They didn't drive themselves back to Berlin. The recoil from them, even though dampened like in the ships literally made them unusable.
Cool. Thanks!
Some Japanese air craft were called "Burning Betties" they were made of wood to be light and caught fire when shot full of holes. Not a very good trade off for a war machine.
In the rifling of 5 inch and 76 mm barrels at Naval Ordnance Station, Louisville, KY we used about 125-8 progressive broach cutters to machine the rifling into the barrels. The lubricant of choice was rendered hog fat. Each cutter defined part of the rifling profile. Some cutters produced a wisp of a chip that looked like fine steel wool fibers and others much more substantial. The cutters were mounted on a ram that had a key groove cut into it longitudinally which defined the rifling twist.
It’s simple physics, the recoil energy of a broadside is negligible compared to the mass of the vessel and resistance of water on the hull. The photos showing disturbances in the water near the bow are caused by the over pressure from firing the guns. It’s an optical illusion.
One turn in twenty-five calibers, or one turn in 400". Large guns usually express all parameters (i.e.: twist, barrel length, etc.) in terms of caliber. Provides a more meaningful reference for different caliber guns. So, the 50 caliber 16" guns on Iowa class Battleships had barrels that were almost sixty-seven feet long.
That was the place my dad worked back in the 60's. Just couldn't remember the name..
But our tactics changed pretty quick.
No, it actually took a couple years before the rest of the military decided that better tactics was a better answer. The Hellcat didn't see combat until August of 1943. It was definitely superior to the Zero's. In the meantime, the Navy used the Thach Weave. Which worked as long as our fighters stayed together. The tactic required at least two aircraft. In the South Pacific the P38 was racking up kills well. Pretty much because it had no chance of turning with a Zero and relied on its speed. While fast in level flight, it wasn't very acrobatic. Meaning chances of survival in combat going straight up like a Wildcat or Hellcat (Hellcat climbed immensely better) were low. By proxy, P-38 drivers pretty much adopted Chenaults 'Hit and Run' tactics. That aircraft could pull away from anything in straight and level flight and even in 'best climb' attitude. But, unlike the P-40 it was not very good at diving. The P-40 was not good at straight up climbing either. They had their weaknesses, but one way or another each had better speed.
Yup, those fences - have meaning. At least the history is intact. At the tip of Long Island NY are ( years back and I don't know if these relics are there now ) are remains of sub pens (concrete roads only, now), a massive radar installation, and concrete "houses" facing the Atlantic - built to look like wooden framed structures, but for spotting Nazi subs. If memory serves, some Nazi subs did make their way here, and many did terrible damage down to Cape Hatteras, NC in the early days of WWII. Further south down the coast -- 500 lb training bombs from training drills ( rafts - targets on the Albemarle Sound) washed up on the shore at my families farm, or hit the beach, more likely? They were filled with sand and no other arming fuzes. We had one for years...
Amazing how much stuff from WWII is still around in many places. It was at least 50 years after WWII that the Navy went and cleaned up their practice torpedoes in Pyramid lake in NV. NAS Fallon, Van Voorhis Field, is a remnant of WWII, with some of the original hangars still in use today. Lewistown, MT has a hangar that was WWII. A bunch of fields in MT were Training/Testing fields. WY, ID, WA, NM, NV have a bunch too.
