Damage report of USS San Francisco (CA-38) after Guadalcanal

[jack_zhan01]

http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/CA38/GuadalcanalDamageRpt.html

 

Interesting read. Very detailed description of real-life damage on warships.

 

One interesting part is hit #6, shown in photos #12 and #13. The impact angle suggests that the shell comes from about 15-16km away, at relative bearing 120° (so a 30° hit on the side armor). I was surprised that the 14" shell (most likely from Kirishima) bounced off the 5" barbette armor and mushroomed out, even though it did travel through some trivial(?) armor on its way to the barbette.

 

[alexf24]

Very nice  - Long (and confidential) so I will read it in more detail later when I have time.

 

Nice pictures and captions, esp "entry of 14" shell into Captain's bath."

 

Thanks for posting.

[Danno_]

Must have been living hell on that ship, with a huge loss of life for those brave souls.

 

Other interesting links here. Thanks OP for the cool link.

 

http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/

 

[BullHalsey]

Yeah, like they say, no AP or HE were used, only shore bombardment ammo.  If that had been 14" AP and struck the barbette...we wouldn't have these photos I'd imagine.  ;-)

[OKIES_NAVY]

Amazing how little (relatively) damage was caused by primary weapons (15") as compared to the damaged caused by secondary (?) calibers.  I am also curious how damage was accurately assessed between 5", 5.5" and 6" shells.  Establishing the order in which they hit also confounds me.

[Roadrider7021]

http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/CA38/GuadalcanalDamageRpt.html

 

Interesting read. Very detailed description of real-life damage on warships.

 

One interesting part is hit #6, shown in photos #12 and #13. The impact angle suggests that the shell comes from about 15-16km away, at relative bearing 120° (so a 30° hit on the side armor). I was surprised that the 14" shell (most likely from Kirishima) bounced off the 5" barbette armor and mushroomed out, even though it did travel through some trivial(?) armor on its way to the barbette.

 

 

    Great post. I too am surprised at the 5" barbette armor rejecting the 14" round. Could it be, as the report states, the Japanese were using a "bombardment" ammo, not AP or HE? I wonder what would have happened if an AP round were used.

[Submarine_Wahoo]

Amazing how little (relatively) damage was caused by primary weapons (15") as compared to the damaged caused by secondary (?) calibers.  I am also curious how damage was accurately assessed between 5", 5.5" and 6" shells.  Establishing the order in which they hit also confounds me.

 

I would presume that it is possible to determine the diameter of the shell that caused damage by measuring the size of the holes. There should be enough empirical data from firing range tests to analytically determine which shell size is which.

[11thACRColdsteel]

Love the historical content on the forums.....nice nugget of info...

[bassmasta76]

Thanks for the post, this was very interesting!

 

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[StrykerNC]

Nice post, thank you.

 

I was on board the North Carolina this weekend, and it was "living history day" where all of the tour guides dress up in uniform and man "stations" around the ship.

A young man in Damage Control (whose grandfather was stationed on NC in the war) gave me this link about the torpedo attack on the NC in the Solomons.

 

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/war-damage-reports/uss-north-carolina-bb55-war-damage-report-no-61.html

 

 

[Jiggiwatt]

Incredibly interesting read, thank you!

[Estimated_Prophet]

I have a book published by The University of Okalhoma many year ago that compiles the after-action and damage reports of the ships at Pearl Harbor. In a way quite the interesting if dry read of a clinical description of 'Shot to hell and gone' for several of the ships.

 

Nice find, and a good read, +1.

[MrDeaf]

 

    Great post. I too am surprised at the 5" barbette armor rejecting the 14" round. Could it be, as the report states, the Japanese were using a "bombardment" ammo, not AP or HE? I wonder what would have happened if an AP round were used.

 

Bombardment ammo is the Type 3 beehive round that IJN originally developed for AA use on BB and CA.

It's basically a fused birdshot round, in 14" size.

[Estimated_Prophet]

https://www.amazon.com/Lest-We-Forget-Report-Japanese/dp/0962948306

 

Here is the book I mentioned in my previous post.

[BullHalsey]

 

I would presume that it is possible to determine the diameter of the shell that caused damage by measuring the size of the holes. There should be enough empirical data from firing range tests to analytically determine which shell size is which.

 

They also mentioned the shell fragments, which presumably means that these can be used for identification as well.

[Hurlbut]

Neptune's Inferno is a great narrative of the naval campaign in the Solomon Islands.

The navy was operating on a shoestring in the beginning...They went through a lot and managed to hang on.

[manavdharma]

Very interesting..

[Scarheart76]

I love historical snippets like this. It certainly gives a lot of weight to the history of war.