The Ship Model Forum

Nice looking display!
A now passed family member served on the USS Midway in 1958 and was stationed on one of the 3-inch twin mounts adjacent to the 5/54's. He said the first time they did live firing drills, they were passing out cotton for the ears and him being of hearty Texan stock declined. He said the first round out of the 5/54 had his head spinning and the subsequent rounds caused some bleeding from his ear facing the mount. For the rest of his time assigned to the twin 3-inch, he always carried a pocket full of cotton. His comment was "I heard 5/38's fire before and they bark but the 5-inchers on the Midway, they bit"

Matt

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In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

Matt,

Thanks so much for your nice comments and the very interesting account of the 5"-54 mounts in action on MIDWAY. In doing the research for this project, I was curious as to whether or not those mounts were actually fired or not, as the mid-50s weren't exactly years where the U.S.N. was in an active "hot" war. I'm guessing your relative used QUITE a bit of cotton during his time aboard.

Hank

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HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

With improved fire control longer range and probably a slower rate of fire could be tolerated. Pretty good range for a 5", up to 50,00' and 25,000 cards or so. A 75 lb shell would be a beach to hand load after a short time! Scan the crew for gorillas! The extra powder and energy developed would indeed create some muzzle blast. I remember going out to the range in the Winter with my 7mm STW which uses some 80 grains of powder. The blast blew the snow off the metal roof overhead.

Certainly some plans had to be somewhere as the Montana Class was far enough along to start making metal.

Tom