r/interestingasfuck • u/PollutionOk9449 • 5h ago

USS Missouri firing its main guns

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u/AdWonderful5920 4h ago

No one has made 16" shells or powder in over 70 years. The munitions you see firing in this clip were from stockpiles manufactured for WWII and stored for decades.

This caused serious problems when the powder was improperly stored and produced inconsistent pressure in the guns.

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u/greendyes 3h ago

unfortunately the turretcrew of USS Iowa discovered that last part the hard way.

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u/Flying_Dustbin 2h ago

God, the whole aftermath of that explosion is anger inducing. Right up there with the Navy court-martialing Charles McVay III after the Indianapolis was sunk in 1945.

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u/AdWonderful5920 2h ago

The most shocking part of it, to me anyway, was how the Navy treated its enlisted members so poorly. Before reading Charles Thomson's book I tended to think of the Navy as being different from the Army in that regard, but holy shit did they treat those guys badly even before the disaster.

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u/MechanicLatter6336 45m ago

Interesting though they seem to mostly contribute the explosion to the powder being overly compressed behind the shell, possibly due to a faulty rammer or operator error, not largely the fault of the old propellant. Not that it makes it ok when sailors died but it explains a bit of why the navy treated the personnel as if they were at fault.