5" Secondary Gun System

5" Secondary Gun System. Battleship New Jersey. , New Jersey's secondary armament originally consisted of twenty 5-inch/38-caliber guns in ten twin enclosed gun mounts. Two mounts were located on each side of the ship at the 01 Level and three were mounted on each side at the 02 Level. These guns could be used against the surface, shore, and aircraft targets., The Mark 32 5" Twin Gun Mount was the most effective dual-purpose gun used during World War II, proving so successful that the United States Navy continued to fit these guns to new warships as late as 1967., Against kamikaze suicide aircraft attacks, New Jersey's 5" guns proved deadly effective when firing the proximity-fused shell, which had a miniature radar antenna in its nose. Each mount could elevate its guns to +85 degrees and hit targets more than 30,000 feet in the air, the cruising altitude of today's jet airliners. Used against surface targets or enemy ships, each 5" gun could hit a target more than ten miles away. These guns proved very effective in supporting American forces on land during the Vietnam War., During modernization in 1981, New Jersey had four twin mounts removed (in yellow, below) to make room for new, modern Harpoon and Tomahawk missile armament., This reduced the number of mounts to six, three per side, for a total of twelve 5-inch/38-caliber guns.,

Mark 32 , 5"/38 Twin Gun Mount. Ammunition Weights:

Shell: 55 lbs. , Powder: 24 lbs.

Shell Type:

-High-Explosive (ship and shore) , -Star-Shell (night illumination) , -White-Phosphorous (ground attack)

Range: Max. 10.2 miles , Firing Rate: Up to 15-20 rounds minute (every 3 seconds!) , Traverse: 25° per second , Elevation: 15° per second , Gun Weight: 1.783 tons each , Mount Weight: 75.7 tons , Armor Shield: 2.5" (front) , Crew: 14 men in gunhouse

, [Captions:] , A 5" secondary gun seen onboard New Jersey during World War II. These guns, along with their radar-assisted directors shown here, were extremely effective against suicide attacks by Japanese "kamikaze" aircraft., Below: Each mount had a 14-man crew. Due to ammunition weights, very fit gun crews 23° were needed to achieve a rate of fire of one shell every three seconds.