Re: Big guns on small ships

At 4:40 PM +0200 12/16/97, Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:
>On Tue, 16 Dec 1997, Tim Jones wrote:
>
>> I'd be interested as an aside which ships these were.
>
>A couple of coastal monitors, mostly used for gunnery training,
>and possibly shore bombardment. Certainly never saw any surface combat
>worthy of note. They weren't called coastal for nothing either,
>I don't think they were all that seaworthy. Slow as hell, certainly.
>
>A couple of monitors saw combat in WWI, if you count bombarding
>a holed-up-in-river-delta german cruiser.

The HMS Erebus and a sister ship saw limited action during the Normandy
invasions in a shore bombardment capacity. Churchill contemplated using
the HMS Erebus in a few situations where the armored decks would
provide needed protection against aerial bombs. I have a good photo of
the Erebus in my copy of "The Word War II Album", Ross Burns ed.,
Saturn Books, 1991.

Michael Carter Llaneza	  http://www.hypnotic.com/
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1991-1950
Devolution is very real to me.

Whenever I hear the "Odd Couple" theme, I get this image of Dennis
Rodman borrowing Marge Schott's toothbrush.