During the Battle of Tassafaronga in late November 1942 the New Orleans & Minneapolis both lost their respective bows to Japanese torpedoes. New Orleans just forward of turret No. 2 and Minneapolis forward of turret No. 1. After being fitted with a temporary bow in Australia New Orleans sailed for Puget Sound in March of 1943 where she received, amongst other things, a new bow and Minneapolis's turret No. 1. Minneapolis after receiving a temporary bow of her own arrived at Pearl Harbor in March of 1943 for her permanent bow, she then sailed for Puget Sound, donated her No. 1 turret to New Orleans, before arriving at Mare Island in April 1943 for the rest of her repairs and modernizations. After the completion of their repairs both cruisers were back at Pearl Harbor by September of 1943.
My question is why did New Orleans receive Minneapolis's No. 1 turret? Wouldn't it have been easier to place the new one on New Orleans to begin with rather than going through the added trouble of sailing Minneapolis to Puget Sound, pulling her No. 1 turret out and then sailing her to Mare Island to receive a brand new replacement?
Additionally, when Minneapolis received a replacement for her No. 1 turret where did the Navy get it? I can't imagine that they had an existing and complete replacement unit already sitting in inventory, so I would assume that it was constructed more or less from scratch? Did they have any issues manufacturing a one-off unit? I'd assume that it was different enough from the then in production 8-inch turrets on the Baltimores that it wasn't a fairly simple and straightforward replacement to jimmy up.
My question is why did New Orleans receive Minneapolis's No. 1 turret? Wouldn't it have been easier to place the new one on New Orleans to begin with rather than going through the added trouble of sailing Minneapolis to Puget Sound, pulling her No. 1 turret out and then sailing her to Mare Island to receive a brand new replacement?
Additionally, when Minneapolis received a replacement for her No. 1 turret where did the Navy get it? I can't imagine that they had an existing and complete replacement unit already sitting in inventory, so I would assume that it was constructed more or less from scratch? Did they have any issues manufacturing a one-off unit? I'd assume that it was different enough from the then in production 8-inch turrets on the Baltimores that it wasn't a fairly simple and straightforward replacement to jimmy up.
statistics: Posted by vicvega — 52 minutes ago — Replies 0 — Views 17