5-Inch 38 Caliber Twin Gun Mount

5-Inch 38 Caliber Twin Gun Mount. U.S.S. North Carolina. These semi-automatic, hand loaded guns served as the Ship's secondary battery. They were dual purpose guns. They could engage aircraft and bombard surface targets. They could also fire shells to illuminate targets or lay down a smoke screen. The Ship has 10 twin gun mounts, five on each side, for a total of 20 barrels. A gun mount has three levels and 37 men were assigned to each gun mount during battle: , 1. the gun house (top) with a crew of 13 men and where the actual firing took place , 2. the upper handling room (one level below the gun house) with a crew of 15 men and where the ready service ammunition was stored. , 3. the lower handling room (several decks below) with a crew of 9 men and where the projectiles and gun powder were stored. , , The guns were normally aimed and fired by either the fire control director or the secondary battery plotting room. The fire control director was normally used for aircraft and ship targets. The plotting room was used for shore bombardments. Optical and/or radar equipment in the fire control directors tracked targets. The equipment constantly generated range and bearing information and transmitted the information to the Mark I computers in Secondary Battery Plot. The computers in turn compiled the position data and aimed the guns. , , If necessary, the guns could be placed in manual or local control. Manual control meant that the gun crew controlled the mount and were responsible for tracking the target and firing the gun. During the war, four mounts were connected to the Mark 51 directors to speed up the change of direction needed to combat the kamikazes. , Climb inside a 5-inch gun mount on the starboard side, 01 level , , Crew Memories , On August 24, 1942, we had our first air attack. I was in Mount #3, Gun Captain on right gun. My crew was a shell man, powder man and hot case man all under the direction of the Mount Captain. The routine was a powder can was placed in the tray, then a shell and then rammed. The gun would fire and the hot case would be ejected and (sent out) the scuttle. I would drop the spade and the gun was ready to load and fire again. The powder came up through the deck with a primer protector on it. The powder man pulled the protector off then loaded. This time he didn't remove the protector and when rammed, the breech couldn't close. My job was to open the hatch, remove the powder can and get rid of it. , , My hot case man had a tough job when the cases didn't go out. They would bounce and he would have to catch it and throw it out. Usually the first or second case would catch him under the nose and he would be a bloody mess. , , William Taylor, Boatswain's Mate 1/c , , It got a little smoky in there. It was enough noise to almost obscure other outside noises. You had your two rammer motors, two hoist motors, trainer and pointer motors going. , , Paul Wieser, Boatswain's Mate 1/c , , We would work for hours on the coordination of the directors and fire control with the computers. One of the most difficult problems to solve was that of what we called dead time. That is the time between when the projectile is taken out of the fuse pot and put into the gun and fired. That depended upon the ability of the loading crew and on the elevation of the guns. If you varied it by two seconds that would allow a difference of two seconds of motion of your target. , Commander John Kirkpatrick, Air Defense Officer , , weight of projectile: 54 pounds . weight of powder charge: 15 pounds + 13 pounds brass casing . effective range: 37,000 feet (antiaircraft) and 8-10 miles (surface target) . rate of fire (each barrel): 15-22 rounds per minute 13 men