WWII Tactical AAA

[Tony Williams]

As I mention in a post earlier in this thread, the USN mounted the quad 50 on a small number of Essex class carriers as a test project.  Each carrier was to get 6 mounts.

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Any idea of how the test project was evaluated?

 

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

[Chris Werb]

Any idea of how the test project was evaluated?

 

For that matter how did the USN evaluate the combat effectiveness of the rest of its AAA?

[KingSargent]

For that matter how did the USN evaluate the combat effectiveness of the rest of its AAA?

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If the Kamikaze was fragmented enough that no portion of it made it to the ship, the AAA was successful. Around the globe, if the control plane for the German guided bomb was kept away or the bomb destroyed, the AAA was successful.

[Chris Werb]

If the Kamikaze was fragmented enough that no portion of it made it to the ship, the AAA was successful. Around the globe, if the control plane for the German guided bomb was kept away or the bomb destroyed, the AAA was successful.

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I meant the relative effectiveness of different AA weapons. Except in rare cases, they wouldn't know which of the (at least three in most cases) calibre weapons on the ship (or in some cases which ship) actually brought the plane down. You would also have many cases where planes took multiple hits from different AA weapons, possibly even on different ships.

 

BTW I read that the Germans developed a TV guided variant of the HS293 but for some reason never used it - perhaps their experience with the radio guided variant being jammed put them off the idea?

[Richard Lindquist]

For that matter how did the USN evaluate the combat effectiveness of the rest of its AAA?

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Chris: I don't think they were evaluated. The response to the Kamikaze threat was to bolt whatever weapon would fit to whatever flat space was available on the ship. DDs lost their torpedo tubes to fasten addtional 40mm. It wasn't until postwar that the Navy really started to try and make some sense of the ships weapons systems. The crewsizes to man the additional weapons meant that warships carried a larger crew than they could accomodate and often rigged bunks in odd spaces and went to "hot bunking" under which a man on watch and a man off watch shared the same bunk.

[Bob B]

....The crewsizes to man the additional weapons meant that warships carried a larger crew than they could accomodate and often rigged bunks in odd spaces and went to "hot bunking" under which a man on watch and a man off watch shared the same bunk.

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Things even got crowded on larger ships. My father told me that he usually slept in the Torpedo workshop. He had a folding cot that he kept under one of the work benches. He said it was great, most of the time he had the place all to himself in off duty hours.

[Chris Werb]

Chris:  I don't think they were evaluated. 

 

I've seen USN figures (late or immediately post-war) for the relative effectiveness of different AA calibres/systems in the PTO in WW-2. These were used to arrive at 3"/70 as the optimum AA chambering (small enough to have a high RoF, powerful enough to hit targets far enough out, yet large enough to take a VT fuse).

[KingSargent]

I've seen USN figures (late or immediately post-war) for the relative effectiveness of different AA calibres/systems in the PTO in WW-2.  These were used to arrive at 3"/70 as the optimum AA chambering (small enough to have a high RoF, powerful enough to hit targets far enough out, yet large enough to take a VT fuse).

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Since the 3"/70 was the only thing I knew of that could make a Navy Chief teach me new cuss-words, their evaluation seems to have not worked too well.

 

Some reports stated that the only value of the 20mm against Kamikazes was to alert people below to the attack by opening fire.

 

BTW, I think the German guided Hs293 missiles got lost in the shuffle when bomber production stopped in favor of emergency fighter production in 1944.

[swerve]

The crewsizes to man the additional weapons meant that warships carried a larger crew than they could accomodate and often rigged bunks in odd spaces and went to "hot bunking" under which a man on watch and a man off watch shared the same bunk.

(hypothetical comment from hypothetical WW2 submariner) "Only twice as many crew as bunks? Lucky bastards."

[Tony Williams]

BTW I read that the Germans developed a TV guided variant of the HS293 but for some reason never used it - perhaps their experience with the radio guided variant being jammed put them off the idea?

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Nah, it kept going haywire because of the advertising breaks...

 

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

[Chris Werb]

Nah, it kept going haywire because of the advertising breaks...

 

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

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Who said the Northern club circuit was dead?