Cannon rounds from WWII

Never thought of that thing being a spittoon. Perhaps that was what it was being utilized as. It was back around the mid 1970's so the memory is faint. All I can recall is it having cigarette butts in it, but it may have been a dual- purpose spittoon & ashtray. Good point concerning those handles, I never thought of that.

POLICE YOUR BRASS
Of marginal interest to this thread...
1943 » Sicilian Campaign: Operation Husky
(Could not post the image itself for some reason. Here's the link to the document's page.)

https://www.history.navy.mil/conten...s/nara-series/80-g/80-G-40000/80-G-42522.html

Empty shell cases litter the deck near the forward 6-inch/47-caliber gun turrets of USS Brooklyn (CL-40) after she had bombarded Licata, Sicily, during the early hours of the invasion, 10 July 1943. (80-G-42522).

Bazoo said:

It’s odd to me that effort is not made to reload these big boys.

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Part of that is that you'd need a press the size of a one-car garage.
The other is that the stresses involved are right at maximum levels.
Which is logical, if a single use is intended--make the case "just enough" to work, and not a gram more.

I think another reason for not reloading is it was more important to get supplies to the troops than to worry about getting empties back to be reused.
As they say it's the cost of doing business!

CapnMac said:

And since we are somewhat on the topic, Tom Scott (the Older One) on firing the 14"45 rifles on USS Texas

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Off topic…the USS Texas was recently moved for preservation work. Many links with a little googlefu…

https://battleshiptexas.org/battleship-updates/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2022/visuals/battleship-texas-move/

CapnMac said:

Part of that is that you'd need a press the size of a one-car garage.
The other is that the stresses involved are right at maximum levels.
Which is logical, if a single use is intended--make the case "just enough" to work, and not a gram more.

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There's also only so much room aboard ship, room that's better served for other things in order to maximize what space you have shipboard overall.

Certainly, there would be absolutely NO reloading aboard ship. First of all, having reloading supplies themselves would take up initial space that could be utilized for the storage of more live munitions. Second, it would be INCREDIBLY dangerous to have all the powder/primer material itself aboard a combat vessel just lying around waiting to be ignited. That's a fire/explosion hazard of frightening magnitude.

Even simply saving the empties to be off loaded later would be a logistics issue which would radically interfere with the speedy reprovisioning of the vessel for return to combat.

rabid wombat said:

the USS Texas was recently moved for preservation work.

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Yeah, near two decades after being needful. The Battleship Texas Foundation, which has taken over maintenance of the ship has not covered itself in a lot of glory over it's span of "preservation." It's a very sore topic among the hard-core fans and volunteers. The fact that the only sure thing at this point being that Texas is to never return to San Jacinto, where she has resided since 1948. TBF is rather quietly auctioning off the ship to whoever promises the most dollars to display her. There are any number of issues which the accounting of the tax appropriations and how they were spent over the last 22 years. There's the annoying factor that the required number of paying visits per year for the required 100% "paid for" budget exceeds what any museum ship currently gets, and been glossed over, and a rug put over it, too.

I may be sore picky about this as someone who put in many hours aboard, and donated rather a lot of artifacts to their collection.

Back on topic, Texas actually had very little brass-cased ammo aboard, historically, only the 1.1 inch and 40mm Bofors ammo (some of the 20mm ammo was steel cased, some brass). Both the 5"50 and 14"45 guns used bagged charges, and that was all through Texas' life.

Cool side note--the only way to keep the quad 1.1" "machine gun" mounts running was to station a Gunner's mate underneath the weapon and to poind the bottom of the receivers wit ha 4# sledge when they jammed.

Nicknamed "the Chicago piano" by the crews. The mount needed crew of ten, and weighed as much as a twin Bofors to be less effective.
The round was a 28x119mm that was not quite 1 pound per each with a barely 7000 yard range.

CapnMac said:

Back on topic, Texas actually had very little brass-cased ammo aboard, historically, only the 1.1 inch and 40mm Bofors ammo (some of the 20mm ammo was steel cased, some brass). Both the 5"50 and 14"45 guns used bagged charges, and that was all through Texas' life.

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In August 1945, the USS Texas (BB-35) was fitted with the following armaments:

5 ea - Mk 3, Mod 14, 14"/45 two gun turrets
6 ea - Mk 13, Mod 6, 5"/51 single pedestal mounts
10 ea - Mk 22, Mod 4, 3"/50 single pedestal mounts
7 ea - Mk 2, Mod 14, 40mm AA Quadruple Mounts
3 ea - Mk 2 Mod 18, 40mm AA Quadruple Mounts
44 ea - Mk 10 Mod 23, 20mm AA single mounts
2 ea - Mk 4, Mod 3, Main Battery Gun Directors
2 ea - Mk 6, Mod 7, 5" Gun Directors
10 ea - Mk 51, Mod 2, AA Gun Director
2 ea - Mk 50, Mod 4, 3" Gun Directors
4 ea - Mk 51, Mod 3, 3" Gun Directors
1 ea - Mk 21, Mod 4, Stable Vertical Directors
2 ea - Mk 3, Mod 2, Main Battery Radar set
1 ea - Mk 8, Mod 3 Main Battery Radar set
2 ea - Mk 10, Mod 5, 3'"or 5" DP Radar set

The 20mm used 3 types of case, the Mark 2 and 4 were brass, the Mark 3 was steel.
The 40mm also used 3 types of case, the Mark 1 and 2 were brass, the Mark 3 was steel.
The 3"/50, Mk 22, used 4 types of cases, the Mark 3, Mod 0, Mark 3, Mod 2, and Mark 7 were brass, the Mark 9 was steel.

Only the 14"/45 and 5"/51, were bag guns, a majority of the ammunition would have been cased ammunition.

The 5"/51s were in casemates at the base of the forward tripod mast.
The 3"/50s were in open tubs, three above the 5" casemates, and two aft abeam the after super firing 14" turret

Bazoo said:

Here’s some cool empties I came across. Let’s see if the folks here can guess these babies.

I’ll offer a clue or two. The loaded round is a 44 special. The small one is axis, the large allied.

View attachment 1078806 View attachment 1078807

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I have a couple, one is misplaced at the moment but my mom was using it as a flower vase and I would like to locate it, it's huge, I think it might be the same as the larger two pictured above. The other one I have is on my TV stand and when I'm home ill post a picture, I'd like to know what it is.

It's also crazy to think of the Navy Ship guns that were obsolete and scrapped along with the thousands of tons of shells that just got demil'd and scrapped. Crazy firepower to just get scrapped, they should have just sold it to us....

lysanderxiii said:

the USS Texas

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Passing familiar, what with having volunteered aboard for right at two decades.
In the 20s, the tops of the cranes sported 3"25s. The mounts had a small davit to haul ammo up--it was considered less than ideal.

Yes, these seem a somewhat awkward to work . . .



The 3" mounts were removed during the 1925-26 overhaul, this was the overhaul that removed the cage masts and replaced them with the current tripod masts.



In 1942 she had her AA suite upgraded by adding numerous 20mm and 40mm mounts all over the ship. New smaller tubs were put atop the crane supports and each had a 20mm Oerlikon put in them.

I was a 13E FDC chief. Yep basically a artillery god

Shot a lot of arti. The 8 inch was a amazing field gun. been looking for a demilled 8 inch howitzer round for years. 105's had casings. 155 and 8 inch were bags.

I haven't any real stories associated with this pic. These were among my Dad's trinkets and souvenirs from 32 years of service with the AAC-USAF from 1939-1972.
The big one is stamped 120mm M-24 and the little one has no ID on the base- was given him as a retirement memento by an Army Arty outfit, as evidenced by the cutoff length and cartridge brass handle. 30-06 cartridges for perspective.
Dad didn't retire until almost two years after I got out in Jan 1971.