taskforce48 wrote:
And what was it protecting?
Took a bit to circle back around to this, but thank to Rick Davis, we have an answer. There was a MK33 director mounter on the Port Side of the Utah's bridge structure.
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The Utah is sped in the background of this image from September of 1941
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Now onto another mystery, the Utah's decks and their composition. We know that she as a typical USN era Dreadnought had wood decks on her Main and Forecastle decks, according to her sisters BOGP's, this was a mix of Yellow Pine and Teak(interesting and would like more info on that, but outside of this query) that covered covered most of the upper decks. But by the time Utah was lost in 1941, she had gone through several refits to make her more than a R/C target, but also a platform to train AA crews. There is multiple references and several photos of the large timbers that would be stacked across the Utah's decks to help protect her from the dummy bombs dropped on her in her Target role. We have survivors accounts of how these timbers were either stacked for removal or still lying on the decks when the Utah began to capsize and became deadly obstacles for men trying to escape as they would either strike them or block hatches. Seems like this is all the references we need to know that she had a typical deck below these timbers, but her August 1941 image at NYPS seems to show something that caught my eye and has had me puzzling over. In this image, there are several parts of the visible deck that have large differences in their tone indicating either a mix of bare and painted wood or something else. There has been a couple of references to the Utah having a cement or concrete deck added to aid in her protection in the Target role. I have not verified this comments with any actual proof, but I am wondering if I have found proof of it, or the origin of the of the myth.
Came across this slide taken by a tourist in the 1960's
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It show the 01 Deck where the 1.1 is mounted as being a smooth Cement like surface as well as a section of deck below it just forward of where the 5/25 was mounted.
This 1970's post card shows much the same, but we see the effects of time beginning to take it's toll
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This lead me to dig a little deeper and found this image from 1950
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I originally though this was perhaps some remnant of the salvage work, somewhere they laid concrete to aid in the rolling over process, but that just doesn't make sense as it adds weight and would have been difficult to do while she was inverted.
In the Post Card and Slide images, we see a line running perpendicular to the centerline of the ship coming out just forward of the 5/25 mount which is also seen in the August of 1941 image.
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Moving away from this area, I started looking for other parts of the wreck to help show Wood or not. I found this image of what is reported to be the Utah,
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But I feel this in fact the Oklahoma based on the shape of the hull and the Mountain range in the background
This video of the dive on the wreck in 2021 does show wood decking on the aft part of the ship near the stern.
PHNM USS Utah DiveSo my search has yet to yield any conclusive wreck or just prior to loss images to decide the rest of the decks. Anyone else have any thoughts on this or proof one way or another?
Matt