Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Battleship USS Missouri on her Atlantic shakedown cruise, August 1944.

 


10 comments:

  1. MISSOURI only wore that unique disruptive paint scheme, or " measure ", until she reached Hawaii, when she was painters in Measure 32, ( Navy Blue from Sterling to lowest point of main deck, Haze Gray on all vertical surfaces above that point, with all horizontal surfaces being Deck Blue ).

    But MISSOURI was the only IOWA to have the parabolic SK-2 air search radar, IOWA, NEW JERSEY, and WISCONSIN having the square SK-1 antenna, until the fall of 1945.
    We Badgers are good at obscure knowledge. The more obscure, the better.

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    1. Isn't that often referred to as "Dazzle" paint scheme?
      -WDS

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    2. Dazzle was the truly bizarre WWI paint, with the wild geometric shapes and colors. This was to confuse rangefinders.
      Disruptive schemes were more subtle, endeavoring to concealed the size, shape, and direction of travel if a ship. There were some pretty bold disruptive schemes, too, especially on carriers.
      Those came to an abrupt halt in late 1944, when it was realized that what would really mess up the firing solution of a sub or surface ship, would actually make a ship stand out vividly to aircraft.
      Radar also made the whole paint schemes business, rather than just plain Measure 32 kinda pointless

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  2. Looks like more than a few thru hull fittings need to be tightened up.

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  3. Iowa class and the Bismark were the most beautiful warships ever built.

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  4. I fully understand displacement, maths, and what not, but when I turn my brain off I still get amazed these metal tonned monster can float.

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    1. I have a deep knowledge of aerodynamics yet sometimes when I watch an airliner lift off I am astonished.

      The wide, wide, wide world of physics is wondermazing.

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  5. A lot of antennas strung up in the superstructure. Back then all their long haul comms were HF radio. Nowadays it's just backup for satellites.

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  6. I'm just imagining being the lookout at the topmost watch station, or manning the forward 20s at flank speed.

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    1. BTW, what really impresses you at sea is when you see how wide they are compared to everything else afloat when viewed bow-on.

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