I had actually forgotten about the donut charges for mortars until you mentioned it. I wasn’t a mortar man, but was in a weapons platoon most of my time in the USMC. As the assaultman section leader, during deployments I was a leader without men when my squads attached out. Because of this I headed up the company FST team and I trained with mortars a lot. My last deployment things had gotten bad enough with ROEs that We just got turned into another rifle squad, although I did attach out one assaultman to each platoon to do demo. Mortars were fun to work with. I was always amazed watching a good mortar plot board guy use the whiz wheel and spit out commands in a matter of seconds from taking the fire mission input. Lots of respect to professionals who did their job well.
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Battleship Gun Propellant
- Thread starter Smokin'Joe
- Start date
I had actually forgotten about the donut charges for mortars until you mentioned it. I wasn’t a mortar man, but was in a weapons platoon most of my time in the USMC. As the assaultman section leader, during deployments I was a leader without men when my squads attached out. Because of this I headed up the company FST team and I trained with mortars a lot. My last deployment things had gotten bad enough with ROEs that We just got turned into another rifle squad, although I did attach out one assaultman to each platoon to do demo. Mortars were fun to work with. I was always amazed watching a good mortar plot board guy use the whiz wheel and spit out commands in a matter of seconds from taking the fire mission input. Lots of respect to professionals who did their job well.
reynolds357
New member
I think the guide on USS N.C. was right. I used to know an old battleship gunner who said they used varying amounts of powder depending on range.I see from that video that it differs from information given by guides at the USS North Carolina. The video states that a full charge was always used, while I was told that gunners could adjust the number of charges from 3 to 6 depending on range and trajectory. Granted, the college kid guide likely knows nothing about propellants, firearms, or battleship gunnery. I would assume that they were given that information though. Or possibly college kid was adding information that sounded reasonable to rehearsed lines. Who knows.
When the USS Iowa gun turret exploded it was stated explicitly that the guy who did it placed an explosive device between several powder increment bags.
The top photo in my post above is approximately what the Navy uses. They load more or less increments as the situation dictates.
The second photo is 155mm ammunition and from direct experience we loaded more or fewer increments as the situation dictated.
The top photo in my post above is approximately what the Navy uses. They load more or less increments as the situation dictates.
The second photo is 155mm ammunition and from direct experience we loaded more or fewer increments as the situation dictated.
When the USS Iowa gun turret exploded it was stated explicitly that the guy who did it placed an explosive device between several powder increment bags.
Eh...
The Navy did say that and then after some controversy they backed off that finding.
The U.S. Navy, however, disagreed with Sandia's opinion [that an over ram of the powder bags could have caused the explosion] and concluded that the cause of the explosion could not be determined.
I certainly don't know what caused it and feel free to dispute any and all findings. The Wikipedia version is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion
My point was more to point out that the powder charge was in bagged increments.Eh...
The Navy did say that and then after some controversy they backed off that finding.
I certainly don't know what caused it and feel free to dispute any and all findings. The Wikipedia version is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion
I don't think anyone has discussed it yet but the bag is a real heavy linen
""Each powder bag has about 4 pounds of black powder on the rear to act as a primer booster.""
I know this thread is about BIG guns but I found morter ammo/propellant was interesting. The stuff I saw was enclosed in what looked like what we used to call cellophane. It was about 4" square and 1/4" thick. Packets were added/removed for range. I saw a pile of the stuff(packets) ignited and it was FLAMMABLE for sure, gone in seconds.
Now big guns-the 106 recoiless rifle was a very interesting one..no recoil but dont ever stand behind one.
I know this thread is about BIG guns but I found morter ammo/propellant was interesting. The stuff I saw was enclosed in what looked like what we used to call cellophane. It was about 4" square and 1/4" thick. Packets were added/removed for range. I saw a pile of the stuff(packets) ignited and it was FLAMMABLE for sure, gone in seconds.
Now big guns-the 106 recoiless rifle was a very interesting one..no recoil but dont ever stand behind one.