Question About 3"/50 Deck Gun Crew

At maritime.org there is a manual for the 3"/50 single on 20, 21, 22 MOD mount

3-INCH MOUNT MARK 20, 21, 22 AND MODS (maritime.org)

See diagram page 8.  Lists the gun crew as:

Gun Captain, Pointer, Trainer, Sight Checker, Sight Setter, Hot Case Man, Plug Man, Loader #1, Loader #2, Fuze Setter #1, and Fuze Setter #2.  There may also be a talker (in Darth Vader Helmet) or the Gun Captain may fill that role.

Talker is almost always separate from Gun Captain (barring only submarines and similar small combatants).  The Talker may be shared between mounts if they are close enough together.  When short-handed the Hot Case man can be omitted.  And one of the Fuze setters 9sometiems).

Pointer (elevation) is typically in the left-hand seat; Trainer (horizontal track) in the right.  Usually both have a foot trigger; some Marks need both depressed to fire (to correct for the parallax).

Everyone under-estimates the numbers of Loaders, but the Ready Service lockers are just far enough away to warrant ammo passers.

Now, the Mk 32 Twin 3"/50 also had a 10 man crew per mount.  Most of those were tasked with keeping the rotary magazines filled.  If using time fuzes rather than VT, the two fuze setting positions have to be manned.  The Mount uses an external director, so Pointer and Trainer can be skipped.  A Talker per each is required, doubly so if on time fuzing.  It was pretty typical to have a Radarman/3 as part of the crew, usually as a loader, or as the Trainer, to keep the tracking radar up and running.

The big guns in the age of sail had anywhere from 10 to 15 crew each, and attrition was an important factor to take into account.

So how could a ship like Victory crew 100 guns? One side at a time mostly.

Bill

Hi Bill;

     For sure, the gun crews on Sail ships usually had a short life expectancy in war. They could be standing near another gun about to fire and the other ship's cannonball penetrates the wood,even only part way. At least three were down with very grevious Splinter wounds!

 I pity in memory the barrel swabbers. Leaning near the gun port Opening when a shot hits near the sdge of the Gun-Port. Bye-Bye Fella! Remember too there were battles that reduced ships to splinters.That's when they didn't have explosive balls.

    That is one reason why the Royal Navy had red decks and bulkheads on the Gundeck and in their Army coats. If you couldn'r see the blood you wouldn't falter ( They Hoped)

Back to the topic at hand ...

CapnMac82

Now, the Mk 32 Twin 3"/50 also had a 10 man crew per mount.  Most of those were tasked with keeping the rotary magazines filled.  If using time fuzes rather than VT, the two fuze setting positions have to be manned.  The Mount uses an external director, so Pointer and Trainer can be skipped.  A Talker per each is required, doubly so if on time fuzing.  It was pretty typical to have a Radarman/3 as part of the crew, usually as a loader, or as the Trainer, to keep the tracking radar up and running.

 

EdGrune

For you CapnMac, were the later 3" mounts like the 40mms, ejecting the spent shell casings forward through a chute?

Yes, it's not as "half pipe" as the Bofors, but does pitch the cases forward.

Video:

They glossed over the fact that the VX fuze could only be made small enough to fit 3" shells, which was part of the change.  (The impact fuses on 40mm rounds would not fire on striking thin a/c aluminum, or only did after having passed through the a/c).

The Mk 37 Duals were menat to replace quad 40s, and had the same mount ring diameter.  But, by weight they were a 2 for 3 replacment. 

And, in a hurr-hurr moment, I quoted the 10 man needed for "automatic" (director controlled) operations, and not the full-up 16 for manual (local control) firing.    These thing flexed over the life of the Mk 37 as various protocols came in and out of favor.

I'm looking, but that 8" mount on Salem was meant to recover the brass powder casing back to the turret bilges for potential reuse.

seastallion53

An LPD I was aboard had 1 of those guns mounted just forward of the flight deck. we were firing up the engines of our RH-53D Seastallion and without warning they fired that gun as we were starting the engines, the whole flight crew bailed out of our helo thinking the engine just exploded.

 

Which one and when ?   I ask because I was aboard USS Juneau LPD 10 from '87-'91...

In late January, 1966 my battalion — 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines — was transported from Camp Schwab in Okinawa to Naha, where we embarked on the attack transport U.S.S. Paul Revere (APA-248). We were headed for  Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam, to begin Operation Double Eagle against communist forces. On the way, we stopped for an overnight amphibious training operation on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, and then re-embarked on Paul Revere. This is what happened next (excerpted from my memoir) about my Vietnam War experiences: 

Before we left the Philippine Archipelago, Paul Revere’s gunners engaged in some practice firing their 3”/50 caliber guns on a small island that the navy used as a firing range. The 3”/50 fires a projectile with a diameter or caliber of 3 inches (76 millimetres); its barrel is 150 inches (3.8 meters) long, 50 times the caliber of the shells it fires; hence, the word caliber refers to both the diameter of the 3”/50’s shells and tothe 50-caliber length of its barrel.

Although the 3”/50 caliber gun is a relative midget in the world of military artillery, it is is no small weapon. I wasn’t about to miss the excitement, so I found a spot near and right behind one of the guns. Though I was behind the gun, the pressure wave from each shot slammed hard against my chest. I was surprised that I could see the 3”/50 caliber shells in flight, much as I had once seen the .22 long rifle bullets I was firing from my own rifle into the large, dark entrance to an old manganese mine near my childhood home.  In both cases, the projectiles were flying directly away from me; I doubt that humans are capable of tracking a nearby, high-velocity projectile at right angles to their line of sight.

This incident would come back to haunt me. Back in 2001, I was diagnosed with both hyperacusis (extremely sensitive hearing) and tinnitus. My audiologist believes that the incident on Paul Revere, plus several exposures to the sounds of weapons in Vietnam (from 155mm Long Tom guns, an IED that exploded maybe 40 feet away from me, as well as rifles, machine guns, grenades, and rockets) are a direct cause of my hearing problems. She even wrote a letter for me to send to the VA to apply for disability compensation, but I was turned down.

Bob

Bob, you're not alone.  Of all of us that were in Thailand, VA only gives presumptive exposure to agent orange to security police, dog handlers and some POL people.  If you even put one toe in the dirt, and went right back up the boarding ladder and left in country 'nam, you're exposed.  Along with the Navy folks who were up to 12 miles offshore.

While I'm happy to see them get their due, there are a lot of us who have gotten screwed.

seastallion53

USS Nashville 1981

 

Nice !

On the Juneau, the forward 3" mount was on the starboard side and the aft mount was on the port side. As originally built though, there were 2 mounts forward and 2 aft.

Many thanks, Ed.  That answered my question. 

Thanks, CapnMac!  That's helpful.