Gun Mount Numbers

For that class it would be:

1: Bow
2: Port Midships
3: Starboard amidships
4: stern

So essentially the u-boat was on the starboard side of the ship and the suprstructure and stacks prevented the port midships gun from being able to train on the target.  

Tracy good info. As for the dio, like all battle dios, it's got a scale issue. The nearest distance between combatants I can find for the engagement, except for the later depth charging, was 300 yards. At 1/700 scale where the Roper would be about 4" long, the distance between units would be a little over a foot. Manageable, but the U-85 is going to be tiny. At 1/350 , 2 1/2 feet. At 1/240 assuming you use the Revell model as a starting point and scratch the U-85, which in all scenarios is the case anyways, a big piece of sea.

Tracy that helps a lot but do you mind if I ask you where/how you found that? Believe me, I'm not trying to offend but would like to know so I can figure this out in the future.

I hadn't given a thought to that distance at all, thanks for bringing that up!! I was thinking 1/700 but one drawback is that I never worked on that scale before and I'm afraid that I'm going to lose a lot a detail. However, to be correct on the distance at 1/350 sounds like it would be a 3' by 3' base and thats a little too big for me. Thoughts?

Rich

I would suggest cheating.

The point of a model/dio is to represent the subject and aid in understanding.  If you try to model the solar system to scale, you end up with a basket ball sized sun in Chicago and a marble sized earth in Sheboygan.  Interesting, but not terribly useful or practical.

So what do we do?  We cheat a bit on the distance scale.

Make them in the larger scale and place them at a closer distance.  That way you can see the subject and model in a scale that has some detail.

Otherwise you have two specks and a vast ocean.  Accurate, but not very fun!

Starting at the bow and working aft the gun mounts are numbered on destroyers as follows:

mount 51 (first gun mount)

mount 52 (second gun mount)

the first digit is the gun size i.e. 5 inch etc. the second digit is the gun mount number. Since you're doing a destroyer thats the numbering scheme. Not sure about big boys like cruisers/battleships etc.

Rick Martin wrote:

Starting at the bow and working aft the gun mounts are numbered on destroyers as follows: mount 51 (first gun mount) mount 52 (second gun mount) the first digit is the gun size i.e. 5 inch etc. the second digit is the gun mount number. Since you're doing a destroyer thats the numbering scheme. Not sure about big boys like cruisers/battleships etc.

That may be correct for Benson/Livermores, Fletchers, Sumners, and Gearings but it is not correct for the 4-pipe destroyers like the Roper which are the subject of the discussion.

Ohh, and the Roper was equipped with 4-inch guns

1st_combat_comm wrote:

Tracy that helps a lot but do you mind if I ask you where/how you found that? Believe me, I'm not trying to offend but would like to know so I can figure this out in the future.

I've  "just known" it for some time; I can't tell you how I found out exactly. I've done this site for a number of years and it was her #3 gun, on the starboard side that sank the midget, so I learned the convention early. 

DDP59: amidships and midships are the same thing; both guns were on the same deck house but one was on the port side and one was on the starboard.. I probably should have kept the same wording to make it less confusing.

Ed: When Roper was converted to an APD she traded her 4" guns for 3" mounts. Not really relevant to the discussion other than the fact that they retained the same numbering system.