Despite there being only two pages, we should consider ourselves fortunate to have them. Prewar and during the Pacific War located in the Gilbert Islands. "The powder door was still open to the center gun that armored hatch was still open," Carr said. During the mid-1950s, she was test ship for the Navy's first surface-to-air guided missile, the "Terrier". The fleet in Pearl Harbor must have been asleep and I do not mean dozing. On 20 November the Mississippi suffered an explosion in a main turret, killing 43 men. Suddenly, in the midst of the barrage, smoke and gas erupted from the rangefinders on either side of the number two turret. In this role, she carried a variety of old and new guns and radars, while serving with the Operational Development Force in the Atlantic. USS Mississippi (BB-41/AG-128), a New Mexico-class battleship, was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 20th state, and the second battleship to carry the name.Commissioned in 1917, too late to serve in World War I, she served extensively in the Pacific in World War II, for which she earned eight battle stars.She was one of several pre-war battleships that . Does anyone know or have a list of the sailors killed in the Nov. 1943 #2 turret explosion on the USS Mississippi? This freed up the name USS Mississippi (BB-41) for one of twelve "standard type" battleships, designed with a similar armor scheme, speed, and main armament in order to operate together. Luckily, the fire did not set off the powder bags in the other two guns. Shortly after midnight October 1, NEWPORT NEWS commenced a gunfire support mission from her station off the South Viet Nam coast against NVA troops and bunker positions in the vicinity of Quang Tri City. 13 June 1924 April 20, 1989. They subsequently wrote lawmakers saying that it was unfair Truitt would receive the money instead of Hartwig's parents. Editorial Guidelines and Publishing Standards. 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 battleship would continue participating mainly in training exercises until the 1940s. "That couldn't have been the case on Iowa," Coles said. Thanks for sharing it. -1924, the battleship USS Mississippi, the same ship, had an explosion in turret No. She spent most of 1942 along the U.S. west coast and went to the South Pacific late in that year. ww2dbaseUSS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. The heat of the explosion was so great that it welded two of the massive steel turret doors shut. After an extensive preliminary bombardment, the Marine assault force headed towards the beach and Mississippi and the other ships increased their rate of fire. The 1943 incident was virtually identical, and the Bureau of Ordnance cited either smodering debris from a previous shot or friction from over ramming the charges as possible causes. 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. 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 . The old warship was decommissioned in 1956, sold for scrap. 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. I said, again, this is weird. While at Navy Federal, bankers told Hartwig that buying an extra life insurance policy would only cost $4 per month. The British lost the Prince of Wales and the Repulse. 47 men were killed. "I knew all 47 guys inside that turret because as part of the ship's policy we had rotated between all three turrets," Carr, who served as a gunner's mate in the Iowa's aft 16-inch turret, told Task & Purpose. "We stand by the results of the investigation," Coles said. Assigned to USS IOWA Commissioning Crew on 22 February 1943. USS Mississippi (BB-41/AG-128), the second of three members of the New Mexico class of battleship, was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 20th state.The ship was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia, from her keel laying in April 1915, her launching in January 1917, and her commissioning in December that year. 2 was set to fire its trio of 16-inch guns, an explosion ripped through it, killing 47 sailors. The battleships three remaining turrets continued firing until the naval support phase of the invasion had ended. Returning to Pearl Harbor in March 1943, . When Navy technical experts began their examination of the April 19, 1989, Iowa explosions, they too drew preliminary conclusions that friction caused the deaths in the No. According to the findings from a 1944 investigation by the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance, the explosion in turret No. Mississippiwas instrumental in the testing and eventual fielding of theConvair RIM-2 Terrier, the U.S. Navys first surface-to-air missile. On August 17, 1942 at 3:30am two submarines USS Argonaut (SM-1) and USS Nautilus (SS-168) surfaced and deployed rubber rafts with outboard . 24 were killed. Gunners mate Kendall L. Truitt, one of the 12 sailors who escaped the No. The Iowa was commissioned in 1943. U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy . This need not have happened. --another violation of regulations. As the rammer was withdrawn, there emerged from the breech a small grayish ball of smoke and flame followed by a large flash. Thanks for posting. USS Mississippi (BB41AG128), the second of three members of the New Mexicoclass, was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 20th state. Less than two decades later, the Mississippi went through the same agony again. Here's the explanation: http://archive . 2 turret of the battleship USS Mississippi in 1943 that killed 43 sailors was caused by a "flareback" when unexpelled gases from a previous round ignited powder bags. Brotherton knew something was drastically wrong when he noticed brownish smoke coming from the No. DD-770 General Specifications. Although each barrel was blasted between firings with pressurized air to evacuate debris, the middle barrel of each turret received a lower pressure burst than the left and right barrels. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. 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. 2, the ship was anchored just inside the breakwater. The damaged 33,000-ton dreadnought headed back to port. The U.S.A. is now at war with Germany, Japan, and Italy. MISSISSIPPI. After the war, Mississippi was effectively defanged, with three of her four main battery turrets removed. 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 blast, which killed 47 men on five of the six levels inside the No. They are considered buried at sea by the US Navy. During gunnery practice on 12 June 1924, she suffered a turret fire that took the lives of 48 of her crew. Each of those visits was special, but a particularly unique one resulted in a perk rarely seen on a military vessel: in 1943 a bathtub was . In the years since the blast, Carr has surmised what might have happened. Maybe I will get to see Hotel Street after all. They are thick, alright. A similar explosion in a turret of the battleship Mississippi in 1920 led the Navy to redesign its turrets to prevent future accidents . USS Mississippi (BB-41), during combat operations off Makin, Gilbert Islands, suffers cordite explosion in #2 14-inch gun turret. But it soon became apparent that the World War II-era battleships required too much time, money, and manpower to be overhauled, Carroll said. "I just thought they had some really strange questions for what I assumed was an honest attempt at an investigation.". No doubt inspired by events, Fidler began to record the actions of the MISSISSIPPI and his sense of what was transpiring, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. USSMississippi(BB-41) was the second of three ships of theNew Mexico-classbattleships. Then No. 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. 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. 2 16-inch gun turret aboard the Iowa (BB-61). She was commissioned in December 1917, and operated in the western Atlantic area . 1920's (U.S. Navy photo) USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Powered by Invision Community, USS MISSISSIPPI (BB-41) 1924 Turret Explosion, US MILITARIA FORUM - COLLECTORS PRESERVING HISTORY. Bipartisan. by Dod Grile Sat Apr 05, 2014 3:20 am, Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited. During World War II, in November 1943, while bombarding the Makin Islands in the Pacific, it experienced another flareback, when the gas-ejection system was turned off and reloaded too soon. Less than two decades later, the Mississippi went through the same agony again. Required fields are marked *. site is two fold. In 1943, she took part operations against Kiska Island, in the Aleutians, and in the capture of the Gilbert Islands. In June 1941, in response to the deteriorating war situation in Europe, she was brought back to the Atlantic, operating between the United States and Iceland during much of the rest of that year. Mississippi steamed to Australia on a U.S. Fleet good will tour in mid-1925. The deck was armored to 3.5 inches and the conning tower to sixteen inches. Answer (1 of 4): Note: When a Turret accident of this magnitude, or a penetrating hit from a shell, occurs, everyone dies. Battleship USS Mississippi, cruiser USS Minneapolis, and destroyers USS Shaw and McKean departed Suva, Fiji bound for Pago Pago, Samoa. Of her complement, 1026 officers and men were killed, including Rear-Admiral Hood. Available for both RF and RM licensing. We hope that visitor conversations at WW2DB will be constructive and thought-provoking. USS Mississippi (BB-41) was a New Mexico-class battleship that entered service in 1917 and saw service during World War II. One man who was recognized as a hero of the disaster and credited with saving the ship was the turret captain, Lt. (jg) Thomas E. Zellars. "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. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. Forty-eight sailors were killed, and only one of the sailors manning the turret survived. I was on active duty at that time. She spent most of 1942 along the U.S. west coast and went to the South Pacific late in that year. He said: 'No, it's the same thing my dad did.". Even before the sailors caskets could be shipped to their hometowns, the court of inquiry was underway. By the way, my uncle's name was Francis Zacharias. He had instinctively closed the doors to the ammunition hoist and flooded the magazines. he told Penthouse in a January 1990 interview. 43 killed, 19 injured. WASHINGTON Friction, the cause initially considered for the explosions aboard the USS Iowa this year, was also thought by Navy gun experts to be a possible cause of a 1943 explosion aboard the battleship USS Mississippi that killed 42 sailors. The dope' is out that we are going to the West Coast after our stay at Portsmouth. 2s 14-inch guns went off again. 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 shell flew harmlessly out to sea. 2 Turret was cold, meaning it hadn't been fired yet. Also, the crew failed to examine one or more of the gun bores and call out Bore clear!" Lt. Bruce Coles, a spokesman for the Navy, this week discounted the similarities between the accidents aboard the Iowa and the Mississippi. Published April 02, 2018 09:40:36. Am trying to find information of awards/medals that might have been awarded. In 1961 the USS ARIZONA was altered once more. In this part I will briefly describe . Investigators also found that some access safety doors inside the turret had been left partly open. 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 commissioning ceremony aboard the USS Iowa, Feb. 22, 1943. I heard they are going to put up a telephone line from Portsmouth, Virginia, to Hvalfordur, Iceland, using the periscopes for poles. "At 10 minutes to 10 a.m., somebody came over the phones and said, 'We're having a problem, Turret 2, center gun,'" Carr recalled. The tombstone inscription reads "Francis J. Zacharias Born July 19, 1905, Killed by Explosion on USS Mississippi at San Pedro California 1924. Mississippi provided gunfire support for the Lingayen landings in January 1945 and for the conquest of Okinawa in March-June. "If this story sounds familiar, it's because this is kind of the oldest story ever told around the U.S. The mighty warship was 624 feet long with a beam of 97.5 feet, and displaced 33,000 tons fully loaded. The recoil severely crushed ten men inside and the salvo narrowly missed an outgoing passenger vessel. 20 November 1943." Battleship USS Missouri - Official Website NavSource - USS Missouri (BB-41) It was the deadliest peacetime naval disaster ever to occur along the California coast, an explosion that tore through a gun turret on the battleship Mississippi, killing 48 sailors and injuring dozens more. Forty-eight men died of asphyxiation as a result of the explosion. Funeral services were held June 17 on Trona Field at San Pedro. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. The ship was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia, from her keel laying in April 1915, her launching. The scene inside was too terrible to describe. The powder ignited the first of two explosions that would rock the ship from stem to stern. "We did not accuse Kendall Truitt of anything in the investigation or the other gent," Kelso said. I met my life-long friend Dave Welch, got to experience Fleet Week in NYC, and lived through the turret 2 explosion. . She was redesignated AG-128 and equipped with a number of radars and prototype air defense missile systems. 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 19 April 1989.The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. "The sad thing is I understand what they were doing and why they were doing it," Truitt told Task & Purpose. 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 . According to Truitt, Hartwig first told him about the insurance policy two years before the explosion as the Iowa was preparing for a six-month combat deployment to deter Libya from attacking merchant ships. 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. The hand of a dead crewman in the number two turret accidentally hit the firing switch for the port gun, firing it. 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. Mississippi was instrumental in the testing and eventual fielding of the Convair RIM-2 Terrier, the U.S. Navys first surface-to-air missile. Island Hopping . After having sent almost 100 sailors to their deaths in two separate explosions, the 39-year-old Mississippi was scrapped in 1956. After an extensive preliminary bombardment, the Marine assault force headed towards the beach andMississippiand the other ships increased their rate of fire. Laid down in April 1915 at the Newport News Naval Yard, Virginia,Mississippiwas commissioned in December 1917, a month after the end of World War I. "USS Mississippi (BB-41, later AG . "Interestingly, I was never read my rights, nor did I realize that I was a suspect," Truitt told Task & Purpose. The hand of a dead crewman in the number two turret accidentally hit the firing switch for the port gun, firing it. 2 gun turret, left two fully loaded gun barrels in the same . You need to play a total of 20 battles to post in this section. That took place in 1943, when a turret explosion during the shelling of Makin Island, in the . Forty-two sailors were killed and another sixteen wounded. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives. Several salvos were fired by each ship, but then there was trouble with "Missy's" number two turret. 2 turret when the gun exploded above him. Technology. Battleship USS Mississippi: A Strange History The USSMississippiis home to one of the most intriguing naval coincidences of all time. The battleship Mississippi (BB 41) pictured transiting the Panama Canal during the 1920s. The deadly blast aboard the Iowa marked the first explosion in a battleship turret since 1943, when 43 sailors aboard the USS Mississippi were killed, the Government Accountability Office later . She was powered by nine Babcock and Wilcox boilers and her four screws were driven by four Curtis turbines producing a maximum 32,000 horsepower. USS New Jersey During World War II . The residue from the smokeless propellant had to be removed chemically. Sign up for a new account in our community. On 19 April 1989, the Iowa. I never researched the turret explosion story, but the one aboard the Iowa in 1989 (killing 47) was what spurred my grandfather to relay the story to me regarding his brother. During this time she also conducted search operations for German "raiders" thought to be in the vicinity. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami. The World War II Database is founded and managed by 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. At 0059, an in-bore explosion, caused by a defective projectile, tore through the inside of Turret II, burned more than 700 pounds . A news report about the USS Iowa gun turret explosion in 1989. Caviezel and Robert McAvin, escaped, by diving down through a 40-foot hatchway that closed automatically behind them. 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. 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. They further claimed Hartwig became suicidal because he and Truitt who was married at the time had been lovers but Truitt had rebuffed him. She arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, in June but soon shifted her base to Newport, Rhode Island. Then they found two sailors who had been blown from the turret onto the deck. 1941- Enroute Hvalfordur, Iceland to Portsmouth, Va. At last we are steaming homeward in company with the U.S.S. Another 2700 sailors observed the services. There is also a picture of what I think is the USS MISSISSIPPI. Fearing that the same might happen with the remaining gun, the captain moved the MISSISSIPPI outside the breakwater. Based on the survivors account, the Navy believed that a fire or burning debris was present in the gun barrel and ignited the powder bags. Your uncle is the last named MISSISSIPPI sailor. Today her name lives on in the Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Mississippi (SSN-782). . On April 16, 1989 there was an explosion in a gun turret on the U.S.S. 2 turret. Another sailor, David Smith, claimed that Navy investigators had coerced him into telling them Hartwig propositioned him and discussed how to use a bomb's timer, the Washington Post reported in September 1989. Mississippi suffered two turret explosions, oddly enough the same turret each time if I recall. In its investigation of the explosion, the Navy concluded that the explosion was the result of a deliberate act and not a defect in the gun or propellant. 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. Only two sailors in the turret firing room, J.F. 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. Reply. Mississippiwas a heavily armed battleship by the standards of the day. A bizarre accident occurred afterward while the Mississippi was anchored in San Pedro Bay. The military eats their own it takes a while to realize that.". Later, the Navy would honor Zellars by naming a destroyer after him. Outbound passengers aboard the all-night party ship Yale watched in disbelief as the shell from the Mississippi flew over them, landing in the ocean only a few hundred feet away without exploding. The main battery was distributed two turrets forward and two aft. Mississippi was a heavily armed battleship by the standards of the day. Mississippi sustained a turret explosion that killed 43 people. Seaman First Class Fidler was just seventeen years old when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. fully into the war. The exact date and number of casualties were not available. Two hundred sailors of each battleship of Battleship Division 4 were present. United States General Accounting Office. Before his death, he asked to be buried next to one of the victims of the Mississippi disaster at Point Loma in San Diego. A battleship force on station at the northern entrance to Surigao Strait consisting of battleships USS Mississippi, California, and Pennsylvania screened by cruisers USS Phoenix, Boise, Nashville, and HMAS Shropshire along with destroyers Ammen, Bush, Leutze, Newcomb, Bennion, Heywood L. Edwards, Robinson, Richard P. Leary, Bryant, and Claxton came under an intense Japanese air attacking force that included special attack aircraft. 1. "I held one [sailor] in my hands as he passed," Carr said. . 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. Despite knowing how to solve the problem, the same accident happened two times over 20 years. 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.". . Article on accident here. After an extensive preliminary bombardment, the Marine assault force headed towards the beach and Mississippi and the other ships increased their rate of fire. The MISSISSIPPI was once again with the Pacific Fleet. During gunnery practice on 12 June 1924, she suffered a turret fire that took the lives of 48 of her crew. 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