8"/55 Rapid-Fire Gun & Turret | U.S. Navy Instructional Film

Guns didn't just suddenly happen. They were developed in time by testing and by research. These are the biggest of the Navy's rapid-fire guns, and they're almost completely automatic in operation. The crew is made up of 35 officers and men, and you'll see where they go and what they do a little later. Under combat conditions, a well-trained crew can fire each of these guns ten times a minute. Now let's see, in general, just how all this is accomplished. The USS Salem, the first of a new class of heavy cruiser, has a main battery consisting of nine of these eight-inch rapid-fire guns mounted in three three-gun turrets. Turrets one and two are forward of the superstructure. Turret number three aft. Fire control is accomplished through the forward and after main directors. Additionally, there are four secondary directors. Except for minor interior differences caused by their shipboard location and by fire control arrangements, the turrets are identical. However, space arrangement and ordnance and ammunition handling equipment are considerably different from conventional turrets. Structurally, though, the names and functions of the various components are very much the same as in earlier types of The entire turret is naturally topped by the gun house, resting on the erect structure. Hanging down from the center of this erect structure is the suspended structure. These three parts make up the entire rotating structure. Surrounding this is the circular foundation bulkhead, topped by the turret roller path, which supports the weight and permits the movement of the entire rotating structure. The entire turret, from just beneath the shelf plate down to the third deck, is protected by a cylinder of armor known as the barbette. The interior is divided into five main sections. The armored gun house at the top. Between the shelf plate and the pan plate are the three gun pits, separated by the gun girders. The next two levels house the upper and lower projectile handling flats. Each flat has an inner stowage and handling space and machinery compartment within the rotating structure, and an outer fixed stowage and handling space. At the very bottom of the turret is the powder handling room. The central part of this compartment, including the powder handling platform, is part of the rotating structure. Starting here at the base casting, the central column runs up through the center of the entire rotating structure to the bottom of the pan plate and contains the communications and power cables and the air supply system. Thus, as you can see, the purposes of the various compartments are similar to older turrets. Also, the intent is the same, but that's as far as it goes. The methods are completely changed. True manpower puts the cases into the powder hoist. Men also parbuckle the projectiles into the hoist. But once the case and projectile are in the hoist, that's the end of manhandling. But let's go back down inside and watch all the steps, from powder room to muzzle. In the powder handling room, the operations begin at any of the six big hand-operated scuttles in the foundation bulkhead. Here, three powder men pass the powder cases in from the magazines. Six other powder men with hand trucks pick up the cases and move them to the three powder hoists that dominate the rotating powder handling platform. Under the supervision of a petty officer, these nine crewmen keep a steady supply of powder cases moving from the to the hoists. As soon as the powder man has placed the case in the hoist scuttle, he operates the scuttle control panel. The case in the scuttle moves into the hoist and starts up to the gun in stages. The only other places in the turret requiring manual ammunition handling are the two projectile flats. Here, the primary pieces of equipment are the three projectile hoists, right, center, and left. There are two independently rotating projectile rings on each flat. The eight-man crew is made up of the inner and outer projectile ring operators, a projectile man for each of the three hoists, and three parbucklers to move the projectiles from the rings to the hoists. The operation of the projectile hoist itself is very much the same as that of the powder hoist. The shells move upward automatically and are fed into a cradle at the top. To begin the loading operation, the ring operator moves the projectile ring to place six projectiles near the parbuckling gear. Due to their weight, parbuckling gear is required to move the projectiles safely. First, the steady arm mechanism is aligned with the is closed. Then, the projectile man draws the rope taut and snubs it around the gypsy head. The parbuckler then steers the projectile along the guide rail to the hoist opening. Now, the parbuckler opens the tongue and ejects the projectile into the hoist by means of a hand lever. And that's all there is to it. The projectile is on its way to the gun house. Here, the entire central area is dominated by the three gun slides. There are no stations to be manned in the actual gun compartment. However, an 18-man gun house crew is required for operations. This crew is divided into three functional groups. There are 10 turret control men consisting of the turret officer, the turret captain, a computer operator, two radar operators, three talkers, and a sight setter. Additionally, during training operations, there is a checker. Then, there are two gun laying operators, a pointer on the left, and a trainer on the right side of the gun house. The third group are the six gun operators, three gun captains, two gun captains assistants, and an electrician for maintenance of the control and communication circuits. Looks like a lot of crew for something that's almost fully automatic, doesn't it? But remember, all they're doing is reading dials and turning switches. That's quite a change from lifting and ramming projectiles. But let's take a look inside the gun compartment and see what happens as a result of all the dial reading and switch switching. Well, that's what happens. Couldn't see much, could you? Here, let's study it step by step. First, the projectile slides into the cradle at the top of the projectile hoist. The cradle rises, and the projectile is ejected into the transfer tray. The transfer tray moves the projectile into ram position in line with the bore of the gun. At the same time, the powder cradle and transfer tray move the powder case into ram position. The round is rammed into the gun, and the breach closes automatically, completing the firing circuit. Then the empty case is ejected into the empty case tray. The gun is now ready for the next round. But you didn't see much that way either. Now let's look inside and see what's happening. The hoist moves the projectile into the cradle. The fuse is set as the cradle swings up and latches to the slide. The projectile is ejected into the projectile transfer tray. The cradle then returns to its position at the top of the projectile hoist. A similar action takes place at the powder hoist. The powder case is raised into the cradle. The cradle swings up and latches to the slide. The case is ejected into the powder transfer tray, and the cradle swings back to the powder hoist. Now both transfer trays move into the ram position simultaneously. As soon as the round is in position, the rammer rams both the case and projectile into the gun chamber. The rammer is retracted. The trays return to fire position, and the breach block closes, completing the firing circuit. As soon as the recoil and counter-recoil action are complete, the breach block opens, and both extractors, operating simultaneously, eject the case into the empty case tray. As the next round moves into ramming position, the empty is dropped into the case ejector. From there, a chain conveyor moves the empty cases out through the empty case tube. Just remember, each of these guns can fire around every six seconds. That means a turret with all three guns firing can average around every two seconds. That's firepower. Now multiply that by three. That's really firepower. With their range and elevation, these guns can destroy ships beyond the horizon or protected coastal targets, even behind a series of screening hills. Another thing to remember about these rapid-fire guns, you've probably been thinking of them in use against other surface ships or in ship-to-shore operations. Well then, watch this. And the aircraft never even got near the ship. Not, of course, a normal use for an eight-inch gun, but against heavy bombardment aircraft at a great distance, a very practical one. You have seen, in general, how the eight-inch rapid-fire gun works. You've seen, in general, how the turrets are constructed, their ordnance installation, how they operate, and what they can do. You've seen that loading the powder cases and the projectiles into the hoists are the only manual operation. And you must realize, too, that there's a lot of study and a lot of actual practice ahead for anyone to become a useful member of a competent turret crew.