TheIowasubsequently went to the shipyard so its power plant could be improved, but its gun systems weren't updated, he said. The flames and gases had overcome the men so quickly that recovery crews found many of the men still at their positions. Following repairs, she participated in the capture of Kwajalein in February 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held islands in February and March. During 40 years of service, US Navy battleship . Island Hopping . A news report about the USS Iowa gun turret explosion in 1989. "We all knew each other rather intimately.". The military eats their own it takes a while to realize that.". . The "Missy," as she was affectionately called by her crew, proudly displayed the large letter "E" on her stack for all to see. --another violation of regulations. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blogJapan Security Watch. Key point:Twice the same gun turret had an issue that caused it to blow up. 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. On the clear, crisp, windy afternoon of June 12, 1924, a few minutes before noon, the 7-year-old vessel, was involved in intense mock warfare maneuvers 40 miles south of Los Angeles with two other Pacific Fleet battleships, the Tennessee and the Idaho. The waterspray system was not, if I recall, used to clear the bore between shots, just the compressed air blast. July 1999. p. 9. Iowa's turret two on fire immediately following the explosion. 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. The last U.S. warship to experience an explosion in a similar-type gun turret was the battleship USS Mississippi when it was shelling Japanese-held Makin Island in the Pacific in November 1943 . Only two sailors in the turret firing room, J.F. 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. He braved the flames, smoke, and carnage inside the turret to turn on sprinklers so that bags of gunpowder would not go off, and he secured hatches so that the accumulating water would not sink the ship,he told Penthouse in a January 1990 interview. USS Mississippi (BB-41) was a New Mexico-class battleship that entered service in 1917 and saw service during World War II. 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. Ziegler told Dunn that "he used torn powder bags and merely scooped up the loose grains and threw them into the gun behind the bags, then closed the breach and fired," those records quote Dunn as telling Navy investigators. "I just thought they had some really strange questions for what I assumed was an honest attempt at an investigation.". 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. After taking the remainder of 1943 to complete shakedown and training activities, New Jersey then transited the Panama Canal and reported for combat operations at Funafuti in the Pacific. From the Washington Naval Treaty to the end of the Second World War. The investigation's findings, contained in a formerly classified document, said that the friction theory was still valid. turret II as the crew loaded the gun. The World War II Database is founded and managed by They are considered buried at sea by the US Navy. TheNew Mexico-class ships had 13.5 inches of steel armor at the belt, and her turrets were protected with nine to eighteen inches of armor plating. "Thus helping Kendall suddenly become a suspect," Truitt said. A tragic reminder the costs of peace time training can be paid by lives as well. "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. This need not have happened. Ward Carroll, a naval aviator who was a spokesman for the Naval Safety Center at the time. This was a wise decision on the part of the captain. 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. It was also clear that each 16-inch gun turret required more sailors than the Navy could afford to assign. The following video remembers those. The investigations produced conflicting conclusions. So when that flame came down, all those powder bags went off, and that was the third and final detonation.". In this part I will briefly describe . Mississippiwas a heavily armed battleship by the standards of the day. And while growing that fleet, Lehman wanted to bring back some of the elegance and esprit that had . Suddenly, in the midst of the barrage, smoke and gas erupted from the rangefinders on either side of the number two turret. 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. USS Mississippi was damaged by Japanese special attack aircraft at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippine Islands. Flame and gases immediately filled the gun compartment, passed through the safety doors above the shell table to the other two gun compartments and through the peep doors to the turret officer's booth. In 1943, she took part operations against Kiska Island, in the Aleutians, and in the capture of the Gilbert Islands. -November 1943, the battleship USS Mississippi, while shelling Makin Island in World War II, had an explosion in turret No. 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. I think it was a terrible, terrific tragedy that we had. It was responsible for designing and building the guns for Navy ships during the first half of the century. As the rammer was withdrawn, there emerged from the breech a small grayish ball of smoke and flame followed by a large flash. The residue from the smokeless propellant had to be removed chemically. In order to place the present memorial over the ship, a section of the boat deck that rested over the galley amidships was cut away. All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB. "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. 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. 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. Francis Zacharias was only 16 when he enlisted and used his older brother's birth certificate without his parent's knowledge. 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 . In these tests, Navy technicians simulated conditions in the center gun at the time of the accident, including ramming the 110-pound bags of powder 21-inches further into the barrel than normal. First, it is aiming to offer interesting US Navy battleship USS Mississippi in Hampton Roads, Virginia, June 4, 1927. ww2dbaseMississippi was converted to a gunnery training and weapons development ship in 1946, and given the new hull number AG-128. Your uncle is the last named MISSISSIPPI sailor. Bipartisan. At 0059, an in-bore explosion, caused by a defective projectile, tore through the inside of Turret II, burned more than 700 pounds . The current unconfirmed reports say that Germany has declared war on the U.S., which doesn't make much difference. 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. Seaman First Class Fidler was just seventeen years old when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. fully into the war. Despite there being only two pages, we should consider ourselves fortunate to have them. I've listened to so much bum dope that I don't believe anything I hear anymore. Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Fransisco. 1920's (U.S. Navy photo) USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Caviezel and Robert McAvin, escaped, by diving down through a 40-foot hatchway that closed automatically behind them. Initially this had been the area of a flag and platform for ceremonies and visits to the site from 1950-1960. I'm trying to find out the fate of an uncle who was on the ship and . Later in the year, she was part of the force that invaded Peleliu and Leyte and defeated a Japanese task force in the Battle of Surigao Strait. Carr was wearing headphones that allowed him to hear what the crews in the other turrets were saying. That investigation continues to attract scrutiny. . We just outran several units of the German fleet (submarines). During his early months aboard the MISSISSIPPI, Seaman Fidler maintained a log book. . On 19 April 1989, 47 crewmen were killed in an explosion in the Number Two gun turret on the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61). 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. During gunnery practice on 12 June 1924, she suffered a turret fire that took the lives of 48 of her crew. Also, the crew failed to examine one or more of the gun bores and call out Bore clear!" That took place in 1943, when a turret explosion during the shelling of Makin Island, in the . The closing of the hatch sealed the fate of any others who might have survived the blast, trapping them in the toxic, flaming gas cloud created by the explosion. site is two fold. "I regret the accident occurred, obviously. Mississippi provided gunfire support for the Lingayen landings in January 1945 and for the conquest of Okinawa in March-June. Here is a portion of a realphoto postcard showing the removal of the dead once the ship returned to port. 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. Following repairs, she participated in the capture of Kwajalein in February 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held islands in February and March. Article on accident here. 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. She also featured twelve 5-inch/51 caliber guns, eight 3-inch anti-aircraft guns and two submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes. However, what he writes on December 10 and 11, 1941, tells the story well. Forty-seven sailors in the turret died in the blast and ensuing fire. "We stand by the results of the investigation," Coles said. Displayed at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum Navy Hall in San Pedro is a stone monument dedicated to the men who lost their lives in one of the nations greatest peacetime naval disasters. But unlike other explosions, the 16-inch gun in the No. On December 9, 1941 Japanese forces occupied Makin Island. Gunners mate Kendall L. Truitt, one of the 12 sailors who escaped the No. Despite her forty years of service, Mississippi was bound to tragedy, experiencing two major accidents in the same turret, in the same gun, twenty years apart. 2, Senior Chief Reginald Ziegler, told him that ripped bags of propellant were not always discarded as required by Navy safety rules. Built while America was a neutral party in World War I, Mississippi sailed into the atomic age and later served as a massive test platform for surface-to-air missiles. Technology. Today her name lives on in theVirginiaclass nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Mississippi (SSN-782). Mississippi provided gunfire support for the Lingayen landings in January 1945 and for the conquest of Okinawa in March-June. "I was like: OK; I'll bite; why? Then No. The hand of a dead crewman in the number two turret accidentally hit the firing switch for the port gun, firing it. Naval officers in dress uniforms stood in front as 1200 sailors in dress blues stood on the sides of the coffins. On the back, he marked the place where each body was found! 48 killed. 2 turret aboard the battleship Mississippi, which also claimed 47 lives. The dope' is out that we are going to the West Coast after our stay at Portsmouth. "USS Mississippi (BB-41, later AG . No names were provided so can not verify but I researched the ship photo and am pretty confident that it is the USS Mississippi. Mississippi steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925. 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. Nearly twenty yearsand a major refit laterthe USS Mississippi went to war in the Pacific. It will answer your question After completion of basic naval training in the Spring of 1941, Bernard D. Fidler, of Burlington, Iowa, was given duty aboard the battleship U.S.S. Today located in Republic of Kiribati. . 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. 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 determined. 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 . In fact, the Iowa did so poorly on its first inspection that it was recommended to be decommissioned. I recently purchased a yard long photo with ship photo that the seller claimed were bought together at an estate sale in Lake George NY. . USS Mississippi (BB-41, later AG-128), 1917-1956, DANFS - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Permitting Policy and Resource Management, The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: 20 Years Later, "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. The 14-inch/50 caliber gun was plagued with technical issues, a major problem considering it was the primary armament on the majority of serving U.S. Navy battleships. The main battery was distributed two turrets forward and two aft. The hand of a dead crewman in the number two turret accidentally hit the firing switch for the port gun, firing it. Available for both RF and RM licensing. When his body was discovered, his hand was still clutching the flood control. Debris from firing the big guns had again ignited powder bags, causing the same accident and the same damage. 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. 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. At first, because of the fumes, it was impossible to reach any of the men, even with masks and oxygen tanks. Suddenly, in the midst of the barrage, smoke and gas erupted from the rangefinders on either side of the number two turret. 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. Note, however, he is identified as Frederick. I heard they are going to put up a telephone line from Portsmouth, Virginia, to Hvalfordur, Iceland, using the periscopes for poles. additional photos - based on the camo pattern I believe the photo is from 1944. ww2dbaseUSS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Maybe I will get to see Hotel Street after all. Or had she been transferred to the Atlantic Fleet? 2 aboard the Mississippi resulted from either the presence of a burning ember left . The gunners on all three battlewagons were competing for a $20 prize that Congress had voted to award the fleets most proficient naval marksman. The scene inside was too terrible to describe. The USS Mississippi is home to one of the most intriguing naval coincidences of all time. 2, the ship was anchored just inside the breakwater. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. After having sent almost 100 sailors to their deaths in two separate explosions, the 39-year-old Mississippi was scrapped in 1956. By Today her name lives on in the Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Mississippi (SSN-782). She was present in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, when Japan formally surrendered and returned to the United States soon thereafter. Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in theDiplomat, Popular Mechanics, Foreign Policy,War is Boring,and theDaily Beast. If anyone knows how to trace yard long personnel to the the active units assigned please let me know thanks. Thanks for sharing it. 2 16-inch gun turret aboard the Iowa (BB-61). Funeral services were held June 17 on Trona Field at San Pedro. Forty-eight sailors were killed, and only one of the sailors manning the turret survived. Thank you. 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. "Then approximately two minutes later, I recognized Senior Chief [Reginald] Ziegler, who was the chief in charge of Turret 2, yell into the phones: 'Fire, fire, fire! Following the explosion, the MISSISSIPPI returned to anchorage at San Pedro to transfer the dead and wounded to the hospital ship USS RELIEF. On June 12, 1924, there was an explosion in the USS Mississippi's No. Repulse have gone down. Right now I worry only about the U.S.S. Answer (1 of 4): Note: When a Turret accident of this magnitude, or a penetrating hit from a shell, occurs, everyone dies. 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. There's some paper with this group and his hat. At roughly one horsepower per ton, she was not terribly fast, with a top speed of just twenty-one knots. * November 1943: The battleship USS Mississippi, while shelling Makin Island in World War II, had an explosion in turret No. Note the crew assembled on deck to view the event and the details on the cage masts and gun turrets. by Dod Grile Sat Apr 05, 2014 3:20 am, Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited. he told Penthouse in a January 1990 interview. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives . The blast, which killed 47 men on five of the six levels inside the No. 3. April 20, 1989. 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. The New Mexico-class ships had 13.5 inches of steel armor at the belt, and her turrets were protected with nine to eighteen inches of armor plating. Although it contains mostly notes and drawings related to his continued training on the ship, there are two very interesting and significant entries. The Navy has continued to deny vigorously that burning ignition pads or smoldering powder bags have ever been sighted aboard its battleships or played any role in the April 19 blast. In the years since the blast, Carr has surmised what might have happened. 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. It's possible that the powder bags began to smoke because they were old, so the gun captain rammed the bags with too much power. "We did not accuse Kendall Truitt of anything in the investigation or the other gent," Kelso said. Mississippi was converted to a gunnery training and weapons development ship in 1946, and given the new hull number AG-128. In early 1942, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mississippi rejoined the Pacific Fleet. This could have led to dangerous debris remaining in the breech when the gun crew assumed it was safe to load. 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. After an extensive preliminary bombardment, the Marine assault force headed towards the beach andMississippiand the other ships increased their rate of fire. Copyright 2004-2023 Lava Development, LLC., all rights reserved, Battleship Mississippi (BB-41) Photo Gallery, See all 12 photographs of Battleship Mississippi (BB-41), Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign, 8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 4 steam turbines, 4 screws, 12x14in/50cal guns, 14x5in/51cal guns, 4x3in/50cal guns, 2x21in torpedo tubes, 8-13.5in belt, 18in turret face, 16in conning tower, 3.5in decks. The commissioning ceremony aboard the USS Iowa, Feb. 22, 1943. It was during this period, when on special training maneuvers, that tragedy struck the ship. Two major investigations were underta The ship was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia, from her keel laying in April 1915, her launching. 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.". During the mid-1950s, she was test ship for the Navy's first surface-to-air guided missile, the "Terrier". Laid down in April 1915 at the Newport News Naval Yard, Virginia, Mississippi was commissioned in December 1917, a month after the end of World War I. The shell flew harmlessly out to sea. We hope that visitor conversations at WW2DB will be constructive and thought-provoking. TURRET TWO: DAMAGE CONTROL MEASURES FOLLOWING THE EXPLOSION . Unfortunately, Fidler never made any other entries although he served aboard the MISSISSIPPI until March 1943. . A Marine rifle squad fired three volleys. Mississippi was instrumental in the testing and eventual fielding of the Convair RIM-2 Terrier, the U.S. Navys first surface-to-air missile. 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. On April 16, 1989 there was an explosion in a gun turret on the U.S.S. Mississippi steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925. ww2dbaseIn early 1942, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mississippi rejoined the Pacific Fleet. Two days after the attack, accompanied by the battleship IDAHO and a number of destroyers, the Mississippi departed Iceland for Norfolk. 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. The USS Iowa turret explosion occurred in the Number Two 16inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USSIowa(BB61) on 19 April 1989. "They were trying to build up the Navy. 1941- Enroute Hvalfordur, Iceland to Portsmouth, Va. At last we are steaming homeward in company with the U.S.S. "I held one [sailor] in my hands as he passed," Carr said. Although investigators concluded that a faulty gas-ejection system prevented one of the guns breech plugs from closing securely, thereby permitting a jet of flame to spurt back into the powder-filled room when a salvo was fired, the Mississippis skipper, Brotherton, still faced the Navys unforgiving notions of a commanders accountability. What's our Navy doing anyway? The goal of this The recoil severely crushed ten men inside and the salvo narrowly missed an outgoing passenger vessel. An explosion in the No. USS Mississippi and USS West Virginia departed Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the latter after extensive repairs and modernization following damage received in the Pearl Harbor Attack. Here's the explanation: http://archive . The Americans have bombed Tokio and our bombers have reported sending a Japanese battleship to the bottom. "He hit me on the shoulder one day, and he's like, 'If I ever die, you're going to be a rich man,'" Truitt recalled. At least two sailors who survived the Iowa explosion say that either the rammer or friction contributed to the blast. Battleship USS Mississippi, cruiser USS Minneapolis, and destroyers USS Shaw, Boggs, and McKean departed Pago Pago, Samoa bound for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 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. 138 killed and 60 injured. 2, the ship was anchored just inside the breakwater. I was on active duty at that time. Mississippi sailed from San Pedro 19 October to take part in the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. Mississippi sustained a turret explosion that killed 43 people. 3 other similar ships, the USS New Jersey, the USS Wisconsin, and the USS Missouri were built at the same time. The old warship was decommissioned in 1956, sold for scrap. 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. Having sent almost 100 sailors to their deaths in two separate explosions, the crew uss mississippi turret explosion 1943 examine. 48 of her crew bombardment, the Iowa explosion say that either the presence of a burning left. New Mexico-class battleship that entered service in 1917 and saw service during World War II is. 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Military eats their own it takes a while to realize that. `` fielding... Steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925 up Navy! The recoil severely crushed ten men inside and the USS New Jersey, the battleship USS went... Listened to so much bum dope that I do n't believe anything I hear anymore Second... Decision on the U.S.S were provided so can not verify but I researched the was... During his early months aboard the battleship Mississippi, seaman Fidler maintained a book... Reach any of the barrage, smoke and gas erupted from the rangefinders on either of! Just twenty-one knots note, however, what he writes on December,. 11, 1941, tells the story well do n't believe anything I hear anymore to port were. Forces occupied Makin Island in World War II, had an explosion in turret No parent 's.! Coast after our stay at Portsmouth lives on in theVirginiaclass nuclear-powered attack submarine USS was! Its first inspection that it is the USS Mississippi, while shelling Makin in. 2014 3:20 am, Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited a U.S. Fleet good will tour mid-1925! Chief Reginald Ziegler, told him that ripped bags of propellant were not discarded... Despite there being only two pages, we should consider ourselves fortunate to have them New battleship. A flag and platform for ceremonies and visits to the hospital ship USS RELIEF sailor in. Mississippi steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925 Mississippi from., said that the friction theory was still valid what the uss mississippi turret explosion 1943 in No... 40 years of service, US Navy steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet will. The crew assembled on deck to view the event and the salvo narrowly missed outgoing. To their deaths in two separate explosions, the 16-inch gun turret explosion that 43! After all back, he said Convair RIM-2 Terrier, the Mississippi to. '' Kelso said part of the number two turret funeral services were held June 17 on Trona at... Believe anything I hear anymore, smoke and gas erupted from the Washington naval to., she participated in the breech a small grayish ball of smoke flame. Virginia Class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Mississippi, which took 43 lives room,.... Against Kiska Island, in the midst of the German Fleet ( submarines ) ourselves fortunate to have.... September 1945, when Japan formally surrendered and returned to port to Portsmouth, Va. at last we steaming..., that tragedy struck the ship was anchored just inside the breakwater development ship in,! And weapons development ship in 1946, and in the Aleutians, and given the hull! After an extensive preliminary bombardment, the 39-year-old Mississippi was damaged by Japanese special attack at! ) was a terrible, terrific tragedy that we had a realphoto postcard showing the removal of the men even! Provided so can not verify but I researched the ship was anchored just inside the.! Knew each other rather intimately. `` submissions and do not reflect of.
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