USS Salem's Main Battery - Navy Video from 1955

Electrically complicated but when it works it’s just jaw dropping.

USS Salem is now a museum ship berthed in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Think about how monumentally complex it was to go from idea to implementation for one of these boys. The blueprints alone must have been thousands of pages long- every system, sub-system, and sub-sub-system had to have its own detailed instructions for how to machine engineer bespoke parts, assemble, and build each large section. Then it took thousands of men 8 to 18 months to put them altogether into something resembling a ship, with tolerances on the order of hundredths of an inch. While all that was going on, some other enormous team was working on creating handbooks, operating procedures, manuals and training films like this for every single shipboard system. And at the very top, one man had to somehow be in control of all of this simultaneously to make sure the parts matched the systems, the systems matched the ship, and the ship and its manuals were identical. It’s a miracle they made 1 of them. Let alone the thousands they built for WWII alone.

Cool! I had fun climbing through the turret one night during a scout overnighter. Other dads & myself got a guided tour and got to climb from the bottom all the way up to the gun pits.

Amazing how advanced they were then

the technology for the time is amazing, everything analog

Can't imagine wear on those barrels. Too bad we don't have this class of ship in service anymore...with upgrades of course.

My Grandfather Served on the Newport News

You can visit the Salem in Quincy MA - short train ride and a bus ride that drops you off right at the ship. Dad was a freshly minted 2nd Lt. and served on board the Salem, he also served on the light cruiser Worcester - both were part of the Mediterranean Fleet. Lots of ports of call, including Havana.

I’m proud of my Navy.

8" Guns are 203mm and pack much more of a punch than the USN 5" 127mm guns currently in current use.

Interesting that it was filmed the year I was born. Dad's first ship had a larger array of guns. Nine 16"/55s and 20 5" and a batch of 40mm and 20mm guns. You can guess, he was a Battleship sailor. USS Missouri to be sure as in 1947, it was the only US Battleship in active service. He left that ship not of his own choice. He was an ET at the time and they decided he needed to go to more schooling at Great Lakes. And then they kept him there as an instructor for three long years. He never got back to his ship again.

At "point blank" range (less than 10 miles), where armor becomes increasingly irrelevant, that firing rate would certainly outperform a battleship with larger caliber guns. But that was probably not a very common scenario to encounter. Under normal circumstances, a major issue would be to not get triggerhappy and run out of ammo ... 😅

To my surprise my first night at LZ SALLY, RVN 68-69. They said wait for the 8 inchers. I was awoken and tossed out of my cot on the floor in pure terror. Did a NVA 122 rocket hit my building ?? No, it was a 8 inch gun performing a fire mission near by. Next day I stood aways behind the gun and in the sun light behind me, I watched the projectile flying in the air. It was slow...sorta like watching a .45 shoot. SGT DOUG, RECON, 101ST

Ridiculous! 1955 and 10 x 8" shells a minute. I repeat , a 8" shell. That is huge! It must be approaching a battle ship weight of shot a minute. I had no idea. Thank you for a very informative video.

Wow, the entire thing spins, not just the top?! Amazing machine, what I want for Christmas this year!! (World of Warships Salem, not the real one!!!)

Man, American late war tech and industrial capacity were just OP.

I wish we'd made a battleship with this technology

She famously portrayed the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the film "The Battle of the River Plate".

Sorry for being protical..I know I spelled it wrong...but I grew up on the Virginia Peninsula...where the Uss. Newport News was built....people need to know...2024...how vital the NNSB&DDCo. Is to the protection to the free world....god bless these workers😎