NAVY KNOWLEDGE

American Weapons of WW2

Other books with reference to American Weapons Used in WW2 on Navy Small Ships

  INTRODUCTION

The major weapons used in WW2 have been shown and discussed in great detail in many publications. These included the weapons used in ww2 on United States Navy capital ships. What is generally not available though is information on weapons used in WW2 Navy small ships.

THE WW2 NAVY SMALL SHIPS

What were the WW2 Navy small ships? Some were harbor craft and others were ocean going. The ocean going small combat ships of the United States Navy in WW2 included the PC Patrol Craft, SC subchaser, PGM motor gunboat, AM fleet minesweeper, YMS auxiliary motor minesweeper, PCS patrol craft sweeper, PCE patrol craft escort, WPC and WSC Coast Guard cutters, and converted yachts.

For ww2 pictures and a first hand account of the American weapons used in ww2 on Navy small ships see the book Sea Bag of Memories by Wm. J. Veigele, Ph. D. Lt, USNR (Ret).

This book has ww2 pictures, information about ww2 small ships and weapons used in ww2.

American Weapons of WW2

AMERICAN WEAPONS USED IN WW2 ON NAVY SMALL SHIPS

The Navy designed these ships for antisubmarine warfare and mine sweeping. Because of their purposes their main armament was a 3"- 50 gun, depth charges, and mouse traps or hedgehogs. Their secondary batteries were of 40mm Bofors and 20mm Oerlikon machine guns. These guns were used primarily for air defense. As the deployment of these ships in the war progressed the Navy found many other uses for the ships and they took aboard some new weapons. Some of the ships became beach control vessels leading landing craft ashore. Others became gunboats and had mortars installed on them. 3"-50 Gun This gun was pedestal mounted with trainer and pointer seats. It had a trigger and a foot pedal firing device.

American Weapons Used In WW2 on Navy Small Ships - Depth Charges

They were 600 pound cylindrical charges dropped from two stern racks and 300 pound teardrop shaped charges fired from Y guns that lofted the charges to each side of the ship.. Mousetraps and Hedgehogs Mousetraps were two launching racks for eight ahead-thrown 60-pound rocket propelled charges that fell in an elliptical pattern and armed as they fell through the water. There were four bombs per rack, and each bomb was loaded with thirty-three pounds of TNT. The racks were flush with the deck until used. Then they were elevated and loaded with the bombs for firing. Because the racks were fixed they were aimed with the ship’s direction and fired when the ship was on an even keel. Hedgehogs were larger versions of the mousetraps and could be trained.

American Weapons Used In WW2 - Bofors 40mm    

These 40mm/56 Caliber machine guns were either single or double barreled. They were fed with 4 round clips although some guns could use a 48-round clip. The gun had trainer and pointer seats and was hand operated. It was manned by a five man crew. A chest-high, steel, splinter shield or gun tub surrounded the Bofors. The 20mm Oerlikon was a manually perated air cooled weapon mounted on a pedestal, and the gunner was shoulder strapped to it. One or two loaders fed loaded magazines to the gun and exchanged hot barrels. It was capable of firing 450 rounds per minute and had a maximum range of 4,000 yards.

For ww2 pictures and a first hand account of the weapons used in ww2 on these small ships see the book Sea Bag of Memories by Wm. J. Veigele, Ph. D. Lt, USNR (Ret).

40mm Bofors 20mm Oerlikon Ship with Mousetrap elevated Given below are two not well known sources of Navy and shipboard activities and the deployment of and tactics used with small ship weapons.

1. Naval Orientation, Navpers 16138-A, Bureau of Naval Personnel, 1948 2. Submarine Chaser Manual, Second Edition, U. S. Navy Department, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1942.