turret posing

neo_hacker21 wrote:

When building your ships, which way do you model the turrets?  I'm trying to decide between facing striaght along the keel or all to one side, as if preparing to fire broadside.  It's a destroyer, and I haven't been able to find much about how the turrets were actually used, aside from some accounts on the Normandy landings.  Would having all the turrets facing the same direction be inaccurate?  Many thanks in advance.

 

It depends on what you want the ship to be doing.    If it is engaging surface (both land and sea) targets, then it would likely concentrate all main turrtes on the same target.   If it is under air attack, then the chances are the turrets would be engaging several targets in different directions.

 

neo_hacker21 wrote:

When building your ships, which way do you model the turrets?  I'm trying to decide between facing striaght along the keel or all to one side, as if preparing to fire broadside.  It's a destroyer, and I haven't been able to find much about how the turrets were actually used, aside from some accounts on the Normandy landings.  Would having all the turrets facing the same direction be inaccurate?  Many thanks in advance.

For a "classic" ship model presentation (pedestal/keel block) of a modern warship, you will find that the guns are most always shown trained fore & aft.

Most waterline presentations also show them fore and aft,  however it would not be totally inappropriate to show them in ready positions.   For example, a Fletcher prepared for an air attack might show the forward guns spread at 45 degrees.  The aft guns might be similarly aligned.  Barrrels would be elevated.   That same Fletcher steaming through high seas, taking green water over the bow would likely have the guns (at least the 51 and 52 mounts) trained forward to minimize torque damage from a wave. 

Its your model, place the guns as appropriate for the situation you seek to demonstrate.

 

Alright, so since it's waterline, and I'm thinking showing engaging land targets (theoretical targets), the 5 main turrets will be pointed to one side.  Any ideas on how the 40mm and 20mm should be?  I'm guessing some in each direction, preparing for air attack?  Thanks for your replies.

If your destroyer is using its 5" guns for fire support, the 40mm and 20mm which were used fro air defense would probablby not be pointing in any specific direction related to the 5" targets.  If you intend to postion crew figures I would guess that the 40mm and 20mm guns would be manned.

However, if you are picturing the destroyers at Omaha Beach, the 40's and 20's were firing into the German positions. The destroyers came into close contact with the beach and all weapons were in range. First person account from my Dad, who was there.

 

Steve

I can't resist passing on an anecdote that, though utterly useless for model-building purposes, is...well, a little unusual.

Many Forum participants probably remember the sad loss of the Argentine (ex-U.S.) cruiser General Belgrano during the Falkland Islands conflict of 1982.  Several photos taken just before she sank showed that one of the forward turrets was rotated at an odd angle.

A good friend of mine who was working on a book about Latin American naval history went to Argentina to interview veterans of the war.  He talked to a couple of sailors who had been stationed inside the turret in question, and asked them why, just after the ship had been torpedoed by a British submarine, the turret had been rotated that way.  The answer was, "well, we'd lost electric current, but the instruction manual said there was a way to rotate the turret with a hand crank.  We didn't have anything else to do, so we decided to see if we could do it."

....Nero fiddling while Rome burned....  I noticed that offset turret but never wondered about it assuming it was a result of the sinking.

Says something about the Argentine navy's training, or lack of,  that they start learning emergency procedures after the need arises.

On the subjest of turrets, I always left them loose to pose at will but it occurs to me that someone viewing the model and not knowing what was intended, would just assume it was a random configuration.  In a waterline setting it would work better but still, at naval ranges, it would be impossible to include the supposed target, so some sort of explanation would always be necessary. 

On the other hand, if the model were depicted heeled over in a hard turn, with shell splashes and perhaps torpedo tracks, it would work quite well and no further information would be required.  The angle of the barrels would go a long way to suggesting the type of target, aerial or surface, too.

It's a destroyer, and I haven't been able to find much about how the turrets were actually used, aside from some accounts on the Normandy landings.

   U.S.  Destroyers had 5" mounts. These are utility rifles, and can be used for surface to surface, shore bombardment, or AAW, depending on the round used. Unless in actual use, the fore mounts faced forward, the after mounts, aft. If all mounts were being used for shore bombardment, they would all be facing the same direction, elevation depending on distance to target. If used in AAW, each mount could face a different direction, and elevation. Multiple surface to surface targets would require each mount to face a different direction, and possibly different elevation. As I recall, twin mounts, unlike turrets, cannot separately elevate their barrels.

"call for fire, ten rounds, main armament, fire for effect, over"......."shot, standby, out"

cruichin wrote:

However, if you are picturing the destroyers at Omaha Beach, the 40's and 20's were firing into the German positions. The destroyers came into close contact with the beach and all weapons were in range. First person account from my Dad, who was there.

Interesting.  I wouldn't have guessed that for as close as some of the DD's pulled into Omaha that the 40's and 20's would really be in range. 

Andy

The maximum horizontal range for the 40mm Bofors was 10.1 km/11,000 yards at 42 degrees.   The maximum effective range was 2.7 km/3000 yards.  The maximum vertical range was 6.95 km/22,800 feet) at 90 degrees.

The maximum horizontal range for the 20mm Oerlikon was 4390 meters/4800 yards.  The effective range was 1000 yards.  The maximum vertical range was 3050 m/10,000 ft at 90 degrees.

 

Wow, a lot more responses than I expected.  Thanks for the input.  Might have some pics to post in a day or two here.