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Overview 14inch/45caliber |
| The 14" guns are part of a system that extends from the 1st Platform
up to the Gun House in the turret.. Each turret weighs 532 tons (of which 128 tons was armor and 62 tons for each gun) 70 people were needed to operate the system. The interior of the structure has numerous levels and compartments with simultaneous activity. The maximum range for guns on TEXAS and NEW YORK was about 22,000 yards. The gun could fire further but was limited by the maximum elevation of 15 degree. OKLAHOMA and NEVADA had the same gun with 30 degrees of elevation which enabled a range of 35,000 yards. In 1940, the Navy had drawings made to modify the TEXAS turrets to 30 degrees of elevation but never implemented. In the ship's collection on microfilm is an almost illegible drawings showing the modification dated 1940. Operating a TEXAS turret in 1945 was done almost exactly as in 1914 for the mechanical devices are still the same. The one exception was the electric hoist for the powder bags, which were not present in 1914. In the summer of 1916, there was one other major improvement with the addition of a range keeper that could calculate the needed elevation-train and transmit the solution to the turret trainer and gun elevators. Firing a TEXAS gun was much more labor intensive than the World War II era battleships. From the time the powder bags exited the powder hoist, six more manual handlings were still needed of which the last step was a wooden pole to ram the bags into the breech. |
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Started 11 May 1999 Chuck Moore, FTV (1st Texas Volunteers) BB35 volunteer group