and the Nagato fired a 2,249 lb. AP round at 2,559 fps. So, you can see from this that the Iowa class AP round was not a slow round for 16" shells at all. Furthermore, the smaller 15" shells from the French, Italian and British ships often had a higher MV, but a less heavy round. The French Richelieu class fired an AP round of only 1,951 at 2,575, the Italian Littorio also had a 1,817 lb. AP round at 2,887 fps (the fastest), and the British QE class shot a 1,938 lbs AP round at 2,640 (the Super Charged version). The Bismark also shot a 15" shell that had a 1,764 lb. AP round (fairly light!) at a speed of 2,690 fps. And here are the range figures for each: Bismark was 26.1 miles, The Littorio AP round max range was 27.7 mi, and the Richelieu max range was 25.9 miles. The Iowa class 2.700 lb. AP round had a max range of 24 miles. So, it is pretty clear that the lighter rounds go further, which is only normal ballistics. So, if you put all of this together, it does not look to me like the US Navy made a heavy shell mainly so it could come down on the deck of a ship vs. hitting its side armor. But it is probably more likely that the very long ranges were not considered to be very meaningful or realistic in being able to actually hit another ship at such long distances. Combine this with the fact that the 2,700 lb. AP round from the Iowa class 16/50 cal gun was pretty close in power to the Yamato's AP round, especially its penetration capability (32.6" vs the Yamato's 34.1" at 0 yards.

Just a clarification. The navy called proximity fuses "VT fuses" -- at least in some cases -- to mask the fact that they were actually not fuses that would be set with a desired delay, but rather a new and more sophisticated approach. That is, one did not dial in a time delay that was estimated to be good for a particular firing solution. Rather, VT shells used an electronic fuse -- at the tip of the shell -- that would transmit and detect reflected changes in the fuse's transmitted radio signal -- indicative of proximity to a metal object (the target) that caused the RF disortion -- and then ignite the explosive. It required significant engineering and testing to create an electronic fuse that would survive the shock of being shot out of a gun. These were used in (smaller) anti-aircraft guns and were a huge improvement (Patton called it the biggest advancement of weaponry in WWII). Prior to the invention and use of the proximity fuse, AA shells were largely ineffective against attacking enemy aircraft, as it was very difficult to dial in a close estimate of the proper fixed delay to kill a moving aircraft.

This is really cool!

When we've gone to Battleship Cove, we've wondered that. Most shells in the barbettes are blue, but a few are yellow or black. I'm guessing the blue ones are AP.

That sabot round would have been a game changer , I believe

I’ve been all over BB62. My best friend was an electrician after it was recommissioned in the ‘80’s. His first boat. The manual triggers in the turrets- Bad ass. Broadway- very cool. The armor up in the wheel house- Amazing! I know after recommission BB62 had “ Special munitions” not sure if it was fir guns or tubes. He served his 4 year stint on the New Jersey. Big event in his time “ blowing up goats in Lebanon” his words. LOL

3 of the 4 Iowa's had nuclear shells on board at some time

I am about 68 miles (one way) from the N J in Camden. It's high on my bucket list to visit. I have a photo of myself taken about 45 or so years ago standing between the main guns of the Olympia Battle Cruiser in Philadelphia. History note---- I never forgot that the body of the WW1 Unknown soldier (now entombed at Arlington Cemetery) was transported back from Europe in a place of honor at the bow of the Olympia..

One of my longest-lived idle fantasies is to have a full orchestral performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”, utilizing an Iowa-class BB for the ‘cannon part’. Either that, or AC/DC’s “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)”.

Thank you!!

Excellent!!! So well done. Thank you! FYI... You sound a bit more agitated with every new video. As a former Air Force Museum volunteer... You and your crew are AWESOME!!! Just tone down the intensity if you can... No judgement here, but please keep the spark of curiosity going for everyone else! TY!

Have you looked up Gerald Bull and his experiments to use a surplus battleship barrels to launch small satellites into low orbit?

...pretty snazzy. You're good!

wow what a lesson. On #2shell deck #1 turret. Never thought about what they were. Knew they were 1800 or 2700 lb shells.

Great content.

I would definitely like to see what the ship designer would come up with for a modern day battleship for today's navy. As much as I love these old girls al of them were still built during the time of WW2. With the exception of a few upgrades here and there the hull is still of an older design. You should do a video on your options on this subject I look forward to seeing that in a video if you get around to it.

I was Munitions Systems Specialist in the Air Force (Ammo troop). We would have a number of inert (dummy) munitions items we would use for training purposes. The Weapons loaders - the specialists who would load the munitions on the aircraft - would utilize inert for the same functions - to train and keep load crews proficient on their skills. For any Ammo troops reading this, I have only one thing to say - IYAAYAS!

He never mentioned the 16" hollow point round. 😮🤔

I could only imagine someone taking a 2000# brass shell to a recycler. The look would be priceless.

I think all the shells are cool, especially like the idea of the long range ones for shore bombardment. As long as the enemy doesn't have anything to shoot back at you.

You can see the two swimming pools either side of the bridge in that aerial footage of the Battleship test firing it's guns

I have an old friend from back in the 80s who was a gunner's mate. I don't know where he got it but he had/has one of the Mk8 AP caps. I never knew that was what it really was until the Internet age. I've seen that pic you showed us of the shell, cap, and windscreen and that cap was what he had. Pretty cool thing. Trivia about the Italian battleships. They could shoot the farthest downrange but it was HMS Warspite that is credited with the longest range target hit from a battleship ever _and it was on an Italian battleship she hit!_ Looking at the chat replay I see people who are not sure what the 50 caliber means when talking about NJ's Mk7 guns. The actual term is "50 calibers long" because the barrel is 50 calibers long. In artillery, a caliber is the diameter of the shell. So, 16" x 50 = 800". The Mk7 barrel is 800" which is 50 calibers. Thanks to Ryan, Libby and everyone at Battleship New Jersey.

Since the battleships were coming in an out of service, how was the training done? Did they have to round up guys from the Korean cruise to teach the guys for Vietnam and again for the 80s? Is there a manual showing how all the systems work and how to train those guys on using them?

I miss a 16" HE-shell with proximity fuse, an upscaled 5-6" shell. Yamato had some AA shell`s but a 16" with proximity would be in another league completly.

For AA, I’m a little surprised there wasn’t a canister round. Imagine how many inch-round steel shot could be launched out of a 16-inch cannon. Even something fitted with an explosive core that spreads the shot out into a cloud as it goes.

Someone recommended this channel for good advice to take.

Awesome great class

In today’s Navy, yellow denotes a warshot and blue or blue stripe denotes a practice round or a “shape” to practice with.

I was leaving shore duty in 1981 when they were putting the NJ crew together , my weps boss from Yarnell CG17 was pre comm weps on NJ and I called him and he said he could bring me in if I wanted , but he talked me out of it and told me that they ( the BB's) wouldn't be around very long and it wasn't a good career move , detailer told me the same thing , so I ended up in 45 school , a GMG1 , retired as a GMCS in 93

Instead of scrapping those shells that were still in storage. Strap shackles on them and load them on the B-52. That way there they would of been put to good use. And yes the B-52 can handle 2700lb shells since they can carry multiple 2000lb bombs.