Mr. Allen,
Although commissioned after WW II, NEWPORT NEWS was a WW II - ERA (key word
"-era")heavy cruiser. Even though she and her sisters were launched and
commissioned too late for service in WW II, they were designed in 1941-42 to
incorporate the new 8 inch 55 caliber rapid fire gun, Mk 16, designed in
1943 to replace the existing 8in 55 cal gun, Mk 15 which was the gun of
choice at that time. These ships (NEWPORT NEWS CA 148; SALEM CA 139 and DES
MOINES CA 134) being enlarged versions of the previous ROCHESTER-class which
was an improvement on the BALTIMORE-class - both using the Mk 15 separate
loading ammunition.
The BALTIMORE's were WW II cruisers; the ROCHESTERS and SALEMS were WW II -
e r a cruisers; just like most of the ESSEX-class carriers were WW II
carriers, the MIDWAYS were
WW II - e r a carriers.
SAINT PAUL, BOSTON and CANBERRA were WW II cruisers; NEWPORT NEWS is a WW II
- era cruiser.
I do not know if the barrels for the Gun 8 in 55 cal Mk 15 and Gun, RF 8 in
55 cal were interchangeable or not. I just know there were 8 in barrels and
16 in barrels (for Gun, 16 in 50 cal Mk 7) stored at Subic Bay and at the
NSY, Long Beach, CA.
NEWPORT NEWS was scrapped at New Orleans, SALEM is a memorial at Quincy, MA
and DES MOINES is still tied up at Philadelphia awaiting her fate.
All BALTIMORE's and ROCHESTER's, including their CG converted-sisters have
been scrapped. There is but one CLG, LITTLE ROCK, CLG-4/CL-92 at Buffalo NY
- she is the last, her final sister, OKLAHOMA CITY CLG-5/CL 91 sunk as
target a year ago (6 in 47 cal Mk 16).
Stew Rayfield
Maj USMC (Ret)
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven P. Allen [mailto:spallen@rolemail.ccis.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 4:33 PM
To: mil-veh@skylee.com
Subject: Re: [MV] USS Arizona and the Belgrano
At 04:08 PM 7/5/00 -0400, Rayfield , Robert S Jr Mr DUSA-IA/Techmatics
wrote:
>
>8 inch guns at Subic would have been for WW II-era 8 in gunned heavy
>cruisers during Vietnam War (SAINT PAUL CA-73; NEWPORT NEWS CA-148,
CANBERRA
>CA-70/CAG-2 and BOSTON CA-69/CAG-1).
Newport News wasn't a WWII heavy cruiser, and her guns were different from
the others (though the barrells and linings may have been interchangeable).
Newport News had cartridge ammo, RF, automatic 8" rifles.
Steve Allen
BTW, USS Salem, her sister, survives: see www.uss-salem.org
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Aug 07 2000 - 22:15:55 PDT