Re: 18.1" Anti-Aircraft Guns!!!

At 2:40 PM -0800 3/11/99, Los wrote:
>I read specifically in the Ballatine Book WW2 series of WW2 Leyte Gulf
>edition
>that teh US battleships were firing AA rounds out of their main guns.
>If anyone
>wants i may be able to dig up the specifics but I don't think they
>went into any
>more detail than that.
>

IIRC, Admiral Ugaki's diary ("Fading Victory," and worth reading for
the committed student of naval history (I collect first person
accounts), he commanded the 1st BB Div with Yamato and Musashi for a
time as well as having been on Yammamoto's staff) does mention this
'special' ammo. This isn't the kind of special you want *your* kids to
be, they never hit anything and chewed up the barrels something fierce.

Very few sources mention 18.1" AA ammo trivia because they are little
more than, well, trivia. No effect at all.

The bigger guns on both sides did knock down a few planes with splashes
by firing into the water ahead of torpedo planes.

Michael Carter Llaneza
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.