USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. "I just thought they had some really strange questions for what I assumed was an honest attempt at an investigation.". Politics. Another 2700 sailors observed the services. By On December 9, 1941 Japanese forces occupied Makin Island. USS Mississippi was commissioned into service. The ceremony was held at San Pedro, California on 17 June 1924. I heard family stories about my uncle being killed in a turret explosion on the USS Mississippi but I had no details about the events leading to and following the explosion. Seaman First Class Fidler was just seventeen years old when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. fully into the war. That investigation continues to attract scrutiny. You might like to see my original copy of the Memorial Address. As a battleship, theMississippiwasheavily armoredto slug it out with enemy ships. She also featured twelve 5-inch/51 caliber guns, eight 3-inch anti-aircraft guns and two submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes. The British lost the Prince of Wales and the Repulse. Editorial Guidelines and Publishing Standards. 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 . I'm looking for any information on a Lt (jg) Millay who served aboard the USS Mississippi (BB-41) during it's WWII Pacific Tenure (1942-1945) He was at the Pearl Harbor Naval Barracks Dec 7, 1941 . ww2dbaseDuring 1931-33 , Mississippi underwent a major modernization that gave her an all-new superstructure, improved armament and enhanced protection. Forty-seven sailors in the turret died in the blast and ensuing fire. 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 World War II Database is founded and managed by Returning to Pearl Harbor in March 1943, . I still think we will make it without any casualties.". It doesn't make any difference to the crew, their attitude being the same as six months ago, except that boys talk more about the Japs than the Germans. The hand of a dead crewman in the number two turret accidentally hit the firing switch for the port gun, firing it. Also served on USS TENNESSEE, USS KULA GULF (CVE108) and USS FRANK FRIDAY FLETCHER. Suddenly, in the midst of the barrage, smoke and gas erupted from the rangefinders on either side of the number two turret. 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. "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. During gunnery practice on 12 June 1924, she suffered a turret fire that took the lives of 48 of her crew. When we're doing a shot with more than three shells, you would stage powder bags inside the powder flats. U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy . 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. April 20, 1989. The accident occurred when rescuers were removing the body of the gun pointer, who was found sitting at his post with his finger still on the trigger. Second, it is to showcase 3. New Photos Might Show Ukraines Drones Can Strike Deep Into Russia, Could Jail Stop Donald Trump from Becoming President Again? BB-41 suffered another turret explosion killing 43 men 20 November 1943 off Makin Island. 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. Warships, naval battles, technology, weapons, navies of all eras, modeling, etc. Iowa. Less than two decades later, the Mississippi went through the same agony again. The flames and gases had overcome the men so quickly that recovery crews found many of the men still at their positions. The battleships three remaining turrets continued firing until the naval support phase of the invasion had ended. "That couldn't have been the case on Iowa," Coles said. Don't worry about collecting. "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 the time, sailors in his father's division all took out life insurance policies on each other. 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. In 1943, she took part operations against Kiska Island, in the Aleutians, and in the capture of the Gilbert Islands. Iowa . Does anyone know or have a list of the sailors killed in the Nov. 1943 #2 turret explosion on the USS Mississippi? Key point:Twice the same gun turret had an issue that caused it to blow up. Following repairs, she participated in the capture of Kwajalein in February 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held islands in February and March. An Aichi D3A 'Val' crashed across Abner Read's main deck as it dropped a bomb down one the destroyer's stacks that exploded in the engine room. Today her name lives on in the Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Mississippi (SSN-782). In the years since the blast, Carr has surmised what might have happened. Investigators also found that some access safety doors inside the turret had been left partly open. Nov 1, 2021, 1:18 PM. Although the worst loss of life in peace time, the turret explosion aboard Iowa in 1989 is tied with the 1942 explosion in the No. 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. 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. Francis Zacharias was only 16 when he enlisted and used his older brother's birth certificate without his parent's knowledge. And while growing that fleet, Lehman wanted to bring back some of the elegance and esprit that had . They also repeated assurances that friction or other accidental means did not cause the Iowa deaths. During gunnery practice on 12 June 1924, she suffered a turret fire that took the lives of 48 of her crew. It's been 30 years since an explosion inside the number two gun turret on the USSIowakilled 47 American sailors, but for Mike Carr, it still feels like yesterday. In the case of theIowa, the devastating blast happened toward the tail end of the Cold War, when the Navy felt it needed 600 ships to counter the Soviets. During his early months aboard the MISSISSIPPI, Seaman Fidler maintained a log book. (Photo: Official U.S. Navy Photograph, National Archives collection) . 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. We just outran several units of the German fleet (submarines). This could have led to dangerous debris remaining in the breech when the gun crew assumed it was safe to load. DD-770 General Specifications. "They knew more about guns than everybody else in the Navy put together.". In June 1941, USS Mississippi patrolled the North Atlantic. In 1924 and 1943, open breech explosions had occurred in the Turret Two center gun aboard Mississippi, each time killing most of the crewmen in the turret. Facts later emerged that undermined the Navy's first investigation into the explosion, Truitt said. He passed away in 2010. 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. . 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. 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. by tommy303 Fri Apr 04, 2014 5:30 pm, Post A bizarre accident occurred afterward while theMississippiwas anchored in San Pedro Bay. A news report about the USS Iowa gun turret explosion in 1989. This need not have happened. Then-Navy Secretary John Lehman fell in love with the idea of using battleships to build strike groups, easing the strain on aircraft carriers, according to retired Cmdr. Forty-eight men died of asphyxiation as a result of the explosion. Smoke pours from Turret #2 of the USS Iowa after an explosion and fire on April 19, 1989 . So when that flame came down, all those powder bags went off, and that was the third and final detonation.". 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. Carr was wearing headphones that allowed him to hear what the crews in the other turrets were saying. USS Mississippi, a 32,000 ton New Mexico class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. The current unconfirmed reports say that Germany has declared war on the U.S., which doesn't make much difference. Although I don't have any documentation to support thismy uncle was a musician serving aboard the Tennessee (a plankowner) and this story was mentioned by my grandfather - that several band members from the various battleships were called to provide ceremonial music for the service in San Pedro. The 1943 incident was virtually identical, and the Bureau of Ordnance . The crew members in the upper chambers of the massive gun turret aboard the USS Iowa were killed by the explosion and fire while sailors working several levels below suffocated when the blast sucked all the oxygen from their chambers, Navy officials said Friday. At the time of her commissioning in 1943, the USS Iowa was one of the world's most formidable war machines. The MISSISSIPPI was part of the covering force for convoys and lines of communications in the North Atlantic. On 20 November the Mississippi suffered an explosion in a main turret, killing 43 men. 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 . The turret explosion was captured by a camera mounted in one of the USS Iowa's towers. Several salvos were fired by each ship, but then there was trouble with "Missy's" number two turret. 1919-1940, by Harvey M. Beigel. by Dod Grile Sat Apr 05, 2014 3:20 am, Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited. The ship was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia, from her keel laying in April 1915, her launching. Seconds before Turret No. During the latter operation, on 29 November 1943, Mississippi experienced another turret explosion, which took 43 lives . Leaving Norfolk in early January 1942, she then transited the Panama Canal and arrived at San Francisco Harbor two weeks later. In this part I will briefly describe . Even before the sailors caskets could be shipped to their hometowns, the court of inquiry was underway. On June 12, 1924,Mississippifound herselfoff the coast of California conducting gun trials. In 1961 the USS ARIZONA was altered once more. Today located in Republic of Kiribati. --another violation of regulations. July 29, 2009 in EPHEMERA, PHOTOGRAPHS & MILITARY ARTWORK. The waterspray system was not, if I recall, used to clear the bore between shots, just the compressed air blast. Over more than a decade, she operated with the fleet's other battleships, conducting exercises and training operations in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. . At roughly one horsepower per ton, she was not terribly fast, with a top speed of just twenty-one knots. The ships were simulating a chase, firing only their forward turrets at close range. . 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